Yes, But Are You REALLY Different?

By Pamela | Published: May 2, 2013

As many of you know, I am not a fan of deep discounts on rates.  I truly believe you end up hurting your image, by giving the impression that your sites are only worth ½ of the rate that you are quoting.  If you do deep discounts, my question would be how many of your guests that took you up on the discount returned for a longer stay at the normal rate?

At the same time, it is easy to fall into the discount trap to try to pull in your guests.  Here are some ideas that may work better for you and keep that profit margin on the positive side of the ledger.

1.)    What makes you different from any park within a 50 mile radius?

All RV parks have sites.  Most of them have 50 amp hookups.  Trying to attract your guest to stay with you based on sites alone isn’t going to go far.  Look long and hard at what physical assets set you apart and then take a look at your park’s personality.

Are you a fun loving, kid oriented owner?  Would you rather have a park full of workers who are home on the weekends but gone through the weekday?  Or would you rather have an active older community?  The decision on the park’s personality is essential to starting to differentiate yourself from everyone around you

2.)    Do you have a concierge service?

You may think that concierge service is only for large hotels, but the truth of the matter is that offering a concierge service can go a long way to attracting those repeat guests.  It doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive to provide this service.  In fact, you don’t even have to have a person to perform the service.

Set up a calendar on your website for local events, attractions and things to do.  Provide that will take the visitor to the appropriate website/page where they can get more information or purchase tickets.

The one thing you do need to add to this would be information on how to get to the facilities that you are tying into.

3.)    Do you provide the standard activities or do you give some thought in making them unique?

Have you ever given thought to setting up a sign up sheet for people who want to go to a similar event?  Wouldn’t it set you apart if you arranged for people to travel to the local farmer’s market in a car caravan?  How about an outing to a local restaurant?  The list is endless if you just sit down and give it some thought.

4.)    Do your marketing materials look like everyone else’s?

It’s hard to set yourself apart if you look like everyone else.  Most RV Park websites look very much alike.  There is the Home page where you tell everyone how great your park is, the About Us page (which may have a different name but still is about you and your park), the rates page, and the reservation page.

Give all of your content on your website a second look.  Is the content boring and predictable?  Is it all about you?  Is there anything that makes you inviting?

What does your guest guide look like?  There is nothing that says that you can’t provide the content you want added to the guide.   Work with your rep to make your guest guide look different from everyone else’s.

Is there any reason for a guest to keep your brochure/rack card?  Is there anything that says you need to hold onto this on your business card?  Think about putting a form on the back of your business card where the guest can fill out the typical reservation information such as, length of the unit, license number, tow vehicle information or anything else that you require at your park.

5.)    Do your Park Rules and Regulations read like an edict that has been handed down?

One park I spoke with recently told me that they were working hard to eliminate the word “No” from the park vocabulary.

This doesn’t mean that you have to give the guests everything they ask for, but rather that you find a way of turning their request down without saying no.  Give it a try.  You will be surprised at the response you get.

These are just a few ideas on how you can start being memorable to your guests.  There are plenty more out there.  Give me a call and let’s brainstorm a few of them.

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Seven Mistakes You Are Probably Making

By Pamela | Published: April 17, 2013

Everyone makes mistakes.  Some are bigger than others and some are more costly than others.  Here are seven major mistakes that I have made and learned from.

1.)    Listing your business everywhere on the internet. Everyone says that you need to get your name on the internet, right?  And that you should jump at every chance that comes along to get your business listed, right?  Not me.

 I’m going to step outside the line here and say that your most valuable asset in your business is your time.

If you don’t monitor the amount of time you are spending on everything, it isn’t long before things start falling through the cracks.  When things start falling through the cracks, you start losing business.  When you start losing business, you add things to your To Do list.  When you add things to your To Do list, more things start falling through the cracks.  It’s a vicious cycle that you don’t want to get started.

Listing your business everywhere on the internet means adding more places that you need to check for accuracy, update and monitor.  List your business on those sites that your customer uses.

2.)    Your website doesn’t have a CTA.

 Calls to actions are important parts of all of your marketing materials.  Don’t make this more difficult than it really is.  Putting your phone number prominently on every page of your website is a CTA.  Making sure that you have a link to your reservation form on every page is a CTA.  Listing your email address on every page is a CTA.

Make it easy for your customer to give you their money.

3.)    You are on Social Media sites but your customer isn’t.

There has been a huge move within the RV industry to get everyone on all of the Social Media sites.  Some people like Facebook, some like Pinterest, others are on Twitter.

The truth of the matter is that you should be where your customers are.  Ask them on your comment sheets which Social Media sites they would like to use to interact with you.  You may be surprised that they say they want to see email only, or that they prefer Google +.

It doesn’t cost anything to ask, but it sure costs a lot if you have to maintain all of those sites.

4.)    You have never cleaned your email list.

 Continuing to send emails to addresses from someone who visited you two years ago is a waste of your time and money.

You should be using a service that sends you a report on showing who opened your emails, which emails bounced because they were invalid and who clicked through on your link to your reservation form.  (You are putting links in your email aren’t you?)

Chances are very high that the emails that weren’t opened are being sent to SPAM folders and never being seen.

It may hurt to realize that your email list of 5,000 is really only a list of 250, but I would much rather spend my time working with the 250 that are truly interested in me than trying to attract the 4,750 that don’t know I’m talking to them.

5.)    Your marketing messages are all Push and no Pull.

Push messages are those that tend to be in the customers face whether or not the customer wants what you are selling.

If you go to a trade show hand out a give away without any idea of whether the person is interested in what you have to offer, it is a push message.

If you send out emails to purchased lists, it is a push message.

In other words, if you are speaking to (instead of with) your potential customers as well as your existing customers, you are using a Push strategy.

Pull messages are those that motivate the customer to seek you out.

If you send out emails that have information the customer can use whether or not they visit you it is a pull message.

If your customer refers you to a friend, it is a pull message.

You should use both strategies, but the Pull is going to give you a better ROI.

6.)    All of your marketing is textual.

 There is a reason that Pinterest and Instagram have taken off like rockets.  People love pictures.

Take a look at all of your marketing materials, business cards, brochures, website, etc.   Are you using mostly words to describe your business?  Are the paragraphs on your website long and wordy?

Take a look at how you could incorporate pictures to each of your marketing mediums.  Get a quality picture to add to those listing sites who allow you to do so.

Find a way to put people in the pictures.  For me, nothing is sadder than looking at pictures of RV parks without anyone in them or pictures of RV sales with no one looking at an RV.

7.)    You try to be everything to everyone.  

This is guaranteed to be an epic failure.  Focus yourself on what your business really is.

If you are a campground, don’t try to be a resort.

If you sell Toy Haulers, don’t try to be a luxury RV dealer.

Focus on who you are, set goals that meet that image and market to the demographic that fits your image.

Those are my seven major mistakes that I have made and learned from.  What are yours?

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The 4 P’s Updated

By Pamela | Published: April 3, 2013

By now you know that not only how you market but where you market is a key ingredient to your success or failure in promoting your RV business.  However, knowing and understanding are not necessarily the same thing.

The 4 P’s of marketing model has been used for decades around the world.  What are the 4 P’s?  1.  Product 2. Pricing 3. Placement 4. Promotion.  Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it.  Without a product, you have nothing to sell.  If your price is wrong, no one will buy it.  If you place ads somewhere that your customers don’t see, they will never know about you.  Finally, if you don’t promote your product consistently, your potential customer won’t believe that you are credible.

These 4 principles served us well in the past; however, we have entered an era where the means of delivering those 4 principles has not only changed but is changing frequently.  Let’s take a look at each of them and see where things stand today.

Product

Today’s world is expecting better, more and higher quality from us than in the past.  There was a time in the not too distant past where you could buy a few acres of land, put up a gate and call yourself a campground.  Then came the move to rename every campground an RV park; that was quickly followed by everyone co-opting the term Resort and adding it to the end of their business name.

Unfortunately, attaching Resort to the end of the campground’s name did not make it a Resort.  This actually worked against the parks as the credibility of the word Resort was lost.

So now the question is, “What is your product?”  In today’s world it isn’t the physical property that you own.  Rather your real product is delivering what your customer’s/guests want.  If they want a campground, don’t try to give them a resort.  If they want a resort, don’t try to give them a campground.

Rule #1:  Know Thy Customer

Pricing

Each year everyone takes a look at the price they are charging (or they should) and compares it to the competition.  This can be a good start but don’t stop there.  Take a look at what your product really is and what your customer really wants.  Price yourself accordingly.

Rule #2:  Price yourself fairly for both yourself and your customer.

Placement

In order to promote your business, you need to market it, which includes advertising.  A lot of money can be spent with very little in return.

One of the easiest ways to look at this issue is to compare the cost of an ad divided by the number of customers that came to you as a result of that ad.  As an example, $1200 for a year long banner ad campaign, 10 guests report coming to you as a result of that banner ad.  Per customer cost equals $120.  Are you going to make enough off of that person to cover not only the cost of the campaign but also the cost of his visit?

There is something to be said about the residual effect of getting your name in front of a larger number of people, but again, I will emphasize the fact that this effect will be worth nothing if it doesn’t bring customers to your door.

Rule #3:  Understand the true cost of your marketing

Promotion

Social Media has become today’s Golden Media.  If you aren’t on social media, you are missing out on the greatest things since sliced bread.

While I am a big believer in social media, I don’t believe it should be a means of being the new door-to-door salesman.  Too many of the businesses I see on social media sites are busy pushing their product into the faces of anyone who follows them.  They do not personalize the message or the messenger.

You are the embodiment of your business.  If I want to know what kind of business you are, I want to know who you are and what you represent.  The cold and indifferent corporation that is removed from the customer is no longer working.  Today people are looking for a personal relationship with the people they do business with.  This doesn’t mean that you have to be front and center at all times but it does mean that your business needs to represent who you are.

Rule 4:  Let your personality shine through and watch the customers show up at your door.

These are my four rules for my strategic planning.  Do you have any rules that you would add?  Would you apply these rules to your website?

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Time for a Little Spring Cleaning on Your Website

By Pamela | Published: March 21, 2013

Now that March is almost over and April is on its way, most of us are gearing down from the winter and gearing up for the summer.  One item that almost always gets left off of the to-do list is your website and reviewing it.

So many times, our websites were the first thing that we did and after a short time, we moved on to working with our customers and pretty much forgot about the website.  After all, we spent good money on getting it set up when we opened business, so we take the Ron Popeil mantra of “Set it and Forget it” and turn that into “Create it and Forget it.”

The problem is that, like any of our marketing materials, after a while a website begins to look stale.  I know because I have that exact problem.  I had my website designed a few years ago and had a blog added to it about 9 months after the website went live.  Since then, I have posted the blog fairly regularly but have done nothing with the rest of the website.

I recently took an honest look at the site and realized that while the site is the same, my client demographics are different.  It’s time to redesign the website.  If I had been reviewing my site on a regular basis, I would have realized this much sooner.  Now my question is, “How many customers have I turned off because of my website?”

Here are my quarterly website review tasks that I have added to my calendar:

1.)    Check all the links on the website.  One of the most frustrating things for any user is to run into a link that is bad.  This is especially true if the name of the website isn’t obvious which means there isn’t an easy way to find the site.

Broken links are not unusual.  People change the platforms their website operates on, the hosting companies they are using or other internet issues arise.  Be sure to check all your links.  Those in your headers, footers, sidebars, and in your content.

2.)    Test your drop down menus.  This will make sure that your navigation for your website is going to work correctly and that all the tabs you have on your site are in place.  Make sure you cover any and all menus.

3.)    Send yourself an email.  If you have any type of contact form (reservation request, support request, information request) make sure you fill it out completely to ensure that it is working properly.  Even more important is making sure that the emails are being delivered to the correct address.  Shortly after my website went live, I discovered that the emails were going to an incorrect address which meant that I wasn’t answering my customer’s call.

4.)    Use all of your Social Media buttons.  We all got on the bandwagon and added buttons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the entire myriad other Social Media sites out there, but the real question is, do they work?  Does the Facebook button actually take you to your Facebook page?

5.)    Look at each of your pages and decide if they are still representing who you are.  Using myself as an example again, I recently found that some of my blog posts were actually returning “Page Not Found” (aka 404) errors.

6.)    Check for technical errors.  While your web designer should be doing this on a regular basis, it doesn’t hurt to have a second person checking.  You will need to register your site with Google Webmaster Tool and then run the tests.  While you may not understand everything the test is telling you, you will know if you need to get in touch with your web designer to correct maintenance issues.   This is essential to your SEO efforts.

7.)    If you also have a mobile site, you need to perform the same tasks there.  While you are testing, pay close attention to how your site is operating.  Does it require a lot of scrolling? Is it easy to read?  Is it easy to navigate?

Now that you have reviewed your site for its functionality, made the changes you needed and corrected the errors you found, you are ready to check the rest of your marketing materials to make sure that they are doing their job.

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Are You Ready to Jump On The Flash Sale Bandwagon?

By Pamela | Published: March 18, 2013

If you haven’t heard of Groupon, you must be living on an uninhabited island somewhere.  But just in case, here is a brief description of how it is supposed to work.

How It Works

The park agrees to a steep discount (50% or better) on a stay.  There is very limited ability to blackout dates for the use of the coupon.  What is agreed on is the number of coupons that need to be purchased in order for the coupons to be distributed.  Of the amount collected, Groupon typically retains 50% and sends the balance on to the park.

If we look at some quick math, that would mean that the agreement is to give a 50% discount on a park stay if 500 or more people purchase the deal.  If the normal nightly rate is $40, the discount would be for $20 per night.  (Let’s assume for this example that you are only going to discount a two night stay.)  With 500 coupons sold, the total income would be $20,000.  Of the $20,000 Groupon would retain 50% or $10,000 and the park would receive $10,000.  So far everything sounds great doesn’t it?

What Does This Mean To The Park?

Now let’s look at the other side of the problem.  Since the assumption is a two night stay, in reality we are talking about 1,000 site nights for $10,000 or $10 per site per night.  I don’t know of any park where the cost per site night is $10 or less, so a Groupon deal can be considered a “Loss Leader.”  Meaning that the cost is greater than the income but the hope is that the person redeeming the Groupon deal will come back and stay at the normal rate.

There is an argument that there are residual sales due to the person staying in the park.  Sales at the gift shop, the grocery area and/or the RV supplies area will increase.  My question is will those sales increase enough to offset the loss?

The second part of the problem lies in the fact that you are going to receive a large amount of money ($10,000 in our example) spread out over 1/3 in about 5 days, 1/3 in 30 days and the final 1/3 in 60 days.  The coupons, however, usually have a one year shelf life, so they can be used at any time through the year.  In other words, you are going to collect for deeply discounted business today but you are going to be paying for it for quite a long time.

What Is The Impact?

A couple of items to take a hard look at before deciding to do a Groupon deal can have a huge impact to your overall business:

1.)     How many of your existing customers are going to buy the Groupon deal?  The real reason to go with Groupon is to attract new business, but if they are existing customers there isn’t going to be any gain.  This is a statistic that is going to be very hard to track as Groupon doesn’t provide this type of analysis.

2.)    How often will those new customers come back?  If the Groupon customer doesn’t return the park has basically given away two nights with no chance of recovering any losses.   My experience and my intuition continues to tell me that people who shop for the latest deal do not become loyal customers who return to purchase at the regular price.

Is It Worth It?

So now we get to the real question.  Is a Groupon, Google Offers or any of the other “Deal of the Day” sites worth going to in order to attract new customers?  The answer is…Depends.  For me the answer is always “No, Thank You.”  I feel the same way about the 50% clubs that offer to bring more people in if you will give those customers a 50% discount.  Here are my reasons against these types of “deals.”

 

1.)     If you have priced your sites right, giving deep discounts is the equivalent to telling the guest, “The nightly rate is $40 but I realize that is way too much for you to spend so I will give you the site for $20 tonight.”  That sounds a whole lot different than just saying “Yes, we honor XYZ discount club” now doesn’t it.  But the bottom line remains the same.

2.)  Do the guests who receive the deep discount come back and pay full price?  Why should they?  After all they belong to XYZ club or they wait for the next “Daily Deal” and get a discounted price.  There is no incentive to become a regular customer.  In fact, the incentive is to find that next “Daily Deal” and go there.

3.)  If you agree to run the deal, are you going to be able to cover the losses?  Unless you are way out of whack on your rates, you will incur losses.  You are going to receive a large infusion of cash but you are going to need it later when the deal is redeemed.

How To Generate New Business

Now, here are my suggestions for increasing your base without the Daily Deal sites:

1.)    Create a guest loyalty program where you reward your current guests for bringing in new business.  Give them a one night discount for every 5 new guests they bring in.  Now you are giving your existing guests reasons to brag about your park.

2.)     Consider running a Facebook ad.  These ads are based on a pay per click basis (PPC) but you can define your target to a very explicit audience.  Again, the deal would be a onetime use and would be a reasonable discount.  (By the way, I have always considered a reasonable discount to be between 10% and 15%, with larger discounts being given under very special circumstances.

3.)    Spend the money you would have given Groupon on beefing up your website to attract more customers, add a social media program to your efforts and look at paying for some SEO efforts for your website.

I’m looking forward to hearing what has worked for you.

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9 Marketing Tips That Everyone in the Outdoor Hospitality Industry Should Know

By Pamela | Published: March 8, 2013

Sometimes we lose track of the basics in marketing and need to get a refresher course.  Hopefully, these 9 marketing tips will get your brain revved up and reviewing what you have missed in your current marketing efforts.

1.)    You can’t market to a customer that you don’t know.  Looking at your past history should give you a good idea of what your customer is looking for, what they expect of you and your business, and whether or not you are meeting their expectations.

2.)    You should work hard at getting your customers to tell you what they think of you, the business, your staff and what they would like to see improved.  Give them a way to email their comments to you, give them a comment sheet when they check in, remind them that you would appreciate their thoughts, but don’t be overbearing about it.

3.)    Take a long, hard look at your advertising and marketing materials.  Do they truly represent who you and your business are? Do they represent you as something you truly aren’t?  Do the pictures on your website give the impression that you are an upscale, exclusive resort?  Are you really?

4.)    Does your website look like you had your 16 year old nephew create it for you?  If first impressions are important and your website is the first thing your customer sees, what is their impression?  Make your website a true representation of who and what your business is.

5.)    Is your marketing hit or miss?  The old adage was that it took three exposures to a marketing message before the customer would act on it.  In today’s world that number has gone to somewhere around 27.  This means that you should decide on your message and deliver that message repeatedly throughout all of your marketing efforts.

6.)    Social Media is here to stay.  The time is now to learn how to use it to your advantage.  Find out where your customers look for information about business and make that a priority in your marketing efforts.  You don’t necessarily have to be on every channel but if you aren’t on the one that your customers use, your message is going to be lost.

7.)    CTA.  If you don’t have a Call To Action on every one of your marketing efforts, you are losing money.  No matter what avenue you take, tell the user what you want them to do.  This can be as simple as saying “Give Us a Call” or as complex as “Bring this coupon in to get your discount.”

8.)    The world is going mobile.  Is your business represented on any mobile websites?  Do you have a mobile website?  Whatever you do, don’t pay someone to just shrink your website down to fit a smartphone screen.  This will be a waste of good money.

9.)    The world has gone visual and you are missing the boat if you aren’t there.  Post videos to your website, your YouTube channel, to Instagram, and on Pinterest.  Make those videos interesting.  Nothing will get people to leave your video faster than having a generic walk through that doesn’t have any appeal.  Ask yourself if you would sit through your video.

Need more ideas?  Give me a call.

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What Kind of Business Are You In?

By Pamela | Published: March 4, 2013

I can’t tell you the number of times I have stood at the front desk answering an endless series of questions when all I wanted to do was to get to the site, get set up, bring out the lawn chairs and have a glass of wine in the sun.

We have become so enamored with the idea of gathering information, that we have lost sight of the true purpose of the business.  At this point everyone should have a mission statement and within that statement, featured prominently should be the word, Hospitality.  That is the true purpose of any RV park.  We are in the hospitality industry.

Hos-pi-tal-i-ty

1.)    the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.

2.)    the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests andstrangers in a warm, friendly,

generous way.

While information for marketing is critical, it shouldn’t take priority over making the guest feel pampered and special.  When we let data take over from hospitality, we have fallen into the “Your information is more important than you are” trap.

Think about those moments when you left a business thinking what a pleasant experience that was.  Why was it so pleasant?  Could it be because you were put ahead of everything else?

I recently called an RV park to make a reservation for a month as we wanted to spend time in the area.  The park had great ratings, the overnight guests said good things about it, so it seemed like it would be a good place stay.

I was immediately told that I would have to fill out an application that included a credit report, and that management would review it and get back to me.   When I asked how long that would take, the answer was 7 days.

SEVEN days!!  To decide whether or not you wanted to accept my money for a month?

Two things quickly became apparent.

1.) Management did not trust the front desk to make a decision and

2.) The process had overtaken the purpose of the business.

I hung up feeling confused and unworthy.  After giving it some thought, I did come up with what I believe the logic was behind the rule.  The park wanted to maintain its ratings and didn’t want to have someone moving in who would be a less than desirable neighbor.  However, the overall feeling I was left with is the one that we never want to give our guests.

Needless to say, we didn’t spend the month at that park but rather went to a park close by.  They didn’t have the glowing reports (which I now suspect were posted by a paid poster) but they also treated us as if we were the most important guests in their park.

My recommendations to avoid this type of situation:

1.)    Think about your processes and how you can streamline them so that your employees can act as hosts instead of clerks.

2.)    Train your staff to always go out of their way for the guest.  Not everyone on your staff will be good at being a host, but everyone can make the effort to smile, wave, or say hello to everyone they see throughout the day, whether it is a guest or another employee.

What would you recommend be done to emphasize your commitment to hospitality?

Oh and by the way, guess which park I will be recommending.

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What Business Are You In?

By Pamela | Published: February 25, 2013

I can’t tell you the number of times I have stood at the front desk answering an endless series of questions when all I wanted to do was to get to the site, get set up, bring out the lawn chairs and have a glass of wine in the sun.

We have become so enamored with the idea of gathering information, that we have lost sight of the true purpose of the business.  At this point everyone should have a mission statement and within that statement, featured prominently should be the word, Hospitality.  That is the true purpose of any RV park.  We are in the hospitality industry.

Hos-pi-tal-i-ty

1.)    the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.

2.)    the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm,  friendly, generous way.

While information for marketing is critical, it shouldn’t take priority over making the guest feel pampered and special.  When we let data take over from hospitality, we have fallen into the “Your information is more important than you are” trap.

Think about those moments when you left a business thinking what a pleasant experience that was.  Why was it so pleasant?  Could it be because you were put ahead of everything else?

I recently called an RV park to make a reservation for a month as we wanted to spend time in the area.  The park had great ratings, the overnight guests said good things about it, so it seemed like it would be a good place stay.

I was immediately told that I would have to fill out an application that included a credit report, and that management would review it and get back to me.   When I asked how long that would take, the answer was 7 days.

SEVEN days!!  To decide whether or not you wanted to accept my money for a month?

Two things quickly became apparent.

1.) Management did not trust the front desk to make a decision and

2.) The process had overtaken the purpose of the business.

I hung up feeling confused and unworthy.  After giving it some thought, I did come up with what I believe the logic was behind the rule.  The park wanted to maintain its ratings and didn’t want to have someone moving in who would be a less than desirable neighbor.  However, the overall feeling I was left with is the one that we never want to give our guests.

Needless to say, we didn’t spend the month at that park but rather went to a park close by.  They didn’t have the glowing reports (which I now suspect were posted by a paid poster) but they also treated us as if we were the most important guests in their park.

My recommendations to avoid this type of situation:

1.)    Think about your processes and how you can streamline them so that your employees can act as hosts instead of clerks.

2.)    Train your staff to always go out of their way for the guest.  Not everyone on your staff will be good at being a host, but everyone can make the effort to smile, wave, or say hello to everyone they see throughout the day, whether it is a guest or another employee.

What would you recommend?

Oh and by the way, guess which park I will be recommending.

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Taking a look at the Crystal Ball

By Pamela | Published: February 18, 2013

One of the toughest yearly jobs has got to be deciding what rates to charge for the upcoming season.  If you charge too much, your guests are going to go into sticker shock.  If you don’t charge enough, you may have a tough time deciding what amenities you are going to have to discontinue.

Most of us take a look at what is being charged in the area and make the decision based on that.  But what if the other parks around you don’t offer the same amenities?  Or what if the park closest to you has amenities that you wouldn’t even consider offering?  (They have a waterpark or a casino for example.)  Or what if you don’t have any parks close to you?  What do you do?

David Gorin, of Best Parks of America, had a great comment in a recent discussion on LinkedIn.  He said, “From RV Park Biz: I’ve long believed that campgrounds should be priced at about 50%-60% of what a nearby hotel would charge. So if the nearby Hampton Inn (w pool, fitness room, free WiFi and cable, comp breakfast, business center, etc) is charging $100/night, then a nearby campground offering the same amenities in as nice a surrounding as the Hampton Inn should be able to charge $50 – $60. A nearby Motel 6 (small rooms, no pool or fitness room, no business center, maybe free wifi) charges $50/night then a nearby campground should be able to charge $25 – $30/night.

This seems to be a logical move to me.   The competition today is not only RV parks but also hotels and motels.  So, in order to determine your rate, you need to look at all of your competition.

Create a spreadsheet that lays out all of your amenities.   Here is a sample of what the spreadsheet could look like:
Park Name Nightly 30amp Nightly 50 amp Weekly 30 amp Weekly 50 amp Monthly Pool Spa Laundry WiFi Propane
My RV Park $35 $38 $210 $225 $395 Y Y Y Free Y
Camp Here $25 N/A $150 N/A $345 Y N Y Pay N
                     
                     

Of course you may want to add columns to your spreadsheet for things like cabins, tent sites, etc.  Use this example to help you take an objective look at how you are stacking up against the competition.

Now that we have an idea of what prices to charge, the next problem becomes deciding what amenities to offer.  Here is where knowing your guest is critical.

If you cater to families with small children, your playground area may be a primary attraction.  If, on the other hand, your guests tend to be older then you are naturally going to want to plan your amenities around their preferences.

Pulling together an activities program for the season can be a daunting task.  But it doesn’t need to be an impossible task.  Take a look at what was successful last year and make sure that you keep those activities.  That sure sounds like a “Well, DUH” kind of statement doesn’t it?  The key here is to look at those activities objectively.  Do a complete comparison, looking at how much the activity cost, what you currently have invested in the activity, and the cost per person versus the price per person.  You may be surprised to find that the most successful activity isn’t necessarily the one you think it is.

I hope this helps you put some numbers together to aid in making those all important decisions.  Do you have any tips that would help?

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

It’s 2013, Do You Know Where Your Marketing Is Headed?

By Pamela | Published: January 30, 2013

Well, here we are with the Snowbird season slowing down and the summer season just a few short months away.  What is a poor park owner to do?  Well, let’s make time to take a deep breath and get started on this year’s marketing plan and get to work implementing it.

Before we start implementing, let’s start with identifying our target market.  We have all noticed a shift in the demographics of our markets.  Now is the time to pull all of your information off of your reservation software.

What size rigs did you see last year?

Hopefully, you have saved your demographic information for the past few years so that you have something to compare to.  Make a quick and dirty spreadsheet with a column for 25’ and under, 26’ to 32’, 33’ to 38’, and 40’ and over, and then rows for Coach, Fifth Wheel, Travel Trailer, Truck Camper, Pop Up and any other type of RV that you may have seen over the past couple of years.  Fill out the numbers using your reservation software demographic report.  (If your software gives you this type of comparison, you are a giant leap forward in your effort.)

Note:  Once you have the information, be sure to save it for next year so that you have some way of comparing your demographics.

Once you have your spreadsheets, take a look and determine if your RV types and sizes have changed over the past year.

People are very cautious about sharing income information and rightfully so.  However, you can make some assumptions based on your RV size spreadsheet.  The guests that have 40’ coaches are probably the ones with the most disposable income.  The guests with the truck campers and pop-ups typically enjoy hiking, fishing, and campfires.

This information should give you some hints as to where and how you want to market the park.

 

What was the average length of stay?

Again, make a spreadsheet with Overnight, 1-2 days, 1 week and 1 month across the top and the years that you have information for in the rows.  Fill in your numbers and take a look at what the information is telling you.  Are you having more weekend traffic?  Do you consider yourself an overnight park or a long-term park?  What are your overall percentages?

If your stays are more to the overnight side of the spreadsheet, you are going to want to consider putting your marketing efforts into those areas that cater to people driving through the area.  If, on the other hand, the stays are for a week at a time, you will want to look at more of the tourism types of marketing efforts.

How many people were in each rig?

Obviously, if most of your guests have children with them you are attracting families to your RV Park.  Not only will this information help you identify where you want to market but it will also help you in deciding what types of activities to have.

If your guests tend to be all adults, then it may be time to consider things like tailgate parties, adult sleep outs, or other activities that an older demographic will enjoy.

How many guests are repeat visitors?

When you look at repeat visitors, you want to know how often they stay with you and how often they come back.  A person who comes back every year is just as valuable as one who visits more than once a year; however, how you market to these individuals can be very different.

Consider putting together a program that rewards your repeat visitors.  One idea would be to give a repeat visitor a free night if they bring in a friend or relative to stay for a weekend.

How far did your guests travel to get to you?

A lot of the newer reservation programs will break this down for you.  If not, contact your provider and ask if they can run a report for you by state at a minimum.  This information is going to tell you whether you are attracting people who live within your state or whether they are coming from out of state.

Again, this isn’t rocket science, just plain common sense.  If your guests are mainly from in-state, you will want to concentrate your advertising on local programs, i.e. local tourism efforts, festivals, etc.

How did your guests find you?

Hopefully, you have been tracking each of your advertising and marketing efforts with a unique call-to-action (CTA).  If you have, you now need to take a look at how effective those efforts have been.  If you haven’t, take the time now to decide that for every type of marketing/advertising effort you implement this year, you are going to have a unique identifying CTA on each and every one.  This could be as simple as mention this ad and receive a 10% discount, to as complex as bring in this ad to receive a free gift.

What do I do with all of this data?

While you can’t combine each of these individual data points and come up with a valid answer on exactly who your guest is, you can make the educated guesses that I have suggested for each item and get an overall look at what makes up your guest population.

Once you have an understanding of your guest population, you have a better understanding of where you need to concentrate your marketing and advertising efforts and dollars.  Once you understand where to concentrate your efforts, it stands to reason that you have a better chance of succeeding with your marketing.

There are a lot more statistics that you can pull out of your reservation software but you definitely need these as a minimum.  What numbers would you look for?

Posted in Marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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