paintball marketing strategy
Do you have a paintball field, store, or website but struggling to attract new players or customers into your business and industry? If so then stop what you're doing and read this entire paintball marketing post, because this is for you!
My name is Kevin Mahoney. I have over 18 years of professional experience working in the paintball industry working for the most prominent manufacturers and brands in the industry. Throughout my 18 year career, I traveled to 13 different countries including South Africa, Malaysia, and Brazil each six (6) times each cultivating our international business.
In 2013, I exited the paintball industry to pursue a career in digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). As of 2020, I have multiple certifications in SEO from SEMRush, the most prominent SEO marketing tool I use and recommend most, by design, and the founder and owner of Marketing by Kevin.
I was also invited and gave the presentation below at the 2019 Paintball Extravaganza in DC. After giving my presentation and reflecting, I was able to identify some actionable steps all paintball business owners can take immediately to help revitalize the industry.
It's a digital world, and it's time to evolve. The days of throwing up a basic website, setting it, and forgetting it are over. At least if you want your site to become your best income producing asset.
Contents
Your website should be nice to look at and easy to understand. It's safe to assume that your average web user is going to give your page a two-second glance, which means they need to find all the navigation information in those two seconds.
If you have a menu that collapses, make sure it's obvious. Menus that automatically pop-out when you scroll over them are better than clicking and waiting for one to load.
Along with being easy to navigate, your pages also need to be easy to read. This is NOT the time for funny fonts or the time to play with overly bright colors.
Make sure the design of your website doesn't overpower the content.
For this point alone (and to appear more professional) it's best to work with a web designer who knows the industry best. They can create a site that fits your personality and color scheme without taking away readability.
They can also make sure things are easy to find and that your site is easy to navigate. It's absolutely worth the cost.
You've contracted out your paintball friendly web designer and are well on your way to kicking off a strong paintball marketing campaign – but now you're faced with another question – where are you going to host your site? Let's explore.
You know those websites take forever to load no matter how fast your personal internet speed is? The website is loading so slow because they have a slow host or slow server on their end.
That frustrating and undependable load speed is going to lose them customers, and you – if you don't choose the right web host. We recommend WPEngine as a hosting site.
They're quick, reliable, and if you're going to go at the web design aspect yourself – the interface is easy to understand.
But first, let’s make sure we are all on the same page and answer this question:
Hosting, and more specifically, WordPress Hosting, is what powers your website. The analogy I like using is the electricity to make an electronic to work. It’s not exactly the same but it puts us in the same ballpark. The hosting company is a warehouse made up of “servers” that store your website files, or all your website contents.
There are more hosting companies available to use than I can count, and I have used more in my past than I can list. To be perfectly honest, until I found WP Engine, I was not a fan of a single hosting company. It was quite the opposite since we are being honest. 🙂
Here's why. My ultimate goal when writing a blog post is for my target audience to see the content I am posting. Obviously right?
In today’s digital world, there is lots of competition, or similar blogs, regardless of the niche. One of the primary ways of separating yourself apart from the crowd is by having a blog that loads fast for your readers. The first step to having a fast loading blog is having the best hosting possible, within reason, for your blog.
Here is where WP Engine comes in. They are by no means the cheapest on the block. Actually, they will be far more expensive than most other hosting companies, which deters many people from their company, initially.
Let me explain why the price should NOT be a deterrent.
WP Engine is a MANAGED hosting company.
What is a managed hosting company?
Managed WordPress hosting is a concierge service where the host manages all technical aspects of running WordPress. Managed hosting includes:
The last sentence is critical and has resulted in not only saving my business money but also and often times more important headaches. WP Engine has fantastic hosting, truly the best I’ve found so far. That’s not to say it's not possible for better performing hosts that exist, but their product alone suits my needs.
Consequently, I'm continually telling their support techs how incredibly helpful their 24/7 tech service availability is. I sincerely think that I would have an account with WP Engine even if their actual hosting product weren’t as good, just to have access to their support teams.
Here is why: You like me are most likely NOT a coder. If you're not an expert in something, it's tough to hire an expert and know they are fixing what you need, correctly and efficiently. For all you non-mechanics like me, think about how you cringe when you have to bring your car to the repair shop and put your complete trust in the repair shop to fix what needs fixing, ethically, and with no extra charges. This same philosophy applies when building blogs and websites.
I’ve hired many techs in my career, some are fantastic, and some have crashed my site entirely. 100% of the time I depended on the person or company to not take advantage of me because I did not have the skills myself.
WP Engine took this element out of this. If you are their customer, they're incentivized to help in any way, and that's what they do.
Here's a list that WPEngine assists me with that is 100% included in my hosting package:
On top of this, it's a managed service, so if you ask them to help or do it for you, they will.
Don’t miss our complete WP Engine review that covers the Pros and Cons involved with their services.
WP Engine Review: Everything You Need To Know
Before you mess around with getting your site set up and looking nice, you need to register with Google my Business. Google is an entity that loves itself, and it loves when you use its products.
If you're unfamiliar with Google My Business, just take a moment and think of the name of this free Google Business Product and what the relevance might be to your business?
Google my Business is a free listing tool that will pop your business up in the side of someone's search, linking to your location, website, hours, and even customer reviews.
However, you must have an address that Google can send a postcard to. It won't activate your account unless they can verify that your business address can receive mail. If it's an online business, you can absolutely use your home address.
For step by step directions on how to correctly ensure your Google My Business account is set up and verified with Google, check out:
Your Ultimate Google My Business Guide
On your website, you need sections or pages. These are usually something like product pages, an about me or about us, a contact page, and even pricing.
Breaking down your site into these pages helps people find what they need faster – and easy navigation is good for people searching which means its good for SEO! Think of having a table of content, index, and page numbers in books. We would be lost without them right? We need a basic structure and path with our websites from the start to lead our readers to find the information they are seeking.
Being a sales representative in the paintball industry for at least 13 years, I've heard every objection you can think of to why one specific region can't sell a particular price range a category of product, paintball, marker, etc.
Let me help bridge my paintball and digital marketing experiences by offering tips to increase sales across the board with your foundational website pages with the best content to your customers in the most appropriate sections of your website.
It's hard to get the consumer to engage and if they do, you should assume there are people with the same problem or question that didn't.
It's 2019, with the advances of technology, whether we like it or not, we're being conditioned to not have to interact with people if we don't want too.
If you have one person calling or emailing to ask a question, I personally would make the safe assumption that many more want the answer too that won't ask.
Use that feedback and create a FAQ page for future users and customers. That way they can get the information they need and hopefully convert in one (even the first) session!
For example, I know EVERYONE in paintball has been asked this question. Literally, the MOST ASKED question in paintball…
Answer – Yes, a common way to describe getting hit by a paintball from close range would be compared to being snapped by a wet towel.
However, we say this to help set expectations and NOT to discourage those with low pain tolerance.
Male and Female of all ages are still able to participate and have a fantastic time. Please continue reading to learn more about the increased protective wear that is available if being shot it a top concern. Please know, your concerns are also ours.
This question and answer, in my opinion, should be front and center of every paintball field website and then continue down the line of questions that a new customer entering into the industry asks almost on command every single time.
Why?
Let's dive deeper into the question, does it hurt to get hit by a paintball? From my research, if a paintball field has this question on their website, most likely it's buried and not front and center. More on that in a minute.
But more importantly, almost 99% of the time that I've found this question on a paintball website at all, the response at best is:
Yes, a common way to describe getting hit by a paintball from close range would be compared to being snapped by a wet towel.
This is the WRONG ANSWER!
Why is it wrong? Because you're not answering the question for your entire customer base.
Let's think about this again, and I'm talking to the men reading this!
When was the last time you contacted a business to ask if something hurt too much to do something? Most likely NEVER!
This question almost always is not intended for MEN and should not be answered for MEN.
Yes I understand the game is very male-dominated, and even most of the times the question is coming from a man, but WHY WOULD A MAN ASK THIS QUESTION?
Maybe because they want to bring their wife, girlfriend, son, daughter, etc.
Now let's ask and answer this same question with this context again:
Question – Does it hurt to get shot by a paintball gun? (thinking of bringing my 12 and 14-year-old kids)
Answer – Yes, a common way to describe getting hit by a paintball from close range would be compared to being snapped by a wet towel.
Bowling or laser tag it is!
Or take this opportunity right from the very beginning to offer them immediate options, which is ACTUALLY what they want and WHY they asked the question to begin with.
When people ask questions it's amazing! You don't even have to sell, you just provide options or solutions via your business based off of their questions.
Think about Amazon. The SECOND you put an item in your shopping cart you then see new items that say “people also buy with that item.” Does Amazon blindly guess on what products to instantly drop in front of you or do they have mountains of data to use and know more about you than you know about you and have the ability to drop products you want in front of you that you don't even know to exist?
When you truly understand your customer and their buying lifecycles, you can take their questions and answer them with suggestive selling tactics by the way of simply informing your customers on your website of what ALL their available options are.
Correct Answer:
So when someone asks:
Does it hurt to be shot by a paintball marker?
Yes, a common way to describe getting hit by a paintball from close range would be compared to being snapped by a wet towel.
However, we say this to help set expectations and NOT to discourage those with low pain tolerance.
Male and Female of all ages are still able to participate and have a fantastic time. Please continue reading to learn more about the increased protective wear that is available if being shot it a top concern. Please know, your concerns are also ours.
Then continue down the list of your most asked questions, such as…
It’s not required to own your own equipment prior to playing paintball for the first time. We offer xxx rental markers and packages for xxx price that will be ready to use when you arrive.
However, it’s not wildly uncommon for new players that are interested in playing paintball to purchase their own equipment before playing for the first time. Here are the top 5 paintball marker kits we recommend for just starting out and why.
Also, we find that many people prefer to own at the very least their own set of goggles when playing paintball for their own sanitary reasons. Rest assured all of our rental gear is cleaned and sanitized properly, but many appreciate the small extra upfront expense to not have to share items like paintball goggles with others.
Here are our top 5 most recommended Paintball Goggles to select from when first starting out and why…
Consumers do not trust businesses. It's been shown again and again. If you gave them two businesses that were exactly the same and one business came recommended by a friend, 84% of people would go with their friend's choice.
Here's my take on “about us” pages. Often times this is where business owners really go heavy on how amazing they are, what they achieved in their life, etc. Much of that might be applicable to this section, but let me help frame things from an SEO perspective and the overall psychology of search patterns.
When people are searching online, specifically in Google, it's because they're looking for information. Often information they have no idea what they are even looking for, hence why they are searching. When people are searching, their main focus is on how the information benefits THEIR NEEDS.
Let's put this into context for “about us” pages now. Your about us page should absolutely talk about your industry experience and expertise that expresses to your readers you are an expert in your industry and a trusted source.
What do I mean?
Be confident that you've owned and operated a paintball business for 5,10,15, years. This experience has allowed you to battle test hundreds of different types of paintball products that have led you to have your expert recommendations on your website:
It's time for YOU to be the expert in your region starting with your about us page by telling your readers why you and your staff's experience is exactly what they are looking for.
Continuing with the idea of consumer mistrust, you need to show your customers that you're accessible. Having a contact us page shows them that you're willing to hear what they have to say or answer their questions. And honestly, be accessible.
Once you have your top 10-20 FAQs answered effectively on your website you will find just being accessible is a value add to customers, but not nearly as necessary because most questions will already be answered.
However this is a great place to embed a map with directions, and you can put things like your hours and your address – just make sure it matches what your Google My Business profile said.
Last but absolutely not least, you need a blog on your website. Some people have their blog open into a new URL, but we don't recommend that.
Your blog is how you manage the content of your site.
A good strategy with your FAQ's are as followed:
Make a list of your top 10-20 most asked questions, and be sure to audit this at least 3-4 times per year.
Make a helpful but direct and brief answer to each question your FAQs. Then make a blog post for each FAQ that goes into far more detail around each question. This way you answer the question quickly and you provide a link at the end of each FAQ that immediately directs the reader to another section of your website (your blog) for more details or context pertaining that question.
This way, you can write a blog post about getting shot by a paintball that might be 2000 words and answers multiple questions and link that same blog post to multiple FAQs.
If you follow this post and structure your website as suggested, then my highly recommended next steps would be to hire my team of SEO Experts to seriously help you start ranking in the search engines.
Many businesses in many industries have had poor results with SEO in the past because they started working with SEO Agencies before their website had the proper foundation. I refuse to work with anyone if I can't get the expected results, which is why I built out my website with rankings first. My thinking from the beginning is why would anyone ever buy a marketing service from my company if I can't prove it works.
That's why my website is an exact template of what I preach. I'm an SEO Expert, if you look through my website you will see countless articles, videos, and graphics helping businesses and entrepreneurs learn SEO or market their businesses more effectively. Everything I use to get my business results is exactly the same team and products I formed to create my business to get businesses like yours the same kind of results.
So instead of SEO Expert, replace SEO and insert Paintball Expert and let's start making your website the Paintball Expert your customers are searching for!
If you'd like help creating a more in-depth SEO strategy, please let us know – it's what we do.
Throughout my posts, you'll notice a reoccurring theme of me explaining how long-form informative based content for your readers is what ranks the fastest in the search engines. This post is a perfect example that was posted yesterday 02/28/19 and already is ranking #2 for terms like paintball seo.
New update 4/16/2019, we now are ranking in the top 1 and 2 positions in Google for terms like “Paintball SEO”, “SEO for Paintball Fields”, and more. I'm showing you these results simply to express how effective this marketing strategy is.
You can do this starting today. It takes one post at a time just like this.
Be sure to look through our site directory for more helpful articles to increase your paintball marketing presence.
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