I presented a webinar a few weeks ago with Travis Allison on Facebook secrets for summer camp marketing. I wanted to elaborate a little on some of the things I chatted about there and provide more information for you, my loyal blog readers. One of the most important things I discussed were the five levers you can pull to improve your Facebook ads. Here are the questions I like to ask myself for each lever when I am running my ads. 1....
Read MoreMost 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...
Read MoreI'm actually shocked that I haven't written a blog post about Facebook Custom Audiences yet. This is an extremely important topic for summer camp marketers. Why, you ask? According to Facebook, "Custom Audiences let advertisers find their offline audiences among people who are on Facebook. Using email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook user IDs or app user IDs to make the match, Custom Audiences let you find the exact people you want to talk to. You can create a Custom Audience representing any...
Read MoreInstagram announced last month that they will start running ads in your Instagram feed. According to Instagram, ads will look like the following: "We have big ideas for the future, and part of making them happen is building Instagram into a sustainable business. In the next couple months, you may begin seeing an occasional ad in your Instagram feed if you’re in the United States. Seeing photos and videos from brands you don’t follow will be new, so we’ll start slow....
Read MoreHaving a custom Facebook cover photo is extremely important for your summer camp. This is a great place to show your logo, brand, and general photos of the summer camp experience. It is one of the first things visitors to your Facebook page will see, so you want to make a good impression. Presenting a clean, professional-looking banner across the top of your page could make or break a new camper signup. Below, you can see the cover photo I...
Read MoreTracking actions on your summer camp's website is an extremely important part of tracking ROI. Watch this video below to learn more about implementing the Facebook Conversion Tracking Pixel on your summer camp's website. Read our other blog post about how to use Google Conversion Tracking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clDyOdOcSFY&feature=youtu.be...
Read MoreThis is the last post in a series of posts around how to make your Facebook posts more engaging. I have already covered imagery and post type, but today I want to focus more on content. I specifically want to cover the following three questions: What should your posts say? What links should you drive to? Which videos/photos should you promote? It can be tempting to post anything and everything to your summer camp's Facebook page. But you should definitely be selective and only...
Read MoreThe next entry in this series on how to make your Facebook posts more engaging revolves around post type. According to SocialBakers, who looked at over 5,000 Facebook posts in the past year, the most engaging posts on Facebook include photos. However, depending on the kind of content you create, other types of posts can be equally engaging for your summer camp: Photo: As mentioned above, this is the most engaging type of post. Camps have amazing imagery and photo collections, so use...
Read MoreToday, I am starting a short series on how to make your Facebook posts more engaging. The first part of the series is going to cover imagery. Luckily, summer camps have great images from their summer photographers, which means they always have an arsenal of photos to use for Facebook posts. Still, I see camps all of the time using images that don't perform well on Facebook. Here are five quick tips to make your Facebook images more engaging: 1. Pictures...
Read MoreWith the summer season winding down, it is time for your camp to hold an annual social media planning session. Here is an example of an agenda for this type of meeting: 1. Complete an audit of current social media activity, tools, and analytics 2. Decide if you are going to hire a social media consultant. Does your program need help? Or are you in a good place with the current staff? 3. Brainstorm your main marketing objectives for next year 4. Set a...
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