In the old days of TV, radio and print, advertisers wanted to reach the biggest relevant audience in hopes that a small percentage would buy. In today's world of the internet and data, marketers can target much more effectively by having information. What does that mean for parks and recreation agencies?It's time to use data to improve your marketing efforts. For example, if a dad signs up his son for youth basketball in the winter, let him know about summer basketball camps. With this knowledge, you can target each individual rather than spraying mass messages to your entire customer base. And the first step is to gather the right information. Here's what you need to know about each customer.
Contact Details
This allows you to have multiple ways to communicate with your customers. Through email, you can send marketing messages. Through text, let a parent know that baseball has been cancelled today. And through the phone, you can be more prepared for a customer service call.
Birthdays
Gather birthdays for your members. That way you can send birthday messages or wish them a happy birthday when they come in.
Addresses
Do you manage a number of facilities and parks around town? By knowing which center a family uses, you can cut down on irrelevant information about a facility they would never go to. For example, one P&R agency asks this question on the online registration form: "What recreation center do you most closely associate with?" With that information, they can create targeted lists for each facility.
Past Sign-ups
This may be the most important data point you collect. Organize and use previous history for each customer to determine what they're interested in. If one customer likes Yoga, spinning and Zumba, send them upcoming programs that are similar.
Insights
Why did a customer choose you over a neighboring agency? Why do people cancel their memberships? What do they love about your facilities? What would they improve? If you can gather this sort of information through surveys, you can constantly improve the experience for customers.There are a number of other data points you could be collecting. For starters, however, use the information about to know more about each customer and target marketing messages more effectively.What other information do you want to know about your customers? Comment below.
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