As a property owner or manager, it can be hard to juggle marketing efforts on top of your day-to-day operations, especially during your busy season. 

If boosting your marketing is starting to take priority, we’ve got a few tips for engaging with guests, prompting booking interest and even tapping into your local community at large.

Here are four must-try additions to your campground’s marketing strategy this summer:

1. Increase Your Social Media Engagement

How active have you been on your brand’s Facebook page as of late? Even if you’ve been posting frequently, there are many ways to up the ante to deeply engage your followers this summer.

Online Giveaways

Think of a few juicy offers your campers, or potential visitors, would love so much they’d just have to interact with your posts. For instance, could you give away a free night’s stay? Perhaps it’s an upgrade to their accommodations or stay package? Even otherwise small gestures like complimentary dinner, snack vouchers or tickets to a local event or theme park are enticing prizes for guessing an answer to a Facebook trivia question.

Story Engagement

Are you utilizing the “story” features on your social media platforms? Taking short videos of events happening around the property can boost excitement— and it’s even better if they’re live streams! 

Think outside the box to promote your amenities, live entertainment, etc. by featuring “coming soon” stories. This is also a nice place to post clips of property reminders, like where to find the recycling bins or campfire safety tips. 

Reels

On Instagram, there’s a feature called Reels— which is kind of like a short, 15-second “story” where you can add augmented reality (AR) effects, music, and more to give your clips new life. This newer format is a playful and light-hearted way to engage with your audience. Your brand’s reels could potentially feature guests doing fun activities on property like mini-golf or playing with their dogs (if you allow pets on the campground). TikTok is another popular video platform that’s gaining traction, one worth familiarizing yourself with to see if it fits your brand messaging.

2. Create Email Campaigns

Yes, people still read emails— we promise. In fact, email campaigns help to keep your campground top of mind! Whether it’s feel-good promotional messaging to retain the new travelers you’ve gained during the pandemic or nurturing those who’ve already booked a trip, dripping emails to different segments of guests is a smart idea for boosting engagement.

If you’re new to email marketing and don’t know where to begin, we recommend starting a monthly newsletter you can send to your guest database. Your newsletter could include top-rated or new things to do in the area, your monthly events calendar and more. With our platform at RMS, we even integrate an email service in your Property Management System to avoid having to reupload contacts.

3. Consider Offering a Summer Pass or Other Loyalty Program Rewards

How are you nurturing your guests who are frequent visitors— not just the ones who aren’t engaging? Consider offering special rewards to your best bookers; like if a guest stays two times in a year, they get an exclusive deal! This nurturing could also take form in a summer pass, which would allow visitors who want to stay more often to purchase a set amount of stays - in bulk - at a discounted rate. 

Some Property Management Systems integrate Loyalty Programs like this right into the platform, like ours at RMS, using a Guest Rewards solution. Guests earn points for every stay and can redeem points for credits on their accounts. The module is also fully customizable, making it possible for you to set up a points and rewards system just for your unique guests’ desires.

“Guest Rewards will help hotels reduce their acquisition costs and increase brand loyalty by encouraging guests to return again and again,” our Founder and Managing Director, Peter Buttigieg, defends— and we couldn’t agree more! 

4. Don’t Forget About the Locals

When it comes to search ranking and marketing, you know local SEO is what it’s all about. Guests staying at your campground are there for all the area’s attractions and energy. If you can become an authority on the local watering holes and best tourism spots, you’ll be sure to win the interest of your audience. Write about some of these attractions on your blog. Post those links on your social networks or in your email marketing communications — and you’ll use a few tips from this article in one fell swoop. 

While it’s great to form a marketing campaign around the local attractions, don’t neglect the actual locals in your area either. Some guests may be “staycationers” and would be interested in coming to your property more often for local events. If you do not already, consider partnering with other local businesses to host brewery samplings, food truck rallies, movies around the campfire and other attractions. 

Need More Campground Marketing Ideas?

If you found these campground marketing ideas helpful, you’ll love hearing more about campground marketing ideas and best practices in our on-demand webinar.

During our Campground Marketing Best Practices broadcast, we discussed the importance of quality media in your marketing strategy, where to distribute all your marketing assets, top channels for communicating with guests and more.