Promote your leisure centre on the Web
You may be aware that there are literally thousands of people searching for your leisure centre on the Internet – the challenge is how to get them to discover you! This article can only offer a brief overview – but perhaps it will be a useful starting point.
If you don’t have a web site for your leisure centre then that’s job one on the To Do list. It is possible to advertise yourself on the web without a website – but why make things harder than necessary? You could use a local firm to build a site for you – (be sure to contact other firms they’ve carried out work for, to check they are satisfied), or possibly build it yourself from the start (all the knowledge you will need is readily available online). Alternatively, you could put up a job on an freelancing website like Elance – that can be a good way to get a website created.
A lot of people make the error of not having any tracking or analytics put in place for their site. This is insane, because without analytics you have no way to know how much traffic your website is receiving, where they’re arriving from, and what they’re doing on your site. It’s just like having a blindfold on. There are lots of web stats systems to pick from – they’re often free, and straightforward to install.
One of the most effective ways to begin promoting your site, is to post it to a few directories. Right now there are hundreds and hundreds of basic directories on the internet – many are free of charge, and others you need to pay for. Yahoo Directory is perhaps the best known paid directory – but at $299 per annum, it’s debatable whether it represents good value for money. DMOZ is the best known free directory – but it can take months to get accepted, if you actually do. Nonetheless, it’s worth making use of a directory submission company to submit your site to fifty or so of the best free directories – which should cost only a few cents each.
Sites that focus on an individual vertical market are well well worth searching for, and submitting your details to – as they are usually far more valuable places to promote your website than more general sites. Unfortunately in many markets they’re hard to find – and they typically charge (often rather a lot) for a listing. On the other hand, there is http://www.ClickLeisureCentres.co.uk/ in the leisure centre marketplace which may publish your information at no cost if you send in depth details and photos. You could be able to locate some others – if so, they’ll be well worth applying to.
Rather than sitting back and waiting around for customers to appear at your site – you could advertise to get started bringing them in. Google Adwords is a terrific way to do this – it’s a Pay Per Click advertising product that will show your adverts next to Google’s search results – and as its name suggests, you only pay out when someone clicks through to your website.
One of the most important tasks to tackle next, is to develop an email mailing list, by getting your prospects to give you their email and permission to mail them. Use a service like MailChimp – which for a modest monthly fee will let you store email addresses of hundreds of prospects and send them an email whenever you want.
You’ve already taken the initial step to finding more customers from the Net – but the most fundamental step is yet to come – putting everything into action. Just work away at it, step by step – but do get underway. The sooner you start, the faster you’ll secure your first new customer from the Net.
