Many of you, like me, are in the midst of kids leaving for camp, arriving from camp, or happily (we hope) ensconced at camp.
During this time of a few less kids in the house, I began to examine why we choose the camps we do for our kids, as well as other things, their extracurricular activities, their doctors and dentists, even their schools.
In most cases, and certainly in the case of camp, I didn’t choose my children’s summer camp experiences based on the marketing on the part of their camps. I chose their camps based upon the experiences that those camps gave to me as a child or based upon the experiences of other families whose advice and opinions I trusted. I made decisions the way I make other decisions about professional services: do I feel like I or my child could form a relationship with these people? Do I like this camp? Do I like this drum teacher? How do I feel about this dentistry practice?
So, should those camps quit their marketing campaigns? Absolutely not. On the contrary; after I began to formulate my decisions regarding camp, I did go through all the marketing: the brochures, the applications, the websites, the social media, even the embedded marketing involved in the application processes. Additionally, when there was more than one camp in contest for my childrens’ summer time, websites, photos and facebook certainly played a role. Not only did I check them out for information, but also to see pricing, payment options, luggage and packing information, etc. Inbound marketing at work!
So, what’s my take away?
As a client, I would tell you that the most import element to grow your business is to make sure you are cementing good personal relationships with your clients and customers. Then I would try to make sure that all of your inbound marketing components recreate the sense of care you provide. There is no question that with the ease of online research, people will reach out to see how you present yourself.