Marketing in the Bounce House Business

A nice textbook definition of marketing is "The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer." Very little in the real world is as simple and easily truncated as a one-line definition. And marketing is no exception to this.

The average person equates marketing with sales. But the two functions, while working together in effective organizations, have vastly different functions.

So, what does marketing mean to your commercial grade bounce house business?

Marketing has many roles within a bounce house business, regardless of whether the company is large or small.

• Marketing keeps your bounce house business in front of existing bounce house customers and prospects. A good marketer knows the value of keeping your business in the forefront of your customer's mind. This goes far beyond just a sales call each quarter to past bounce house customers. Whether via email or direct mail, sending regular communications to your bounce house customers, that offer them insightful information that the recipient will find useful, is invaluable.
   
• Marketing helps to facilitate the bounce house rental process by providing brochures, sales pieces and other tools.  This collateral will ultimately end up in front of a bounce house customer or prospect to provide information and assist in the sales process. Without these types of marketing materials it is a challenge for an bounce house business to differentiate itself from the competition.
   
• Marketing generates new bounce house leads. The sales team can do a great job when they have a bounce house prospect's name and contact information in front of them. This is where marketing comes in. From sending out direct mail pieces to designing bounce house ads, one of marketing's critical functions is to generate new bounce house leads for the sales department.

• Marketing creates positive press for your bounce house business. Another important function for the marketing department is to develop and distribute bounce house press releases, create and publish white papers and industry articles. These efforts will get the bounce house business' name in the news, reaching more prospects and keeping them aware of your bounce house products.

• Marketing develops and cultivates an online presence. Every commercial grade bounce house business operating successfully in today's marketplace needs to have a web site. However, once you have set up your bounce house web site regular maintenance is still necessary, from continuously updating the information, to making necessary modifications to move your site to the top of the search engines. Another critical component of web marketing is social media marketing. More and more bounce house businesses and customers are gravitating to this medium to satisfy their needs.

There are many more marketing functions in a bounce house organization, but these are some of the most critical and time consuming. The key for a commercial grade bounce house business is to consistently market your bounce house business to existing customer and prospects, which will ultimately differentiate you from the other bounce house companies on the market.