Yesterday I talked about a few things you can do when marketing budget money tightens up to continue to spread the word about the work you do at camp. The best way is to employ the age-old truth, "word-of-mouth" is the best form of advertising. In short…it's time to mobilize your army and arm them with tools to help you spread the word to their own tribes and spheres of influence. When your army is on the march…they can accomplish a lot. Here are a few more things you can do.
4. "Jump day videos" – ("jump day" being the last day of camp when you "jump" home) It's the last day of camp and the place is packed with campers and their parents. People are all over the place hugging each other, exchanging email addresses and cell phone numbers, promising to stay in touch. Campers and parents alike are coming up to you and in tears telling you what an impact this week has made on their family. Why not designate a summer staffer to capture some of those moments on video. Just a short 2-minute video of honest, authentic, unscripted feedback can be a powerful thing to post on your camp website, Facebook page or YouTube video channel.
5. Bring a friend to camp – This one is as old as the hills but it still yields great returns. When I was at camp we had what we called the "Andrew Discount." In other words…in the same way Andrew introduced his brother Peter to Christ, kids could introduce friends to camp and get a discount for it. This got camp age kids who were in our tribe out going door to door in their neighborhoods and churches recruiting campers. There's no way I could've marketed as effectively as those kids in their own neighborhoods.
6. Online reviews and ratings – This might be a tough one. To open up your facility, your program, and staff and food to online reviews can be a scary thing. But the fact is…people are talking about you right now anyway. Wouldn't you rather be a part of that conversation? You can use online sites like Yelp or others for campers or families to talk about their camp experience. Then you can direct propective families to the site to read what people are saying about you. Once you get your online review location and URL, you can hand out cards on jump day. When people come up to you and gush about their great week, you just give them a card with the review URL and say, "Could you go online and say that so everyone can read it?"
Marketing budgets might be tight but when you are able to mobilize your army, you'll find a lot of low cost or no cost options to continue to spread the word.
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