Whether you have a new facility or have been part of the market for years, people still need to know about your water park. Marketing lets people know what you have to offer and lets them know about promotions and special deals. Use several proven strategies to get the most out of the time and money you spend on advertising your water park. The more methods you use to advertise your park, the better your returns will be.

1. Have an advertising strategy 

Being strategic with your promotional materials tailors promotional materials to specific audiences to appeal to what they want in a water park. Create ads that resonate with a specific target audience, but avoid choosing a single target group for your marketing efforts. Instead, create different types of content that appeal to different people.

For example, if you want to attract thrill seekers, you might create promotional materials that emphasize thrilling water slides or other heart-pounding experiences. When advertising to families, especially those with young children, promote your water park's kid-friendly features, such as a splash pad or themed spray sculptures.

When sending email newsletters, ask recipients to sign up for the type of information they want. This data allows you to send targeted promotional emails to those groups. For example, if someone signs up to learn about money-saving offers, they'll be added to the group to receive emails about deals and season passes. By sending audience-specific emails, you increase the likelihood that recipients will read the message instead of ignoring it.

Targeted promotional materials, such as emails and advertisements, are more likely to attract the attention of your target audience and make them interested in your water park.

2. Partner with travel agencies

Travel agencies can help market your water park to their customers and reduce your efforts to promote your water park. When choosing travel agencies to partner with, you have a variety of options, including traditional agencies, online travel agencies (OTAs), and destination marketing organizations (DMOs).

Traditional Agencies: Traditional travel agencies may help you promote your water park by offering your park tickets as part of travel packages. You may need to license a travel agency to sell discounted tickets to your park to make it more attractive to travelers.
Online travel agencies: OTAs offer many of the same benefits as traditional travel agencies, such as a way to sell discounted tickets and inform travelers about your park. However, some OTAs also offer venues the opportunity to launch a web page as part of their larger website. When an OTA site attracts traffic, your web page can benefit by receiving traffic from visitors looking for things to do in the area. Having a web page as part of the OTA can help your water park build a web presence when you build your company website that provides more information to visitors.
Destination Marketing Organizations: DMOs are regional groups that promote local attractions. These are very popular in heavily touristed areas that have many places for visitors. Connecting with one of these organizations gives you another way of marketing that doesn't require a lot of effort to inform visitors about your park. If you're okay with marketing your water park alongside other nearby attractions, contacting a DMO may increase the number of visitors to your site.

3. Offer special offers and season passes

Everyone loves a bargain. Offering special deals to visitors can drive them into your water park. When marketing your deals, encourage visitors to come at slower times of the year. For example, you could offer end-of-summer discounts on tickets purchased online or special opening day prices on snacks and beverages throughout the park.

Combining special deals with ads will show you how many visitors are responding to your ads. For example, you might consider offering a special link to discounted tickets or deeper discounts just for those who receive your email newsletters. On the email signup page, let site visitors know that they can receive secret deals by requesting an email. You may see an increase in email newsletter requests.

When promoting your special deals, think of a way to make the discounts easy to understand. For example, instead of saying that visitors will save 20% off the ticket price, specify exactly what that savings means. You can promote this deal as "Save $5 off the regular price of admission."

Another type of deal to offer guests is a season pass or similar loyalty program. By passing the season, a guest is admitted to your water park for one season. This type of admission ensures the regular attendance of some people who prefer to use their season passes frequently. These visitors may bring friends or family without a season pass and increase the profit on the entrance ticket

Q. They also spend money inside the water park for drinks, tube rentals and snacks. Plus, they help you build a fan base that will help build your social media pages.

Other types of loyalty programs may include special tickets that allow early admission or separate lines for attractions to reduce wait times. These options are especially good if you have a very popular water park that usually has long lines in the height of summer.

4. Use lots of visuals

Pictures speak louder than words, and when people are looking for information about water parks or other attractions, they want to see what makes the park great, rather than read about it. With eye-catching images, you can convey more information than pages of text.

Images can be professional photos of your water park, but you can also include images of visitors you use with permission, such as reposting their images on your social media pages. This combination of images tells site visitors that your park is professional and fun.

Images should tell stories about your water park. Instead of showing the kids an empty space with themed water slides, include photos that show the kids enjoying the slides. Take close-up photos of the reactions of people riding waves in a wave pool or being splashed by a splash.

When you have good visuals on your website, you attract attention and get people to explore more about your water park and what it has to offer.

5. Showcase your attractions on social media

Having a visual website should also be relevant to your social media presence. Images draw attention to your posts and encourage others to share them. You can use your social media accounts in a number of ways to show off your charms:

News Updates: Use your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok sites to provide quick updates on new attractions or upgrades to existing ones. For example, post short videos of guests' reactions to an exciting new water slide or let families post pictures of the fun they had at your park.
ENGAGE WITH GUESTS: Never forget the social part of social media. You should have an active presence on all your platforms with regular posts. Daily updates to your social media accounts throughout the season, quick responses to questions, and quick responses to comments show that you care about your guests and are ready to provide excellent customer service.
Hashtags: When using social media, create hashtags that other users can add to their content from your website. It effortlessly collects images, impressions, reviews and more about your park. Your hashtag will probably be the name of your water park without spaces or your slogan. This can also make it easier to share information about your park on social media and communicate with your park.
Upcoming attractions: Social media is also a great way to build excitement for upcoming attractions. For example, if you're currently building a new water slide or other attraction, post regular construction updates about the ride and what visitors can expect. If you have a new drink or food item, get tantalizing images of the item to get visitors excited.
Using social media, pictures and a few words go a long way in getting people excited about your water park and its attractions.

6. Optimize your website with SEO

Using social media should not be your only solution for sharing water park information with your guests. Your website can offer additional features such as newsletter sign-up and ticket purchase.

If you are not getting the expected number of visitors to your website, your site may not appear in the top search results list. When people can't find your water park online, they can't sign up for your email newsletter, buy tickets, or learn more about your park. The solution to improving your website's ranking in search results is search engine optimization (SEO).

Content-based SEO is a tool to use different keywords and phrases to connect your website to the most frequently searched terms related to water parks in your area. Since SEO rules change regularly, you should consult a professional service to evaluate and update your website to improve its ranking.

7. Make your website conversion friendly

Conversions happen when someone visits your website and completes a desired action. For your water park, conversions might include people signing up for a newsletter or purchasing park tickets. Once on your site, visitors need to know what to do to get more information. Educate them through effective calls to action in your web content.

To get more conversions, you also want to create a website that is easy for users to navigate on all devices – mobile and desktop. You need to make it easy for site visitors to quickly find out where to buy tickets, find park information, or sign up for an email newsletter.

8. Use the season

AL ADVERTISEMENT
Unless your water park operates indoors, you will likely have a seasonal schedule. Use the times you work to create seasonal promotions. For example, you might offer deep discounts on season passes or day tickets to give away at Christmas, even though it's the off-season for outdoor water parks.

If schools in your area return to class on different days for the fall semester, you may want to take advantage of attracting more crowds to your water park with back-to-school specials. The school can take advantage of the cheaper rates and smaller population. You benefit by having people in your park at times of the year when attendance is low.

Match your seasonal promotions with the slower times of the year to make your water park profitable throughout the season and keep potential visitors interested in your water park from opening day to the end of the season.

9. Partner with influencers

Online influencers can help you market your water park, provided they have the interest and viewer base to appreciate the connection. Find influencers who share the same goals as your water park. For example, you might look for an influencer who offers tours or reviews of attractions for families to show your family side. If you work with a thrill-seeker to promote your water park's most exciting features, thrill-seekers may be more responsive.

Influencers generate real content for your park without the filter of your marketing department. Visitors may trust someone else's opinion about your park more than what you say about it. As long as your park is fun and offers a variety of experiences to the influencers you partner with, you can enjoy another positive marketing method for your park.

10. Use digital advertising

Digital advertising can target users based on their previous searches or if they have interacted with your website. These ads often appear in the sidebars of a window on social media sites or search engines. Since these ads are side by side, you should use your best visuals in them.

Choose images from social media or your website that generate the most interest. Use these for digital advertising that can be generalized or targeted. For example, on social media, you can set up ads that target specific groups that you want to reach out to. You can pair an image of your latest and greatest water slide with an ad targeted at younger thrill seekers. Images featuring colorful, family-friendly play spaces are paired with ads targeted to parents.

Your digital ads are ways to reach people online. Put your best foot forward by using eye-catching visuals in all areas of your digital marketing.

11. Encourage user-generated content

Engage with your water park guests by encouraging them to generate user-generated content and post it to your website or social media. Use signage around your water park with your hashtag to ensure visitors know how to identify your content.

User-generated content can be very persuasive because it shows the real experiences of your water park. Potential visitors to your park want to know what it's really like to visit your park. They are eager for insider details from those who have visited your water park. User-generated content gives them the data they want.

Encourage visitors to take selfies at scenic locations around your water park to showcase the beauty and attractions of your park. Always promote safety first and do not allow visitors to use cameras while riding in water, even with waterproof equipment.

12. Use email marketing

Email marketing provides a way for guests to get information about your water park's upcoming events, new rides, deals and more. The content of these emails should target the interests of the recipients by having different marketing messages for different people.

Make emails fun to read and encourage readers to click through to your website for special deals, promo codes for tickets, or to be the first to see new park features or rides. By making emails the best way to get information about your water park, you can encourage more people to sign up for your email marketing newsletters.

13. Encourage events and parties

Turn your water park into a premium place to host a birthday party, family reunion or company picnic. To ensure that people with their groups have a great time at your water park, have catering options available, party space for large groups in a semi-private area, and give everyone in the group a chance to have a good time. to be

When people bring their friends, family or colleagues to your water park, you have the opportunity to impress new audiences with your facilities and attractions. If the parties are fun, you may find new future guests. Consider offering discount coupons for your next visit

To those who come as part of a party or provide other incentives to encourage them to return.

Regular events and parties at your water park can increase interest as partygoers share their experiences on social media. You may even have the chance to create a separate part of your marketing efforts to promote your park for group activities, which may provide you with a new revenue stream.

14. Add a new ride or section to the park

One way to rekindle local interest in a water park is to bring something new to your site. You may want to add a new water ride to bring in thrill seekers. Waterslides that allow you to ride twisting and turning channels on a tube or those that don't require inner tubes to enjoy will tower over your water park and add charm by dominating your park's landscape. However, if you don't have the space or budget for this type of massive structure, you can still attract new crowds to your park by building a new section.

If you don't already have a dedicated kids area, add a new kids sprinkler area. At this site, younger waterpark visitors can connect with other peers in a shallow pool or a splash pad with water sprays, mini slides, climbers or sculpted floats.

Whether you choose to add a new ride or park section, don't forget to promote it on your website, through email newsletters, on social media, and through digital advertising. Announcing the new attraction lets people know they have a new reason to visit your water park.

15. Upgrade your water park with SOFT PLAY

Of all the ways to promote a water park, the most effective way is to have a place that people enjoy and want to return to. Contact a SoftPlay representative to get a quote on the blue game options that draw the crowds. Our experts at Faraz Children's House can help you create a great water attraction.

Author and translator: Ali Asghar Alizadeh