18 www.ccca.org October/November 2015®

Marketing Strategy

by Trevor Williams

October/November 2015 www.ccca.org 19 ®

YOUR MARKETINGSOUNDTRACK

CREATING THE PERFECT SCORE TO TELL YOUR STORY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

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A bow glides across the violin strings. The clarinet’s reed vibrates, and

air rushes through the valves of the trumpet. But when the symphony

begins, the individual instruments fade into the background while the

listener is enveloped in a bigger, broader musical journey.

The same principle should apply to the marketing efforts of camps

and conference centers: multiple methods working in concert together.

“A good marketing campaign is like an orchestra. Don’t rely on a

single avenue to achieve it,” says Jeff Hunt, CEO of Littleton, Colorado-

based Avinova Media Group.

But what are the instruments needed for your marketing soundtrack?

And how can camps and conference centers use them skillfully? InSite

interviewed several marketing experts. Here are their tips and insights. �

Start With StoryWhatever the method—social media, display adver-tising or video—story is the thread that weavesthem all together, enabling organizations to commu-nicate their messages rather than simply blastingthem out on empty airwaves.

“We try to sell in the context of marketing andpublic relations, but what people really respond to is a story,” says Bob Hutchins of Buzzplant, a newmedia marketing firm outside Nashville, Tenn.“That’s why we pay $10 a ticket and $20 for popcornto go to the movies on the weekend. Our brains are wired that way. God made us in His image, and He is a storytelling God.”

Prioritizing story has never been more necessarythan in the digital age, where countless tools areavailable to reach audiences personally—even ontheir own mobile devices—but where the landscapeis also crowded with voices competing for ever-shorter attention spans.

“We’re really unraveling from 120 years of massmedia, where there was this one-way communicationof brands and organizations and businesses basicallyforcing people to buy or to listen,” Hutchins says.“Now people have said, ‘We want to watch thingswhen we want them; we will let into our world who wewant to let in.’ You can’t bargeinto the dinner party withyour bullhorn and startpreaching your message;you have to engagepeople.”

In this way, campsand conferencecenters have anadvantage. Theyboast steady streamsof life-changing testi-monies, beautifulvisual settings, speak-ers with compellingcontent and scores ofready-made socialmedia ambassadors inthe form of young campersand retreat-goers.

But a proliferation of platforms has

left some camp leaders less than confi-dent that they can become marketingvirtuosos. The key, experts say, is findingthe right media for your camp’s authenticnarratives, conveying them in a way thatserves rather than sells the listener.

“I think what we’re seeing now inmarketing in general is a move towardtransparency and clarity,” says JustinWise, founder of Think Digital, a digitalmarketing agency based in Des Moines,Iowa. “The best marketers don’t useconfusing language. They don’t use buzzwords. They don’t use jargon. They speak in plain, normal, everydaylanguage that people can understand.”

Social Media: Worth Paying to Play Social media can be a great equalizeramong organizations of all sizes. Anyonecan set up a free Facebook page and aTwitter account. But as this marketplacehas matured, networks are asking morefrom the groups that use them.

Hunt used to recommend that brandssimply set up a Facebook page and postcontent three times a day, knowing thatabout 16 percent of fans would see theposts. That’s not enough anymore, as thenetwork of nearly 1.5 billion users hastweaked its algorithms so that “organic”reach—the number of your page’s fansthat actually see your content—has dwindled to an average of 4 to 6 percentper post, according to research by Edgerank Checker and Social Baker.

Hunt says Facebook’s new stance hasbeen described as analogous to that ofthe postal service: Just because you havean address doesn’t mean you don’t haveto pay for delivery.

“Basically, Facebook said just becauseyou have a bunch of people who likeyour page doesn’t mean you get to reachthem free anymore,” Hunt says. “Your

20 www.ccca.org October/November 2015®

THE SOCIAL

MEDIA

LANDSCAPE

EXISTS AS A

LIVING,

BREATHING

CONNECTION

TO YOUR

AUDIENCE.

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®

Ideas for Online Display AdvertisingPure online advertising, particularlythrough Google AdWords, whichreaches 90 percent of Internet users,can also be effective even if it mightnot be on camp leaders’ radars, says Hunt.

Especially for organizations withsmaller budgets, he recommends “re-marketing,” buying Google ads that are served on outside websites totargeted users who previously visitedyour website. The ads will display on people’s browsers after they havevisited your website. After all, “90percent of people do not make a decision the first time they come to a website,” Hunt says.

“A lot of our clients that are doingre-marketing are spending $40 amonth on it,” Hunt says.

Nonprofits should also apply forGoogle Ad Grants, which provide$10,000 per month in search advertis-ing credit to help organizationspromote their missions. “It takes probably about a day’s worth of forms,”Hunt says. “You have to apply andexplain how you’re going to use thegrant, but a lot of organizations havefound it to be incredibly valuable indriving traffic to their websites.” �

organic reach on Facebook is now very, very low. Ifyou’re just posting on Facebook, you’ve got to boostyour post, schedule advertisements and engage inother means to reach people.”

Boosting posts is paying a small fee to reach abroader range of your existing fans, but advertis-ing more broadly on the world’s largest socialnetwork is also affordable and effective thanks to theability to target based on a wide range of self-selectedconsumer preferences along with demographic data.

An example: Facebook allows users to displaytheir religion, but Hunt has found that self-proclaimed Christians aren’t necessarily the kind ofpeople who will send their kids to Christian camps.It’s better to drill down to parents with certain musi-cal preferences, he has found. “If they’re telling theworld on Facebook they like Third Day, they tend to be pretty committed to their faith and probablywilling to send their kids to camp,” Hunt says.

Twitter, the short messaging network popularwith journalists and influencers, also has rolled outways to target ads geographically or based on userinterest, says Hutchins of Buzzplant.

There are social networks that provide considerableorganic reach without the ad spend: Pinterest formoms and college-educated women and Instagram for teenagers, especially girls. Messaging apps likeSnapchat have also grown in popularity among teens.

Still, Wise says that organizations should accept the fact that overall social media is now a pay-to-playenvironment. “The only way to get a considerablereach on social media platforms anymore is to eitherbuy traffic or have content that goes viral,” he says.“Going viral is desired, but it is not sustainable. Payingfor traffic may not be the first choice of most people,but it is the most sustainable and predictable.”

He says it’s important to remember what the toolis meant to be used for in the first place rather thanworrying about each network’s changing rules. “Thesocial media landscape exists as a living, breathingconnection to your audience. That is its primaryfunction and purpose,” Wise says. “Social media ismiserable at converting nonbuyers into buyers. It isineffective, mostly, at driving considerable amountsof traffic. What it does well is help you connect on a one-to-one level with the people your organizationshould care the most about.”

• Nonprofit focused on youth

• Technology or Assessment

• Youth

A GOOD MARKETING

CAMPAIGN IS LIKE

AN ORCHESTRA.

DON’T RELY ON A

SINGLE AVENUE TO

ACHIEVE IT.

October/November 2015 www.ccca.org 21

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Thoughts on Web Design The website is still the central hub for a camp’s digital presence, a repositoryfor content and a portal for key infor-mation, but in today’s world, it’s nolonger a place to invest a lot of cash.Platforms like Squarespace, Wordpress,Weebly and Wix have commoditizedthe process with templates that makecreating an attractive, mobile-friendlywebsite cheap and easy.

“We’re in a race to zero when it comes to website design cost,” Hunt says.

Most important is to ensure opti-mization for viewing on any deviceand ensuring that content is bothdiscoverable and shareable.

“Traffic on mobile phones for mostwebsites is well over 50 percent of theirtraffic,” Hutchins says. “You need tothink in terms of small screens—howpeople use a phone, swiping it up and down. Any type of website has to have a responsive design, meaningthat it’s scaled down properly for aphone or iPad.”

Video: Bringing Your Story to LifeVideo is one of the best ways for camps to telltheir stories. It allows them to convey authen-ticity, and visual content consistently posts

the highest rates of engagement and shareability. Video is now cheaper to produce and edit than

ever before, with the confluence of affordabledigital SLR cameras, camera-equippedsmartphones and free editing software and apps. It’s also increasingly interactive

and social, with new platforms enabling livebroadcasts like never before. “Video is going up, and it’s going up fast, and

YouTube is the place to be,” Hunt says. “We’re watching ad dollars drop out of television to go toYouTube. It’s going to continue as we move awayfrom big TVs with cable connections to Hulu andYouTube and those types of online platforms.”

Lori Lenz-Heiselman of Biscuit Media Group(Nashville, Tenn.) says that video is unrivaled incapturing and captivating an audience. Campsshould experiment with apps like Periscope andMeerkat, which through live broadcasts could beused to give staffers a taste of the camp’s grounds,host virtual Q&A sessions, or let parents tune in to camp talent shows from afar.

Videos are also valuable as shareable snippets,with even photo-centric apps like Pinterest and Instagram enabling short videos.

“On your site or social media pages, the amount of click-thrus or sales that happen because of havinga video element is astronomical. If you want engage-ment—people to stay on your site, respond and have a connection—there’s really no better way thanvideo,” says Lenz-Heiselman. “Think of every piece of content you have, and think about three or fourdifferent ways of presenting it, especially video.”

Create, Pitch and Solicit Content Reaching new audiences sometimes is a matter ofhaving media outlets tell your story, a practice called “earned media” in the public relations world.

“It’s not like you’re buying an ad that’s going todisappear. An earned media piece lasts forever; it’ll be on a search engine forever,” says Lenz-Heiselman. �

ANY TYPE OF

WEBSITE HAS TO

HAVE A RESPONSIVE

DESIGN, MEANING

THAT IT’S SCALED

DOWN PROPERLY

FOR A PHONE

OR IPAD.

October/November 2015 www.ccca.org 23 ®

IF YOU WANT

ENGAGEMENT—PEOPLE

TO STAY ON YOUR SITE,

RESPOND AND HAVE A

CONNECTION—THERE’S

REALLY NO BETTER

WAY THAN VIDEO.

EXTRA INFO

WHERE TO PUBLISHYOUR VIDEO?

MAIN AUDIENCE ADVANTAGES

The world: More

than 1 billion users

upload 300 hours

of video per

minute.

Massive, go-to platform for online

video. Owned by Google and

integrated with Google AdSense,

YouTube allows re-marketing to

those who have watched videos on

your YouTube channel, among many

other targeted advertising options.

Up to 15 minutes

by default; more

with a verified

account.

YOUTUBE

Young people,

particularly girls.

Creatives.

Video is captured, edited and

uploaded from a mobile device.

Included filters make it easy to

beautify your clip.

Up to 15 minutes

by default; more

with a verified

account.

INSTAGRAM

Moms. College-

educated women.

Great for reaching the Pinterest crowd.

Link and leverage your YouTube content.

15 seconds

PINTEREST

1.49 billion

users, but most

importantly, those

following your

Facebook page.

Posting native video on Facebook

allows for more prominent place-

ment in your followers’ news feeds

over posting links from YouTube and

other platforms.

20 minutes or

1 gigabyte

FACEBOOK

Youth. Create clips that can be viewed

quickly and easily while showing off

your creativity. Quickly uploadable

to Facebook and Twitter.

6 seconds

VINE

Creatives. Video

enthusiasts.

Minimal clutter, easily embeddable

on your website; more upscale feel.

Limited only by

storage

VIMEO

LENGTHRESTRICTIONS

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24 www.ccca.org October/November 2015®

She adds that news outlets welcome pitches, butonly those targeted to the right person to cover the story, with a concise and compelling reason it’s relevant to their audience.

“With a lot of media outlets downsizing and nothaving the budgets they used to, it’s often advanta-geous to offer to write content or op-ed pieces. Thesesorts of earned media are win-win because they arearticles media don’t have to pay to produce, and youcan be confident your story is told correctly,” she says.

Camps can also target influencers from beyondthe mainstream media, inviting bloggers to experi-ence their camps and write about them from afirsthand perspective.

Closely related is content marketing, generatingleads through creating and disseminating free blogposts, white papers or e-books that position anorganization or individual as a leader in a fieldrelated to their core business. For camp and confer-ence centers, content marketing might cover topicssuch as spiritual growth and discipleship, family andyouth ministry, or outdoor education. As with anytool, it has to be used wisely.

“If we are selling to other human beings, the onlyeffective marketing left anymore is to give. Contentmarketing is the best way to do that,” Wise says.“However, as with any gift, if you give with ulteriormotives, the people who are receiving can discernthat, and it turns them off.”

Not Digital OnlyWith all this talk about digital, it’stempting to think that’s the only way totell a story, but it’s important to remem-ber the orchestra analogy: Instrumentssound different by themselves but blendbeautifully when guided by a goodconductor. The online and offlineworlds have to work in concert forcamps, and certain tools are bettersuited for some tasks than others.

Email, for instance, is better thansocial media for soliciting donations,but face-to-face contact and physicalsupport letters can be even more effective for that purpose, according to the experts we interviewed.

Print media, flyers and billboards are still relevant too, provided that theypoint in the right direction.

“There’s still a place for traditionalmarketing,” Hutchins says. “You have to integrate everything. If you’re goingto use a billboard or print piece or atelevision advertisement, it has to inter-act with the online world. Once they’reonline, there are different ways tocapture information that you can’t do in the offline world.”

“Digital marketing is the mostproductive use of budget dollars, butprint is not dead—not by a long shot,”Wise says. “We know that digitalmarketing campaigns that integratesome form of print marketing alwaysperform better than pure digital market-ing campaigns. So print still has somespace at the table, just not as big of aspace as it used to have.” l

Trevor Williams is the editor of Making Men, a

book by Chuck Holton outlining five facets of

manhood, and GlobalAtlanta.com, an international

business news service. He lives in Atlanta with his

wife, Katy; son, Graham, and dachshund, Walter. Email him at

jtkwilliams@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @jtrevorwilliams.

THE KEY IS

FINDING THE

RIGHT MEDIA

FOR YOUR

CAMP’S

AUTHENTIC

NARRATIVES,

CONVEYING

THEM IN A WAY

THAT SERVES

RATHER THAN

SELLS THE

LISTENER.

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