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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Customer Referral Program
In the Outfitting business, your reputation is one of your most valuable assets. Building your reputation happens over time, with each satisfied customer. As you build up your clientele, you are also building up your sales force. Many marketing and advertising experts state that word of mouth is the most trusted form or advertising because it is human to human, often coming from a person you already know and trust. Relying on your customers to tell others will naturally happen. It will happen faster if you help it along with a formal referral program.
Ongoing communication with current customers is critical to sustaining future business. Purchasing a hunting trip is a significant expense for most people, and if you can
keep your customer informed about future opportunities they will be more likely to spend with you again than with another outfitter.
The best referral programs are simply good because they are easy to understand and easy to use, for your customers. They are also best when they are not used as a hard sell tactics. As a reward to your customers, it does not have to be a lavish expense, and is best if you tie it into to the services you offer. If you have received a good referral from a customer, offer them an upgrade on their next visit with you, or some form of premium service at regular price. Reward a customer after a booking has been made from the referral, this provides an immediate reward, and creates a willingness by the customer to refer others for an additional reward. You should also give your customers an element of choice in the selection of the rewards. A rewards program that let's the customer choose between a service or good, or a $ amount of lesser value, gives the feeling of making a good decision to the customer. The key decisions you will need to make in putting together a referral program are what value of a reward will you offer for a referral, will you only reward referrals that result in customers, who will I invite to join the program? As a good guideline for what you would pay for a reward, think about how much you would pay a booking agent for a new customer.
Sample Referral Program for a Hunting Outfitter
The best booking for any outfitter is a group booking. Less paperwork, less hassle. Fewer arrangements to make and less coordination. A simple form of a referral program is to offer a bonus to any past customer who brings along a new customer on their next hunting trip. This is a great piece of business for the outfitter because not only do you get the revenue from the new customer, you fill the seats with past customers as well. The past customers can train the new customers and you have less to worry about. Another great way to reward customers for bringing you new business is to simply upgrade every aspect of the service they get from you. Give the referring customer the best spot in the decoy spread, or the best tree stand. Upgrade their meal plan. Make sure they have their favorite beverage waiting for them back at camp or the lodge in their return. If you have accommodations you normally sell at a premium, give them the upgraded room for no extra $'s.
Sample Referral Program for a Fishing Guide
In the day of angler, how many more times can make the experience better? If a customer does you a favor and bring you more customers, give them the best boat you have. Provide them with a free tank of gas for a day. Cook a complimentary shore lunch or offer to guide them personally. Nothing talks of customer service quite as mush as the owner of the company providing the service. If your customers are coming from out of state or province, pick up the cost of their licence for them. If the bring in a large group, give the most loyal customer of the group free accommodations.
Cash for Referrals
One popular way to reward your customers in a way that is simple to understand, is to simply give them cash for their referrals. This is a popular practice in the real estate business, but I caution you using in your business. Cash for Referrals will certainly get more of your customers encouraging people they know to hunt or fish with you, but the integrity of the message tends to get a bit watered down. Now, with cash on the table, your customers may be less genuine as they are more interested in the revenue stream. As well, some customers may be insulted in being "bribed" to refer your business to their acquaintances. Cash for Referrals is certainly easy to understand and very straight forward. Be careful how you use it.
Rolling Out Your Referral Program
Once you have decided on who is eligible and the rewards you will offer, you need to tell your customers about the program. If you push the program too hard, you turn your customers off with a hard sell. Keep the program a little bit more low key by incorporating the referral program into a quarterly mailing. See the article on Drip Marketing on this site. If you are following the Drip Marketing campaign, you can add the referral program as a mailing or an email to the schedule. Don’t make the rollout of the program just about the referral program. Add some news about what is happening at your location, a weather report, some game sightings, something newsworthy to your customers that reminds them of the last trip they may have spent with you. Introduce the program within the reports and position it as an offer to help them bring along a few friends on their next trip. Include with your communication to the customer a few extra copies of your brochure that they can pass along. If you position the program introduction as an invitation, it is likely to be received with very positive acceptance. Push it too hard and you risk losing not only the referral but the original customer as well.
Customers Breed Customers
Wow, that heading sounds suggestive! What I mean is that you may not have to go outside your current customer base to grow your future customer base. A good referral from a past customer is a better sales tool than any website or brochure because it comes from the most trusted source, a friend. If you have high repeat business you should applaud yourself for a job well done. That is a success story for building customer satisfaction and brand awareness. Now the next step is to keep it growing by getting your referral program out to all your current and past customers and turn them into your sales force! As your referral program takes effect, and if you take good care of your customers, you will find that you likely can reduce your investment on other marketing activities. If you have strong return customer business and they act as a good referral network, you may be able to self-sustain your booking schedule.
