While contests and sweepstakes have been around for a long time, they have taken on a new life with the growth of social media. Contests are certainly not the answer to every marketing challenge, but they should be part of every adventure lodge’s marketing toolkit. Here are four reasons why.

1. Contests are a great tool for building your fan base

Whether you are starting with 100 or 100,000 likes on your Facebook Page, contests offer a proven way to increase that number. I’ve seen clients go from 50 to 1,000 and from 15,000 to 30,000 likes in a matter of days or weeks when running a contest. Of course this is not the only metric to think about, but it is one measure of the power of a promotion. A basic enter-to-win sweepstakes with a lower barrier to entry often provides the best option for those just starting out with social media contests or without a large base of fans in place.

2. Contests enable you to engage your audience

In addition to increasing the sheer number of people who interact with your brand, a contest provides a means to deepen the connection as well. A user-generated content (UGC) promotion such as a photo or video contest is a great way to do just that. UGC contests tap in to the human drive to compete, and they provide an opportunity for everyone to experience their 15 minutes of fame. Most importantly, when participants upload their personal content (e.g., a photo or story) to your promotion, they are naturally invested in your brand.

3. Contests are a rich source of data

With the lure of a prize, many people are prepared to share information with you as part of the entry process. You don’t want to introduce too many barriers, but don’t miss the opportunity to learn a bit more about your customers (i.e., how they heard about your promotion, how often they hire a guide, etc.). Remember that what you ask should be appropriate with what you offer in return. In addition to collecting data as part of the entry process, you can also learn a great deal from the interaction and conversation that takes place around your contest, so be sure to listen in.

4. Contests empower customers to do your marketing for you

How would you like to have hundreds or thousands of your fans helping to spread the word about your campaign? It is important to have a promotional plan that encompasses multiple marketing channels, but thanks to sharing via social media, contests today enable an amplification of your marketing message that was not previously possible.

Like other tools, contests can be extremely effective when used as part of a comprehensive social media strategy. Any guide, outfitter or adventure lodge, can take advantage of contests to realize the four benefits above. Contact us today, we can make this all happen.

With the battle for market share expected to get even tougher next year, guides, outfitters and lodges need to be smarter in how they target “influencers” — people others turn to for hunting and fishing advice— to drive bookings.

The savvy guides, outfitters and lodges are collecting data on their customers in various ways.

The key, however, will be how well guides, outfitters and lodges integrate that data and identify the influencers.

Guides, outfitters and lodges tend to define their customers in demographic terms, traditional demographic characteristics like income level, gender or age.

Look beyond these numbers and look at their social klout, do you have clients that are actively participating in social media, tweeting about their travels, and posting reports on their last hunt or fishing trip on Facebook. Do you track clients who comment on your blog posts?

Those are the people who are driving guide, outfitter and lodge recommendations these days. Communicating with and incenting influencers is key to the future success of your business.

Outdoor Adventure Marketing can guide you to your influencers.

Shot Show is January 17-20 in Vegas

SCI International
Show and Convention is February 1-4 in Las Vegas

First Fly Fishing Show is January 6-8 in Denver

First ISE Show is January 5-8 in Denver

Renting exhibition floor space, staffing the booth, getting staff to and from the event, hotel accommodations, meals, entertainment, designing and outfitting the booth, and marketing your presence at the show make this a costly endeavor.
With your competitors just down – or even across – the aisle from you, getting the biggest bang for your marketing buck demands an all-out effort to drive traffic to your booth and capture every top-quality lead.
Still, many, maybe most, are not taking advantage of all that social media and inbound marketing have to offer in the context of a trade show. Making use of all the social media tools at your disposal helps you solidify the connection from your real world presence to your online marketing channels. It ensures you create buzz leading up to the event, maximizes the traffic to your booth, and keeps the relationship going as the event luster fades away and your prospects move down the funnel from leads to closed sales.
An effective trade show-social media connection begins long before the event. You must have an established social media presence before the show and know which sites to use, and when, and what content you’ll be posting.
Prepare Quick Response (QR) tags and have them set up next to the corresponding products in your booth. If you’re doing a demo, video record it and link to it via a QR tag. Creating QR tags is easy and it quickly moves customers and prospects from your show booth to your online presence. A QR tag puts a link to your online marketing initiatives in the palms of prospects hands via their smartphones. From there, they can share it with co-workers, colleagues, and their friends in their social networks. Include the QR code on your business cards too. One click with their smartphone and customers and prospects are drawn to your online presence, ready to learn about your company and share it with those in their network. Use a QR code to link to an email sign up page, capture names and information from show visitors as they stroll down the aisle filling in your form online.
Create a show page to add to your website, as much as six months in advance of the event. Naming and tagging the page with your website and the show name and year, such as mycompany.com/ISE-SHOW-2012, not only provides your customers and prospects a place to go for information on the upcoming show, but as the show date approaches, people Googling the show will hopefully get your page in their search results, improving your SEO with every click.
Create a landing page specifically for show attendees, link to this page with a QR code. You can use it gather valuable information while setting appointments to meet with customers and prospects.
There’s something about a free T-shirt. You would think they could be pawned for gold, but people will do almost anything, it seems, to get their hands on a free T-shirt, especially one from a time-limited offer, such as an annual trade show. Tweet, post on your Facebook page, and blog that the first 25 (50, pick your number) people to visit your booth at the trade show get a free T-shirt. Then, be prepared to be amazed as people beat a path to your booth for the bragging rights having that cool T-shirt brings with it.
There are so many things to coordinate and so many balls to keep in the air before and during a trade show that having a plan, an editorial calendar for your social media messaging, goes a long way toward ensuring your messages go out in a timely manner and have the effect you’re hoping and counting on them to have.
Plan and write your messages in advance. Keep a certain amount of flexibility in your plans as things always change before and during a trade show that require you tweak your Tweets or reposition your messaging in a Facebook or blog post. Then, use social media management tools, such as HootSuite or SpredFast, to schedule your posts going live and track them along with the returns they generate.

5 Trade Show Tips from the Pros
Trade show consultants routinely find that marketers are stymied when it comes to preparing for a trade show. Here’s what they recommend to make the most of your trade show investment:
1. Pick the show that best aligns with your marketing strategy
2. Plan marketing strategies for pre-show, show, and post-show
3. Reach out to every visitor to your booth post-show via email or phone.
4. Analyze which strategies worked and which didn’t
5. Calculate your ROI on the event once the sales cycle has closed.

Bottom line is if it did not get a return on your investment you did it wrong, you sat behind a table waiting for someone to stop and talk to you have wasted your time and money. Have a plan and work that plan at every show… book trips every day!

Most Guides, Outfitters and Adventure Lodges create lead generation
web sites, sites that tell their story, list their services and provide their contact
information. These sites have NO value if you don’t follow a simple marketing
plan to turn visitors into clients.

Your site has to attract clients, this is done by
first page listings in search engines, Pay-Per-Click advertising, Facebook ads
and links from printed materials. You have to have visitors or it is all for
naught.

Once you get prospective clients to your site you need to capture
their contact information, in the form of email address, phone number or
mailing address. You need to be able to contact them. An email sign-up form is
the most common and most useful, make an offer they can’t refuse and let them
know what to expect so they will trust you enough to give you their email
address.

Most visits to your web site don’t generate an immediate booking;
you have to nurture and develop a relationship with prospective clients.
It is no surprise to any of us that busy guides, outfitters and lodge owners
are not as good at following up on leads as they should be. But with a clear
communication plan in place, consistent valuable follow-up messages can provide
a huge competitive edge.

Now it is time to convert leads and prospects into
clients, by tracking their behavior and interactions with email
communications you can speculate when they might be ready to buy. By automatically
sending them a personal targeted email on the subject they have shown interest
in or a phone call you might make the sale. If not continue to communicate and
build that relationship the when the time is right they will book that trip.

You have booked the trip it is now time to deliver and please
your client. The same friendly accommodating approach you take to nurture a
prospect needs to continue for the duration of the relationship. Positive
experiences lead to repeat business and referrals. (see post on customer
service) Provide pre-visit and post-visit email communications to your clients,
get them ready for a great experience and follow up with a thank you and request
for referrals.

Contact Outdoor Adventure Marketing today for a solution for
transforming your lead generating site to a sales generating site.

You can’t control the fishing, the hunting or the weather, but you can control lunch!

The morning fishing/hunting and fresh air has made your clients hungry, and they will be looking forward to lunch.

For your lunch break, choose a location protected from the weather and close to the river or hunting area. A folding table with tablecloth and folding stools will make dining easy and impress your clients. In a National Forest
or State Park, choose a designated picnic or camping area with restroom facilities.

Wash your hands before handling food and do not nibble on the lunch as you prepare it. Serve your clients first and make sure they are comfortable before you eat. Remain with your clients during the lunch break; it is time for
relaxed conversation and rest. Review the morning’s fishing/hunting and discuss the remainder of the trip with them, letting them know that their comments are very important to you. This is also a good time to fix any gear or equipment
issues. Take some pictures and have some fun with your clients. Make sure you pick up all trash from the lunch area, including trash left by others.

There always seems to be ants everywhere you stop for lunch, these small insects can ruin your lunch. While you can see ants and try to avoid them, it is not always possible to see, taste or smell dangerous bacteria that may cause illness if food is mishandled. Bacteria grow and multiply rapidly in the danger zone between 40° F and 140° F. be sure you pack safety in your lunch: prepare and store food safely, then pack it safely for traveling. Do as much preparation work as you can the night before. This will reduce the preparation time at the lunch location, which is likely to be a less sanitary and a warmer environment than a kitchen. When storing items in your cooler, keep raw meat separate and below other items such as raw fruits and vegetables, to prevent cross contamination. Anything left out of refrigeration should be thrown away after two hours (one hour if it is warm). When in doubt throw it out! Always keep hot foods hot in thermoses and cold food cold in coolers.

To make sure you do not forget anything, make a master list for your lunches.

Pack your lunch kit carefully, remembering to cross items off your list as you add them. Lots of big napkins, salt and pepper and other condiments, serving and eating utensils, moist towelettes for cleaning hands before eating, paper
or plastic plates and cups (or use china and glassware if you really want to impress plus they are the ultimate recyclables), and a big bag for garbage, are the bare minimum. Keep this all in a “lunch kit”; pack it in a carrying case,
bag or pack. Replenish the supplies after each use.

Preparing lunch in the field from the back of a truck, with a big cooler, folding chairs, a folding table and a grill is easy. Preparing lunch is not always that easy in a drift boat, a duck blind, a cornfield or on a hike up river. Take into consideration what you can carry in and what you will need to carry out. Try to plan just the right amount of foods to take. That way, you will not have to worry about the storage or safety of leftovers.

The Right Tools

Grills: A clean burning and quick heating propane grill is the best choice. There are some slick charcoal grills but time to light and heat are detrimental.

• Serious Grills: Solaire Anywhere Portable
• Nice Grills: Coleman Roadtrip Grill
• Grills with no frills that work: Weber Go-Anywhere Grill

Coolers: From big and strong to small, and soft, there are hundreds of choices.

• Serious hard side coolers: Yeti Coolers
• Nice Hard Side Coolers: Colman Marine Coolers
• Serious Soft Side Coolers: Polar Bear Coolers
• Manly Soft Side Coolers: Mother Mancoolers
• Nice Soft Side Coolers: Igloo Sportsman Series

Artificial Ice: The advantages of not having melted ice contaminate your foods and slosh around in your coolers is why we recommend a reusable artificial ice.
It is also handy when packing lunch into a remote location.

• Serious Artificial Ice: Techni Ice
• Nice Artificial Ice: IcyCools
• Ice in a leak proof container: Make your own using bottles or bags

Picnic Coolers & Kits: Pack everything in one easy to use kit

• Picnic Backpacks & Picnic Coolers
• Traditional Picnic Baskets

A Green Lunch Attitude ~throw nothing away

• Reuse:Take utensils, serving ware andcontainers that are reusable
  • Bamboo plates and metal utensils
  • Cloth napkins and towels
  • Reusable water bottles
  • Reusable storage containers
• Recycle: Use items that are made from recycled materials or can be recycled

• Paper plates, bags, napkins and cups made from recycled materials
• If you use plastic items make sure they are recyclable
• Recycle all aluminum cans and glass

Whether it is a streamside or field lunch, there are many options, and many methods to prepare and serve lunch. Consider clients’ preference for a quick break and back to the action, or a leisurely lunch and a chance to rest.
Ask their preference on the first day they arrive or when they make their reservation so you can plan the perfect lunches.

Menu Ideas:

• Grilled Lunch
• Menu items can include:
  • Burgers
    (2oz  Sliders are a nice twist, so are turkey or buffalo burgers)
  • Chicken Sandwiches
  • Steak Sandwiches
  • Grilled Protein for Salad – chicken, shrimp, beef
  • Bratwursts and Sausages of All Kinds
  • BBQ Chicken – par-cooked in advance
  • Kabobs of All Kinds; vegie, seafood, beef, chicken, lamb, pork or any combination
  • Hobo Meals – all ingredients in a foil package and grilled
• Cold Layered Lunch in a Jar
  • Mexican Shrimp Cocktail – Guacamole & Chips
  • Greek Salad with Orzo
  • Asian Noodles w/ Tuna
• Hot Layered Lunch in a Wide-Mouth Thermos
  • Shepherd’s Pie
  • Braised Short Ribs w/ Wild Mushroom Ragout
  • Macaroni & Cheese w/ Caramelized Shallots
• Salad in a Zip Lock Bag or Reusable Container
  • Lettuce
    • Caesar
    • Cob
    • Asian
    • Pasta
    • Spinach
    • Fruit
• Soup and Stews in a Wide-Mouth Thermos
  • Chili
  • Beef Stew
  • White Chicken Chili
• Antipasto
• Olives
• Cured Meats
• Pickled Vegetables
• Cheeses
• Crusty Bread or Crackers
• Pre-Made Sandwiches
  • Breads
    • Sliced Bread
    • Buns
    • Pita
    • Wraps
    • Lavosh
    • Meats
      • Any and all deli meats
      • Pates
      • Grilled Proteins i.e. chicken breast
      • Vegetables
        • Cucumber/Sprouts/Tomatoes
        • Sautéed Mushrooms and Soft Cheese
        • Tomatoes, Basil and Fresh Mozzarella
        • Dressings
          • Spiced Mayonnaises
          • Mustards
          • Flavored Aioli
          • Salad Dressings
          • Oils and Vinegars
• Build Your Own Lunch/Sandwich

• Done by guest at the lodge before leaving

• Buffet of lunch items set our after breakfast for guests to build their own lunch
• Classic Picnic Lunch
• • Fried Chicken
  • Potato Salad
  • Baked Beans
• What Else
  • Potato or
    Corn Chips
  • Crackers
  • Cookies/Brownies
  • Fresh
    Fruit
  • Dried
    Fruit
  • Candy
    Bars
  • Energy
    Bars

When Guides, Outfitters and Lodges start using Facebook and Twitter, the first objective is usually to get as many followers as possible.
Through marketing and interactive promotional materials, your fan base on Facebook and Twitter can grow to a desirable number. What’s a desirable number? That really depends on your company’s needs. The fun thing about social media is that the sky’s the limit. It’s pretty difficult to come up with a reason why one more Facebook fan or Twitter follower is bad for your business.
Still, you might see your successful social media growth plateau at some point. Maybe you’re seeing links go unclicked, fans stop interacting with your posts, and maybe, you lose some followers. No need to panic, and assume what you’re doing is entirely wrong. After all, there’s a good reason you got all those followers in the first place, right? Don’t panic. But do keep in mind that it doesn’t matter if you have 500 or 5,000 people following your social media account if you don’t do anything with them.
Think of your social media fans as a standing army of loyal brand supporters and enthusiasts willing to do your marketing for you if you ask in the right way. Don’t quite know where to start? Here are a few ways to get your social media followers to continue being hooked on your brand and use them to generate new leads:
1. Talk to Your Followers: It’s one thing to post offers or product information to your social media accounts. It’s quite another to address reactions to those posts by your fans or followers. Instead of ignoring responses, engage followers in conversation, even if that conversation moves away from your initial post or tweet. It shows the human side of your brand to your loyal social media customer base. More importantly, it reminds them that your company is really listening to them, and sets your apart from other businesses who may not offer your kind of interactive customer service. It keeps loyal followers from wandering off to your competitors.
2. Update Frequently: Consumers get nothing out of a social media experience if it’s one-sided. Keep pushing content from your social media efforts. It could be words of wisdom about your industry, company news, blog posts, links to interesting material or even, in some cases, playful dialogue that doesn’t have anything directly to do with your business. As long as each effort is consistent with your brand’s chosen personality and doesn’t undermine your strategy, it’s fair game. But there is such a thing as social media overkill, so find a daily goal for posts or tweets that you feel is appropriate for your business.
3. Travel Outside of Your Sphere: Think of your followers’ social media contacts as potential customers. Don’t be afraid to reach out to these people before they reach out to you. Using Twitter as a search engine is a simple way to find strangers on the Internet who have needs your business can fill. Offer a helping hand, but don’t harass. Be that resource that potential customers think of in a positive way and feel they can rely on in their time of need.
4. Ask Questions: This is an easy, free way to conduct a survey with your customer base, and another way to show customers that you’re the kind of company open to suggestions and looking to help. Perhaps more importantly, it’s also a way to show followers that you respect their thoughts and opinions.
Questions can range from, “How have we fulfilled your needs in the past?” or, “What products or services do you feel need improvement.” As obvious as it sounds, one of the most effect social media strategies can be asking your followers, “What can we do to improve our social media efforts?” The answers might surprise you.
5. Make Them Feel Special: Many consumers feel that having a social media connection with a company or brand enters them into an exclusive kind of relationship with the company, one of growing emotional attachment. If the time is right and the offer is appropriate, it’s never a bad idea to give special incentives or promotions only to your Facebook fans or Twitter followers. It could be an offer for all fans, or even a contest with one lucky winner. This simple strategy can keep your old customers loyal, and gives new customers a reason to connect to you through social media.
Some people try to get a large Facebook or Twitter following for fun, while others do it for business. No matter the reason, the only way you can get true, loyal Facebook and Twitter followers is by being able to engage them with every short blurb that you write.

If you’re not yet familiar with QR codes, they’re similar to the barcodes used by retailers to track inventory and price products at the point of sale. The key difference between the two is the amount of data they can hold or share.
Bar codes are linear one-dimensional codes and can only hold up to 20 numerical digits, whereas QR codes are two-dimensional (2D) matrix barcodes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information. Their ability to hold more information and their ease of use makes them practical for small businesses.
When you scan or read a QR code with camera-enabled Smartphone, you can link to digital content on the web; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; and connect the mobile device to a web browser.
Any of these desired functions are easily achieved by properly creating your QR code. It’s a simple process of entering the appropriate data into the QR code generator, described below, and it all takes just a few minutes.
The ability of QR codes to connect people with each other and to multimedia digital content is very useful for guides, outfitters and lodges.
How QR Codes Work
QR code generators – There are a number of sites for generating QR codes and they’re all free. An Internet search for QR code generator will offer many choices.
One that has worked well for me is Kaywa. You can use it to create QR codes that link to a web page, text, phone numbers, or SMS. Another with even greater capabilities, including customizing the color and format of your codes is Kerem Erkan.
QR code Readers – The QR code reader app that works well on my iPhone is i-nigma, which claims to be the most widely used reader in the world. It accommodates virtually any type of camera phone. For the android, you can also try Barcode Scanner. If you already own the popular price-checking app Red Laser, they’ve recently adapted their technology to accommodate QR code reading.
Applications for QR Codes
What can you do with QR codes?
What are the possibilities? They show up in magazine ads, maps, food packaging, posters, leaflets, business cards, emails, web sites and on the sides of buses. With these vehicles in mind, the current technology could be used in the following manner:
• Encode contact information or a short blurb about your business on the back of a business card.
• Enable an easy connection by a mobile device to your website.
• You can encode a map with directions for clients, or encode company information for display in Google maps.
• Track print-based media effectiveness—tracking which ad or rack card drove traffic to custom landing pages.
• QR codes can be printed on receipts with additional offers, or provide customer service contact information.
• You could also place QR codes in an email newsletter for additional offers or for event-based information.
• You could print codes with product or contact information on business swag such as coffee cups, t-shirts and hats.
QR code Like button to your Facebook page.
You can use Likify to create a QR code that links your mobile device to a fully functioning LIKE button for your Facebook page.
This greatly simplifies the process of merging your other communities with your Facebook page – and it is all accomplished in one click.
Additionally, the accompanying signature “thumbs-up” clearly suggests the purpose of the code.
Not mainstream yet, smartphones will soon be the dominate mobile device, more and more people will be able to scan QR codes. Of the 30 plus web sites I track analytics for, mobile devices account for anywhere from 12 to 23 percent of the traffic. This will become more and more mainstream.
I looked through the latest issue of Shooting Sportsman and only three companies are using QR codes now. In the current issue of Gun Dog magazine, only the magazine is using QR codes, but they are using them in a very clever way.
Start today making print interactive, enabling people to interact with advertising and editorial content anywhere in real time 24/7/365.

#1: Chasing the Smallest Opportunity
Problem: Increasing sales through new customer acquisition is the most expensive method of increasing profits. If you already have a good base of customers work with them.  It is these customers who are more likely to visit and spend money, yet most owners expend 90% or more of their marketing dollars in an effort to drive “new” visits, which in most cases represents less than 10% of a lodge’s growth opportunity.
Solution: Significant sales increases are more easily obtained through staying top of mind with current customers and giving them frequent reasons to return.

#2: Using the Wrong Media
Problem: Yesterday’s advertising media is no longer delivering the eyeballs it used to. The world has moved to the web.
Solution: Building your own database of customers (your gold mine) allows you to connect directly with them inexpensively… with offers designed to encourage frequent visits – without competing with competitor’s ads and offers on the next page of some hook and bullet magazine.

#3: Frequent Discount Offers
Problem: Frequent discounts have your customers waiting for the deal or choosing the better deal from your competition.
Discounts hurt you in three ways:
1. They make the lodge appear desperate
2. They reposition the lodge as a low-end operation
3. They murder sales and profits
Solution: Discounts should be used sparingly, and only for driving new traffic. Customers brought in from discounts should be immediately enrolled in a customer email data base for follow up marketing.

#4: Reach & Frequency
Problem: Lodge owners do not sustain an extended marketing campaign, marketing is a process not and instant solution to slowing sales. Marketing builds your business over time through consistent exposure
FACT: Consumers buy, when they are ready to buy… not when a business owner decides to advertise.
FACT: On any particular day only 3% of your marketplace is ready to spend money with you. That explains mass-advertising’s dismal response rates.
FACT: Continual repetition is required to attract new prospects – and more importantly, it is needed to prevent customer erosion from competitor advertising.
Most owners over reach with too little frequency… this squanders marketing dollars because they only reach a tiny fraction of those ready to buy now.
Solution: Narrow the reach and increase the frequency. Rather than advertise to 10,000 people once a month, you’re better off reaching a zone of 2,500 people 2 times during the month. That insures that you are in front of all 2,500 at or near their buying cycle.
IMPORTANT: Enroll these people in your email marketing program. You must reach those most likely to buy from you – with enough frequency to build awareness and desire. Then, you must maintain that frequency (email marketing can do this automatically) – to prevent competitors from influencing YOUR customers.

#5: Enthusiastic Acquisition – Careless Retention
Problem: Operators today, continue to pour most of their marketing dollars into expensive acquisition… yet, do little or nothing to develope the relationship with those who are attracted to the lodge. This traps owners in a vicious… Spend, Acquire and Lose Syndrome.
As a result many owners become frustrated at the “ineffectiveness” of marketing and cut back. This of course leads to slowing sales. Owners react by launching some form of discount offers in an effort to prop up sales. And the downward spiral begins.
Solution: You’ll never fill a bathtub without a stopper in the drain. And the same principle applies to marketing a lodge. When new customers book their visit, immediately enroll them in an email marketing program. This allows you to communicate directly with your customers and keep them from being drawn away by competitors in the future.
FACT: 5 out 10 first time guests will not return to your lodge without follow-up communication. (read post on pre and post visit emails)

Summary: The cost to prospect for new customers is 3x more expensive than growing sales with existing customers. Mass advertising is “expensive.” Email marketing is “inexpensive.” Discounts train customers to “wait.” Reallocate part of your marketing budget to an email marketing program that gives your customers continual and repeated reasons to visit, keeps you “top of mind” – locks in loyalty, encourages increased spending, and runs on auto-pilot.

Build client excitement and anticipation by emailing clients destination and travel information before their visit. A month before their arrival send weekly emails with packing lists, weather information, staff profiles and any pertinent information on their hunt of fishing trip.

Four pre-arrival emails

1.      Confirmation

Confirmation of arrival dates

Link to direction to the lodge (printable version)

Link to packing list (printable version)

2.      Their trip

Link to local weather site

License requirements and information

3.      Lodge Information

Contact numbers for any question (printable version)

Guide profiles

4.      About Them (survey)

Food allergies

Fly Fishing / Hunting Skills

What new fly fishing/hunting skills do they want to learn

Wader and boot size

Equipment they will need – rod & reel or what ever

The fourth email information would be passed on to the guide, ideally the guide would then call and chat with the client.

Post visit follow-up

We know that customer relationships don’t stop at the end of a trip. Your customers are special and need to feel appreciated. One week after a visit, send a follow-up message requesting photos they took, ask for feedback in the form of a satisfaction survey or return-trip invitation and incentive.
Ask them to share their experiences with their friends, write a testimonial for your marketing materials and, above all, let them know how valuable this information is to you.

Post departure

1.      Build on the relationship

Expression of thanks

Request for copies of  photos they took

Link to lodge evaluation

Special Offer for booking return trip

Make this process easy and automatic.

Outdoor Adventure Marketing email software will automate this process for you. You simply fill out an online form when a client makes a reservation, include arrival and departure dates.

From pre-made templates with data merge fields for names, dates and activities, we send a personalized email at specific dates based on the arrival and departure dates entered.

Your clients arrive informed and excited; your staff is prepared with personal preferences and goals of client. After their visit you again thank them for their patronage and invite them to return.

Begin sending automated messages

New subscribers and web site visitors that contact you deserve immediate attention. They’re ready to hear from you. Build instant profitable relationships with them by using a sequence of automatically delivered follow up emails.

The premise is simple: Subscribers kick off the automatic email campaign through a specific action, such as subscribing to your email list, requesting additional information or emailing you through a web form. Once the campaign is triggered, emails are automatically delivered on a predetermined schedule — a steady “trickle,” if you will — until the series ends or the subscriber opts out of the conversation. Trickle conversations allow you to communicate with your subscribers on a one-to-one basis, and because the emails are relevant, targeted, and timely, they have much higher conversion rates than mass emails.

The purpose of a trickle campaign is to maintain regular, repeated contact with new subscribers to increase engagement, and accelerate the sales process.

Trickle campaigns don’t have to be complex to work. Here are some ideas that you can try:

Welcome series
It’s no secret that subscribers are most engaged when they first opt in to your list. If you’re just sending a generic welcome message, you’re missing a huge opportunity, not only in potential sales but also in building brand loyalty.  A welcome series, made up of three, five, or more messages, capitalizes on the engagement levels of subscribers and helps build brand advocates, turning one-time buyers into long-term customers.

Pre-Trip Countdown
Build client excitement and anticipation by emailing them destination and travel information before a trip. A month before their arrival send weekly  emails with packing lists, weather information, staff profiles and any pertinent information on their hunt of fishing trip.

Post visit
We know that customer relationships don’t end at the end of a trip. But if you continue to send the same types of emails that you send to non-customers, you won’t build strong lasting relationships or promote customer advocacy.

Your customers are special and need to feel appreciated. After a visit, send follow-up messages requesting photos they took, ask for feedback in the form of a satisfaction survey or return-trip invitation and incentive.
Ask them to share their experiences with their friends, write a testimonial for your marketing materials and, above all, let them know how valuable this information is to you.

Product or brand education
Nurture your non-customer audience with trickle campaigns around different actions. If a subscriber clicks on a link in your email to read about spring fly fishing, send a series of follow-up emails with a spring fishing video, a special discount on fly fishing in the spring, or other materials related to fly fishing with you. With each email you send, the subscriber learns more and more about fly fishing and you warm them up to the idea of booking a spring fly fishing trip with you.

These trickle campaigns can all be automated so the email series is simply turned on for each client and situation. The campaigns are then delivered on time.

Retention and Repetition is the mantra in a sluggish economy! You must stay in constant touch with existing clients, through trickle campaigns, blog updates and special offers. Remember, it can take 5-7 contacts to get a new booking, and the competition is fierce, so automate, automate!