8 ways to Attract Exisiting Customers NOW!

Recent economic news has not been good.

Housing sales have slumped and housing prices are down; some of the steepest declines are in Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

Couple that report with the fact that the recent census report  indicates consumer spending, in April, slowed to a trickle.

Another report indicated that the US is getting older; the median age of America is now almost 38 years old. In addition, more people are choosing to rent, than buy.  In 1990 69% of Americans owned their own home, today that number is just 63%.

And if that isn't enough to get you thinking, consider the fact that just 48% of American households are married households and less than 25% are married households with children.

Not good news at all.

So what's a bowling proprietor to do?

First, recognize that it will be harder to pry discretionary dollars from the consumers hands, simply because there are fewer discretionary dollars out there (and more gasoline dollars in there) as well as a genuine anxiety about spending in any way shape or form.

In order to get the consumer to consider bowling as a GREAT VALUE, you need to make your offer a great value and then promote it, communicate it, and advertise it as hard as you possibly can to your best prospects.

And your best prospects are your EXISTING customers.


Some of the value specials to consider are:

1. One price food, bowling and beverage pricing.
2. Bounce backs to come back and visit you for yet another deal.
3. Short season 2 game leagues (8 to 10 weeks) for $8 or $10 bucks.
4. Gasoline incentives; buy the customer a gift card for $25 of gasoline when they spend $50with you or put $50 of bowling on their gift card for $25.
5. A short season league that gives them restaurant coupons for bowling each week. Check with the Kids Bowl Free people (wwwkidsbowlfree.com) who offer this incentive for $less than $5 per $25 gift certificate.
6. Target companies for indoor (no rain out) summer parties for less than $10 a person (bowling and shoes and a pizza per lane...minimum 4 on a lane.
7. Bring a friend to cosmic bowling and your friend bowls at half price.
8. Gear up for special events at the center; theme nights, rock bands, country and western bands, etc

C'mon, we have faced harder obstacles.

Now is the time to get creative and live out on the edge.

And observe OUR #1 marketing rule; "DON'T BE BORING."

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Surrender Vs. Control

Here is a way to experience Control versus Surrender. Clench your fist.

Make your hand so tight that nothing can slip through into your palm.

What would you do if I wanted to put $1,000 into the palm of your hand right now?

Would you keep your fist clenched or would you surrender your clenched hand to accept what I am offering?

Life works the same way.

When your mind is clenched,you cannot open yourself to the opportunities you deserve. Here is a quote from Lao Tzu - "He who grasps, loses." Remember it!

Surrender happens when you do what you can do in the moment, and let go of the things that are outside of your control.

Are You Really Different?

As summer unveils its landscape of green grass, sunny skies and the lure of vacation time, we know that our business cycle is turning down.

People just don't want to be indoors that much.

Thus, the market for bowling is diminished, sometimes by as much as 75%, as compared to our up cycle (December to April).

For those fewer consumers who want to bowl, we must have captivating offers that resonate with them; offers that make them say, "wow, that's for me".

But here's where the problem starts. In a rush to get whatever market share we can, we all too often rush to discount our price or promote programs with less value.

Often we give the product away just to build futures.
And that's OK...for a while.

But, the real question you have to answer; the question that is at the heart of every great marketing program is this:

"Why, out of all the ways to spend my money, my hard earned money, should I choose your bowling center as a place to spend my money vs. ALL of the options I have. Why? Give me one good reason."

If all you can come up with is better service, friendly people, more modern, cheaper prices, you might have a start; but NOT a finish.

Today's consumers want to feel like your business stands for something.

Are you a member of the community?

Do you tell people that your business gives back to the community?

Do you sponsor any special events in town?

Do you promote your center as the home of (i.e.); high school bowling, family fun and quality time, the happiest place in town, greatest cosmic show on earth, etc?

Now, while these are just examples, I am sure you can think of several answers to the thorny question I posed above.

If you don't clearly differentiate yourself from your competition, then all the information the customer has to make a buying decision on is price and he will therefore gravitate to the closest, lowest priced center.

And that is a recipe for declining lineage, revenue and profits.

Spend some sitting and staring time today thinking about it

Because your customer is thinking about it ...allot!

Send this to some of your proprietor friends and see what they think?



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9 Secrets to A Profitable Summer

Well, we have almost gotten through May, the trough in the bowling business and we are heading for June; also a bit of a trough, but in June the kids, teens and college students are out of school and its time to make a run at them.

If you haven't already planned some programs to attract these segments then now is the time to review some old programs and create new ones.

Here's a checklist of some programs from both a league and open play standpoint.

1. - Get your cosmic bowling program geared up and get to the high school and college students. Run one or two special events every month. For example a theme night (70's, 80's, etc as well as a band night). Give the band the $5 or $10 admission charge and you keep the food, beverage and bowling dollars.

2. - Consider a family cosmic hour, if you have the lane availability , between 5 and 9pm during the week or on a Sunday afternoon; offer great food specials also.

3. - We all have adult child programs, but do you have an 8 week program for $8 that includes a bowling ball. Set it up for early July so it ends just before labor day so you can flip these newly minted bowlers into a 10 or 12 week program, NOT a 35 week program.

4. - Unbundle your pizza pins n pop program and offer "Hours of Family Fun" for $39.95 to include 2 hours of bowling and shoe rental. Then create a "sub offer" of "super sizing your fun for just $15 and get a large cheese pizza and a pitcher of pop. This price of $54.95 should equal your existing PPP pricing. If not adjust this suggested pricing.

5. - Offer 5 or 6 week LTB lessons for kids under the age of 14 for just $19.95 to $29.95 total. Set it up so it ends before Labor day, then flip these kids into an 8 week HAB program for $8 per week and then again into a 10 or 12 week program after January.

6. - Make sure your Monday to Thursday late night specials have not only attractive pricing, but also utilize sweepstakes prizes, which you can get from local merchants,  as well as instant gratification prizes (win a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi for a redhead pin strike) or weekly gasoline cards ($25 of gasoline or add dollars to your rewards or gift cards).

7. - Daytime open play is always challenging and if you are not in the "Kids Bowl Free" program, you are missing out on a traffic driving, data base program that will carry you through the start of next season. Go to www.kidsbowlfree.com and sign up your center today!

8. - Don't forget to communicate to your day care centers, summer day camps and other kid's organizations for field trips, day outings, fund raisers and rainy days programs.

9. - And finally, make a run at all those companies and organizations that have had parties at your center during the season, why not invite them back for a half priced bowling party IF they sign an agreement with you for their annual Holiday party.

Summer is a hard time to market bowling, but with these tips, summer doesn't have to be a bummer. Call us at 212 867 2577 or email us at Fredkaplowitz@gmail.com for some great money saving and time saving tips to implement these programs.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part VII)

This is the final installment of our & part series on how to connect locally with your customers. You might want to print all 7 parts out and post them into your marketing planner as "low cost tools to use" to improve revenue.

Ask.com

How it works: Ask.com's sponsored advertising program is more like placing an ad in a newspaper than in a phone book.

Choose a title--"Buy bowling today!"--including a short description of what you are selling and a link to your Web site.

The best keywords go to the highest bidders. Ask.com also tracks the leads that come from its site, so you know what you're paying for.

Run your ad for as long as you like (turning it off and on at will) and change keywords on the fly--all in real time. Ask.com also syndicates the ads throughout other sites in its network.

For more information go to www.ask.com

Here's what it costs: The base for any ad is 5 cents per click.

The higher the demand for your selected keywords, the more you will pay per click. The network average is about 20 cents per click.

Good luck and good hunting.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part VI)

Here is Part VI of our 7 part series on "Connecting with your customers locally."

Yahoo Local

Here's how it works: Yahoo has three levels of advertising for small-business customers.

The lowest--a free listing service--includes up to five category data fields, product descriptions and company contact information.

Upgrade to the enhanced listing program where you get more editorial freedom, room for up to 10 photos, a link to coupons and special promotions and a tracker that counts the number of viewers who came to your site via Yahoo Local.

Pay still more for Yahoo Local's "featured listing," which guarantees placement on the first or second page of search results covering an even broader geographic range. For more information go to yahoo.com/local

What it costs: All three listing options are free for the first 30 days.

Enhanced listings costs $10 per month.

Featured listings start at $25 per month but can go up to $300 depending on the demand in your area.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part V)

Here is Part V of our seven (7) part series

Local.com

here's how it works: Local.com lists businesses by name, address and phone number.

It has syndication agreements with search engines like Google and Yahoo! and also partners with other directories like Superpages.com and Yelp to exchange information and customer reviews.

For a fee, companies can enhance their listings with more in-depth descriptions of products and services, as well as receive premium placement in Local.com's search function.

Local.com also confers with local Better Business Bureaus to ensure that businesses are in good standing. For more information go to www.local.com

Here's what it costs: Premium service runs between $50 and $200 per month, depending on the number of search categories and locations.

For instance, you might pay the base fee to appear in a search for "Bowling Center, Manhattan," but more for the broader "Entertainment, New York City."

Tomorrow;Part VI

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part IV)

My E Blogger server was down yesterday so I was unable to send our Part IV.

But now it is up and running!

Today we are going to talk about Citysearch, a great local marketing tool

Here's how it works: Citysearch lists the name, address, phone number, customer reviews and a maximum of two photos for free. Citysearch also offers a premium, paid-for service that allows owners to add more information, from videos to coupons. It even has a "send details to my phone" option.

Better yet, Citysearch promotes premium advertisers through a network of newspapers and Web sites across the country. As with Google AdWords, paying advertisers get better placement in the search results. For more information, please visit www.cityseach.com ,

Here's what it costs it costs: Advertisers on Citysearch.com pay a minimum of $200 per month. Citysearch subtracts from your designated amount each time a viewer clicks on one of your links.

When your budget is used up, the content is still available on Citysearch.com, though not through the distribution network until the next budget cycle begins.

Tomorrow Part V.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part III)

Here is Part III of "How to Connect Locally With Your Customers".

Google AdWords:

Here's how it works: Businesses pay to be listed in the "Sponsored Links" column next to the results of a typical Google search.

If the searcher clicks on your company's link, you pay Google an amount based on how desirable your keywords are.

For example, if you want the search terms "hotel, Atlanta" to place your business in the Sponsored Links column, it will cost you more than, say, "Melanie's Bed & Breakfast, Atlanta," which is a lot more specific and would have served up your company's name anyway, with no additional help from Google.

For more, go to Google.com/adwords

What it costs: To open an AdWords account, you must pay an initial $5 fee.

Choose a budgeted amount per month or per day; once you've reached the amount of clicks equal to that dollar amount, Google simply takes you off the Sponsored Links column.

For bowling center clients, I usually recommend a budget of about $500 per month.

You can do less, of course, but $500 will give you a very good test. If that's a little too much, scale it back to $300, but don't budget any lower.

Check the price of keywords on Google's Traffic Estimator. Use key words like bowling, entertainment, family, fun, dates, weekends, kids, teens. You get the idea.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part II)

Here is Part II

Yelp

How it works:

Yelp lists the names, addresses and phone numbers for companies across the U.S. for free online; small-business owners can also add information about products, services and special offers.

Customers rate the businesses from zero to five stars.

If a company merits a 3.5 or higher, it receives an invitation from Yelp to participate in a premium service program, in which it has the privilege of paying for placement in the top of the search stack on Yelp's site. Now that's snob appeal. For more, go to www.yelp.com

Here's what it usually costs: Premium service costs between $150 and $1,000 per month, depending on the type of business and amount of advertising you buy.

Stay tuned for Part III tomorrow!

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers ( A 7 Part Series/ Part I)

Many small businesses rely heavily on the love of local customers, and the Internet continues to make reaching them easier and cheaper than ever.

For entrepreneurs who would rather not shell out--or simply can't afford--as much as $1,000 for an old-fashioned ad in the Yellow Pages, there are now a host of alternatives for wrangling the locals (and even calculating the return on those marketing efforts).

This is the first of a seven part series I will be writing about.

Each day you will receive one, in detail, explanation of how to connect with your customers inexpensively and efficiently.

1-800-FREE411

How it works: Instead if paying $1.50 to a mobile service provider for each directory-assistance call, customers dial 1-800-Free411 (1-800-373-3411) and connect directly to the business of their choice.

Callers can specify the name of a business or just canvass a category in that location (say, "Melanie's Chocolate Shop in Manhattan," or just "candy store, Manhattan").

The catch: Customers must endure a brief advertisement for a 1-800-Free411 advertiser in the chosen category and location.

What it costs: The model--common among the new crop of local ad providers--is performance-based: Businesses join the database free of charge but pay for each call received through the service. Each lead generated by that opening ad costs the participating company between $2 and $7 per call, depending on the type of business.

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow.w.

An Ardent Reader Responds

One of my ardent readers, Tom Hebbe of Blue River Bowl, sent me a quick response to my blog "What We Can learn About Marketing From A Four Year Old." here it is in its entirety

"Hell yes we are missing something...THE INDUSTRY and the people still remember HOW IT USED TO BE.

I currently have less than fifty sanctioned youth bowlers-(never have had more that 144)...

Locally Soccer Spring and Fall has between 600 and 800 kids participating!!
Babe Ruth Baseball has nearly 300 boys playing summer leagues!
Basketball...EVEN Larger numbers than Soccer.

ALL have defined age groups. All have UNIFORMS! All have COACHES and Practices and SHORT SEASONS 12 weeks or less! All have a STRUCTURE from the top down...an actual WORKABLE plan to get kids into the sport, learning the fundamentals, and graduating to the next level as part of the structure.

Bowling is a great game. Bowling is truly a Lifetime Sport! But the LEADERSHIP needs to get a workable plan to get the sport re-built from the ground up!

It is so frustrating when you know what could be with this industry...and year after year.season after season...people still just come bowl...but they do not get involved! but then again, why would they?

40 YEARS of watching an industry crumble, I am saddened, frustrated, worried and just so tired of it all..."

Sincerely,
Tom Hebbe
Blue River Bowl

A Four Year Old Teaches Us About Marketing

I watched my grand daughter at the playground today.

First, she very carefully watched the other children to see what activities they were involved in before she made her decision as to what activities she should participate in. Interestingly, she chose the activity that other kids were doing.

She made that decision based on the number of kids doing it.

Even at age four, she was aware of what was the "popular activity" and made her "safe" decision based on that fact.

Which got me to thinking.

I probably visit 100 bowling centers a year. Not one of them has ever promoted bowling as the #1 "pay for play activity" in America.

Nor have I seen any signage about " bowling, the sport that over 70 million American's enjoy".

Why is it that we don't tell our customers that they are engaging in a "sport that millions of people enjoy".

Wouldn't that reinforce the buying decision?

Wouldn't that make them feel that they too have made a "safe" decision.

Maybe we are missing something.