How to Market Your Summer Camp

Groupon For Your Camp? No Thanks!

2012-02-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

Just in case you're not a member of our Summer Camp Marketing Tips group on Facebook, I wanted to make this quick post about Groupon, Living Social and all the other social network discount sites. (Our group was discussing this earlier today, so I wanted to make a quick point here.)

I am aware of at least one camp who partnered with Living Social last year. I believe they sold a lot of camp enrollments through the deal, but I don't know if they were happy with the outcome or it was beneficial.

I have personally been approached at least 10 times by Living Social and Groupon over the past 3 years to run promotions with them. I almost took the bait several times, but thankfully backed out at the last minute at least twice.

Truth is, I'm still trying to find business owner (and I know lots of them) who's actually happy they participated in a Groupon or Living Social promotion. A popular pizza place in my area of Los Angeles did a Groupon deal twice last year, but they're not popular anymore because they went out of business after doing the Groupon promo.

In fact one thing I've learned is that Groupon and Living Social are typically only good for big companies who can withstand the financial loss generally incurred by participating. For example, a McDonald's restaurant near me is doing a deal with Living Social right now. I was in their store just yesterday with my kids and overheard the manager talking with her employee about how the deal is generating lots of sales, but costing them money to run it. And that's a business killer any way you look at it.

A year or so ago I found this blog post about working with Groupon. If you are considering doing so, read this first. It paints a telling story of the Groupon process including the good and bad of entering into a deal with them.

If I were you, I wouldn't do it, but perhaps you'll see it differently. Let me know what you think.

7 Easy Ways to Jumpstart Your 2012 Summer Camp Marketing Plan

2012-02-11T17:22:00.001-08:00

Hopefully your 2012 summer camp marketing plan is already humming. But if you're behind the 8-ball or only have a limited budget this year, here's 7 things you can plan for, and start doing, right now to get maximum exposure for your camp:

Make sure your website is fully updated for this summer, and change the homepage content (just a slight change is fine) every 10 days or so
Blog at least 3 times per week
Set up an active referral program, so every camper registrant refers at least one more
Participate/Engage/Connect with your customers, prospects and fans in/on at least one social site, and preferably two, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus
Don't ignore the time-tested benefits of traditional (offline) marketing, such as direct mail. To that end, conduct at least two direct mail campaigns with postcards. Postcards are cheap, easy to create, and they work
Set up your email marketing system with autoresponders, which can help you connect with customers and prospects automatically for pennies. (In fact you might find this is your favorite way to market you camp once you get it going!)
As you already know, most people start their camp search online these days. If your site is not showing up on the first page of Google or Bing, consider paid online advertising program such as Google's Adwords

Good luck...let me know if you have any questions or need any help

-- Eric

Writer's Block? Here's 5 Places to Find New Ideas for Your Next Blog Post or Content Marketing Strategy

2012-01-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

Need some new ideas for your camp's blog, website, article marketing, or other content marketing strategies? Here's five places to find them:

1. Blog Comments

If your blog is doing its part, you're probably getting user comments. You can find hidden gems within these blog comments to use as blog posts of your own. For example, when a camp director left me a comment recently expressing her opinion Google Adwords is a waste of money, it gave me the idea to write about the Google Adwords program in detail on my blog. (And by the way, you can also find blog post ideas in emails you receive. Last week somebody emailed me about Aloha Beach Camp's transportation program, so next week I'm posting a detailed description about our transportation program on Aloha Beach Camp's blog.)

2. Invite Friends, Family Members, Employees, Industry Pros, and Anyone Else You Can Think of to Write Guest Blog Posts For You

This coincides with my preferred marketing strategy of getting other people to do your marketing for you. Why not ask a camp parent (or even a camper!) to write a blog post for you, or even do a video testimonial on your behalf, to share their impressions of your camp with other families? This would be a great source of content for your blog! (Along similar lines, I recently made a public invitation here on Camp Marketing News to anyone who wanted to be a guest blogger on the site. Several people stepped forward, including Camp TV, Philip Galbreth , Dan Weir and others. This marketing tactic is good for them, good for me, and it will be good for you too if you decide to use it.)

3. Poll Your Customers and Fans, then Publish the Results as a Blog Post

Conduct a poll or survey of your fans on Facebook, then discuss the results on your blog. Use Facebook's Questions Tool, for instance, to ask what their top 5 favorite camp activities are, then spend a paragraph or two on your blog describing these activities in detail.

4. Announce Upcoming Events and Features

Do you have an open house coming up? Will you be participating at a Camp Fair? Did you just upgrade your pool or horseback riding ring? Tell the world on your blog!

5. Discuss Something OTHER than Camp

Everyone already knows you're associated with summer camp. But they're also interested to know you as a PERSON. Why don't you share opinions and ideas from your personal or family life, such as a trip you might be taking (or just returned from), the type of food you love (or hate), whether or not you decided to remodel your house, or the reason you're so the New York Giants are gonna win the Super Bowl this year? Trust me, people are INTERESTED in this stuff about you!

I hope these ideas are helpful...hopefully they will help you avoid writer's block at least for a little while :)

Facebook Marketing Group Privacy Setting Changed to "OPEN"

2012-01-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

Several people have mentioned they want to join our summer camp marketing group on Facebook, but the "closed" privacy setting was making it difficult for them. My apologies to anyone having trouble getting involved.

We just changed the status of the group to OPEN, meaning anyone can join now without requesting permission. If we start getting spam and other unwanted comments and postings, we'll need to go back to "closed." But for now, as long as you're into camp marketing, please feel free to join and add/invite your friends, too! Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/279723415397429/

10 Ways to Amp Up Your Marketing Program Right Now

2012-01-20T08:06:00.000-08:00

Great video from marketing consultant John Jantsch:

How to Get 264 More "Likes" on Your Facebook Page Today

2012-01-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

Here's an idea which can help each of us get as many as 264 more LIKES on our respective facebook fan pages today.

There's 264 people who "LIKE" this Camp Marketing News blog.

If each of the 264 of us LIKE each other's facebook pages, we'll each get 264 more likes right away. That's about as viral as your marketing can get!

Here's how we do it.

First, go to my Aloha Beach Camp fan page at http://www.facebook.com/alohabeachcamp and "Like" the page.

After you've done that, come back here and leave a comment under this post letting me (and everyone else) know you've liked my page.

Be sure to include a link to your camp's facebook page in your comment.

At that point I'll immediately return the favor and like your page too.

If all of us do the same for each other, we'll all get as many as 264 likes right away! :)

Here's the link to my page again: http://www.facebook.com/alohabeachcamp. Don't forget to come back here and comment after you've liked the page so I can like yours, too.

Here's an Email Marketing Strategy You Might Not Have Considered

2012-01-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

I love email marketing for many reasons, but mainly because it lends itself nicely to the two core strategy principals I use when marketing my own camp, which are to:

Enter new markets quickly, and
Get other people to do your marketing for you

Here's what you do. You form alliances with other complimentary youth and family-serving businesses and organizations, then get them to send emails to their customers on your behalf.

For instance, if you run a resident camp in New Jersey and want to reach more prospects in San Diego, you can contact various family-focused restaurants there (in San Diego) to propose a partnership. Maybe you could offer the restaurant manager free camp sessions for his or her kids if he or she, in turn, emails their customer base endorsing your camp.

It's not easy to set these programs up. But this strategy is very doable, because I do it myself all the time and help others do it, too. I assure you, once you set some of these programs up, you'll gain access to huge, new prospect bases you never had before. And the time you put into getting these programs off the ground is nothing compared to the dividends they'll pay in the form of many new campers down the road.

Join our Facebook Marketing Group

2012-01-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

Please join our summer camp marketing group on Facebook where we share and discuss all things related to promoting our summer camps. It's a "closed" group, but just go to this link to request permission to join. Once you do that, you're in!

Valuable Tips for Marketing to Moms

2012-01-12T18:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple articles to check on regarding how to market to moms:

I read them both, thought they were valuable, hope you do too.

Add Your Camp to FindMyCamp.com for Free

2012-01-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

Help me build the largest FREE summer camp search engine in the world. It's called FindMyCamp.com, and it's almost ready to launch -- all I need is your summer camp info so I can add it to the site and we're ready to go.

This is free advertising for you. It's like all the other summer camp search engines out there, except it's free.

If you want to add your camp, please email me at findmycamp@gmail.com with the following information:

1. Name of your camp

2. Camp location (city and state)

3. Type of camp (day or overnight/resident)

4. Program emphasis (main activity/activities you offer)

5. Short (25 word description) of your program

6. Website address (so I can link your listing to your website)

That's it!

Don't miss out on this. The more camps that join, the higher the site will be ranked. I'm also doing the site in blog-style format so we can eventually get (and keep) top search result rankings.

One note, I am expecting a large number of camps to respond to this free advertising offer, so please be patient. There are no guarantees how quickly I'll get your camp listed, but I'll do it as fast as I can.

-Eric

Are Google's Search Results Bad on Purpose?

2012-01-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

You know me, I'm a search engine marketing nut. I'm always looking for ways to crack the Google search results code. Most of the time I can get a site ranked pretty highly after just a little while.

But I was talking to a friend over the Holidays (she owns a search engine marketing firm) who shared an interesting theory with me I never considered before.

Her feeling is Google may be displaying organic (natural) search results POORLY on purpose, so users will click on the PAID search results (ads) so they (Google) can make more money.

Interesting thought. What do you think?

Who's Got the Best Marketing Advantage, Day Camps or Resident Camps?

2011-12-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

I often hear resident camp folks lamenting the fact their camps are not local establishments. They think day camps have a marketing advantage over them because day camps serve local customers.

Well I am here to say even though "local marketing" is a popular buzzword these days, day camps DO NOT have any marketing advantage whatsoever over resident camps, assuming the resident camp marketer is an astute one.

Personally I would be drooling if I were a resident camp marketer. In general, a day camp only has a confined market area to draw from. Overnight camps have a worldwide market base. For every one prospect who might attend a day camp, resident camps have millions.

The one area day camps may APPEAR to a have a slight marketing advantage over day camps is the word-of-mouth aspect because groups of friends tend to live close to each other and hang out in person and talk and all that. But resident camps can overcome this with a strong social media presence and well-designed websites that appear in the top pages of search results and create warm, "homey" impressions of their camps and programs.

(If I ran a resident camp, one of the first things I'd do is design a "Meet the Camp Director" page with a video introducing myself and welcoming people to the page/site, my camp, etc. and I'd plaster that video all over the internet, too including on mommy blogger sites and other sites of influence.)

Did you know most Facebook fans of any given page are NOT locally based fans? Only 15% are. That means 85% of your Facebook fans live, and come from, everywhere just like your resident campers do. (This is not my opinion, it's a fact as reported in the Wall Street Journal.)

It just goes to show, where you are located makes no difference if you know what you're doing from a marketing standpoint and understand how to make your camp stand out from the crowd.

Marketing Tip for Resident Camps: Healthy Food for Kids is THE Hot New Restaurant Menu Trend for 2012

2011-12-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for a new marketing angle to help your resident camp stand out from the crowd, you might want to focus on your nutritious meal program...and FAST.

Everyone knows camp food doesn't have the best reputation. But here's your chance to change your customers' and prospects' impressions and win some enrollments in the process. The National Restaurant Association just conducted a survey of 1,800 professional chefs, who stated children's nutrition will be one of the hottest restaurant menu trends of 2012. This video describes more:

As a camp director, you MUST find a way to piggyback on these findings and use them to your advantage. I don't run an overnight camp, but if I did, I'd start a marketing campaign right now highlighting all the healthy, nutritious meals campers enjoy at our program three times a day, everyday they're at camp.

What's a Good Response to Your Direct Mail Campaign?

2011-12-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

Even with the prevalence of email, social media marketing, mobile marketing and all the other newfangled marketing tools, direct mail is still a valuable marketing tool for your camp. In fact direct mail is making a comeback. I believe camp marketers who include direct mail as part of their marketing strategy have an advantage over those who don't.

One question many folks ask is, what's is a good response to my direct mail campaign? Other people think direct mail marketing is "too expensive," so they avoid it altogether.

Truth is, direct mail is only "expensive" when it doesn't meet your goals. When it meets your goals, it can produce a goldmine of new leads and enrollments for you.

Let's say you and I decide to send 1,000 postcards to each of our respective customer lists. Our goal for the mailing(s) is to get our customers to call us to inquire about our Early Bird tuition discounts for 2012. You're shooting for a 1% response rate, I'm shooting for 2%.

Now let's say 10 people respond to your mailing, and 15 respond to mine. Even though more people responded to my mailing, YOUR mailing was more successful because you met your goal of getting a 1% response rate while I fell short of my goal of 2%. You should be happy! :)

I guess what I'm saying is, there's NOTHING in marketing that's too expensive -- direct mail included -- when it meets or exceeds your expected return on investment. You'll never know if your direct mail effort is expensive, successful or anything else unless you set goals for it beforehand. If you determine what constitutes a "good" response ahead of time, even a "small" 1% response rate could be HUGE for you, and there'd be nothing expensive about it!

The next HUGE social media site is upon us...

2011-12-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the next HUGE social media site (craze) will be Pinterest. It's a virtual pinboard for sharing what you love with the world, and it offers ENDLESS opportunities for your summer camp marketing. You need to "request an invite" to get on the site. Don't wait...request your invite and join the site today.

Google Adwords Alternatives

2011-12-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

Many camps participate in Google's Adwords program. In case you're unfamiliar, Adwords allows you to create your own ads based on keywords people use to search for your camp online. Then, when people search for your camp with those keywords, your ad appears next to or above Google's search results page. If people click on your ad, it leads them right to your website and you pay a fee to Google each time someone clicks on your ad.

Personally I'd rather see you work harder to get your camp to come up in the organic (free) search results than pay money for online advertising. At the same time, participating in the Adwords program can be a fast, easy, and (occasionally) affordable way to increase traffic to your camp's website. So there's no doubt paid advertising can be helpful. But you owe it to yourself to investigate other options besides Google's Adwords program.

You might find Adwords works the best for you, but if you are considering paid internet advertising for your camp, Adbrite and Bidvertiser are two other programs you might consider.

Follow us on Twitter

2011-12-07T06:51:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to follow us on twitter because we often tweet information that doesn't appear on this blog.

Search Engine Marketing 101

2011-12-07T06:49:00.000-08:00

We talk a lot on this blog about how to optimize your camp's website so search engines can find and display it to people looking for your camp. This is very important because many camp searches begin online these days. I've spoken to many camp directors who still don't even have websites, but who read this blog anyway. I appreciate that! I also realize search engine optimization can be difficult to understand and foreign to many. That's absolutely fine! The point is to learn as much as you can about this important marketing strategy, then either build a website as soon as possible so you don't miss out on campers, or use the information to improve your existing search engine rankings. I found this great article on Huffington Post called Search Engine Marketing 101 which breaks everything down and makes the concept easier to understand for all of us. Hope it benefits you!

More Moms are Using Cell Phones to Find Camps. If They Find Yours, What Will Your Website Look Like on Their Mobile Device?

2011-12-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

About two years ago I posted about the importance of making sure your camp's website is formatted correctly so people can view it on their cell phones, not just their computers or laptops.

Now more than ever, you need to make sure you site can be accessed appropriately by mobile devices. If your camp's website can't be accessed by, or is not formatted for, mobile devices, you're in for a rude shock and could be missing out on potential camp enrollment.

The reason why is because moms are more likely to own a smartphone than the general public and they use them in their daily lives, including to go online and find information and make purchases these days more than ever. Check this article out.

Video: How to Beat Your Competition

2011-12-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Are you a smaller camp contending with larger competitors? If you've been looking for ways to become more visible and make inroads against your competition so you can get more campers, the marketing tips in this video should be worthwhile to you.

How to Create an Online Press Release Search Engines Will Love

2011-12-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Do you market your camp with press releases? Maybe you've hired a new staff member, added a new ropes course, upgraded your water slide or made other improvements to your camp program and you want to share the news with the world. Sending a press release (or more than one) to the media's a great way to do this.

Certainly you can send out your press releases the traditional way, via "snail mail" to various news outlets and publications and all that. But you can also send out your press releases online. In fact many journalists and members of the media prefer getting press releases this way.

There's several points to consider when creating your online press release. One of the most important things to consider is how to make your press release favorable to search engines so as many people as possible see it, such as the various keywords and keyword phrases people normally search on to find your camp. Here's how to write an online press release Google will love.

What Makes Blogging Such a Great Search Engine Optimization Strategy?

2011-12-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

There's so many strategies you can use to optimize your camp's website for search engines, it'd almost be forgivable for you to get overwhelmed trying to tackle them all, just give up and hope for the best. For one thing, Google uses a RIDICULOUS number of various criteria to determine whether your camp comes up higher in their search results than mine, and they modify that criteria every day. It's not a losing battle though. There's a few mainstay search optimization strategies that should always be a big part of your marketing plan. One of them is blogging.

The reason blogging's such a stout search engine optimization strategy is because:

Search engines absolutely adore fresh content; and
You can craft your blog posts to include various keywords and keyword phrases people are searching right now

For example, just last night I made a post on this blog which showed up on the first page of Google less than 2 minutes later. There's no reason why you can't eventually get your camp's content closer to the top of not just Google, but Yahoo, Bing and the other search engines too.

If your camp doesn't have a blog, now is the time to start one. You should post regularly (at least three time a week) with pictures, video and text. If you don't have time to do it yourself, get a staff member to do it for you or outsource it. But in any case, start blogging now so you have a fair number of blog posts already online when the summer camp marketing season starts in full force a couple months from now.

How to Market to Moms

2011-12-04T09:49:00.001-08:00

Good article here from Inc Magazine on how to master marketing to moms.

What if Your Email Doesn't Get Opened?

2011-12-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

Just to follow up on our series of recent email marketing posts, there's one more thing you can do to improve your email marketing open rates. I suggest resending your message within 9 days to all recipients who did not open your message the first time. I've found you can get open rates of at least 15% just by resending the same message 9 days later.

Kids Eat Free on their Birthdays, Compliments of Your Camp!

2011-12-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ever wished you could start a birthday club the way restaurants do, and give kids a free meal on their birthdays? Well, you can, and you don't need to own a restaurant or spend any money to do it. Let me explain.

If you're like most camps, you probably send postcards to campers to acknowledge their birthdays. If you don't, you should, because it's an easy way to make kids feel special while keeping your camp's name in front of their face year-round.

But you can do better than just sending a simple birthday postcard. You can set up a system where you give campers a free meal on their birthdays, just like restaurants do.

All you need to do is PARTNER with a restaurant to offer your campers a free dinner on their birthdays. The restaurant would LOVE the free advertising and this action will also make your kids' birthdays much more memorable while generating more word of mouth marketing for you since you will be the only camp around to give kids a free birthday dinner.