Don't Put Your Indoor Playground Sales (And Business!) At Risk By Making This Common Mistake

If you follow my Profitable Play Podcast, you may have seen that I released a very important "play of the day" for you today– and paying close attention to this tip can help prevent a disaster in your business over the next 2 years– one that I have seen play out ALL too often in real-life businesses every single day, just like yours. 

So in case you didn't listen to this episode (or if you prefer reading!) I am here to summarize for you.

Many popular marketing gurus these days –myself included– often tell business owners to choose a PRIMARY platform to post content on and grow when they're first getting started.

And, as I have mentioned previously, there are really 2 different types of content platforms, each with their own specific purpose.

Social media platforms are one type.

This includes instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok– those sorts of apps. It’s generally quicker to see success on social media and gain a following on these platforms... but the shelf life of your posts-- unless they happen to go viral– is usually very short– we're talking minutes or hours here.

The next kind of platform is search engine platforms.

By search engine platforms I mean content that is (you guessed it!) searchable-- and generally gives you more long-term results. I have blogs and YouTube videos that have consistently brought me inbound traffic and leads for YEARS-- though it DOES typically take longer to achieve significant results with search engine marketing.

Search engine platforms include things like (again, you guessed it!) blogging and youtube– and some marketing experts may even though Pinterest into the mix since that, too, is a search engine (but local businesses can skip Pinterest for now-- unless you're more advanced or further along and want to dive into my local business Pinterest tips here!).

If you’re an OG of my podcast or youtube channel you already know which I prefer, but this article is not meant to be a chance for me to get up on that soap box again-- cause... been there done that!

Both social and search engine marketing have their places in a holistic marketing plan for a local business like yours. Plus, everyone is different and therefore finds different types of content more joyful to create.

And a truly healthy marketing strategy will use BOTH social media and search engine marketing– which we are going to discuss in a bit. So again, just to reiterate-- we are NOT here today to argue the pros and cons of social media vs. search engine marketing. 

But just because this isn’t one of THOSE articles doesn’t mean this isn’t going to be a cautionary tale. 

Now, imagine something with me for a moment.

I want you to think of that ONE platform where you get  MOST of your inbound leads or sales from. Where you have connected with the most customers.

Where you KNOW that when you post– you will see a boost in sales...or at the very least, a boost in followers.

That ONE platform you have spent the most time and effort on. The one you have poured your heart and soul into and continue to do so daily.

 Ok, are you thinking of it? It’s probably Facebook or Instagram for most indoor playground or play cafe business owners– if that helps.

 Next... I want you to imagine waking up to that VERY account disabled.

Gone. No real reason or explanation given.

No chance to appeal.

And it doesn’t have to be your ENTIRE Instagram or Facebook account- it could also be your ad account for either (or maybe even your Google Ads account).

 How to you feel? Did your stomach just drop?

Did you say, “holy S%$T, my sales are about to plummet?” or, “how will I run my business without this platform... when this platform IS my business?!"

Did you panic and maybe check your phone to make sure I didn't accidentally just will this will into existence... and subsequently breath a sigh of relief when you saw that your account was just fine?

If ANY of the thoughts or actions I just threw out there sound a little too familiar, this article is for you.

SO often we as small business owners are guilty of choosing ONE platform at the beginning and then fail to expand into others once we're ready-- which is an important next step of that popular strategy that I mentioned at the very top of this page.

And let me tell you– this DOES happen. It’s not an urban legend.

My instagram account got completely disabled last year just because I didn’t tag a business partner in a post (and by the way-- it was disabled in ERROR-- I actually did not fail to comply with their terms of service whatsoever). I eventually got it back– but it took over 2 months for Instagram to realize their error.  

And I have seen ad accounts and youtube accounts and SO many inbound marketing channels get disabled (over the last few weeks especially)– most of the times INCORRECTLY.

And a big reason for that, as I mentioned on Friday’s Profitable Play Podcast episode, is because we are nearing the midterm elections.

And over the next 2 years, we are going to have to stomach another presidential election. And facebook, instagram, youtube– NONE of those channels want to risk their own businesses like Facebook did in the 2016 and 2020 elections when they were fined millions and millions of dollars and Mark Zuckerberg had to appear in front of congress. 

So they are going to play it safe. 

And if that means disabling the account of a small business (who relies on their platform to generate sales and leads)– so be it.

Even if you do NOTHING wrong– your accounts are at risk.

All these platforms rely heavily on artificial intelligence to flag accounts– and they are known to make critical mistakes.

So yes– you MAY get your account back like I did on appeal, but the reality is that it could take MONTHS. Or, you could fail to get it back at all.

And as we head into the typical indoor play "busy" season, that is just a risk I would NOT be willing to take if I were in your shoes as a business owner.

Now to get to the point of this article. Because NO, the point of this was not just to put a pit in your stomach– it’s to give you a plan of action so your business does NOT need to come to a screeching halt if a disruption DOES happen to you.

We are going to be diving a bit deeper in future episodes on my Profitable Play Podcast... but for now, here are 5 tips to get you started: 

1) Create Back-Up Ad Accounts

If you use Facebook and Instagram ads, listen to Profitable Play episode 129 and create backup ad accounts and do a re-read of terms and conditions and listen to the tips I share in that episode. You can also watch on YouTube here!

2) Cross-Pollinate Your Social Media Channels To Diversify

If you rely heavily on a social media platform like facebook or instagram or YouTube– make sure you are "cross-pollinating" these channels so your followers are reachable in MULTIPLE places.

So, for example, if you are doing a contest on instagram– make it platform specific. If you have the most followers on Facebook, SHARE the contest on Facebook and remind people they NEED to follow you on instagram in order to enter.

And if you have channel-specific content like behind-the-scenes videos you ONLY share on Instagram Reels (but you know your Facebook followers would enjoy), make sure you SAY that on Facebook.

People typically won’t follow you on multiple channels unless you give them a reason to, or if they feel like they are "missing out" on something by sticking to following in one place. Constantly share reasons why people should follow you in multiple places for this reason!

3) Get Your Social Media Followers Onto Your Indoor Playground's Email List

Speaking of multiple places, we should also be working to get ALL of our followers, regardless of platform, onto our email lists.

Because as you know from dozens of past episodes– our email list is something we own, unlike social media platforms or followings.

So go back and listen to episode 1 of the Profitable Play Podcast (yes, it was important enough to be my very FIRST episode!) for how to do just that.  But regardless of the tactic you choose to use, if you take NOTHING else away from reading this today-- know this. A TOP priority of your social media marketing strategy should be to GET PEOPLE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST!

4) Regularly Download Your Customer Lists And Email Lists

Speaking of email lists, make sure you are downloading your list from your email service provider at least once a month.

Not only can you use these lists as warm custom audiences for high-converting Facebook and Instagram ads (as explained here)... but it will also ensure that– if your email service provider ever has an outage when you NEED to send something out– that you won’t encounter much (if any!) of a disruption.

For example, I use Active Campaign as my email service provider. If they have a 12-hour outage during my launch (which HAS happened!)– I can simply upload my latest list onto another platform like Mailchimp or Flodesk and send out whatever I need to send out.  And here's the best part-- my customers will be none the wiser-- PLUS, my sales won't suffer as a result.

5) Have An Alternative Way To Take Payment

Outages aren't just limited to social media platforms or email service providers. Many outages also happen with websites, event booking softwares, point of sale systems, and tools like those.

Therefore, it's crucial to learn NOW how to create invoices or payment links in a different system so– if you do encounter this– it’s not catastrophic for your indoor playground or play cafe business.

For example– we used to use Occasion to book parties (I no longer recommend them, but that's another story for another time). When we used them, they had a ton of outages and other bugs.

Because of that, I learned how to create an invoice and payment link in both Stripe and Quickbooks– systems I was already using for different things inside of my business– to prevent myself from having to learn something new in a moment of panic.

The point here is to reduce your business risk in the event of ANY disruption.

We do NOT want all of our metaphorical eggs in one basket– in ANY facet of our business– but especially in the ways we grow our sales and communicate with our customers.

As I mentioned, there are many other strategies you can use to leverage your current channels to grow other platforms to help move towards that healthy holistic marketing strategy I mentioned (which we will absolutely get to in future Profitable Play Podcast episodes).

But in order to do that, you needed this little gut check first as a foundation to grow upon.

So YOUR "play of the day" today is to figure out which platform YOU would be most panicked to lose–

And use these 5 tips to mitigate that risk and create a more sustainable business.