10 Commandments of Summer Camp Marketing
Here are the Top 10 Commandments of Summer Camp Marketing.
(If I've overlooked any please add your own in the comments section.)
1. Thou Shalt Test EVERYTHING
Testing and measuring ALL your marketing activities can be
the difference between failure and success. You should test and measure everything to find out which of your marketing
tactics are working and which might be underperforming. The results of your
testing may surprise you. You might have the impression a given marketing tool
is working great, but in reality it’s bleeding your promotional budget dry and
you didn’t even know it. Perhaps your favorite print ad is pulling so well you
wouldn’t think of changing it. But what if you’re wrong? What if your marketing
test revealed the ad could do even better with just a simple tweak? The key
takeaway here is if you’re not testing, you’re just guessing. And once you have
the data you’re looking for, you should eliminate the marketing tactics that
aren’t paying off and double up on those that are. This is the absolute best
way to max-out your marketing budget.
2. Thou Shalt Create SHARABLE CONTENT
The goal here is to create content that intrigues your
customers or prospects to take some kind of action depending on your goals. Maybe
you want prospects to call you. Or maybe you want them to comment on your blog,
request more info, sign up for camp…you get the idea. In any case, keep in mind
that content marketing isn’t just limited to stuff you write, such as website text. Your content can, and should, also include
multimedia such as videos, pictures, and anything else your customers,
prospects and subscribers find so “wow-worthy” they can’t resist sharing it with
their friends. (To that end, be sure to include social sharing buttons on all the
content you create.)
3. Thou Shalt OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE
The best time
to start your camp’s mobile marketing program was yesterday. The second best
time is today. Practically every
camp-age kid and their parents have their smartphones and other mobile devices within
arms reach at all times. And when they need information, where do you think
they’ll turn? To their phones, that’s where! Get this: 2014 is the first year mobile internet usage is projected to
overtake desktop internet usage. Not only that, these days a child’s first
online experience will more likely come on their cell phone, not a computer. That’s
mind-blowing when you think about it, largely because it means you can expect
more people to search for camps on their smartphones and tablets than
computers. And when they do, what will they find? Hopefully they’ll find your
camp’s mobile-optimized website and other content and share it with their
friends. And what about your camp’s text-message marketing program? You have
one, right? Because if you don’t, you can bet your competitor does. In fact at
this very moment, that very competitor might be sending text blasts to YOUR
customers inviting them to try their camp instead of yours and offering a $50
mobile coupon to boot. Now is the time to get on board with your summer camp’s
mobile marketing strategy -- I just can’t stress this enough.
4. Thou Shalt FORM JOINT VENTURES AND MARKETING ALLIANCES
I’ve been talking about joint
venture marketing for years. It’s one of the top ways for summer camps to
market because it gives you instant access to huge numbers of new camper prospects
you wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise. You can set up joint ventures any
number of ways, and you can read my blog for many examples on how to get
started. For now, here’s a joint venture idea you might try with a pizza place.
Contact your local pizza delivery establishment to propose an alliance. Offer
to promote them on your website, in your camper enrollment confirmation
packets, in your email marketing messages to your customers, wherever.. In
exchange, the pizza place could attach your flyer on top of all their delivery boxes.
No half-way intelligent pizza store owner would say no to like this. It’s an
arrangement that will benefit both you and the pizza store, which is exactly
what joint marketing’s all about.
5. Thou Shalt GET SOCIAL
You already know about social media. It’s a practically a generic
buzzword these days. The reason you hear so much about it so much is because it
works. Thankfully camps are social organizations inherently, which means you already
have an advantage over most businesses with respect to your social media
strategy. But don’t rest on your laurels. At the very least, your camp should
be Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter connecting with people and sharing content.
6. Thou Shalt KNOW THY TARGET MARKET
You can’t be all things to all people. Aimlessly shooting hundreds
of marketing arrows out there and hoping one hits your target market is a waste
of time and money. You need to define who and what your ideal customer is, then
target your marketing accordingly. Through simple surveys, you can find out
where your ideal customers shop, the books they read, the websites they like,
the TV shows they watch, they pets they have, their favorite sports teams, and
so on. After you get this information, you can create and send the right
marketing messages to the right people at the right time. (By the way, if
you’re marketing to moms, that’s a great start since they’re responsible for
85% of household purchasing decisions. But don’t forget you have at least three
other target markets too…kids, dads and grandparents should not be forgotten!)
7. Thou Shalt GIVE THY MARKETING TIME TO WORK
It’s easier to launch your marketing program than sustain
it. But you must sustain it. Just like that beautiful rose garden in your
backyard, your marketing must be tended to and cultivated over time. You’re not
gonna get tons of new roses a few days after planting the seeds, and you
probably won’t get tons of new campers a few days after starting a new
marketing campaign, either. You’ll generally need at least five or six months
before you know whether your marketing plan is working. “Patience” and
“confidence” are key concepts here. Be patient enough to give your marketing
time to work, and confident enough to know it WILL work eventually. Don’t pull
the plug too soon!
8. Thou Shalt MARKET THY CAMP EVERYDAY
Camp folks wear many hats. It’s easy to overlook your
marketing responsibilities when there’s so much else to do. But no matter how
busy you get, there’s no reason why you can’t write a simple blog post, share a
video on Facebook, or post a picture on Instagram every day of the year. This
kind of marketing consistency only takes a few minutes, yet it’s one of the
best things you can do to steadily increase camper volume over time.
9. Thou Shalt EDUCATE THYSELF ON MARKETING
Let’s face it, there’s some pretty good camp marketers out
there. There’s also some some pretty bad ones and many in-between. If you’re
one of the better ones, great! If not, I have good news for you. Marketing people
are made, not born. The best marketers in the world had to LEARN what to do and
how to do it, and they’re STILL learning. And NONE OF THEM are any smarter than
you! No matter what your marketing skills or education level might be, commit
to learning more. It will only help you in the long run. Let’s say you want to
redesign your camp’s website but don’t know too much about SEO (search engine
optimization). Does it really matter if you put your new site online today, or
if you wait three months instead? Of course it doesn’t, and in fact, waiting
those three extra months might be a good idea so you can use that time to educate
yourself about SEO and how to make your website better. Take the time to learn how
to do things the right way. Be patient and prepare yourself for success. Read
some marketing books, follow some marketing blogs. Study companies outside the
camp industry and steal their marketing ideas. Then, when you’re ready to
launch that new site, or try that new marketing tactic, you’ll be that much
more prepared for how to do it right.
10. Thou Shalt HIRE THE BEST CAMP COUNSELORS Anywhere
Sometimes we get so consumed marketing our camps the traditional
way (website, blog, print advertising, social media, etc.) that we overlook our
absolute best marketing strategy: hiring superb camp counselors and staff. Skilled
camp counselors know how to connect with kids like no other marketing tool I
know. Sure, you can get a kid to sign up for camp the traditional way. But your
counselors, man, they're the difference makers. A good camp counselor who your
campers look up to can be responsible for keeping the same kids at camp year
after. And that means high camper retention rates, lower marketing costs, and
phenomenal word of mouth referrals. I don't know if there's any such thing as
marketing magic, but if there is, your staff might be the ones who create it.
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