Decoding your camp’s marketing budget

Most camps have a pretty fluid marketing budget, where they spend money on print ads, camp directories, attending camp fairs, driving to home parties, but they have not put a significant amount, or any, of that budget toward social media. I honestly believe that you should always shift your marketing budget toward what is working the best for your camp. If print ads drive a lot of new campers then you should continue to do them. But IF you are just running a bunch of print ads because it is what you have always done, I highly recommend you shift your strategy.

So how much of your marketing budget should you assign to social media? Anywhere from $100 to $1,000 a month, depending on if you have the staff to do the work or if you have to hire someone. Also this number depends on how many new leads you need to drive and how important engagement is to your camp. Either way, it’s time to re-evaluate where you are spending your marketing budget.

This year I urge you to push all of your marketing partners to share more information with you. How much traffic does each camp directory get, how many people see your print ad, how many people in your target market will be at a camp fair, etc. and then ruthlessly measure the results and prioritize from there. I help every single camp I work with understand their cost per new lead for each social media marketing activity they do. Make sure your other marketing partners are doing the same.