Are you a marketing pro for your parks and recreation agency? If you are, there are only three simple areas where you can improve your marketing efforts: You can 1) get more people to see what you have to say, 2) get more people to subscribe, and 3) get more customers. All three phases work in harmony to turn a tweet into a Yoga class registration and a newspaper ad into a pottery class participant.Next time you look at all of the marketing initiatives you run, organize them into this marketing funnel. That way, you can focus on improving effectiveness at each part of the funnel. In the end, you'll see more customers. Here is how it works:
Build an Audience
The top of the funnel is where you want to reach a lot of people in your community who could potentially become customers one day. You need eyes on your website, recreation guide, press releases, emails, direct mail campaigns, and social posts. If you can increase your audience, numbers will increase down the line.Here are channels that build the top of the funnel:
Here are resources to help you increase your reach (top of funnel):
- Get Found in Google (Whitepaper)
- Social Sharing: What It Is and How to Use It
- How to Turn Rec Centers and Facilities into Free Marketing Tools
- 4 Parks & Rec and YMCA Blogs to Learn From
Convert Leads
Now we move to the middle of the funnel. This is where you want to turn impressions into listeners, or readers into leads. Simply put, can we get someone who reads a press release to become a Twitter follower? Can we turn a website visitor into an email subscriber? In order to convert someone to a lead, you need to offer relevant content and have strong calls to action.Remember that former customers can also become leads for upcoming programs. This part of the funnel is where you can use a customer's email address and history to target them with email marketing campaigns.Here are some important terms to note for the middle of the funnel:
Here are resources to help you increase leads (middle of funnel):
- Top 10 Tips to Turn Your Website into Your Strongest Marketing Tool
- 10 Examples of Social Media Updates You Need to Make
- How to Stand Out in Your Customer's Inbox
- 'Call Me Maybe': Inspiration for Your Calls to Action
Get Customers
Let's stop to see where we are with the funnel. First, let's say you generated an audience of 10,000 last month (website visitors + readers of a press release + people who received a direct mail piece, etc.). Second, you turned 500 of those into subscribers/leads (new social followers + email subscribers, etc.). Now it's time to turn these people into customers and revenue. This part of the funnel is where your Facebook and Twitter posts, email campaigns, and offline marketing campaigns need to drive registrations.Here are some phrases for the bottom of the funnel:
Here are resources to help you get more customers (bottom of the funnel):
- Top 10 Easiest Ways to Increase Online Registrations
- 5 Old-Fashioned Ways to Increase Online Registrations
- Increasing Registrations Through Facebook: 'There's an App for That'
- 12 Reasons Your Online Registrations Are Low
At each part of the funnel, it is important to test. This is where you can look at Google Analytics, social analytics, email stats and more to get an idea of your effectiveness.Is this how you organize your recreation marketing? Comment below with your thoughts.
