Cheap taxi marketing ideas: what works for under £100 a month

You don't need a marketing budget to get more bookings. You need a short list of things that cost little, done every week, and a way to tell which ones are working. This guide is for owners with £100 a month or less to spend: what to do for free, where the money goes, the rules on messaging past passengers, and how to count the results.

What can a taxi firm do for under £100 a month?

Most of what works costs your time, not your money. The paid items are small and you can stop any of them next month. Here's the menu, free first:

Pick four or five and do them properly. Ten ideas done once each will tell you nothing.

Example: how could you split £100 a month?

Treat the £100 as three pots: things in the car, rewards you only pay when they work, and one test you can stop. Here's one way to split it. The split matters more than the figures, and printing prices vary, so get your own quotes.

On Google Ads, the budget is a daily average. Google says a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day, but no more than 30.4 times that daily budget across a month. So a daily budget of £1 can't cost you more than £30.40 in a month. Before you start, read Google Ads for taxi firms on which searches to block, because a tiny budget runs out fast on the wrong ones. Facebook works differently, and Facebook ads for taxi firms covers when it's worth testing.

Any pot that brings nothing after two months goes back into the pot that does.

Which free marketing should a taxi firm do first?

Start with your Google Business Profile and reviews, because they put you in front of people searching for a taxi near them right now. Both are free.

Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results. It ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and prominence includes how many reviews you have. So every week:

1. Check your hours, phone number and service areas are right. Google allows up to 20 service areas.
2. Add a photo of a car or the office now and again.
3. Ask every passenger for a review with a QR code card in the car.
4. Reply to each new review. Google says replies should be clear, helpful and polite.

Never offer anything for a review. Google says incentives such as discounted services in exchange for a review are fake engagement and strictly prohibited. That's the one place a referral-style reward is off limits. Google Business Profile for taxi firms and getting more Google reviews cover the set-up.

Can you send offers to past customers on WhatsApp or by text?

Yes, if they agreed, or if you meet the soft opt-in conditions. A passenger who has ridden with you already knows your number, so it's worth doing right.

The ICO says "electronic mail" under the marketing rules (PECR) includes texts, picture messages and direct messages, so treat a WhatsApp offer like a marketing text. For individuals, you need their consent or the soft opt-in. The ICO's soft opt-in conditions are:

• You got their contact details while selling them a service, or talking to them about one.
• You're only marketing your own similar services.
• You gave them a chance to opt out when you took their details.
• You give them a chance to opt out in every message after.

The third condition catches people out. The ICO says you must offer the opt-out when you collect the details, and that putting it only in an order confirmation email isn't enough. So if you've never offered it, start now: one line when you take a new number ("We'll occasionally text offers; just say if you'd rather not") and a "Reply STOP to opt out" on every offer. Each message must also say who it's from.

Limited companies and other corporate bodies are different: the ICO says you can send them marketing without consent, though you should keep a list of any who ask you to stop. Sole traders count as individuals.

The WhatsApp Business app has a business broadcasts tool that sends one update to many customers as private one-to-one messages. It saves typing, but it doesn't change the rules. Turning passengers into regulars covers which messages count as service rather than marketing.

Are referral cards worth it for a small taxi firm?

Yes, on paper. A regular hands a card to a friend, the friend books and gets a discount on the first trip, and you only pay when a card comes back.

Keep referrals on paper for a reason. The ICO says you must not rely on the soft opt-in for "refer a friend" schemes and must get the friend's own consent, so texting a number a regular passes you is out. A printed card the friend chooses to use avoids that.

Write the terms on the card: what the discount is, that it's for a first trip only, and any routes or dates it excludes. The Advertising Standards Authority says its advertising code covers printed material such as leaflets and business cards, so the offer has to be clear and true.

Example: you offer £3 off a friend's first trip and 10 cards come back in a month. That cost you £30 for 10 new passengers who already know a regular rides with you. If even a few of them book again, it's paid back.

How do you win work from local businesses without spending money?

Walk in and ask. A hotel receptionist, a pub landlord, a garage that needs to get customers home, a care home, a solicitor's office: each of them books cars, and someone has to decide who to ring.

Take a card with a direct number and two or three fixed prices for the routes they'd use, such as the station and the airport. Ask who books their taxis now and what goes wrong. Offer to take the next job and make it a good one. Go back a month later.

One account that books every week is worth more than most adverts. Hotel and venue partnerships for taxi firms, how to get corporate clients for a taxi company and a corporate taxi account pitch letter show how to approach local businesses and what to send afterwards.

What isn't worth it on a small budget?

Anything you can't count, and anything that breaks a rule. Leave these out:

• Bought-in lists of numbers or emails. The ICO says the soft opt-in doesn't apply to bought-in lists, so you'd need each person's consent to market to them.
• Leaflets with no code or tracking link. You'll never know if they worked. If you do leaflets, read do taxi leaflets still work? first.
• Handing out leaflets in town centres without checking with the council. Under Schedule 3A to the Environmental Protection Act 1990, a council can designate land where handing out free printed matter needs its consent. Through letterboxes is fine.
• Boosting random social media posts. Paid reach for a post with no number or price on it rarely brings a booking.
• Price cuts as marketing. A cheaper fare costs you on every job, not just the new ones.

Free marketing is also wasted if the phone isn't answered when it works. Before you spend anything, check your missed calls by hour. Dispatch AI is one way to cover the gaps: an AI phone agent answers your booking line when your office doesn't, quotes your own fixed prices and books the job into your Dispatch AI account, in the hours you choose.

How do you know if your £100 worked?

Work out the cost per booking for each idea: what you spent on it, divided by the bookings it brought. Ask every new caller how they heard of you and write it on the booking. Give each paid test its own code, phone number or web link, so its bookings are easy to spot.

Example: a leaflet run cost £30 and four bookings mentioned it, so it cost £7.50 a booking. Cards in the car cost £35 and 12 new callers mentioned them, so about £2.92 a booking. Next month, the cards get more of the budget.

Check the figures every month and move the money to whatever has the lowest cost per booking. Where your taxi bookings come from shows how to tag each source, and taxi company marketing ideas has more to test once these are running.