If you’re like most camp directors (me included), you probably don’t advertise in newspapers and magazines too much anymore. After all, print circulation is down and most people turn to the internet to find camps these days. But what if you could reuse the same print ads you used long ago — ads you already paid good money for — in new, different, and more cost-effective ways? Well, you can, and these very same historical ads can generate many new leads and camper prospects for you.
Go ahead and look through all the old print ads you used to run. (Hopefully you’ve kept them accessible.) Try to recall which ad pulled best. Once you’ve identified your best historical ad, put it on a postcard as a direct mail piece, then send it to all the prospects in your target market area. You will likely find the same ad works just as well as before, and for a lot less money, too, because you don’t have to pay anyone or take the time to design anything new, and direct mail postcard advertising is a cheap, easy, and highly effective way to market your summer camp.
Now here’s where it really gets good. You don’t need to limit your old ads to postcard marketing. You can also put them on your website, flyers, in emails, and other places you advertise. This way you can continue getting an amazing return on investment from advertising dollars you spent long ago and probably don’t even think about anymore.
The main takeaway here is that you should always be looking to max-out your marketing investment NO MATTER WHEN YOU MADE IT. So if you’re thinking of doing a postcard mailing anytime soon, consider using the old ads you’ve spent good money on and which you already know perform really well. Once you start recycling your historical print ads into new direct mail postcards, you’ll probably generate lots of new interest in your camp.
The truth is, EVERYONE will always look at a postcard when it’s delivered to their mailbox, but these days those very same people probably wouldn’t even notice the same ad in a newspaper or magazine.
For camps on tight marketing budgets, this strategy is like found money, and how can you beat that?!
This is a very good tip. I still believe that Direct Mail Advertising is one of the best marketing strategies being used today in spite of these technological innovations. Internet may help, but not all internet users recall every ad they see on the page unlike if they have a real mail at their hands.