Maximizing Digital Marketing

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! On this three-day weekend, we are doing a special blog post on how to make sure your marketing program is ready for the new year.

Like everything else in the bowling industry, marketing has changed over the past few decades. Today’s marketing in our industry has made as many changes as other aspects of this dynamic industry.

Consider, for example, just a few of the transformative changes we have seen in our bowling centers over the last several years. Lane surfaces have gone from wood lanes to high tech synthetic lanes, stack chairs have been replaced with plush couches and seating, scoring systems have become sophisticated computers that keep score, and our centers light up like Las Vegas, and bowling center kitchens have abandoned greasy burgers for more sophisticated restaurant-style meals.

But, even more important than the cosmetic and décor changes we have witnessed, we have also seen a complete transformation in the way we communicate with our customers. Fifteen years ago, everyone in the industry had a display ad in the Yellow Pages. Today, who uses the Yellow Pages?

Back in the Yellow Pages Era, in competitive markets, we used to spend a large portion of our marketing budgets each month on Yellow Page advertisements, with the hopes that people would see our ad. And we crossed our fingers that they would see our ad before they came across our competitors’ ads on the next page. Think about the inefficiencies and imprecision in this marketing strategy. Bowling proprietors across the country spent enormous sums of money on a marketing strategy that was, at best, haphazard, and at worst, completely ineffective, by today’s standard.

We are fortunate that the Yellow Pages Era is behind us, and that we can now conduct precise marketing through online and other digital platforms. Your website, of course, is the central part of your marketing strategy, and serves as a digital brochure of your company.

Gone are the days of relying exclusively on the U.S. Postal Service to ship postcards and letters. Now, thanks to social media, we are able to integrate highly targeted digital ads to complement your overall communication strategy.

Today we are able to target our message to the precise audience we want. As just one example, if we are promoting birthday parties, we can target mothers with children whose birthdays are in the next month.

The question every bowling center proprietor should ask at the start of 2018 is: “Is my center making the most of digital marketing opportunities?”

Today’s digital marketing opportunities mean you, as the proprietor, can spend less time worrying about Facebook and Twitter, and more time helping your business grow.

With all of the incredible technological and social media advancements, you’ll spend less money on advertising today than you would have 15 years ago – with more bang for your buck and more visible results.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me by email.