Donyel Cerceo on Successful Marketing Strategies

This month we spoke with Donyel Cerceo, the marketing director at Merritt Clubs, about successful marketing strategies.

What marketing strategies does Merritt Clubs use?

In the last two and a half years, we have really been focusing on digital marketing. We are using geofencing campaigns, investing more money into SEO on our website, and spending more on search engine marketing with Google, Bing and Yelp. We are spending less money on traditional broadcast television and more on over-the-top advertising and more on streaming radio instead of traditional radio.

What are the benefits of having a successful marketing campaign?

Getting more members and increasing revenue.

How are you educating your staff to better promote and market your organization?

We have weekly general manager meetings where we go over all marketing for the month. The managers relay the information to the team in the clubs. I also do a monthly marketing playbook that has all current promotions, community events and in-club events. I send that out each month and the general manager at each club has every staff member review the book and initial they understand everything. If there are any questions, the team member will call me to ask for clarification. The book is then placed in the marketing binder at the welcome desk and posted on the club internal website for staff to view at any time.

What are the best practices clubs should keep in mind when marketing their offerings?

Know your market. Make sure you are using the appropriate channels to hit your desired market. For example, if you are marketing summer camps, ads on camp websites or magazines are appropriate but are maybe not the best marketing source if you are marketing an active agers program. If you are marketing a new wellness program with nutrition, maybe geofence ads around vitamin stores or healthy grocery stores like Whole Foods, etc.