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The marketing funnel for summer camps

Posted on January 7, 2014
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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It's always interesting to me how old marketing techniques come back to life after they have disappeared for a while. Case in point, the marketing funnel! The marketing funnel is constantly talked about in regards to traditional marketing, but was never really talked about in regards to social media marketing, until recently. I think it's one of the most important strategies camps can use when they are marketing to parents. Most camps are decently good at loyalty. Their campers and moms...

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Facebook ad placement

Posted on January 2, 2014
in Social Tools
by Nick Middleton
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Last week I wrote about the five levers you can use to improve your Facebook ads. I wanted to go more in-depth regarding Facebook ad placement, which is one of the most important levers you can pull. Facebook ads can be placed in the following: - All of Facebook (right hand side, news feed, mobile and desktop) - News feed (desktop and mobile) - News feed (desktop only) - News feed (mobile only) - Desktop only (right hand side and news feed) For all mobile placements...

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Levers to improve Facebook ads

Posted on December 26, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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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....

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Following great brands on social media

Posted on December 24, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love to follow what big brands are doing on social media. Often big brands set the stage for smaller brands (like summer camps!) to take what they have learned and apply them in a smaller fashion. One of my favorite brands to follow on social media is Oreo. In fact I recently read an article that claims that Oreo "owns" social media" because of the amazing job they do on Pinterest, Instagram,...

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What is Ask.fm and should your camp be using it?

Posted on December 19, 2013
in Social Tools
by Nick Middleton
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I get asked almost every day by a camp if they should be using certain social tools, like Shapchat, Pinterest or Instagram. Nobody has asked me yet if they should be using Ask.fm, but I guarantee you they will be asking me soon. According to Wikipedia, "Ask.fm was created in June 2010. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 80 million registered users in 2013, who post 30 million questions and answers per day. Ask.fm is now one of the 200 most visited websites in...

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Decoding your camp’s marketing budget

Posted on December 17, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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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...

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Demand Fulfillment v. Increasing Demand

Posted on December 13, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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A recent topic in the Summer Camp Professional's Facebook group came up regarding SEO. A camp director was asking how much you should spend on SEO v. other types of marketing. I posted my opinion in the group but wanted to get it live here as well: In my opinion the search volume for the types of searches camps need just isn't high enough right now. I would rather spend my marketing budget on increasing demand (Facebook ads, social media content,...

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What is your camp doing on mobile?

Posted on December 11, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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I ask my camps a lot about what they are doing on mobile. Here are the general responses I hear: Nothing :) We have a responsive website that works on mobile We are building or would like to build an app Here is what I don't hear from them, but would like to: I'm building a Facebook and Instagram strategy that will help me reach all of the people I want to on mobile. Of course I am super happy if you also have a responsive...

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Using forms to drive information requests

Posted on December 6, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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A lot of camps ask me where they should drive their social media ad traffic. This is a great questions and one that doesn't exactly have a good answer. If you are running social ads you are likely trying to drive new leads and ultimately information requests. Getting a new lead to input their information means that you now have their name, email, phone number and some information on their child, which you did not have before. However if you...

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Holiday promotion: What are you waiting for?

Posted on December 4, 2013
in Social Strategies
by Nick Middleton
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A few months back I covered holiday promotion for summer camps. If you haven't launched a plan yet for the holidays, it is almost too late! But, if you get your act together in the next few days you could have a few opportunities left. Here are the posts on what I wrote as a reminder: 1. Holiday planning for your camp 2. Developing your holiday marketing goals 3. Creating holiday-specific messaging 4. Executing and measuring your holiday marketing plan If you run a Jewish...

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