Marketing Calendars: An RV Park Guide To Plan For The Next Busy Season
Those at the top of the RV hospitality industry have a couple of things in common. They plan for the next busy season and adjust next year’s plans according to data. Planning your marketing campaigns, sales, and events ahead of time in a marketing calendar ensures you aren’t scrambling at the last minute.
Those who plan events and come up with specials on the fly or just days in advance inevitably don’t get the message out as much as they could have. This results in lost potential revenue. The following guide will help you to gather the necessary information from this year or the last and create a marketing calendar that will easily communicate your marketing needs.
In addition to ensuring your marketing campaigns are implemented on time, planning with a marketing calendar can help make setting your marketing budget and sticking with it much easier.
Gather Your Data
Too often, when we see the word “data,” we think of computer geeks and complicated algorithms (or the Star Trek character). But you don’t need to work at NASA to collect sales data. Knowing your sales numbers, talking to customers, and reading reviews are all non-techy ways to start collecting the data you need to create goals for next year.
Sales Numbers
Most customers make plans ahead of time when it comes to outdoor hospitality. That means you probably already have a vague idea of your potential sales for major holidays, the first month or two of summer, and so on. Look at this year’s reservations and compare them to last year.
Customer Comments And Reviews
Peruse your Google, Facebook, and other review sites to see what guests say after a recent event. You can also ask customers directly what their thoughts are about special events or generally about their stay in person.
Use the information gathered to decide what you should do again next year, what you should improve upon, or scrap altogether. It can also be helpful to ask your customers in a survey, in person, or on social media what they would like to see in the future.
For example, 70% of the customers would like more kid-friendly activities and games during the Fourth of July next year. So it may be worth it to not only come up with some more family activities but also to use that in next year’s newsletters, Google Ad campaigns, etc.
Look At Your Ad Campaign Stats
Anytime you run an ad, it’s important to know how well it worked. When you purchase one of Big Rig’s marketing packages, we can provide you with:
We are always here to help you go over the numbers and help you make the best marketing decisions for your business.
Define Your Goals For Next Season
So you have collected all the data, run the sales numbers, and know what worked and what didn’t this year. To plan for the next busy season, whether next year or several months from now, you will want to use the data to define your future goals.
Ask yourself questions like:
Choose The Kinds Of Campaigns You’ll Run To Achieve Your Goals
Plan out the best type of campaign to accomplish the goals you set up.
Sales and holiday campaigns (Fourth of July, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Halloween, etc.), are excellent candidates for PPC ads, social media posting, and newsletters.
Content-driven campaigns like blog posts, social media, and newsletters can highlight unique aspects of your property, local events, and nearby attractions.
Targeted campaigns can change with the seasons or be designed to attract a particular demographic. For example, some RV resorts aim for families and vacationers in the summer but turn into long-term snowbird locations in the winter. Therefore, it would be important to note when the ad messaging should change in a marketing calendar.
Decide Which Holidays You Want To Do Promotions For
It’s obviously a good idea to have some sort of marketing around major holidays. However, there may be some local or state holidays you want to make a big deal about as well. You don’t have to pack every single holiday known to humankind in there, but things like national camping month in June, and other special days that fit with your business can be great marketing opportunities, if you plan ahead for them.
Calendar Labs has a huge list of holidays to browse through.
Build Your Marketing Calander
Once you have decided what you want to work on next year/season, you can build a marketing calendar with the campaigns you want to put in place. There’s no right or wrong way to make a marketing calendar. You can use a pencil and paper calendar, spreadsheet, or a calendar app. Whatever medium you choose, the goal is to be able to easily visualize the campaigns that need to be put in place, to reach your goals.
Here at Big Rig, we have helped many of our customers plan their marketing campaigns and set up calendars. We are a fan of using a 12-month visual calendar that fits on one page.
A 12-month marketing communications calendar lets you see all the major campaigns, specials, and holidays a business has throughout the year.
Let Us Help You Plan For The Next Busy Season
When you are a Big Rig Xpress customer, you aren’t alone. We are the marketing team that can help you through any step of creating your marketing calendar. From data gathering strategies to walking you through the best style of campaigns that align with your goals and budget to setting up and implementing said campaigns so they are ready to go at the right time. We do it all.
The bottom line is when you plan for the next busy season right after the current one, you will ensure that there is enough time for you, and your marketing team at Big Rig to help you reach next year’s goals and pack your park.
