Hi owners! I curiously stumbled into this forum and I'm delighted to see this thread. I am an Multimedia Advertising Consultant in Austin, TX. I primarily work with print and digital advertising but our company creates comprehensive ad campaigns for businesses across all platforms. As I am getting back into paintball after about 10 years I am surprised by the drastic changes and apparent decline in popularity of the sport. Naturally it makes me wonder if it is due to lack of or ineffective strategies of promotion. With that being said, I'm glad that this discussion is being had.
I would like to put in my two cents. Take it or leave it... Advertising is an art and a process of trial and error. It is also expensive. If you want it to be effective you
will have to put money into it. Consider it a business investment just like electricity or water and budget for it monthly.
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Originally Posted by ditchdigger dss
facebook is huge advertisement!
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When done properly you are absolutely right! I recommend not depending on this solely. This is only effective when you have a large, engaged, social media following. You need to grow your social audience and strengthen your presence (that includes activity) throughout the social media space. Make posts at least once a week, have contests and calls to action within your advertisements to acquire followers/likes, make sure you have social media logos next to yours whenever possible.
Get a Twitter too! Twitter is growing in popularity among the younger market. It is simple to update. Follow pro's and leagues. Retweet news and info about upcoming larger events and other international paintball news this is a great way to keep your follower's attention to your brand and piggy back on the credibility of other people/organizations. Position yourself as a part of paintball as a whole. Not just the local place to play paintball.
If you do not keep your social media sites active with frequent updates, posts, pictures, etc. you will not develop that engaged audience and you will lose credibility when someone judges your business by your facebook.
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Originally Posted by Elo160
If you have a store make posters and put them up.
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Even if you don't have a store you can hang them out at your field or give fliers to the players as they check in/check out for the day.
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Originally Posted by Executive Paintball
We have a mailing list using everyones information they provide on waiver. When we were doing an annual scenario game and a big game we would print up post cards and send them out.
As others have said, your website and facebook would be huge. Posting in the appropriate regional forum here on PBN would be good.
A good marketing tool is to have is an e-mail or txt message list customers could sign up for on your website and you could send out a monthly newsletter with current events etc..
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Great ideas! Direct mail to your mailing list could work but this can get costly and may not provide the desired return on the investment. It will differ market-to-market but I would not recommend this due to the high price of printing+postage. Email list is much easier and it is free but remember, you need to have them engaged somehow. Have them looking out for the email. Give them a reason to not delete it before reading it. Always include something that will interest the reader. A discounts, contests, drawings, etc.
Text campaigns. I LOVE THIS. Text message advertising is growing rapidly but it is not to the point that email marketing has gotten to yet. People are much more likely to engage in an advertisement that comes through text vs. one that is among the clutter of all of their junk email.
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Originally Posted by ditchdigger dss
we also use groupon, sweetjack, and living social....and our local rock station has a program were they sell limited number of gift certificates for rental and 1000 rounds...the money goes into radio spots...with groupon and sweetjack you let them sell rental admission and 1000 rounds for 50 bucks they send you 25....but you get the advertisement...sweetjack does radio spots in my area and they say our business name so it was a good deal.....
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I think radio is a great idea for paintball shops/fields. It is going to depend on the demographic of the radio station. Make sure that you know their audience and you know yours.
I always try to drive people away from groupon, living social, etc. You do not want to train your customers to only come out when they get a crazy discount. Why will they come out next weekend for full price if they can wait a week or two and get 1/2 off with a groupon.
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Originally Posted by bigfootguy2002
Facebook, direct mail, email blast, text message blasts, printed flyers/posters that you should be able to put up in anywhere that is affiliated with paintball at all,
but believe it or not--word of mouth is our largest form of advertisement.
A select group of players who are well connected to your player base/community, will bring in tons of players.
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This varied approach is what it is all about. Get your brand in as many forms of media as possible. We all consume media differently. We are all exposed to 3,000+ brand messages on a DAILY basis. How many times and in how many places will someone have to see your message to make it stand out among 3,000? Maybe not 1,000 times in 1,000 places but to really make it count you have to present yourself in more than one place.
A word of mouth about word of mouth: I am told a lot of times that "word of mouth" is the only "advertising" that people do. Word of mouth is necessary and recommendations are a natural result of providing a good service. However, bad news travels faster than good news. If one player has one bad experience at your field the rumors could spread like wildfire through that same tight network that can bring you good recommendations. That is why word of mouth is different from advertising. You cannot control how you are positioned by the words of someone else when they are not in your presence. With advertising you yourself are the source of the message. You decide what that message is, where it goes, and how it goes there. Word of mouth is very important and recommendations are a great way to build loyal business but depend on you advertising to bring you business. Provide a good service and word of mouth will keep them coming back.
And my own recommendation: look into digital advertising on non-paintball related websites and ad networks. Use companies that have technology to behaviorally target, geo target, demo target, and retarget your ads. I could make an entire thread about this. If you have questions feel free to PM me.
tl;dr - try different stuff until something works. lol
