Sport Aviation Marketing

Online Marketing Can Help Establish Sport Pilot

May 3rd, 2006

The Sport Pilot rule has cut the cost and time required to earn a license to fly by 50 percent. This presents an enormous opportunity for the aviation industry. More importantly, it provides an incredible opportunity to the countless individuals that were unable to justify the commitments involved in obtaining a private pilot certificate. While still not cheap, or easy, the sport of aviation is now accessible to more people than ever before.

We will never be able to express the gratitude that industry leaders such as Tom Peghiny or industry associations such as the EAA (and Earl Lawrence) deserve in making the rule a reality. However, the adoption of the rule is just a beginning. To fully leverage the rule it needs to be effectively promoted to those currently within the aviation community, as well as the general population that is not aware of the new way to take to the skies.

Lots of good work is already underway. The Sport Pilot Tour managed by Dan Johnson and the EAA is drawing in standing room only crowds as it moves around the country. One of their events is coming to my local airport in August and I look forward to attending. Popular Science has had two aviation-related cover stories in recent months. This is enormously beneficial to the aviation industry as it raises awareness with a very relevant demographic that is not currently part of the aviation community. Industry tradeshows such as Airventure have been, and will continue to be, one-stop resources for all things related to aviation. These traditional forms of marketing have served the aviation industry well for several decades and they will continue to do so.

Looking forward, Sport Pilot is a unique opportunity and it is necessary to consider new ways of marketing it to those outside the aviation community. By all measures, the Internet is the most effective platform available to accomplish this. Websites are relatively inexpensive to launch and maintain. They work hard 24 hours a day and 7 days week. Most importantly, when structured correctly a single company website can speak to the needs of everyone from a retiring airline captain with 25,000 hours to a flight sim enthusiast that always wanted to fly but felt it was beyond their reach.

Even more compelling, the Internet is currently being used by 73% of adults in America. 91% of Americans with a household income of over $75,000 are online. In addition, 91% of adults with a college degree are online. 84% of adults age 30-49 as well as 71% of those 50-64 are online. These are the people we need to pull into the sport of aviation! Some of them can be reached through magazines or tradeshows, all of them can be reached online.

For individuals that cannot make it to Oshkosh, Lakeland, or a Sport Pilot Tour stop to see a product in person, a company’s website is their best measure for quality and performance. For individuals that are new to aviation, a website reflects the safety and value of the product. With this in mind, there is a great need for companies in the sport aviation industry to evaluate their online marketing efforts and make improvements.

Today, the online marketing efforts of the sport aviation industry is lacking. Many sites appear to be built in-house, using templated designs, provided by neighborhood ISPs. A review of 179 sites in the sport aviation industry showed over 30% with errors such as broken links or missing images on the home page. This reflects poorly on the industry.

We have recently released, for free download, a 255 page report that evaluates 179 websites in the sport aviation industry. This report can help companies meet all of the basic, tactical requirements for a solid website. If you own a company in the sport aviation industry, or are responsible for marketing and aviation-related product, please take a few minutes to download the report and review it.

We will also continue to use this website to provide relevant and actionable advice for improving your site beyond the basics and into a sales and support powerhouse. Please stop back often and sign up for our email newsletter (in the right column) to stay current. By using the web to efficiently, we can help make sport pilot a success.

Demographic data sourced from: http://www.pewinternet.org/trends/User_Demo_4.26.06.htm

[tags]aviation marketing, aviation website, online marketing[/tags]

Entry Filed under: aviation marketing, aviation website, online marketing