Parks and Recreation Marketing SlideShow - How to increase participation in your programs and at your facilities, parks, and events. This presentation includes tangible tips and strategies for parks and recreation websites, emails, social media, and more.
DEV meet-up UiPath Document Understanding May 7 2024 Amsterdam
How to Increase Participation in Parks & Recreation
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CHILD OBESITY RATES IN THE U.S.
7%
20%
1980
2008
*US Center for Disease Control (CDC)
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US HEALTHCARE COST % OF GDP
*Kaiser Family Foundation Report
7%
18%
1970
2010
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% LESS LIKELY TO COMMIT CRIME
70%
90%
1 Activity
2 Activities
US Council of Mayors & Portland-area DEA
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OUR PURPOSE
MAKE THE WORLD A MORE ACTIVE PLACE.
OUR MISSION
WE POWER THE WORLD’S ACTIVITIES AND CONNECT
PEOPLE TO THE THINGS THEY LOVE, WANT AND NEED TO DO.
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RECREATION INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
Community
Engagement
Fiscal
Responsibility
Active, Healthy
Communities
Relevance &
Impact
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INTERSECTION OF CHALLENGES
Drive to Healthier
Communities
Excess Activity Inventory
Intersection Point is about
solving:
Participation
Sustainability &
Fiscal Responsibility
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HOW TO INCREASE
PARTICIPATION
Parks & Recreation Marketing
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Your website is the center of all your marketing efforts
― Have a memorable URL
― Guide all marketing efforts to your website & registration site
― Social posts, posters, mailings, program guide, etc.
― Avoid dated content
― Build from your customer’s perspective
― Write benefit-focused copy
― Cut down on clicks
WEBSITE PRINCIPLES
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THE 3 SECOND RULE
You have 3 - 5
seconds to persuade
your participants to
take action
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The visible space on a website before scrolling down
THE FOLD
Links above the fold
have an average of 36%
higher click-through rate
than links below the fold.
Chitika Study - March 2012
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The visible space on a website before scrolling down
― Include your most important call
to action
⁃ Register, donate, signup, buy,
subscribe
― Display a compelling graphic to
make a personal connection
― Cut down on menu options
― Avoid interruptions
⁃ External links, non-essential
information, clutter, too much text
THE FOLD
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― Unclear call to action
― Too many choices
― Too many distractions
CALL TO ACTION - IMPROVEMENTS
Create your heat map with Attention
Wizard (not free)
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― Unclear call to action
― Too much text
CALL TO ACTION - IMPROVEMENTS
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One action
Use of web button
Prominent color
Button on top of
webpage
Online registration
increased by 17.6% in 6
months
CALL TO ACTION
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― Put your call to action at the top of the page
― Replace text links with buttons
CALL TO ACTION
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― Choose a color that stands out
― Keep space around your button
CALL TO ACTION
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― Use actions verbs rather than nouns
― Repeat your call to action on each page
CALL TO ACTION
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― A button can increase the
click through rate anywhere
between 20 – 200%
(Forbes.com)
CALL TO ACTION
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Website Marketing
Make sure your website URL is easy to remember
Check for dated content
Have a call to action above the fold
Replace links with buttons
Pick a button color that stands out
User verbs rather than nouns
Repeat the call to action on each page
CHECKLIST
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― 77% of consumers over the age of 15 prefer promotional messages to
their email inbox
⁃ Over direct mail, text messages and Facebook
― 80.8% of users report reading email on mobile devices
― 88% prefer to receive HTML emails vs. 12% who prefer plain text from
companies
― 65% prefer emails that contain mostly images vs. 35% who prefer mostly text
EMAIL STATISTICS
(Source: Hubspot Email Science Study)
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Why create lists?
1. Makes email content more relevant to the recipients
2. Helps increase open/click through rates
3. Shortens lengthy emails by allowing you to focus on fewer topics
4. Reduces number of unsubscribes
Connect the right people with the right content and you will find greater
success in your email marketing initiatives
LIST BUILDING
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Segmenting Your Lists
―Broad
⁃ Top-level categories: Fitness, Aquatics, Arts & Crafts
⁃ Age: Children, Youth, Adult, Senior
―Medium
⁃ Age + Broad Category: Youth Fitness, Seniors Aquatics etc.
⁃ Program categories: Baseball, Tae Kwon Do, Zumba
LIST BUILDING
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Segmenting Your Lists
―Detailed
⁃ Program Categories + age group: Kids soccer, Adult co-ed football, Teen
Swimming
―Instructor/staff
⁃ Keep your instructors/staff in the loop by forwarding them copies of your
outbound emails
LIST BUILDING
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Good or bad?
― 6 programs to get you fit this summer
― Summer time is here!
― Did you hear about our new fall programs?
― Only 2 spots left in our amazing fall fitness programs - register TODAY!!!
― Reserve your spot for these exciting new programs
SUBJECT LINES
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What you should be doing:
⁃ Ensure subject line is relevant to email content
⁃ Keep subject lines below 60 characters
⁃ Include CTA (call to action)
⁃ Add quantifiable measures in subject line
SUBJECT LINES
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Text, images & buttons
- Avoid multi-column formats
- Keep emails short & sweet
- Never forget about the topic at hand
- Your first paragraph should highlight the
most important points of your email
- Try to include a text link CTA as well as
a button CTA in top portion of your
email
EMAIL CONTENT
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Email Marketing
Build well organized lists
Broad
Medium
Detailed
Staff/instructor
Focus on subject lines that drive opens
Keep subject lines below 60 characters
Add a main call to action in the email
Build your emails in HTML
Keep emails short and sweet
CHECKLIST
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―Create content that engages users
―ASK them to engage!
―Post on a regular schedule
―Visual content gets higher weighting
―Interact
⁃ Respond to questions and comments
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Facebook app to feature online registration
― Visit apps.facebook.com/redirectab/
― Download the app to your page
― Create a tab image with a call to action
― Feature it as one of your top apps
JUST REDIRECT APP
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Statistics
― 3.2 billion likes and comments are posted daily
― 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
― 400 million tweets are sent per day
SOCIAL SHARING
Media Bistro – State of Social Sharing in 2013
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How to get started
― Put sharing buttons on these pages:
―Blogs, news sections, registration pages, event pages, thank you pages
― Encourage sharing in your copy
― Get button packages
SOCIAL SHARING
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GOALS AND METRICS
Goal Metrics
Drive participation Shares, leads, registrations
Provide more value for sponsors Social impressions, social mentions
Provide excellent customer support
Support tickets resolved, mentions
responded to
Enhance the participant experience Feedback items, % return attendees
Build community Likes/followers, visits, number of posts
Build/strengthen brand
Mentions, influencers identified,
hashtag uses
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1. Impressions
How many people are seeing the posts I’m making
2. Clicks
How many visits I’m getting from each of my posts
3. Conversions
How many people are registering, reserving, etc.
THE 3 ESSENTIAL DATA POINTS
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1,217 clicks
/ 50,047 people saw this
---------------------------------
0.0243 = 2.43% CTR
- 1,217 clicks
- 177 registrations
SAMPLE CALCULATION
177 registrations
/ 1,217 clicks
---------------------------------
0.1454 = 14.54% Conv-%
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Social Media
Ask for engagement
Respond to questions and comments
Post visual content
Install the Facebook Redirect App
Include social sharing buttons
Website, blog and registration pages
Track these numbers
Impressions
Clicks
Conversions
Calculate conversion percentages
CHECKLIST
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THE CHANGE The effect
• The way citizens hear about and
access your services has changed
• 50% of all local searches are
done from a mobile device
• 75% of 12–17 year olds own
cell phones
• New opportunities are being
presented on how you engage your
citizens
• Mobility applies to staff as well
citizens
MOBILE STATISTICS
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Making the decision
― What percentage of visits come from a mobile device?
― What does our site look like on different phones and tablets?
― What is our online registration percentage?
MOBILE APPS VS. MOBILE WEBSITES
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Mobile
Check the percentage of visits from mobile devices in Google Analytics
Check your site on smart phones – how does it look?
Decide on a mobile app vs. mobile site
CHECKLIST
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―Top of the funnel
⁃ Readers of your marketing messages
⁃ Get more eyes on your marketing messages
―Middle of the funnel
⁃ Lists of people who are ready to register
⁃ Get social media followers, email subscribers, upsells
―Bottom of the funnel
⁃ Calls to action to convert leads to customers
⁃ Get more memberships, registrations, customers, and participation
CONCLUSION
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THANK YOU!
www.ACTIVEcommunities.com/Blog/
/ACTIVEnetworkCommunities
@ACTIVEcommunity
‘Recreation Management and Technology’
Notas do Editor
Immediate health effects:Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.7Obese adolescents are more likely to have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes.8,9Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem.5,6,10Long-term health effects:Children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults11-14 and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.6 One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults.12Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.Prevention Healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity, can lower the risk of becoming obese and developing related diseases.6The dietary and physical activity behaviors of children and adolescents are influenced by many sectors of society, including families, communities, schools, child care settings, medical care providers, faith-based institutions, government agencies, the media, and the food and beverage industries and entertainment industries.Schools play a particularly critical role by establishing a safe and supportive environment with policies and practices that support healthy behaviors. Schools also provide opportunities for students to learn about and practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.References Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, Lamb MM, Flegal KM. Prevalence of high body mass index in US children and adolescents, 2007–2008. Journal of the American Medical Association 2010;303(3):242–249.National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2010: With Special Features on Death and Dying. Hyattsville, MD; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2011.National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Disease and Conditions Index: What Are Overweight and Obesity? Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; 2010.Krebs NF, Himes JH, Jacobson D, Nicklas TA, Guilday P, Styne D. Assessment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity. Pediatrics 2007;120:S193–S228.Daniels SR, Arnett DK, Eckel RH, et al. Overweight in children and adolescents: pathophysiology, consequences, prevention, and treatment.Circulation 2005;111;1999–2002.Office of the Surgeon General. . Rockville, MD, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2010.Freedman DS, Zuguo M, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS, Dietz WH.Cardiovascular risk factors and excess adiposity among overweight children and adolescents: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Journal of Pediatrics2007;150(1):12–17.Li C, Ford ES, Zhao G, Mokdad AH. Prevalence of pre-diabetes and its association with clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors and hyperinsulinemia among US adolescents: NHANES 2005–2006. Diabetes Care 2009;32:342–347.Dietz WH. Overweight in childhood and adolescence. New England Journal of Medicine 2004;350:855-857.Guo SS, Chumlea WC. Tracking of body mass index in children in relation to overweight in adulthood. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition1999;70:S145–148.Freedman DS, Kettel L, Serdula MK, Dietz WH, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS.The relation of childhood BMI to adult adiposity: the Bogalusa Heart Study.Pediatrics2005;115:22–27.Freedman D, Wang J, Thornton JC, et al. Classification of body fatness by body mass index-for-age categories among children. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2009;163:801–811.Freedman DS, Khan LK, Dietz WH, Srinivasan SA, Berenson GS. Relationship of childhood obesity to coronary heart disease risk factors in adulthood: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Pediatrics 2001;108:712–718.Kushi LH, Byers T, Doyle C, Bandera EV, McCullough M, Gansler T, et al.American Cancer Society guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention: reducing the risk of cancer with healthy food choices and physical activity. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 2006;56:254–281
Background statsIn 2010, the U.S. spent $2.6 trillion on health care, an average of $8,402 per person. The share of economic activity (gross domestic product, or GDP) devoted to health care has increased from 7.2% in 1970 to 17.9% in 2009 and 2010. Health care costs per capita have grown an average 2.4 percentage points faster than the GDP since 1970.
http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/issue_briefs/issue_CrimeIB_27.pdfYouth need more support. The U.S. Conference of Mayors 10-Point Plan recommends fully funding 21st Century Community Learning Centers and other afterschool programs.• “We’re a rural area, so kids have little to do. ...According to the Portland-area Drug Enforcement Administration, with one afterschool activity, 70 percent of youth are less likely to get involved in illegal drugs or bad behavior. With two activities, that percentage increases to 90,” said Shirley Morgan, Village Police Athletic League president.• Fifty-five percent of Chicago high school students say there are no safe places to go after school. • Two out of three young people nationwide wish there were more places they could hang out where they could feel safe and have fun.• More than one-third of California teens said that there are not enough supervised after school activities in their areas that interest them. Of these, 77 percent said they would be likely to participate if interesting activities were available to them
Over the course of 2012 our team (including our General Manager) met face to face with over 600 customers in 16 cities to understand and discuss the challenges they were faced with. These are the top 4 challenges that repeatedly came up. Community Engagement!! This seems to be The buzz word in our industry. Who can tell me what their definition is for Community Engagement? Community Engagement is simply a process of building ongoing relationships with the community for the purpose of applying a collective Vision.. .. And that Vision is a Healthy CommunityHealthy CommunityThe impacts of a healthy community as simple: an Active community is a Healthy community, and a Healthy Community is a productive and more economically viable communityBenefit for individuals: workers stay productive and healthy—both inside and outside the workplace.Benefit for businesses: a healthier workforce reduces long‐term healthcare costs, increases stability and productivity, and improves competitiveness. Benefit for communities: a community that offers a healthy, productive, stable workforce is a more attractive place for families to live and for businesses to locate.The 3rd point is around Fiscal ResponsibilityIn today’s economy… anywhere you look (private sector, public sector) organizations are looking to do more with less… the Public sector is no exception.. Finally, Relevance and ImpactThis is closely related to the Fiscal responsibilities. Now, more than ever, the stewards of our tax payer dollars are under the microscope to show the Return on their efforts. Questions such as how effective are the programs at our Rec Center? Or, are we increasing our reach in the community? Are we engaging more youth? How do they communicate the impact to their constituents?
Pressure to become more Sustainable and Fiscally Responsible…. TheNational League of Cities conducted a survey with 350 small and large municipalities at the end of 2012. Key stats:48% reduced the size of their municipal workforce1 in 3 cancelled or delayed capital infrastructure projects1 in 4 cites froze employee wages Clearly there is a continued need to do more with less and be fiscally responsible.On the right hand side there is:A drive towards becoming a Healthier Community…According to the Sporting Goods Manufactures Association, 68.1M American’s are inactive – 24% increase from 2011!According to the American Heart and Stroke Association:1 out of 3 children are obese and overweightHealthcare costs associated with battling obesity was $46B in 2012If obesity rates continue to rise, the healthcare cost attributable to obesity could reach $900M by 2030 (18% of US Healthcare expenditures)So while there’s a challenge around fiscal responsibility and a drive towards healthier communities, at the same time, in recreation organizations, 57% of the activities provided for youth and adults are going unfilled – Excess Activity InventoryOf our Top 5 Customers, 57% of the inventory goes unsoldOf our Top 5 Customers, only 5% of the combined population are participating in a P&R programSo there’s an intersection point across these three challenges and it’s all revolved around participation. If we make increasing participation our key focus, that’s key to solving all these challenges.
1. Build an audienceThe top of the funnel is where you want to reach a lot of people in your community who could potentially become customers one day. You need eyes on your website, recreation guide, press releases, emails, direct mail campaigns, and social posts. If you can increase your audience, numbers will increase down the line.
2. Convert leadsNow we move to the middle of the funnel. This is where you want to turn impressions into listeners, or readers into leads. Simply put, can we get someone who reads a press release to become a Twitter follower? Can we turn a website visitor into an email subscriber? In order to convert someone to a lead, you need to offer relevant content and have strong calls to action.Remember that former customers can also become leads for upcoming programs. This part of the funnel is where you can use a customer’s email address and history to target them with email marketing campaigns.
3. Get customersLet’s stop to see where we are with the funnel. First, let’s say you generated an audience of 10,000 last month (website visitors + readers of a press release + people who received a direct mail piece, etc.). Second, you turned 500 of those into subscribers/leads (new social followers + email subscribers, etc.). Now it’s time to turn these people into customers and revenue. This part of the funnel is where your Facebook and Twitter posts, email campaigns, and offline marketing campaigns need to drive registrations.
When email content is specifically relevant to the audience that receives it – you are more likely to achieve your purpose. If your purpose is to draw more dance registrations this summer, sending an email to past football registrants will likely keep you from achieving your goals.By providing people with content they’d be interested in, we are helping increase the likelihood of email opens (which can be helped by having a strong subject line – more on this later) and click throughs on our links It reduces the length of your overall emails… consecutive scrolling is said to be a big proponent of carpel tunnel? Do you really want to inflict that on your lovely customers?!By increasing relevancy – we reduce unsubscribes. Connect the right people, with the right content and you’ll be rewarded.
Looking at list hygiene – lets set the following labels … broad lists… medium lists… detail lists… instructor/staff lists..Broad lists would be considered top level categories such as fitness or arts and crafts … or age groups such as children, youth, adult, Medium lists would be a combination of top level categories and age groups or individual program categories such as tae kwon do or zumbaDetailed lists would be sometihng like program category + age group – kids soccer or adult co-ed footballInstructors self explanitory
Let’s take a look at some subject line examples here and I want you to be the judge… Raise your hand if you think the following subject lines are good.
How can you inspire program registration if you can’t get someone to open your email and read the content? Your email subject line is a critical component because it is the first impression people will get of your emails and it could possibly be the last if you don’t play your cards right. Don’t trick people into opening your email – your content needs to be a brief summary as to what readers can expect. Which brings me to my next point of keeping things brief! Ideally you’d like to keep your total character count under 59 characters. According to hubspot, emails that had subject lines of 59 characters or less had an average of 42% more clicks than those that didn’t. Include CTA (call to action)Add quantifiable measures in subject line so readers know exactly what to expect3 events you can’t miss!5 new spring programs for your teenager.
Avoid multicolumn formats as it complicates the email structure, creates more distractions and interrupts flow. There’s another reason that I will get into later in this presentation. A common mistake people make when taking on email marketing is that they try fitting in too much information. Looking back at the fundamentals we want to reduce the amount of information which can be done by focusing on one topic and a specific list. This means we need to keep our content short and sweet! When creating the content of your email, never lose sight of your topic and the email’s main purpose. The initial paragraph and top portion of your email is crucial real estate. This is the first thing people will see when they open your email or see it in the preview pane. If the content is vague, has very little text or is flat out uninteresting…people may not bother reading the rest of your email.
Word of mouse – passing the marketing duties to your customersWhat others share about your organizationEach social network has sharing buttons
Public Access portal works with AnalyticsCan analyze all of that through there
Trend #1: Mobility Drives AccessThe change: by 2014Mobile Users > Desktop Internet Users1st iPhone was released on June 2007. In 2009 there were 65,000 apps and today there are 700,000The effect:The way citizens hear about and access your services has changed 50% of all local searches are done from a mobile device75% of 12–17 year olds own cell phonesNew opportunities are being presented on how you engage your citizens Mobility applies to staff as well citizens (greater access, i.e. access reports from home, take registrations on the field)
Compare apps vs. websites to non-hosted vs. hosted - Explain the difference