PRE-SALES: CAPTURE REVENUE WHEN YOU NORMALLY WOULDN’T.

Pre-sales are an important way to creatively increase average ticket prices and capture revenue in the off-season. Season passes, advanced ticket sales, vouchers, and gift certificates are all products sold by adventure parks and ziplines experiencing the most success. Leveraging the major consumer buying patterns (i.e. the holidays, dads and grads, back to school) is a great place to focus.

One Flybook customer ran a pre-sale campaign for their 2018 season pass. In just 3 months, this campaign garnered $50,000 in season pass pre-sales. That's $50,000 outside their peak season that they wouldn’t have otherwise recognized.

To apply this to your adventure park or zipline, keep these marketing tactics in mind: 

  1. Start pre-sale of next season’s passes while still in the current season. The rationale is to target your customer base while they are still relevant in their “summer mindset.” This Flybook customer generated the vast majority of their sales during the last month of their season. 
  2. Apply a deadline for customers to buy at the best price. This Flybook customer set multiple deadlines, with diminishing discounts, and it worked. Seventy percent of sales came within two days of the largest deadline expiring.
  3. Leverage email. While some digital advertising campaigns were involved, email proved to be the most successful tactic for this Flybook customer to reach their customer base. They sent a total of 13,000 emails for three locations during the month of the campaign, and 80 percent of the sales resulted from those emails.
     

THE HOLIDAYS! ADVERTISE AND PROMOTE YOUR OFFERINGS IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON.

Recently, we've seen some of the biggest increases in holiday spending in years. Projections are good, and there's some extra good news for adventure parks and ziplines: millennials are indicating that 52% of their holiday spending is going to be on experience-related purchases and vacations are projected to see a 27 percent increase in consumer spending.

Trends are indicating that people are desiring experiences with their family and friends. And the holiday season is the perfect chance to funnel that desire by selling gift certificates and gift cards.

Gift cards and certificates have remained the most requested holiday gift for 9 years in a row, but they should be promoted differently. Often, a gift card will go towards the total amount of an invoice. To promote a gift card is to promote your overall business. A gift certificate, on the other hand, is great for promoting specific packages, activities, offerings or events. 

Promoting gift cards and certificates is a great way to keep sales going through the low season. 6-10% percent of them will never be redeemed, and advanced payments are also beneficial as they may cover expenses, improvements or capital investments in your off season.

 

TIPS FOR SELLING HOLIDAY GIFT CARDS AND CERTIFICATES:

Create Urgency

When a sense of urgency or scarcity is created in an ad, it typically encourages people to immediately check into your offering. Check out this article on creating a Facebook advertisement that instills a sense of urgency and how it can yield higher conversion rates.

Advertising Gift Certificates

When advertising for this holiday season, it may make the most sense to advertise gift certificates for certain activities. This way, you can promote a few exciting product offerings at an attractive price to draw the attention of gift givers.
 

Target Your Promotions

Consider taking some time to hone in on the exact target audience you want your promotions to be seen by. Facebook is a great platform for adventure parks and ziplines targeting consumers because people often share their photos and experiences, and Facebook is making targeting easier and easier. Check out this ultimate guide to Facebook ad interest targeting. 

Create Irresistible Packages

For holidays during your low season, brainstorm gifts that your customers can still enjoy. For example, you could offer a branded Hydro Flask along with a gift certificate! The flasks keep drinks both hot in the winter and cold during the summer, and there are all different sizes and shapes that appeal to your target market. Visit their site here.