It is impossible to market every facet of your business all the time.
You simply must strategically tune your message and your offerings to the platform and to the lowest hanging fruit on it to do well. The number one rule is this: Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail. Simply put:
- Choose WHO you are marketing to by WHAT you want to offer
- Choose WHICH platform you wish to use based on WHO is on it
- Choose HOW OFTEN & WHEN based on said platforms best practices
- And, when on social media, remember to BE SOCIAL
- Give your team TIME to create the content you wish to release
A good example of how this works: booking more birthday parties. Assuming your website has clear and easy to access information as well as few barriers to booking (please tell me you have online birthday booking?), let’s fill in those blanks:
- WHO books birthdays?
Parents of school-aged children (Moms make household purchasing decisions 66-80% of the time). - WHICH platform should I use?
Facebook, hands down, is where you find this audience. - HOW OFTEN & WHEN should I post?
Every day scatter your (at least) once per day posts all over the waking hours of your community. Facebook says so. - BE SOCIAL:
Facebook recommends that 80% of all posts are non-branded, fun or informative, topical, & interactive. This holds true on EVERY social network. - TIME:
Your team will need to plan and produce content at least 30 days in advance. How much time it takes depends on the skill and experience of your team.
I cannot strongly recommend enough that you execute marketing planning months in advance of execution. Your message should shift based on the season while keeping core messages running year-round. You also need to ensure your team has the tools and education to execute your plan.
Should your team be in house? This is simply a matter of budget vs reward. Smaller brands and centers must outsource most of their marketing to stay alive. One company may have individuals with the necessary skills to do it all, but that is rare, even when you have a crazy huge budget. I have seen some of the largest brands in our industry have a terrible website, post the worst content on social media, or market 6+ programs all at once. I have also seen this happen all at the same time…
Spend some time finding out what it takes to properly be effective on each platform, the demographics of the different platforms, and how all these pieces fit together to benefit your center. Then plan to find the right marketer(s) for the job. It is worth it.
Ryan McQuillen
Operating Partner, ``What to Post?``
Ryan has a wealth of knowledge, experience, and maintains his Independence. He offers Laserforce operators preferential rates to assist in revenue creation and enhancement. Laserforce receives no commission from Ryan for the services he provides. You can’t train passion, this guy embodies and is passionate about laser tag.
