Is it Time to Add Video to Your Marketing Strategy?
You don’t have to look very hard these days to find marketing professionals and researchers puzzling over the millennial consumer market. According to Outside magazine, outdoor retailers are especially struggling to get a foothold on the millennial money mountain. As that article and most current literature suggest, inbound and video marketing are the way to go when it comes to reaching prospective outdoor recreation customers under the age of 35.
One way to take your video marketing strategy to the next level is to incorporate GoPro cameras or drones with cameras into your business model. That content can quickly be distributed to your audience through your website and will generate new leads and sales.
Video drones, GoPros, and smartphones have taken tech, recreation, social media, and video marketing worlds by storm. If you want to start attracting that next generation of outdoor adventurers and nature enthusiasts, you should find a way to bring new components into your strategy. You can set up your own YouTube, Roku, or Apple TV channels for your business. The channel can include streaming photos, videos, and other information related to your particular niche.
You can also get the cameras in the hands of your clients. Encourage them to host their outdoor adventures on your site. You can edit the video, as necessary, for time, quality and content. Remember: Most people do not have the attention span for irrelevant, slow, and low-quality videos.
Implementing new marketing solutions can do the following:
- Add value to your product or service
- Create new and exciting viral content
- Generate new sales leads through social media
If investing in a GoPro or video drone isn't in the budget, there is always the option of renting.
However you want to generate GoPro-, smartphone-, or drone-captured content for your video marketing, make sure to obtain releases.
If any of this sounds complex, remember that there are online resources you can tap into or video marketing experts you can hire.
HARNESS Consulting can help assess the video marketing needs of your brand. Contact us now!
Climbing Gym Marketing: Improving Your Inbound Marketing
One of the biggest problems in climbing gym marketing is that their social media efforts do not bring them the results they expect. They take beautiful, interesting pictures for Instagram and Pinterest, but don't get traffic to the gym. This does not mean that the pictures are bad, it just means you need to make minor tweaks to your posts. Here is how:
Write Good Descriptions
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but no one will find your picture without a description. If you are using social media solely for climbing gym marketing, your post needs to be keyword rich, but engaging. Don't just post a bunch of hashtags or keyword phrases, either. Write an interesting comment and include a strong call to action with every post.
Reply to Comments
It's not what you say, but how you say it. Once people find your pictures and comment on them, you need to take a moment to convince them to take the next step. This should be done naturally and uniquely. For example, don't write "Thanks for the like, visit us in person to see more." Instead, try something more personal, "Tammy, I'm glad you like the technique we are using. If you contact us, we can show you how to do it at the gym."
Include Links
Not everyone will want to pick up a phone to contact you. If you have a website, take advantage of it. Include a link to every picture. This will allow people to easily gather more information about you as a climbing gym, making them more prone to buy.
While taking one-of-a-kind photos or videos for social media is a great first step, it takes an effort to make the perfect inbound marketing campaign. To learn more techniques that can help your climbing gym grow, contact us today.
Climbing Gym Marketing: Giving Incentive for Customers to Come in and Come Back
It's easy to get people excited about the idea of climbing, but getting those excited people in the door of your gym is another story. How do you take someone who might be interested and actually convince them to come in? How do you get the person who came in for a group outing or party to return?
Social media is a key of course to getting the word out about your gym. Definitely have an active presence online. An active presence doesn't just involve posting those great photos of your climbing walls. It's important to respond to people who reference your business. Be sure to comment on location-tagged pictures and thank people for coming in. Interacting with customers can go a long way towards loyalty by showing that there are people behind your business, people who truly appreciate loyal customers. Your responses can also include special offers if they choose to come back. A response to a great photo tagged at your gym might read: "Great pic! Thanks so much for coming in today! Here's a link to a coupon for $5 off your next visit!"
Online contests are a fun way to take people's competitive nature and turn that into a marketing opportunity. A photo contest will not only bring customers into the gym to take the necessary photo, but a great prize for the winner will encourage lots of entries.
It's also a great idea to reward repeat and return guests. Advertise blocks of passes at a reduced rate. These blocks guarantee a number of paid visits and the customer gets a discount, so it's a great situation for all involved. Consider also automatically entering climbers in a monthly drawing for a free private lesson. Repeat visits would give them a greater chance of winning, and if they do win that private lesson they'll definitely be back to practice their new skills.
For more ideas on building your customer base contact us or check out our blog.