When choosing your marketing company, it is important you look at the metrics. It is also important you understand them. Words such as impressions, click through rate, and conversion can make your head spin, yet, they will tell you how well the strategy is working. Outdoor Hospitality is becoming a sophisticated industry, and marketing your park(s) is more important than ever.

At AOS, we are passionate about marketing for our properties. It is a part of all our contracts, and the below shows the reason why. As a full service 3rd party management team, our marketing department is one key to our success. They are AOS employees and work out of our Florida offices. We do not use sub-contractors for this most important piece of the pie.

Early on, one time, we agreed to allow group to take on their own marketing. The results were a disaster.

Below shows a screenshot of bookings for the upcoming season.

With bookings like this, we finally convinced the ownership group to change to AOS marketing. We are just two weeks in, and here are the results:

These are not doctored screenshots. These are REAL numbers two weeks after taking over. These numbers will continue to improve as our marketing makes inroads. It usually takes a month for good marketing to gain traction, so we expect big things in the next few weeks.

Make sure your marketing is producing results. If it is not, it is time to take a long, hard look at the problem areas and make a change before your season is upon you. Educate yourself to understand the terms and results being delivered. Demand your marketing group produce a report showing you how your money is being spent and the results of those dollars.

These few simple steps will put you in charge of your marketing budget and making intelligent, data based decisions.