Are You Sitting on a Goldmine of Camper Leads?

Everyone’s got the same marketing problems. Their marketing budget’s too small, they don’t get enough leads, they don’t get enough referrals, they don’t retain campers long enough…the list goes on.

Regarding not getting enough leads, I hear this over and over. But guess what? You might be sitting on a gold mine of leads right now and not even know it. The “gold mine” I’m talking about is you current prospect list.

Unless you’ve built your list unethically, then everyone on it (at one point or another) took the time to express interest in your camp, perhaps in the form of a brochure request, email inquiry, phone call, or whatever. Keep in mind that person’s a HOT prospect for you. But what if you haven’t heard from them in a while? Many camp marketers actually give up trying to reach the prospect after a year or two if they haven’t heard from them.

I say, don’t give up that easy! You have no idea why they didn’t buy from you before. Maybe the time wasn’t right, their kid wasn’t old enough, the parents were going through a divorce, one or both of the parents lost their jobs, there was a death in the family which changed their summer plans …who knows what else. The point is, I wouldn’t just remove them from your list of your own volition. Instead, let THEM tell YOU when to take them off, because now they may be ready to sign up for camp!

Here’s what I’d do. I’d send an email to everyone letting them know you’re doing a “spring cleaning” of your email lists, and since you want to be sure you’re only sending relevant information to interested people, you’re checking in to see if they’d like to stay on your contact list or be removed.

If they ask to be removed, you’re no worse off than you were before. (In fact you’re in a better position since you probably pay your email marketing company by the number of contacts you have. You don’t to pay for useless contacts!)

Now the people who decide to STAY on your list — especially those you haven’t heard from — are the goldmine I mentioned before. They’ve been sitting dormant, but your simple email has likely reactivated their interest in your camp. And with the simple email you sent, you can probably pick up an enrollment or two (or more) this way, and it didn’t cost you anything but an hour or two of your time. You can’t beat that! 🙂