Increase Your Indoor Playground Membership Enrollment Numbers QUICKLY With A 10 Step Content Blitz

 In Profitable Play Podcast episode 168, I told the story of a failed launch turned multi-six-figure offer, and at the end I asked you to ponder the question question...

“Is there an offer in your indoor playground business or a specific service you launched, that isn’t quite selling as much as you’d like?”

In that episode I also mentioned that the reason behind the lack of sales MIGHT just be due to a lack of customer awareness and education, so in this article I want to talk about what a content blitz is and how it can help you overcome this.

(And if you prefer to listen instead of read, this information is also on my podcast as well!)

Now keep in mind this concept can be used for any of the under-selling offers in your business, but in this episode and in the following episode I am going to give two specific examples.

Today we are going to talk about a time-sensitive content blitz, and in episode 170 I am going to give an example of an open-ended content blitz. To keep things specific and applicable to this industry, I am going to talk about memberships today and then in 170 we are going to use birthday parties as an example.

So first, what is a content blitz?

And please don’t get mad at me, I know I have been using a lot of football metaphors lately, but it’s really quite similar to a blitz in football. So in football, a blitz is where a team sends a ton of defensive lineman through the offensive line with one specific and singular goal between them- sack the quarterback and make a huge game-changing play.

And like I said, a content blitz is really similar in concept. A content blitz is when you spend a certain amount of time going ALL in on one of your service offerings. You share it so loudly and proudly and talk about it from all different angles and in different mediums that your customers literally can’t avoid hearing about it, no matter what platform they follow you on or how closely they are paying attention. 

Can you share other things during this period of content blitzing?

Sure. But the #1 priority for, lets say 2 weeks or 1 month, is to exert a ton of effort into overcoming that customer awareness and education hurdle for that one singular offer.

And just like in football, executing a content blitz correctly CAN be game-changing for your business.

And one more thing to keep in mind as we go through these tips– even though I am going to be sharing examples of utilizing these blitzes for different services, you can also utilize the same principles to build out your other business assets.

For example, you can do a content blitz around email list building. Or gaining traction on your Instagram or Facebook page.

And this concept is a lot easier than you might think– it just requires some intention and pre-planning to actually accomplish this actual transformative effect on your business.

And you can’t go half in on this one.

So before I get into the steps of this strategy, I  just want you to mentally commit to giving this one a try with ALL your effort. Because it won’t work if you take one bit from here and one bit from there– this is a powerful strategy when followed but it will NOT get you to that desired end result if you don’t go all in.

Alright, have you committed in your mind?

Said it out loud? Written it down? Something? Good.

Now let’s go through the steps of a successful content blitz. And remember, I will be using the example of a blitz with a specific TIME CTA, and we are going to be trying to increase our membership enrollments in this episode.

1) Set A Goal

The first step in any successful program or initiative will be to set a goal. Since memberships is the example we are using here, there are a few considerations to keep in mind. If you are a smaller space, like less than 3,000 square feet– you would likely not be able to shoot for the moon and realistically serve 3,000 members a month unless you are completely membership based and won’t be open to the public for open play or parties at all.

Before I share my strategy for how I set my membership goal, there are a few things we should keep in mind.

1. Members tend to learn our busiest hours and days and will intentionally plan to come at less crowded times
2. Members tend to stay at our spaces for less time per visit, since they come so frequently and are not paying per visit like an open-play customer would
3. Members tend to spend MORE on other items during their visit like coffee and snacks, since again they are not paying per-visit to play
4. Members will often bring in full-price-paying customers for open play, that are more likely to convert into a new member than a typical customer would be

So if you’re worried about losing out on too much revenue from day-pass customers, don’t be!

In our 2,500 square foot space, which could accommodate around 25 children safely at any given time, we found that 100-120 memberships was a perfect “cap” for us given the four points we learned over time above. 

This ended up working out perfectly for our business as well, since our rent was around $5,000 (some years it was as much as $6,800, some years it was less than $5,000). 

This is because our average monthly membership price was $50. So, $50 x 100 members turned out to be around $5,000 in recurring revenue every single month. So essentially, our memberships were covering our biggest fixed cost– our rent.

This was such a blessing to both our business AND my mental health and energy because, due to our very low churn rate, we could operate from a place of complete confidence KNOWING that we would have no issues writing that check– because that $5,000 per month was virtually guaranteed even with no additional sales or marketing efforts on our part.

If you need some more reasons I think making memberships a priority will be a game-changer for your business, just listen to episode 64 of the Profitable Play Podcast!

But, the point here is, you need to come up with a number of memberships you’d like to sell during this promotion. So, if you currently have 40 members and your ultimate goal to sell-out your memberships is 100, your goal for this blitz would be to welcome 60 new members.

2) Determine An Incentive

Content blitzes don’t necessarily need to have extra incentives built in, but they can certainly boost their effectiveness.

For example, if you plan on doing a month-long promotion, you can announce that any person who enrolls as a new member for the month of March, they will get an extra event pass or a month free or some sort of added bonus to move them towards a decision. 

Just be prepared that this may ruffle the feathers of some of your current members who have already invested in you. In the past, I have quietly offered these bonuses to existing members as well retroactively, to thank them for their loyalty. The key is you can NOT extend this bonus to any members who enroll AFTER the promotion is over, or the whole thing will come off as inauthentic.

If you are doing a promotion for ANNUAL memberships specifically, which can often serve as a HUGE boost in revenue especially around the holidays, you can work in a bonus just for annual pass holders or some sort of time-sensitive discount (like pay for 10 months instead of 12, which is what I offer to Play Maker Society annual pass members).

This is the time to really lean into your strengths to reach your goals– if your cafe drinks are all the rage, use that to your advantage. If your classes are highly sought after, that might make people say “HECK YES!” when they see it as part of your promotion.

3) Set A Timeline

This will only work if you set a timeline with a start and an end date. If this doesn’t feel right to you, or you aren’t really keen on offering additional incentives as part of your content blitz, stay tuned because in the NEXT episode I will offer a strategy that you will likely feel more aligned with.

But for today, it’s important to set a timeline. I love the concept of having a “membership month” every year, where anyone enrolling at that time gets added benefits.

However, if that seems too long or you don’t have the bandwidth to create a months’ worth of content, 2 weeks is fine as well! Just know that with vacations and crazy schedules– anything less than 2 weeks runs the risk of not reaching all the customers who would potentially be interested– especially given the currently VERY unpredictable social media algorithms. Which, by the way, is all-the-more-reason I hope you have been listening to my episodes about email list building and putting all of those plays-of-the-day into action.

I prefer to choose a month where there aren’t many holidays or other things happening– again, unless you are planning to center this around the holidays. Just know you will be competing with a lot of noise if you go this route, but it can also be super-effective to position this strategy towards gift-givers.

4) Come Up With A List Of Objections

This step is key, since the entire point of a content blitz is to arm your potential customers with the awareness and knowledge they need to decide if the service you’re promoting is a good fit for them.

And that’s the goal– the goal isn’t to try and please everyone and force your square-shaped offer into a round-shaped peg hole. The goal isn’t to get as MANY customers as possible, it’s to get the RIGHT customers into your world. By the end of your content blitz, people following along should complete clarity around whether your offer is a good fit– OR if it’s not. And if it’s not, that’s OK. Attracting the wrong customers with TOO much incentive or discounts will result in negative reviews and refund requests– which no one wants.

So here’s how I recommend coming up with your list of objections.

1. ASK your team. Loop your staff in and sit down with them and ASK, “what questions do you frequently get around this offer?”, “do people often give a reason of why they decide NOT to enroll?”... things like that. Write them all down.
2. ASK your customers. If you have a closed facebook group, a focus group, or some smaller subset of your customers tagged in your email list (or you could choose to ask publicly, that was just never my style)-- ask them as well. Ask them, if they haven’t become a member yet, what their thought process is. Pay close attention to the topics they bring up but also the exact WORDS they use, because we will use all of this information you’re gathering in the next step of your content blitz.
3. Create your list.

An example of the common objections or questions you get surrounding your membership offer could be:

1. The Price Is Too High
2. I Don’t Come In For Open-Play Often Enough
3. The Different Tiers And Pricing Confuse Me
4. I Have Multiple Children
5. I’m Afraid To Commit To A Contract
6. My Kids Get Bored In The Same Space
7. We Don’t Have Friends Who’d Come With Us

Make sure you include some specific examples or screenshots for each one so you can feel inspired enough to create content in the next step.

5) Create A Content Plan

If you listened to episode 4 of The Profitable Play Podcast, which is a listener-favorite where we created a YEAR of social media and blog content prompts, this will sound really familiar.  

We are going to go through a really similar exercise, but instead of spreading the content out through an entire year– we are cramming it into your promotional timeline. Which is why this is considered a BLITZ. It’s designed to get BIG results in a condensed amount of time.

So if you need a refresher, here it is.

Let’s use the 7 example objections I listed in step 4 as an example. And if you haven’t yet, I want you to actually make this list either on paper or on a google doc.

Under each of the 7 objections, I want you to create 2-3 talking points.

So for example, if the objection is, “the price is too high”, one talking point could be, “if you plan to come more than 3 times a month, you actually SAVE money”, and of course include the actual math because people love to see proof.

Next, you can add up the value of all the perks in your membership offer, and again calculate how much people will actually SAVE by becoming a member. Oftentimes parents will FORGET your membership offer has other perks besides the main one, in this case open play, so this is the perfect time to remind them.

And if the talking points can be used under multiple objections, that’s OK– just try to reiterate the same information in a fresh way. Some people are visual learners, some prefer numbers– so even if it feels repetitive, that’s OK.

I am sure by now that you’ve heard the old adage that people need to hear a marketing message 7 times before they are actually moved to make a purchase. I have found that to be SO true, so don’t be afraid if your talking points sound similar.

So if you go through your FAQ or objection list and make 3 talking points for each, now you have 21 sub-categories, or talking points, on your list.

This is where people tend to get overwhelmed, but I promise– it’s easier than it seems, so just bear with me here.

Under EACH of the 21 talking points, I want you to commit to addressing it with 3 different mediums, again– to ensure everyone, regardless of learning style and preferred platform, will get the message. Mediums to choose from include a FB/IG story (and stories can either be graphics, you talking, a team member talking, a video, etc) a reel, a blog post, an email, a feed graphic, a feed video– you get the idea. But try to have a healthy mix of mediums again to cover all your bases.

And these mediums can overlap too– so if you create a blog or video about how your memberships can save you money– you can easily email out a synopsis and link to that post. So this content plan isn’t meant to overwork or overwhelm you– but trust me, it DOES take planning. Doing this work though, is SO worth it.

Because remember– even after this blitz– the content doesn’t “expire”. You will always have that blog or video to refer customers to if they have a reservation or objection surrounding price. Not only will this be helpful for you, it will also empower your staff with more customer education tools to have at their fingertips.

ALL of this content can be reused and repurposed again and again to continue growing your business.

So if you counted correctly, you should now have a list with 63 content prompts– YES, more than one per day if you’re doing a month-long promotion. The goal here isn’t to meekly whisper your offer. 

This is meant to take up SPACE and literally shout it from the rooftops if you have to. I want you to go SO all in that local media outlets are reaching out and people get sick of hearing about it. That’s the point. So please, don’t shrink away from this, your offer and your business is amazing and it is so deserving of this much love and effort you are allocating for it.

ALLOW it to take up HUGE space.

But if this step in particular feels like a huge daunting task– that’s ok, I have some content creation tips for you in the next step.

6) Batch Your Content

This step is crucial especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed. And this is a big reason why I recommend mapping out a blitz a few months ahead of time. YES, we are going for quantity here so we are taking up space, but we can’t forego quality either.

What I recommend is now taking all of the different mediums and grouping them together. So for example, if you plan to shoot 10 reels, record 10 longer social media videos, write 10 blog articles, batch 10 emails, create 15 social media graphics, and create 8 story graphics– make a list of each medium type and write your prompts under each. 

Plan out each piece of content in advance (for example, if you’re planning reels, choose a trend to follow or note a sound you plan to use… if you’re planning blogs create a title and an outline) and set a date to get each one of them completely knocked out.

Some people find it’s easier to batch their content per OBJECTION, but I find this way much easier, so you just have to test and see what works best for you. I typically recommend only 2-3 content blitzes per year at MOST or it gets to be a little overwhelming for both you and your audience.

And don’t be afraid to ask for help here. Delegate some of your blog writing to your team since you’ve already created an outline or hire some virtual help like I discuss in episode 163 of the Profitable Play Podcast. 

But if you DO plan to do it all yourself, give yourself some time and grace– because YES, this is a lot.

And keep in mind your videos don’t need to be 30 minutes long and every single blog doesn’t need to be 2,500 words for this to work. As long as you’re fully addressing the objection and giving some anecdotes and examples and engaging your audience in a fun and authentic way– your content will be effective.

And it doesn’t have to be perfect or polished either.

You can let your customers in on behind-the-scenes exclusives which can really help form that relationship that is so crucial for a high ticket sale like a birthday party or a recurring sale like a membership.

But here’s the thing– batching or at least creating content before your blitz begins is CRUCIAL.

Even if you’re trying to convince yourself right now that you can kind of create as you go– I promise, you will lose energy and not have enough left to answer questions or messages that come in or show up in the comment section and engage.You will burn out, and it WILL make this strategy much less effective.

Now when you’re planning on when to schedule each piece of content, this is also something where you need to do what feels best for you or test it out. You can always rearrange what is going out when based on what’s working. 

I prefer to mix it up in terms of objection and medium, but some may want to spend ONE full week tackling each objective– it’s totally up to you.

7) Announce Your Initiative

Once you are well on your way in terms of content creation and you have your promotional calendar mapped out and have your dates planned, let people know what you’re doing!

 You don’t have to use the term “content blitz” or share your number goals with them, but looping them in will help dispel any confusion when you all of a sudden make ONE thing your clear primary focus.

As I mentioned earlier, you can call it “membership month” or a “birthday bonanza”-- come up with something clever and mention the incentives you’ll be offering if any.

Share how excited you are about letting your customers in on the offer you’re SO excited about. The more enthusiastic you are and the more energy is able to emanate from the screen- the better. 

That makes it really feel like you’re coming from a place of service (which you ARE!) and that your content blitz isn’t just a money grab. It will make them feel like you’re actually delivering VALUE and not just sales pitch after sales pitch.

8) Go All In On Execution

One of the best things about batch creating content in advance and scheduling it to post automatically is that, as I mentioned, it will leave you with TONS of energy to go ALL in on execution– because this is NOT the time to POST and GHOST.

You can go LIVE to answer questions, you can hop in those comment sections and engage, you can answer emails and DM’s in a timely fashion. 

This is crucial because while your content will educate and spread awareness– you still need to actually close sales and make conversions here. And some of that will require your intervention or your staff’s intervention– especially if you’re reaching many people new to your business.

9) Celebrate Along The Way

As you welcome members, CELEBRATE! Not only will this make those who purchased during your promotion feel special and seen and therefore their decision will feel validated– it will also create tons of FOMO for those on the fence– leading to MORE sales!

You can either go live and thank people, create a graphic and welcome people– again whatever style feels right to you! 

Going above and beyond in recognizing those who jump on board will be a GAME-changer in this strategy!

Every single time I do an affiliate launch I create a post-it wall and write people’s names on it when they buy and thank them individually (unless they ask me not to). I have seen people do this with balloons, allowing members to put a handprint on a wall, creating a community board with member names– there are truly endless possibilities!

Choose something FUN that people will WANT to be a part of. Because it feels really great to feel recognized  and like you belong and are valued.

10) Thank Your Customers

Once your promotion or content blitz is over, whether you reached your goal or not, THANK your customers. 

Acknowledge that you were WAY more active than normal but be sure to re-state your purpose for the noise.

Bring the attention BACK to your intention– which was to spread awareness about an offer you poured your heart and soul into and that you KNOW would be extremely beneficial to your customers if they knew more about it.

This subtle nod to your followers is a great way to show appreciation whether they decided to purchase or not. Because even if they ended up on the non-buyer side of the fence this time around, they may be in a different circumstance or position NEXT time you run a similar promotion.

So while you should never APOLOGIZE for taking up space, it’s OK to embrace your followers once in a while just for being there reading the words and messages you put out into the world.

Alright play makers, THAT is my content blitz strategy-I hope you enjoyed reading this article (or listening on the podcast!) as much as I enjoyed putting it together. 

I know your mind might be bursting with ideas and possibilities right now– but I am going to keep this really simple–

Your play of the day today isn’t to go all the way from steps 1-10 as quickly as possible. I simply want you to choose an offer you think might fit, and choose a month that works for your calendar and whatever else you may have going on in your business.

Just have that basic information ready, because in the next episode I am going to give you a second example of a content blitz– and it’s not until after you wrap up listening to THAT, that I’ll ask you to start assigning dates to the rest of your steps. So hang tight and FIGHT the overwhelm.  

And if you’re in Play Maker Society, I will be asking all of you what your topics will be and I’d be happy to help you execute this strategy as always.

I can’t wait to see what you create and how you take up space with your brilliant ideas and offers.