What are the Best Marketing Tactics You Should Use to Grow Your Camp?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a secret formula for knowing which marketing tactics would get you 5 or 10 new campers every time you used it, and which marketing tactics suck? In my mind, the toughest thing to determine is which marketing tools to use and which to get rid of.

In this day and age of social media and internet marketing and with so many marketing options available, the choices can be so overwhelming inertia might get the best of you, causing you to end up doing nothing. Or maybe you’re tempted to try a little of this, a little of that and see what sticks. I’m not sure that’s the right way to go about things.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “You can’t serve two masters,” you know what I’m talking about. I’d rather see you master a few marketing tactics well than a bunch of them poorly. Rather than try your hand at all kinds of different promotional tactics – which can stretch your money and your emotional state thin – you’re better off focusing on a handful of strategies that will get you many new campers than dabbling in tons of marketing strategies that only land you a few.

When I’m determining which marketing strategies to pursue and which to ignore, I use two main criteria:


1. Where will I find my best prospects? (If they’re on Facebook but not Twitter or Linked In, then why waste time on Twitter and Linked In? I’d be better off spending three times as much time on Facebook instead.)

2. Are the results I’m getting from my marketing measurable? (If you’re not testing and measuring results, you’re just guessing and probably throwing lots of money down the drain. When you test your marketing results, you know for a fact what works and what doesn’t. Then you can double up on what does and cut out what doesn’t…and that’s how you start signing up new kids by the dozens.)

Whenever I’m gonna start a new marketing campaign or reviewing my current one, it needs to pass the two-point litmus test above or I won’t do it. And if you have any special criteria to help you decide which marketing tools to use when promoting your camp, please leave a comment so other people reading the blog can get ideas too!