Got Any New ideas?

I am frequently asked if I have any new ideas about marketing bowling.

More times than not I am able to provide an answer for my clients.

But then it got me thinking. Where do I get these ideas and when do they hit me?.

So I started thinking and made a list  of where ideas come from, in the hopes that maybe you can look at these and develop new ideas as well.

1. Ideas come from a problem. You have to solve it so you need to think of different ideas to solve it
2. Ideas come from being awake and noticing the environment around you
3. Ideas come from other industries. what are they doing to make their business better?
4. Ideas come from taking a shower when you are not trying, maybe when you're not even looking
5. Ideas come from reading books, both fiction and non fiction
6. Ideas come from your ego; a good healthy dose of generous and selfless input
7. Ideas come from "newbies" on your staff who have no preconceived notions or don't know that the "it won't work here" mentality exists
8. Ideas come from watching your customers interact, bowl, eat and drink and spending time in the center
9. Ideas come from customer complaints. If  a problem arises with a customer, you have to figure out how to fix it to not only quickly save the customer today, but prevent the problem from happening to other customers
10. Ideas come from fear; fear of failure or even fear of success. When pushed, the mind can reach new heights in creativity
11. Ideas come form becoming a customer who uses the product and looks at it with a critical eye to stimulate ideas for greater customer satisfaction (How about a designated parking space for your birthday Mom so she doesn't have to haul the kids, the gifts and the clothes across the parking lot in the snow in 12 degree weather??)
12. Ideas come from failure. You have to try lots of different ideas to get to a good on. But if you don't try, you never get to the "good one"
13. Ideas come from travel; from visiting different places and seeing how businesses in other places do commerce. (I remember being in Japan, many years ago, when it was not uncommon for automobile sales people to drive to a neighborhood, invite people to test drive the car the salesperson brought with them and sell it right on the spot)
14. Ideas come form embellishing an old product. Hey did you ever set up a small hula hoop on the lanes and asking people to bowl through it to get extra pin count?  Sure, its weird, but why not?  We're in the business of marketing bowling as an entertainment product, aren't we?


So start today. Challenge yourself and your staff.

"What new idea did we think of today to make our business better?  keep thinking. It will come when you least expect it.

Promise.

9 League Building Action Steps You Can Do Right Now

Its almost here.

The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

What will your fall leagues look like?

Here's some last minute things you can do to get closer tot he "thrill' than the "agony".

1. Did you call every league bowler from last year; not just secretaries or captains?

2. Did you ask every league bowler if they knew of anyone else that might want to bowl in a league this year?

3.  Did you contact the dropouts from the last two years and offer them a new option to bowl; maybe a short season league or a gift of $xx towards new equipment?

4.  Have you diligently done lane to lane solicitation of summer bowlers, open play bowlers and junior bowlers?

5. Have you created enough short season league offerings to goon the floor in late September or early October and targeted these to your Kids Bowl free data base list?

6.  Have you used your existing data base list to promote specific leagues for specific segments?

7.  Do you have signage in your center about teams that need members or leagues that need teams?

8. Have you done an outside sales blitz to area businesses and retail stores offering them a "League of Your Own"; a short season 8 to 10 week format that offers a premium like a ball, satin jacket or bowling shirt?

9. Have you established  a junior registration day to invite kids and parents into the center to sign up for your junior leagues and, secondarily, to pitch the parents on a short season social and fun league?

Touch all the bases and you will score!

Construction Site Ahead

Some days, you feel like the hammer, just getting stuff done, joyously working and being creative

Some days, it feels like the road to success is always under construction.

You need both feelings to appreciate the other.

Which is your dominate feeling?

Or is there another major theme in your life?

If this is too personal, never mind.

Comments, likes, something?

The 7 Questions (and Answers) to a Successful Facebook Campaign

I have received lots of questions  asking about Facebook marketing. Seems like users results aren't what they expected. So I did  a little research and came up with 7 questions you have to ask (and answer) before starting a Facebook campaign

Question 1.  When is the best time to post?. The posts that receive the highest interaction rates are those posted on weekends and off peak hours (2pm to 5am) receive the highest interaction rates.  Thursdays have the lowest interaction rates.

Question 2. How many times should I post per day? Surprisingly, frequent posts increase the interaction rates. Unsubscribe rates go up after three (3) posts per day. Find the balance between optimizing interaction rates and unsubscribes. I would suggest no more than one post per day.

Question 3. What type of content gets the most interactions?  Here they are in descending order:  Photos, video, music and links.  Links are the most posted option, but receive the least interaction, while photos the highest. conclusion: include photos in your email posts...always!

Question 4. Should I ask fans to "like" or 'comment" on my post?   Absolutely.  according to a study by Momentus Media Inc (they analyzed almost 50,000 page post comparing interactions for posts with "like" or "comments"), it was reported that  interaction rates increased 216% for posts with "like" or "comment". 

Question 5 . Should I ask my fans questions? You'd think by asking questions you would get a higher interaction rate, but that isn't necessarily the case.  Instead, post questions and THEN ASK fans for comments.

Question 6. How long should my status messages be?  Size does matter. While there is a higher posting rate for shorter posts (140 characters for twitter and Facebook, please note that interaction increases as the length of the status message increases.  The old axiom, "short copy tells and long copy sells" is as true today as when the axiom was invented, way back in 1918...the dawn of direct mail!!

Question 7. How long do posting stay in the Newsfeed.  In the first HOUR of  a Facebook post, half of all the interactions you are going to get will occur in the first hour. You will reach 90% of  all clicks with in nine (9) hours of the post going live.

Want more information?  Comments?  Likes?

Feeling Uncomfortable Yet?

We tend to pay attention to the things we can relate to, things we can see and things that are familiar to us.
These "attention" triggers get us going.  We know our frame of reference, know how to solve the problem; or address the situation that has arisen.

We either judge it, try to fix it, take pride in it or ignore it.

We do this all in a blink of an eye.  We know what to do with these triggers. We do what we have always done; we take some action within the confines of what we know.

But what about those triggers that are unfamiliar?

Those that we cannot see or those to which we cannot relate to; those that are new and provide us with very little frame of reference to find a solution.

What do we do with these?  Over a period of time, we have no choice but to step back from them and try to find a more familiar angle from which to view the situation.

When we are unable to do this we get uncomfortable; feel a bit worn down and may even question our own problem solving ability.  The desire to "get out of there" also starts to resonate in our brain.

But if we don't let you out and force you to deal with this uncomfortable situation, then you have to come up with a new way of looking at the situation.

This causes you to start eliminating what you have always thought, believed or felt.

Not surprisingly, this automatically puts you into a new way of thinking, of looking at problems, of examining potential solutions to the situation and being more creative then you ever have before.

What would happen if you made your employees uncomfortable by challenging them to think of new solutions to new problems?

You might just be able to come up with some ideas for new products and services which will create new revenue streams.Wouldn't that be cool?

Now go make somebody uncomfortable.

The Value of The Experience

Sometimes we wait and an idea comes to us.

At first, we may think it is a good idea and then after careful examination we decide that it is not so good after all and decide to discard it.

Our customers, too, may stop and think, "hey lets go bowling tonight", but upon examination they too may decide to do something else or nothing at all.

What is the dynamic that changes them from an initially positive idea to deciding not to go forward?  Very simply they dialed into their value set and decided one of the following:

-  I don't value it the experience that much to go do it NOW. (other options sound better).

-  I don't have the time to do it NOW.

-  I don't have the money to do it NOW.

- I don't have my friends or family to do it NOW.


Of these "obstacles", the only one you can really control is the first one: the value of the experience.

So how has your customers' experience been these days?  if you don't know then ask our customers this question (in writing) and let them drop it into a box.

On a scale of 1 to 10 would you recommend this bowling center to a friend. 10 is the best and 1 is the worst.

Anything other than a "9 or higher" and you have the answer to the only question you can control.

Maybe its time your center takes a test.

10 Trustees

This is the time of the year you should be developing and introducing new products to your prospective NEW league bowlers...for introduction in late September or early October. 

Get 5 of your best ideas, send it to 10 of your must trusted people. See what they think of it. See which ones scale to more people.

If it doesn't scale to more people, start over because  you have the wrong product offerings.

Here's are two things you can do to improve your odds and see if your ideas scale:

1. Use your Kids Bowl free list and send out a survey, maybe 5 or 6 questions; give them the 4 or 5 ideas and ask how interested they would be (very interested, somewhat interested, neither interested or disinterested, somewhat disinterested, not at all interested.).  Ask them to check the box that most applies.Use the software called www.surveymonkey.com. It's inexpensive and easy to work with.

2. Speak with 10 or 15 open play bowlers and administer the same questionnaire to them.Same rules apply.

The process is simple. Develop. Test. Measure. Repeat. Rinse.

Now you are ready to send the winning ideas to your 10 Trustees

Time to rinse.