Waterfowl Hunting in Saskatchewan - Room for singles and doubles - Sep. 20th-22nd Oct. 11th-13th and Oct. 15th-17th.
- contact Prairie Rose Outfitters - 306-227-2822
Our Featured Outfitter: Circle Lakes Angus OutfittingSpecies Guided:
Whitetail Deer, Black Bear
We will cover a variety of marketing topics here, all written to become actionable parts of your outfitter marketing plan. Topics we will cover will include online marketing, outdoors website design, print advertising, referral programs, target marketing, tradeshow marketing, marketing budgeting, and more.
We have been helping small businesses get a grip on their marketing planning and execution for over 20 years. We have written the articles here with a particular outdoors flair to add some levity and some relevance. We are confident that they will benefit your business if you are prepared to give them a try. So draw a bead on a more profitable future and get prepared to haul in more trophy sized customers!
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Online Marketing For Outfitters
Should I advertise online?
Yes, in more ways than one. Having a professional quality web site is only the first step. You need your website to get found. Make sure you include your website address on everything you can, your pens, hats, trucks, letterhead, everything. There are thousands of outfitter sites on the internet, you need to be seen to be considered. Help your future customers put you in their sites. Here are some other ways to attract more customers online.
Get Listed
1. Get listed on outdoors directory sites such as S3Outdoors.com, PrairieOutdoors.com, HuntsForSale.com. Make use of any enhanced listings that will put you at the top of a long list. Outdoor directory sites have a broad appeal and because of this they tend to attract a high volume of visitor traffic. By having a listing on these types of sites, you can expect the amount of traffic on your site to increase as visitors click through to your site. Outdoor directory sites also tend to have a higher Page Rank (a ranking by Google) that stresses the popularity of the site. When these sites link to yours, Google interprets this as a "vote" for your site, and increases your Page Rank.
2. Place banner ads on local club web pages. Seek out the websites of local hunting and fishing clubs. The members of these clubs are either directly in your target market or they are in a position to recommend you for those looking for an outdoor adventure. Consider this, if were a hunter looking to go on a hunting trip in Iowa, you might search for "Iowa Hunting" on the internet. Likely you will pull up listings for hunting clubs, gun clubs, etc. based in Iowa. These people have contacts in the hunting industry. You should try to be one of these contacts. Get yourself listed with local clubs and get found by more customers.
Link Up
3. Link up with local hunting gear suppliers and tackle shops. Most online retailers now have a listing of "preferred outfitters or guides" and you will want to be included on these lists. Local suppliers are known as the experts in "what works here" and "where to go around here". Don't you want them to refer customers to you?
Pay Per Click
4. Consider Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a very powerful, and popular, place to advertise for new customers. With it's tremendous power and flexibility, it can also be overwhelming.
Consider having a Google AdWords campaign proffessionaly managed, on a pay for services basis. If you are determined to manage your own Google AdWords campaign, consider the following, set aside several hours every week to review and adjust, get specific, get local, get active, get negative, and put your ad $'s behind what produces results.
Get Specific - unless you have a huge marketing budget, with more than 4 zeros, don't bid on generic keywords like "hunting" or "fishing". These will break your ad budget, or if you bid too low, get you absolutely no exposure. Think about what you offer, exactly what you offer, and craft your keywords and a combination to match them, exactly. For example, if you offer back pack elk hunting adventures in the Rockies, then make sure you focus on that. You don't want to pay for someone who clicks on your ad who is not willing and able to take a rugged adventure. As well, if you operate a fly-in fishing camp in a remote location, you likely aren't seeking the budget conscious worm and bobber family.
Get Local - Google AdWords has the ability for you to limit your ad display by geographic locations. Do you expect the majority of your customers from a specific country or even more specific, a province or state? You use Google geographic choices top make sure your ad does not get clicked and cost you money where your non-customers live.
Get Negative - When crafting your Google AdWords keywords, think about why someone would not be a good customer for you, and make sure you include relevant negative keywords in your campaign to avoid cost associated with low probability click-through rates. For example if you run a budget-friendly fishing camp, you may want to use negative keywords such as "-luxury", "-exclusive", "-pampered", and "-remote".
Get Active - Advertising works when it causes the target to take an intentional action based on what you show them. Make sure when you write your Google AdWords ads that you fill them with action words that bring up the ideas of being in the outdoors and in search of their quarry. You will have very limited amounts of text to work with so stick the point, quickly, and get their attention. If you do, you will get traffic that matters.
Get Results - Use Google AdWords as a means to attract more of the right types of traffic to your site. If you review your campaigns on a regular basis, you will quickly learn what works. Get rid of anything that is costing you money without any results and put those same $'s behind the ads and keywords that are working.
Online marketing works, if you show up in the right place, with a short and very powerful message. Get online and get more customers.
