Have a Retreat Sales & Marketing Team that Shares Your Vision

Getting more retreats to book at your facility is a challenging task that can sometimes leave even the most determined Camp and Retreat Directors feeling overwhelmed and understaffed. Having the right people in place to help with the everyday tasks of marketing maintenance and instant sales response is the key to growing and sustaining a healthy retreat revenue. The right people often share your center’s vision of why you want to do retreats and how it benefits not only your youth in summer, if you are a camp, or your community, if you are solely a retreat center.

At Retreat Central, we understand your vision and we specialize in providing a one stop shop for these needs with our successful Partnerships programs, but if your facility wants to try and tackle these tasks on its own, here are some simple tips to help you along the way.

Have a quick response time to inquiries

The highest percentage booked inquires are ones where the client didn’t even have time to reach out to other facilities for quotes because we responded to their retreat inquiry in such a timely and professional manner. This instantly sends a message that your facility is on top of their retreat game and will deliver a good product for that organizer’s attendees. That person who creates the first impression for your potential clients should project your center’s vision and enthusiasm. This is a driving force in helping clients learn to help you by staying loyal and sometimes being flexible.

Begin with local marketing and branch outwards

The circle of your marketing region should start small and inexpensive and branch out over time once your saturation has garnered some measurement. Don’t assume throwing tons of money at national or even state-wide marketing campaigns right off the bat will be an instant success. Reach out manually through cold calls to all of the major companies, collegiate entities and churches in your region first to start getting a good idea of who’s doing retreats and who is not. Once you’ve exhausted your region, look for low cost national listings sites to put your center on and maybe try out their premium options for a month or two to see how their traffic can help you get some leads. The person who helps with your marketing will need to have as much heart for your camp or center as you do, as they will need to have diligence and determination when they provide this service to your facility.

Create a long lasting relationship with your returning clients

It is very important to have a team in place that your clients are comfortable with and enjoy speaking to each year. It’s the little things that organizers appreciate and its no secret that they will want to minimize their re-booking duties and headaches each year. Providing them with a familiar and up to date contact person is essential to retaining that business. Getting that business back at all costs should be a huge priority for any aspiring retreat center. It’s how you grow and maintain your revenue year over year. Hearing from your sales person each year how their event is important to the camp or center and its vision will strengthen your chances that decision maker will choose your facility again, even if there were some challenges at the last retreat.

Retreat Central can help with these strategies and more

For over a decade, Retreat Central has partnered with youth camps and retreat centers to increase and maintain their retreat revenues. By providing all of the tools with one program, we eliminate the stress and worry of handling all the ins and outs of the retreat admin side, giving you and your team valuable time to help your clients on the ground or your youth coming to enjoy the summer. For more info please contact us at info@retreatcentral.com.