Coming up with creative marketing for your shooting range
can be difficult, especially when you’re focused on managing the business and
making sure customers feel comfortable and confident in your facility. It gets
even trickier when your goal is to attract younger enthusiasts looking for a
modern, engaging experience and a safe learning environment. These six marketing
techniques will help fill your shooting range with new customers and loyal
members.
1. Market your shooting range to gun buyers
Offer incentives with gun purchases to target ideal customers
for your shooting range. If you don’t sell firearms at your facility, you can
pair up with local retailers. Try offering gun buyers special same-day promotions,
including:
- Free shooting range passes
- Discounted premium memberships
- Free membership initiation
To take this a step further, create a special package deal
that includes discounted shooting range membership, free initiation, branded
merchandise, and a bonus guest pass.
2. Host classes and training workshops
Many of your future customers are new to shooting and gun
ownership. Offering introductory courses on gun safety, personal defense, and
shooting techniques to provide a fun, safe way for them to learn about your
business while building skills. Once you’ve established a relationship with
these budding enthusiasts, it will be easier to convert them to frequent
customers and gun club members.
3. Attract new audiences with special events
Special events are a vital part of marketing for your
shooting range for two reasons:
- Events are a fun, easy way for new people to get
to know your business and community
- Events can be an independent revenue stream that
fuels other marketing and business activities
When thinking about the types of events to host at your shooting range, consider what will interest your existing customers and new ones. Organizing a tournament is a great way to engage seasoned target experts while a more fun event that involves shooting playing cards to create the best poker hand may appeal to a new, younger audience.
4. Stay connected with email marketing, social media, and a mobile app
Attracting new customers is only the first stage of your
shooting range marketing. Once you’ve made an initial connection, you’ll need
to engage potential customers through email, social media, and mobile apps.
Tracking prospects through your shooting
range software will allow you to communicate regularly via email and SMS
text messaging. In addition to these communication basics, shooting ranges
should consider adding another tool to their marketing arsenal: a mobile app.
Once prospects download your app, they’ll get notifications
about upcoming events, class schedules, social media updates, and special
offers. And with users
spending 18 times more time on mobile apps than websites, it’s no surprise
that your app users become your most loyal customers.
5. Build a loyal customer base
While you should always think about ways to attract new
customers to your shooting range, it’s important to devote marketing resources
to your existing clientele, too. Because members and regulars are your main
source of revenue, their happiness is what ultimately determines your success.
Use social media marketing to recognize member achievements,
ask for feedback, and create a sense of community among gun club members. Make
sure that staff are knowledgeable, prioritize safety, and go above and beyond
to make every experience positive.
Keep in mind that while a happy customer will act as an
ambassador for your business, the opposite is also true. An unhappy customer
can spoil even the best marketing plans.
6. Ask for referrals
If you’ve done a good job building a loyal following, you
can leverage these relationships to ask for referrals. When it comes to
increasing referral leads, there are two main rules:
- If you want more referrals, you have to ask for them
- The best time to ask for a referral is right after your customer has a positive experience with your shooting range
One of the biggest mistakes shooting range owners make is
forgetting to include referrals as a formal part of their marketing strategy.
Identify opportunities to request referrals and make a plan for how you’ll ask
for them. Not sure where to start? Try these ideas:
- After a home defense course, ask participants to provide the name of one person they think would enjoy the class in exchange for free merchandise
- Offer new participants a free guest pass after their first visit
- Give friends of members 25% off an upcoming event
Does Your Shooting Range Marketing Hit the Target?
Now that you know these six essential marketing strategies,
it’s time to put them into action. This means scheduling your marketing efforts
and choosing the right software tools and technology to help you get it done. To
learn more about how EZFacility helps gun clubs and shooting ranges with their
marketing, chat with us
today.