OBJECTIVE The objective of the research is to develop practical guidance and resources for public transportation managers and staff at rural transit agencies and state departments of transportation to enhance rural transit marketing and customer communication strategies. RESEARCH PLAN The TCRP is seeking proposals on how best to achieve the research objective. Proposers are expected to describe research plans that can realistically be accomplished within the constraints of available funds and subaward time. Proposals must present the proposers' current thinking in sufficient detail to demonstrate their understanding of the issues and the soundness of their approach to meeting the research objective. The research shall: Develop a systematic method to help rural transit agencies identify, understand, and prioritize their marketing needs. Identify and summarize existing literature and other resources on marketing public transit and other transportation providers, with a focus on strategies relevant to rural communities. Document strategies transit agencies have used to effectively reach riders, enhance community engagement, and maximize their return on marketing investments. Identify staff roles, responsibilities, time, and effort needed to conduct marketing and customer communication activities including potential coordination with local partners. Identify best practices, tools, resources, and emerging innovative techniques, including the use of generative AI and other advanced technologies, that take into consideration funding, challenges, barriers, and lessons learned. Provide a framework for planning and implementation of marketing campaigns. Propose approaches for ensuring marketing strategies meet the needs of the served populations and efforts to capture new riders. Provide a matrix or other tools to measure return on investment (ROI), including performance metrics and targets. Provide practical recommendations that rural transit agencies can implement to enhance their marketing impact, including guidance on selecting appropriate marketing approaches for specific scenarios (e.g., raising awareness of existing services, launching new routes, recruiting drivers, or promoting events). Proposers should include recommendations for a project approach and deliverables that will support the development of marketing and communication strategies that transit agencies can use to successfully reach riders, enhance community engagement and increase their return on their marketing investments. These recommendations should identify innovative ways to conduct research (focus groups, stakeholder interviews, etc.) and present the information (case studies, creation of evaluation frameworks, checklists, online resources, fact sheets, etc.). This research will result in products that would assist transit agencies, departments of transportation, and other stakeholders in implementing the results of the study. Some examples are videos, toolkits, checklists, an interactive matrix organizing strategies by resources and cost, and other avenues for sharing the information.
