Skatepark Promotions, Holidays, Events

It's that time of year again.  Hopefully the busiest time you will have, with many parks unskatable, kids with free time, its's cold outside and warm inside.  How are you planning on taking advantage of these additional days events.  Here are a few ideas-

1. Promotions, particularly during the holidays don't have to be extreme.  You don't have to slash the price of money winners in order to move product.  Many times, adults are looking for things for their kids.  They don't have a clue about what to offer.  Putting together packages that are attractive, cost conscious and trendy could be a good way of going after this market. Make certain that these promotions are "promoted" by fliers, mailers, email, and website.  As I have said in past articles, put your promotion into a campaign.  Have a contest with your staff to see who can move the most stuff.
     Additionally you can lure in people with a money neutral item in order to sell other things.  Having a "sale" deck could be a way of getting people into the shop to look at your items.  many retailers have this item at a limited quantity say 5-10 items.
     Another promotion type is the "additional 10% for members" or whatever.  Instead of giving 35% off an item, offer 25% plus an additional 10% for members type sale.  While in people's heads they think they are getting 35% off they are really only getting 32.5% off.  So instead of discounting 35% or $35 on $100), you are offering $32.5 on $100.  I would advise too that you make certain your discounts are within your costs, and that you offer reasonable discounts.

2. Events - Having holiday events is tradition in many parks.  Putting on a good event takes time and planning.  Having a person that can MC is vital, as well as a DJ, prizes, and trophies.  Planning out your next year could put a culminating event around this time.  Look to monetize a day that is not your busiest, or try to avoid Saturdays.  Better to put these on a weekday evening, or during holiday break.  Advertise these events too so that kids will know to come watch.

3. Parties - Everyone wants to have a holiday party.  Why not market your park as a place for local shops, groups, and regular customers to have a private park party.  Having space available for them to have cake and other foods is always a good idea too.  Many of the kid oriented places like those inflatable bouncing businesses have several rooms and packages available for birthday parties.  Spending time to create fliers and a plan for these types of event is a very good idea.  Dedicate a staffer to deal with the party and make them feel like the cost is associated with service.  These events could also be scheduled after hours, making down time for the park, a profitable time.  Don't forget to offer a party for members and your staff.  Noting the wonderful dedication and hard work of your staff goes a long way to getting more out of them.

4. Holiday camps - Many parents are looking for things for their kids to do during the days.  Consider hosting a camp during the morning hours like you should be doing in the summer.

Good luck and Happy Holidays!

Promote Skatepark Memberships by adding value, events!

Often we look at membership as either an exclusive way of dealing with people, such as in gym memberships, or as a price break mechanism like in grocery stores.  In the gym membership model, people are necessarily excluded because of spacing issues and the rest are roped into constant fees.  In the more often thought of structure for memberships skateparks offer discounts for members.  Like loyalty cards at the grocery store, there is one cost for members, and another cost for others.  Many of these programs offer rewards, which I have not seen offered by skateparks.  Often the memberships allows the skatepark to send mail, email or other stuff to the members (don't forget the opt out option), and this is often in keeping with other loyalty programs.  But if this is the model, then rewarding people for loyalty should also be in the making.  Tracking visits, purchases, and the like should be a routine system designed into the memberships.  Adding these tracking systems is likely part of most membership software reports and can be monitored through non-digital means with a punch card.  This would be easy enough for visits and could be duplicated with skateshop purchases and justified at the end of the month by an employee relatively quickly.  These incentives give the member a feeling of worth, identity, and "loyalty".  Future purchases might not be made at the park because of personal circumstances, but when someone gets close to a "goal", this could be a decisive issue in a purchase decision.  Similarly, a program like this allows the owner to keep memberships real, constant, and worthwhile.  This topic reflects a desire to make the most of "member services" so that the additional costs of a membership provides real value beyond just cheaper entrance rates.  Having so many benefits that you would need a brochure to list them makes a membership more valuable.

Adding events that are geared toward members really adds value to these memberships as well.  These events can be as simple as member discount day, to more elaborate as member only contests or parties.  While many of us would ask why a business would want to offer such a money losing event such as a free party at the park, I would suggest that there are more than one way to pay for these events such as exclusive product sponsorships, or the like.  None the less, think of a member party as a way of invigorating your membership, promoting membership sales, and creating a good feeling about your park.  A similar way to get members to feel like they matter to your business would be to invite them to an all member meeting.  This meeting could be a way for members to add their ideas on the business, or a way for you to see if a new pricing for memberships could work.  Those of you who read the last posting on memberships would know that if you are in business already, changing park policy could be tricky.  Calling a meeting and seeing what the members could do, or would pay for such a privilege would help in selling the idea, getting feedback, and/or testing the waters.  Don't forget that the way to most people's hearts is through their stomachs, so feed them.

Obviously there are many things that can be done with memberships that can help create good feelings with your members and their parks.  Think of ways to make your memberships special.  And as I have said always, if you have memberships, get your staff on board to selling them every visit and checking them every visit.  Show that theses are important.  Good Luck!

As a note, the spa-usa.org offers an insurance program for skateparks that involves personally insuring individual skaters.  Memberships can offer this as part of their pricing.  More on this at a later date.