The key to turning those first glances into registrations? Be sure that your listing reflects who you are and what you offer.
ActivityHero drives traffic to your listing through email marketing, social media, marketplace search, SEO, and more. But, views are only the first step to successfully registering a new family. We’ve compiled 5 best practices to help your business shine:
Optimize for Search
The ActivityHero marketplace has a robust search and filter tool for families to find exactly what they are looking for. If your listing is not optimized for key search terms and categories, you may be missing valuable views.
Recommendations for ranking higher:
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- Make sure your session availability is updated every few weeks. If you have any full sessions, mark them with 0 spots. Keep full sessions published because that tells families that you are popular and filling up.
- Try to get reviews for the activity or for your business
- If your session is only available on ActivityHero and from your website, you can get an “Exclusive” badge which ranks you higher in our marketplace
- Add relevant category tags (art, science, coding, etc)
- Use easy to understand activity names
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- Avoid abbreviations that are not common
- Use at least one word that describes the activity (i.e. Summer Cooking Camp)
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- Include additional keywords in your activity description
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- Mention the season, such as “summer”, “spring break” “winter break”
- Use category terms like science, Minecraft, dance in the description
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Consolidate Activities
ActivityHero’s search results show activities, but one activity can have multiple sessions for different dates, locations, or age groups.
If you have more than 6 activities, stop and think if this is necessary. Instead of creating separate activities for each week of camp or for each camp location, consolidate into just one activity that has multiple sessions. When you have a lot of activities, you are spreading the traffic thin, and reducing the possibility that the dates, time and location are going to work for that family.
Write Like You Talk
No parent wants to read a listing with lots of formal language. When you craft your business or activity description, write the way you speak in conversation. Imagine that you’re at the grocery store and meet a parent who is a prospective customer and she asks you, “Tell me more about your camp?” What do you say? Give your pitch online the same way you’d give it in person. You probably don’t use phrases like “enriching children’s lives” or “enhancing interpersonal skills,” right? What do you say instead?
A few questions you’ll want to answer with each of your Activity Descriptions:
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- What happens at this activity? You can describe the itinerary, highlight the parts of the activity that are most popular, describe what students will create, or describe what children will learn/know by the end.
- What makes this particular activity special? How does this activity differ from the other activities you offer? How does it differ from activities offered by other businesses?
- Any prerequisites or equipment required? Can anyone sign up, or do they need to have some experience to make the most of it? Do you provide all materials and equipment?
- Why do kids like this activity? Provide a student perspective of what your activity means to them and what they like about it.
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Show Photos That Inspire and Excite
Pictures and videos do a great job at giving parents an overview of what you do — and some visuals are better than others. We asked professional photographers for tips, and here’s what they recommend.
For Activity Photos:
- An activity shot. You’ll want to upload at least one unique image per activity, and only use that image for that activity. The photo should show kids engaging in the activity — concentrating and having fun!
- A materials shot. Showcase the supplies used by your business, such as a wall of art supplies, a giant box of LEGOs, a crossbow leaning on an archery target, a bag of soccer balls and cones, etc.
- Avoid having just a group of kids where you don’t know what they are doing. If you could use that photo on any listing on ActivityHero, it’s not special enough for you.
Quick Tip: Make sure that you secure permission from parents before posting any photograph on ActivityHero. Any stock photos must be licensed.
Include Testimonials
There are two reasons why reviews are important. You can probably guess the first one: Reviews help potential customers learn more about you from their peers. But the second reason may be a surprise: Parent reviews help you with organic search engine traffic. Search engines love the natural language found in comments and reviews.
85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
– According to a BrightLocal Survey
Are you nervous about asking your customers to write about their experience? At the end of your camp or class series, send a survey or email asking for feedback. If a family responds with a rave review, ask if they would be willing to share on ActivityHero. (And if your customers are not sure what to say about you, you can point them to “Be a Hero: Review Your Favorite Camps!” for review-writing tips.)
