5 Simple Marketing Moves That Fill Day Camps Weeks Earlier (Part 1)

23 min · Olivier Rousseau & William Rochford · Mar 4, 2026

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About this episode

Why does the camp down the street fill up fast while yours scrambles for sign-ups? Often it comes down to a few simple marketing habits that start well before summer. In Part 1 of this two-part series, Olivier Rousseau and William Rochford share five proven ways to fill your day camp earlier: a newsletter opt-in, segmented emails, reminder forms for parents who aren’t ready yet, early bird discounts, small-budget social media ads, and an end-of-season email and survey that sets up next year.

What we discuss

A newsletter opt-in that builds your list year-round Segmenting emails for new, past, and current families Reminder forms for parents who aren’t ready to register yet Early bird discounts and opening registration earlier Social media ads that work on a small budget End-of-season emails and surveys that set up next year Resources mentioned 5 Simple Marketing Moves That Fill Day Camps Weeks Earlier (Part 2) The Real Problem With Mailchimp for Sports & Leisure Activity Messenger email marketing Activity Messenger surveys Activity Messenger online forms Book a free demo of Activity Messenger Follow Olivier on LinkedIn About the hosts Olivier Rousseau co-founded Activity Messenger after spending 13 years running a kids' sports program that served 4,000 families. William Rochford is Activity Messenger's product expert. Want to share your story or ask a question? Email olivier@activitymessenger.com.

Full episode transcript

Read the full transcript

Intro[0:00] How come the camp next door fills up fast while my camp scrambles for signups? Today we're talking about simple, proven methods that will help you fill your camp early, improve retention, and grow year after year. Stick around. [music] [music] Hey everybody, welcome back to the AMplify podcast. I'm your host Will and I'm here with Oli. Hello Oli. Hi Will. How you doing today? Good, good, good. Awesome. So, today we're talking about[0:32] five simple marketing ideas that you can implement right away to make your camp signups stress free stress-free, optimize them, and fill out every spot. Hopefully, that's what we're going for. So, let's start with something really simple. Everyone's heard of a newsletter. Yes. But what is the some common mistakes that people are making with uh newsletters or not necessarily mistakes but things they're maybe not thinkingNewsletter Opt-In[1:00] about? Yeah. So I mean the main one for me is when I see email marketing for for summer camps. A lot of times that's a tool used for current or past clients. Right. So you have a database of people registering and then you're like okay I'm going to take this database. I'm going to reach out to them to say hey next camp, next week whatever it is communicate with them. Right. What about those interested people who've never come? Exactly. So, I think one of the simplest[1:21] things people can do, and I'm always shocked to see that some camps don't have that, is opening up an opt-in to your newsletter on your website, right? Just somebody coming in through an ad, through a referral, just trying to kind of, you know, opt into your to your newsletter. And I think one example, too, is like you could think of somebody having a great time at camp, right? And I'm my kids not having a great time at another camp and then I hear about it, but it's, you know, end of the summer. I'm not going to register now. So I can go to[1:46] the website in August and then opt into the newsletter to be, you know, reminded in January when when when it opens, right? But so there's all these contacts where people are going to come and just visit your website and not be ready to register. So just adding their email there, those are really good potential clients that a lot of camps are missing out on. And it's so key, especially for a summer camp, because it's such a seasonal activity that during the winter you're out of sight, out of mind, right? And so that's what you want to avoid.[2:13] Exactly. Especially like if somebody's at the end of the summer, then there's like the fall. So there's everything that happens in the fall. So it's like they just drop the email knowing that you're going to contact them then and they might completely forget about you in the next 3 to four months. So you need that that opt-in. Uh it's super important. Yeah. Great. So um the other thing weSegment Your Emails[2:31] want to talk about here is to um segment. Yeah. And send different types of of emails for different segments. 100%. So another thing that we see a lot of people even though they might have an opt-in on their website do email marketing really well is they will send everybody the same email the same one. Yeah. Right. Hey camps are open whatever it is but your clients are very different. So I I like to kind of split them into three buckets. So one of them is new[2:58] clients that have never prospects. Let's call them prospects. They've never come to your camp but they opted in and they want information on when to register and see if you're the right fit. There's the everybody was there last year right? so that you're like, "Okay, you were there last year. You know, hopefully you had a great experience and I want to email you again to when registration's open to get you back into camp." But there's also those clients that are past clients, right? So, somebody signed up for camp in 2024, did not come back in 2025, still within your[3:27] age range for camp. Um maybe before the 2026 summer, you might send a very different email to those parents, right? and just saying, you know, just having a different text about about them because you're trying to get them back and maybe even offering them a coupon for them to come back, right? But just having a strategy based on registration status can go a long way into personalizing those emails. Yeah, absolutely. It's really understanding your clients and offering them incentives that fit their situation, right?[3:55] And even Yeah. And even the current client, like why not add a photo of last year? Why not add a little word from his favorite counselor that's coming back this year? Right. So reassuring parents, personalizing it really to what they experienced at your camp or telling them what changes happened. Exactly. This is a little spoiler. We're going to talk about that [laughter] later. But yeah, but but it's just kind of trying to remind them the emotion the kid had at your camp with with an image with the name of the counselor with the fact that[4:18] the counselor is coming back so they can get excited about it and know that they're going to register back and not try some other camp instead. Right. Yeah, 100%. All right. So related to umReminder Forms[4:27] this sort of topic we're talking about with newsletters, we have also the um the form for the reminder form. Yeah. Um it's slightly different. So explain what the nuance is there. I think the nuance is that you want to open up registration early. Um that's one thing, but you know there might be somebody on your website coming in November, December trying to see if they can register cuz some camps open up as early as November. uh and you might open up in March, whatever you might have to do, but I[4:56] always recommend to do it early, but you need to be able to capture the people that are coming in and can't register right away. So, for example, you open up registration the 15th of January. If I show up on your website on December 17th, I need to be able to drop my email in there. And it's a bit different, I find, than the email marketing because the email marketing is very general. So, it's on your website, but I would go as far as to be like, "Hey, you can't register yet, but this like register button[5:22] is actually just a popup that says, "Hey, this is a reminder email or text that you're only going to get regarding this specific camp." Right. So, cuz you might have people who unsubscribe from your newsletter who do not like to subscribe to newsletters, so they're not going to do it. They say, "Oh, I'll come back." But getting [clears throat] one notification by text Exactly. [laughter] But getting that one notification by text right before a camp you really want can have a really big influence. So it's it's a different type of personality. Um[5:49] and and a lot of them will be on both which is fine. Somebody's might be on your newsletter but they want the text reminder 24 hours before so they don't forget and they might miss the newsletter because you don't see every newsletter that pops by your and the idea is anyway they've opted in, right? So they want that reminder. It's not like you're you're hounding at their door and and you know when I did that when I was running u programs is I was surprised how many people opted into[6:10] those reminders. At first I was like okay like a few people I was like oh my so many people and then I'm like but yeah and when I started that I didn't have kids this was a long time ago and I have three kids like oh I get now you get it [laughter] like oh yeah that makes sense. Yeah. Please remind me it's actually a service. It is especially for camp cuz your child has to go to camp. you miss the deadline then you you know they want to be with their friends like there are so many[6:35] things that can go wrong in a camp registration that it's a service to parents absolutely absolutely 100%. Okay. So, um,Early Bird Discounts[6:44] shift gears a little bit. So, something that I I often don't see camps doing is the idea of the early bird discount. Yes. Right. So, first of all, of course, that that requires that we plan ahead. Yeah. Uh, it requires that we open a little bit earlier. We're not opening two months before summer. We're going, you know, in the early winter, maybe even the fall. Yeah. So, what are the advantages there of of being able to open early and and of filling out our camp[7:10] months before it starts? Yeah. So, what I like to do is say like let's put early bird an early bird discount, right? So, let's say you sign up before December. So, you open up really early November, December, which sounds a little crazy, but you put a really big early bird discount. Some people will come and register, right? Um, and I think these these discounts can be like waves, right? So before December 31st and then another one before February 31st and then another one before April, whatever. And then you kind of keep and they keep going lower[7:37] and lower. So $30, $20, $10 off if you sign up before specific dates. Yeah. Right. And the cool thing is you can time them on your email newsletter. So when you do send them an email marketing, you say, "Hey, early bird discount number one ends in seven days." So you're not only reminding them, hey, I got to sign up my child for camp, but I can actually get a bit of a discount if I do it right away. So that's kind of one of the biggest things is you'll just kind of it has an an effect of getting people in earlier. Um which is amazing for cash flow. So[8:05] you're getting money much faster. So it's a lot better for for you to manage your operations plan and operations and all your fixed costs, you know, kind of covers part of those. The other thing too is like it's going to tell you which camps are more popular. So if you have all these specialty camps, right, and you let's say you have one in STEM and you have another one in cooking, right? the STEM one, you know, on December 31st has all all 12 spots are taken and the cooking one has zero, right? Well, you might say, actually,[8:30] let's kind of take my resource that I was think I thought was going to be popular and then open up more STEM places and then actually get more kids. So, instead of them coming into a full STEM specialty and going to another camp, they now have that option there, right? So it gives you insights early on as to which programs might be more popular and then you can h shift those things around without adding more staff, without adding more cost, just adding, you know, higher profits because you're filling out your camps, right? Yeah. And then that's so much better[8:58] also for planning what you need in terms of material, in terms of getting ready for that camp. So now you know exactly, okay, well, I have two weeks of this type of theme, which is not what I thought. So get a head start on that, too. And I think the biggest advantage though that I've noticed uh is the ambassador effect I like to call. So it's just that like if you sign up early for camp, you now have made a decision to um go to that camp and you're now pumped about it, you're happy about it, your child's happy about it, and you're talking about it. And I[9:29] think one thing that when parents are talking, when kids are talking, you know, uh if I if I talk to you will I'm like, "Hey, you know, I plan on registering for this camp, right?" It's very different than, hey, I registered for this camp. I was there last year or this is what they offer. Oh, really? Where are you going? What's the link exactly? And you're kind of selling it. Are there already I can register right away? Cool. I'm so happy. I love to get my schedule for the summer done as early as possible. Instead of waiting and[9:52] maybe not getting a spot in the other camp cuz they open up late. So, there's just that effect. And then more and more people registered, more and more people talk. And the other aspect is like then you'll fill out your camps earlier, which is a good thing because then people get on waitlist. people are like and then you kind of train your set of parents to sign up earlier and earlier and earlier. So it's an evolution where people get used to sign up earlier and then you just get more filled class more cash all the all the benefits[10:17] and then you become a rare resource. I mean it's just a 101 economic principle that more resource is rare. Well you know more more it's it's valuable in the eyes of people. Exactly. All right. So, uh, and also you talked about ambassadors, and really there's no better ambassador than a child who enjoyed your camp. 100%. Uh, and and not even just that, but a child going to a camp. Like my kids can be excited about a school because they want to go to the same school as their[10:44] friends. Exactly. [laughter] 100%. They get excited about everything with their friends and it it really So, if you kind of have a parent that leads that Yeah. and because they're the first one to register to a specific camp, it could attract this like magnet of all people. I'm going to go there cuz they chose that. Right. So just being early can have incredible effects especially for camps like you said something that's as kind of viral or as kind of organic you know people talking. Right.[11:07] Exactly. All right. So just one more thing on this topic. Um so there there could be an objection here of like Yeah. Okay. But if I try to launch my camp in November, well I don't know who my staff's going to be. I don't know if my activities are going to change or not. I don't know if I have to make changes. So, what would you say to the camp owner who who's sort of reticent to go so early because of things like that? I I would say like I would build this the same skeleton as last year, right? So, you kind of know year over year what's going to be. You might have some[11:35] contracts, some locations that are not like 100% sure and stuff like that. Um, I've I've went through it. I've done it. Um, and one of the things is like there is there can be some frustration if there are changes that are done later on. So, let's say you usually launch in February because you have all your data there. But let's say you open up in December, November. First of all, not everybody's going to sign up that early, right? So, you're just getting the wheels in motion. But then that person who signs up early, if there are like let's say you have to cancel a a camp[12:00] cuz finally, you know, there's only three kids and you're not you're going to cancel that specialty or whatever it is, you can you can have a conversation with those people say like, "Look, we're going to have to cancel this. I'm going to give you a massive discount, right? Let's say 50%, right? So, you change to something else or something like that or a full refund if they want to leave." But most people like, "Oh, yeah, that's cool. I'll take the discount. It's a bit It kind of sucks I didn't get exactly what I wanted, but for the whole motion,[12:23] the snowball effect to get going, I think is much more valuable than those little things that that can happen because you have to make changes cuz you weren't ready fully ready. Right. Small risk to take for a potential very large gain. Exactly. That's how I see it. Yeah. Okay, cool. This episode isPromotional Content[12:37] sponsored by Activity Messenger, an online registration software I helped build after spending more than a decade managing kids sports programs and dealing with outdated, disconnected tools that slow everything down. I know the frustration of using a bunch of old tools that don't sync, don't scale, and definitely don't make life easier. Activity Messenger is built to fix that. Our goal is to be your all-in-one operating system, modern, mobile first, and to simplify your entire workflow. Want to check it out? Visit activitymessenger.com to book your free demo.[13:11] Now, let's get back to the show. AllSocial Media Ads (Small Budget)[13:13] right, so let's shift gears here. We're going into social media ads. Yes, that actually work because you know, some people have had experiences with ads. Not great. Um, so what what are some pointers for you into really specific for summer camps? what what what is a good sort of ad structure approach for them? Well, first of all, I would say run ads. Uh, a lot of camps don't necessarily run ads. I think people are afraid sometimes to put a budget behind kind of Facebook, Instagram ads, which which are the two[13:42] places I would I would I would structure my ads. Um, because a lot of people think organic still work. So, you post on your Facebook page, you have followers there. Organic honestly works a bit with your followers, but not outside of that. So, it's going to be very hard. even with your followers. The meta algorithm will just suppress anything that it perceives as marketing. Marketing. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think that that's one thing. The other thing is you don't have to put[14:06] that much. I would test with four to five bucks a day. Like I'm I'm telling you, it's worth testing with that little, right? And then amplifying or adding more as you go, as you see the return on it. Uh and then what's really cool is that these ad structures uh platforms are really good at segmenting, right? So you're able to follow to go for parents with kids at a different age. They're they're able to look at all that stuff, but also geographically, right? So the ability to say, "Hey, I want to target people within a specific area codes."[14:36] That goes really far because you're able to kind of say, "My camp is here, so let's put a target of like 25 km around my camp, right?" And then target everybody there that with a with a certain amount amount of dollar, you know, per day, which is really cool. And again, if you have some insights with earlier registration, maybe there's a type of camp that's very popular, so you promote that as an ad, you can have like multiple ads so that, you know, parents sees one ad, the next time they see a video, the next time they see another ad. So, you can really make it, you[15:01] know, on brand and and and looking specific for a camp. And with that that um postal code uh targeting, you can also you get some information from your software. Yeah. Your registration software. And you can see, you know, what area codes are the most uh, you know, where there's the most kids coming from. Exactly. And then and then that that'll help you target, right? So you might have an area that has a lot of kids coming and you're like, "Okay, I maybe don't need to put that much marketing[15:28] there because I'm getting a lot." But then there's other area where they seem to maybe going to my competitors or or they're a bit further, whatever it is. Well, you can target more dollars in those areas. And then you can base that on all your your historical data of postal codes, right? uh even in Activity Messenger, we have a nice map that kind of maps out exactly where your the campers are coming. Then you can easily look at the the the ones you want to target. So taking the data from your registration software to then add it to to your ads will make that you know, $5, $10[15:58] a day go a long way. Exactly. And and something I've realized as well is like you know Facebook ads, Instagram ads can be difficult for specific types of businesses that don't necessarily make sense. But when it comes to camp, there's two things like you can like target very widely just parents and you'll have it. You put an image of a camp, everybody understands right away by that image what you're selling. And you know 98% of kids go to camp. So it's like a you need to go to camp. So it's like it's a very it's just the it's[16:28] the kind of service that's like really that works really well with ads on on social media, right? So, I think that that's a missed opportunity when people don't or don't put enough uh on it, right? Yeah, 100%. And uh bonus points if you can grab some footage during your summer camp while you're rolling it, just grab some footage, make a quick video, put it together because um yeah, video speaks videos work really well. Speaks very loudly on social media especially. Oh, and one one last thing I wanted to mention as well, like this[16:56] could look like really overwhelming, but it's actually simpler than we think if you just keep it as simple as target parents, postal codes, one or two images, and you put a budget to it. So,Plan Early for Success[17:06] like you really get into Facebook, you do those things. One of the beautiful things, I'm not Instagram. I never used Instagram and I was like, I know I need to put ads there cuz parents are there, right? When I was running programs and I was like, how do I do that? But the actually it's all in the same thing. So, you go in, you put Facebook and Instagram ads in the same kind of business manager in Facebook. There's plenty of one-on-one videos on on on Facebook where you can learn it really quickly, but like I would even say don't even try to over-optimize it. Just go[17:32] through all the the different steps we talked about and then try that out and and I guarantee you'll see results, right? It it really works really well. So, yeah. All right. So, there you go. Challenge accepted, I hope. [laughter]End-of-Season Communication & Surveys[17:44] Um All right. So, we're going to go to the end of the season or let's say the end of the week or whatever. And you can really send an email and we really recommend that you do send an email, you know, once once that week of camp is over, once that season of camp is over. And there's a lot of opportunities here that we can go in terms of communication, in terms of maybe filling out those final weeks of camp if ever there's some some openings there. Um, sometimes we can see it dwindle towards the end of the season. So, what are some some tips for those?[18:16] Yeah, I I think the first one is to actually send an end of of week email just some people don't do it and just saying, "Hey, thank you so much. We hope you had a great time." Uh, two things you can add, a survey to understand how the camp week went, which can help you, especially in the early weeks, get better as the summer goes or for next year, but also a link to like sign up again because you might have some someone who comes to camp, signed up for camp, and was there for, you know, week one, but the parents had not nothing really[18:44] planned on like week six and seven, and the child just loved it. All his friends were there like, "Mom, I want to go back. I want to go back." So then just having that link there can fill out those small spots later in the summer. So, that's a really really nice one. Uh, but also from that survey, you'll get the ability to get testimonials, right? And those are super important. Like, we were talking about it before, like you entrust the camp with your child all day for a whole week. Like, that's pretty can be nerve-wracking for a parent and you want to make sure you[19:12] make the right decision. Uh, so those testimonials are very powerful because when you hear read testimonials, you feel much more secure in the registration process to get into that to to go to that camp. Y so using those and then putting them on social media, putting them on your website. And by the way, earlier we said that Facebook suppresses organic posts, but testimonials, i.e. stories of your clients[19:39] is something that does not get suppressed. Exactly. And you can do videos on on those. There's a lot of things you can do that will really help. um just you know kids doing testimonials obviously you need the parent kind of agreeing on them being filmed parents doing testimonials and then it's it's a very human interaction that others are are going to see um and then using that data so that that data from your surveys that are sent at the end of the summer camp there's two things that come out the testimonials[20:03] and those I would argue are one of the best ways of using in your newsletter we spoke at the beginning so we'll kind of end with that like the newsletter to new clients or potential clients who signed up to your newsletter it's like here's what parents are saying here and listen to the parents go click on the video right cuz we we also recorded it and then it just gives you a very nice kind of promotional um thing here's our camp we're great but our parents and our kids also say we're great right so it gives that that loop for those clients registering for next year so I think[20:33] that that's really really uh crucial kind of a idea but the and the other thing too is like in your so that's for the potential clients then what about the clients who are there this year and the ones who were there, you know, a year ago or two years ago, you can go in that newsletter and say, "Hey, we've listened. We got, you know, 250 surveys that come out. Here are the top three things parents said last year and here's what we're doing for next summer." Like,[21:00] I I mean, if I'm going to take my child and put them in with a camp and then they come back and tell me, "Here's what we're going to do. Here's what we heard." I'd be like, "Okay, I can talk and they're going to listen." And I [clears throat] love that. Yeah. I think that's a huge marketing tool, right? just level. Yeah, of course. And today that's what people want. They want, you know, they want to send their kids to places where they know that they're going to be well treated. They're going to be listened to. And[21:23] what better way to show that than to show then, you know, you're actually you're acting on the feedback that you're receiving. Exactly. But and then showcasing it in your in your in your email marketing on your website or whatever it is. Right. Exactly. Telling people, right? You're telling people about it. Yeah. You you want to tell people about that cuz that's like that's awesome. I would want to hear a camp saying, "Hey, we did this, this, this to give you a better experience next summer." Like,[21:45] that's amazing. Like, that's such a Yeah, 100%. All right, so that uh that was ourOutro[21:52] five tips for you today. Five ideas for your uh your your summer camp. So, we talked about, you know, segmenting emails, we talked about that newsletter, reminder forms, early bird offers, simple ads, Facebook, Instagram that work really, really well, that don't have to be a headache. we promise and the end of session followup. So, you know, let us know what your favorite tip was in the comments underneath the video. Uh you can reach out to us as well. Uh we're always happy to answer your questions and um yeah, so put this into practice and next week[22:27] we're going to look at five more tips for optimizing your summer camp registrations. So, we look forward to that and uh we look forward to seeing you then. All right, take care everybody. Bye, Oli.

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