Marketing to our Existing Bounce House Customers

One of the biggest expenses for any business, and the inflatable rental industry is no exception to this, is sales and marketing. From inflatable brochures and mailings to events, signage and more the cost to acquire a new bounce house customer is not a small price. In fact research has shown that it costs businesses five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.    

This particularly rings true in the commercial grade inflatable industry, where word of mouth is such a critical part of your bounce house business and directly affects your ability to win new customers. Happy customers not only come back time and again for their events, but they also tell their friends who can then become inflatable customers themselves, at a much lower marketing cost to you.   

The question for the commercial grade inflatable business owner then becomes, "how can I proactively market to these existing bounce house customers to retain their business year after year". While providing stellar bounce house products and service will go a long way, in today's competitive inflatable industry customer retention is becoming more and more of a challenge for businesses.   

 Inflatable companies can no longer afford to become complacent in their marketing efforts directed at existing bounce house customers, particularly with the ever increasing cost of new bounce house customer acquisition. An essential way to hold your ground against the inflatable competition is through continuous marketing to not only acquire new bounce house business, but to also retain existing customers.

Regular marketing activities directed at your existing bounce house customers are essential to keeping in the forefront of their minds. This means when they are shopping around for an inflatable for their next event you will be the first business that comes to their mind. And just as importantly, when a friend is looking for inflatable referrals you are again the bounce house business that immediately comes up.

When this marketing to existing inflatable customers is neglected, typically you will see an "out of sight, out of mind" result. If your customers are then targeted by your local inflatable competition attempting to acquire their own new customers they feel no sense of loyalty to you or your bounce house business.  

One way to effectively and economically market your bounce house rental business to existing customers is through email marketing. Email marketing is a cost effective way to get your message across to a large group of people. Through email marketing you can send periodic messages to both existing and new bounce house prospects, getting your inflatable business' name and web site directly in front of them.

Whatever marketing you select for your inflatable business, be sure to include existing bounce house customers in the mix. Neglecting to do so could be a costly decision for your business. Never underestimate the value and buying power of a happy inflatable customer.  

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.