Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Some communities have a much higher retiree population than others. It can be difficult to reach customers who don’t utilize social media as much, so how do you get their attention?
Derek and Graham strategize on how to market to the retiree community for float centers. This episode is filled with bingo jokes, rambling examples, and solid advice for reaching out to any demographic that may not spend a lot of time on social media.
Show Resources
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: All right, welcome everybody.
Derek: Hello, hello, hello.
Graham: And as that intro implied, we do not have an Ashkahn today. We are joined again by Derek Wyatt, who you may remember run a lot of the marketing behind the scenes for Float On, and a lot of our different ventures including the conference and Float Tank Solutions as well.
So, we’re going to be tackling a marketing question as long as we have him in the studio. And we have one that was just sent in by one of you, our faithful listeners. Which is: “My center is located in an area with a large retiree population. How would you suggest marketing to a demographic that may not be frequent users of social media?”
Derek: Sponsor bingo events.
Graham: Yeah. No that sounds perfect.
Derek: Perfect.
Graham: Get like float themed things that get called out or, something like that. Like, “salt damage”. “Oh, yes, bingo!”
Derek: So I’m assuming because they said social media we’re eliminating all forms of online marketing?
Graham: Yeah, and we can extend it out. Social media is the most common example of things that older people are not as in touch with. That said, I also wouldn’t totally rule it out. I definitely have at least one grandparent who is on Facebook.
Derek: Right.
Graham: So, they’re out there. It may be much less of the population, but there are older people on social media.
Derek: And there are older people that aren’t on the internet at all, like my mom. My mom has to wait for my sister to bring over something from the internet to her to show her physically in person, so there is that demographic too. And maybe that’s what they’re thinking is perhaps the person is not active all the time, but even Facebook ads I think could still theoretically work. But let’s eliminate online marketing all together, how about that?
Graham: Sure. Yeah, for the sake of the question, and I guess just to rewind a little bit. Whenever we look at the industry report, and we’ve mentioned this many times before, the top two things in there are Facebook ads specifically, so social media advertising, and even above that is word of mouth. And then everything else is kind of down below those two. So, the first go-to for me when I hear a question like this is, if social media and online advertising in general isn’t going to be as effective, what can we do to get word of mouth going? You know, how can we get these groups of more elderly people talking about floating, and recognizing too that it can be really good for their bones and sense of well-being. Certainly elderly clients that we’ve had come in to Float On, above 70 years or so, have really enjoyed their time, and I think get a lot of relief. So, it’s a great group to want to reach out to.
Derek: So word of mouth in the retiree community. So knitting circles? Is that another one? Am I doing good here?
Graham: Preferably yeah, bingo knitting.
Derek: Yes.
Graham: If there’s some kind of knitting event where they play bingo that we can do float tank sponsored cards.
Derek: So, I’m going to rewind your rewind and let’s go back to Facebook ads for a second. With Facebook ad targeting, you can target people 55 and above, 65 and above. I mean, then you’re only getting shown to that population in your town, and if the messaging is on point and you can target something that they might be interested in, like arthritis relief, that might be an ad you specifically run to that specific crowd, and that can take care of your Facebook side of things.
So, back to offline media. That was just a random idea that came to my head. So, go back to why people float. You know, like Graham was saying a little bit earlier, and look at your current floating population that you’re trying to target – the retiree community. What’s something that they can all benefit from in floating?
Graham: You’re asking me?
Derek: Right
Graham: So, floating let’s just say for joint or-
Derek: Pain relief.
Graham: Back or, yeah pain relief.
Derek: There’s a lot of things they’re already doing to try and seek refuge from that pain. They’re probably on a lot of prescriptions, they’re going to see their doctors, they might even get massages, so going back to word of mouth, maybe going back to the massage community and try to build community relations there.
I would also challenge the idea that is the retiree population more than 50% of this town’s population? I guess maybe some place in Florida is probably pretty heavy retiree.
Graham: Sure, sure.
Derek: It seems like there’s a lot of retiree population, but in 10, 20 years that town has zero population. So I’m assuming there are other people in that town that can also benefit long term from floating that would be a longer term clientele base too.
Graham: Yeah, and I guess just for, you know, even if it is a smaller population the sake of trying to figure out how to actually reach that community in your town. It might just involve a little more time, and patience, and cleverness almost than doing straight, online advertising.
Derek: Right.
Graham: Facebook is great for reaching people because you can say, “here’s the audience I want to reach,” and literally throw money at your problem.
Derek: So let’s look at creating a good word of mouth experience for the retiree population. For example, are your rooms easy to climb in and out of? Are they going to have a hard time getting into a tank, or are they ADA accessible? Stuff like that’s kind of important to consider, because if you do get the retiree population to float with you, and they have a hard time getting into your pods, that’s probably not going to be good word of mouth.
Graham: Yeah, and it’s something that’s very fundamental to what we come back with for marketing all the time too. Which is: if the experience isn’t there, even if you’re good at convincing people to come through the door, if you can’t really accommodate people who have mobility issues and who are in pain. And unfortunately the hard part is some of the people before they go into the tank don’t realize they’re going to have trouble getting out of the tank at the end. And they’re walking around fine, and then they relax so much inside the tank, and getting out is a little more difficult. And again, by no means am I trying to say that people above a certain age aren’t able to be totally physically fit and mobile and stuff like that. It’s just that it is more likely that once you start hitting people over 65 that they are going to have joint pain, and they are going to have back issues, and we do have frail human bodies.
Derek: I’m not even 40 yet, and it’s hard to get off the couch.
Graham: So, it is why, although we do have elderly clients that come in who do get a lot of benefit out of it, we’ve never really gone for that population. Almost because we’re a little more worried about our own accommodations. We do have an ADA accessible room with a shower, but you still kind of have to climb over a ledge. We don’t have like a zero-entry float tank, or anything like that.
Derek: Where they step down into it kind of thing.
Graham: Yeah. Anyway, just to say I’m right on board with you that accessibility and making it more friendly in general to that audience of an elderly demographic is, I think, very important.
Derek: So fundamentally, I would probably try to strip out the uniqueness of the audience you’re trying to reach and go back to the fundamentals. Do you have a float experience that they would enjoy? Is your messaging on point to something that they can relate to, and that piques their interest enough to give this a try?
Graham: Bingo, for example.
Derek: Bingo, absolutely. Because they’re probably not online or readily accessible to a computer, making it easy for them to book by phone is probably another option too. You know, you want to make the process as smooth and easy as possible for them.
Any thoughts on trying to make it less online friendly?
Graham: Yeah, I mean not just for this specific population where maybe online advertising doesn’t work as well, but kind of for any group that I’m trying to hit, I always just come back to word of mouth.
Derek: Right.
Graham: You know, where can you find larger groups of people, they can even be meet-up groups for retirees.
Derek: Run a discount code for people at a retirement center that’s right up the road from you. You know, they probably have a couple hundred residents in their community, and residents of this community get 20% off, and let the word spread through there.
Graham: Sure, I mean there are whole art clubs, and walking clubs, and wine tasting clubs, and tons of things where you can maybe even target people who are a little more active and getting out. And stuff like that. But anyway, find a group, if it’s a town of retirees it shouldn’t be hard to find groups where lots of them get together, and figure out how you can give away free floats tactically.
Derek: How are other business reaching these people who aren’t on social media? So that’s another thing, if it’s truly that this town isn’t on social media, and there’s no way I can reach them otherwise, that’s probably not true. Other businesses are doing just fine getting clients to come through to them.
Kind of reverse engineer that a little bit. How are other business, we’re not unique. The float industry is not unique when it comes to getting customers from the standpoint that other businesses are out there getting customers. As long as you’re messaging is on point to solve a problem, you’re going to get people to take notice.
Graham: And, I would even say that float tank centers have an extra piece of ammunition in their marketing belt, which is that we are able to give away so many free floats for the relatively low variable cost of them. You know, a lot of our money is in overhead, just keeping the shop open every month, and keeping it staffed. So, since the cost per float is low enough, finding these groups of people, again just giving out free floats and getting them to come in and try it, you know, even if advertising in a certain paper works for a lot of businesses, and you can still try that and see if you get a return on that as well.
A lot of businesses don’t have the luxury of being able to give away their free product or free service. You know, if you’re an Italian food restaurant, you can’t just go out and find a group and give away one hundred free dinners to them. Like, your margins are just going to get eaten away from your business that month. And we can as a float center go out and give away one hundred free floats, or a couple hundred free floats to the right groups, and really get that word of mouth going.
So, if you’ve been listening to this Podcast for awhile, none of this that I’m saying is anything new coming from my own mouth. I am all for getting your way into these groups and getting your way into conversations through gifting free floats. And also, get involved with them. You know, if you can start going to some of these groups and just getting to know them personally, and getting to know the people who head them up and organize them, that’s a great way to get buzz going within the community.
Derek: I was trying to think back to when I first told my mom about float tanks, and I actually had to use a term that she was more familiar with, which back in the day was sensory deprivation tanks. She said, “Ah, I know what that is!” Well, maybe we’re trying to move away from that term in most marketing, but using it as a reference point and then telling them how it’s different from what they remember. You know, how the experience is different, it’s not your friend’s basement or anything like that. It’s actual clean facilities, well-treated water solution, that kind of stuff too.
Graham: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
So any other advice? So, I guess the thing is I don’t really have specific advice for retiree communities, it’s more just the fact that if you’re trying to get a hold of someone who doesn’t spend as much time online, I think you actually still use the same tactics you’d use to get ahold of the group that does spend time online. Which is, try to get free floats in their hand, and try to get people who they respect talking about them. You know, whether it’s finding out what radio stations in the area get the most listens, what newsletters get opened. If there’s a local newspaper that just has total circulation. You know all of these are great ways too. And I would say that rather than just immediately paying for advertising in those, approach those publications or those media outlets and see if you can offer free floats to them. Do a little trade, or even just give free floats to some reporters or whatever it is that people are paying attention to in your area, and get them floating. And nine out of ten times that might produce nothing, and then that 10% of people who get a free float from you and say, “Oh I would live to write an article on this.” All of a sudden you have that extra exposure. And if that doesn’t work, you can always go back to just paying for eyeballs with advertising.
Derek: Yeah, so I feel kind of bad we didn’t specifically try to address the retiree community, but like I said again, I want to strip out the retiree community and go back to just general messaging, general targeting, and trying to reach people where it’s not online. That’s kind of my summary of today’s question.
Graham: Yeah, and if you have your own questions that you want us to meander through, definitely go on over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and we will answer those. Hopefully we did a good job answering this one today.
Derek: If not, there’s always tomorrow.
Graham: All right, talk to you then, everyone.
Derek: Bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
How do you Start Opening a Float Center? – DSP 285
For people just starting out, it can seem really daunting to start a float center. They may not even know where to begin.
Graham and Ashkahn tackle this idea head on. The most important thing is to do a lot of research (definitely check the resources) and to make sure you have people that you can call and refer to for support when you need it.
What to do When Floaters Interrupt Intros? – DSP 284
Ashkahn’s back and on form. He and Graham take on the question of how to handle first time floaters interrupt the pre-float intros explaining the process.
There’s a lot of information that first time floaters need, and if they aren’t paying attention, it can cause messy floats or unnecessary difficulty or confusion. The reunited duo provides some great tips while going over different customer scenarios.
When is the Best Time to Open a Float Center? – DSP 283
Graham takes the helm again without any co-captain to steer the SS Daily Solutions through the rugged storms of float industry questions.
Today he answers a question about when the best time of year to open your float center. The important thing to remember is that, whenever you choose, you should plan for even earlier, as float centers are more likely to get delayed in construction.
Tips for Choosing Contractors – DSP 282
Graham the Lone Podcaster takes the reigns on answering how to pick a contractor for float center build out.
It’s the kind of big decision that every float center owner hopes to only make once, so getting as much information ahead of time is extremely useful. Graham breaks down some useful tips and explains how to ask for a bid, specific skill sets to look for, and general advice on knowing when to walk away.
Starting your Pumps Early – DSP 281
In this episode, Graham goes solo again to answer a particularly loquacious listener who sent in a question about how to logistically handle your changeover when a floater comes out early.
It can be tempting to start your changeover as soon as possible, especially if you have a few of them to get to, but Graham lays out some helpful things to remember before flipping that switch and running your pumps before the allotted time.
Latest Blog Posts
4,937 Things to Know About Buying a Used Float Tank
You’re thinking about buying a used float tank. Whether this is for a new center, an addition to an existing operation, or a purchase for your home, this is a big decision.
We’ve compiled together some of the major questions and considerations to entertain before making a purchase. While you do have the opportunity to save some money and snag a good deal, there can be hidden costs and unknowns to weigh against those savings.
Offering Overnight Floats
Almost three years ago, we discussed the merits of running overnight floats from an employee’s perspective, focusing on the opportunities of this unique experience as well as its challenges. We’d like to take a deeper dive into this issue because, while the majority of floaters come through our tanks during “normal” business hours, overnight floats form an important part of not only Float On’s identity, but also its business structure and broader culture.
How to Talk About Floating
You step into the elevator and shuffle to the side to make room for the kind-eyed, old woman with the miniature poodle.
“Good morning,” you say with a smile.
“Good morning,” she beams back, her gaze resting briefly on your water bottle with the logo from your float center’s annual party.
After a brief pause, she asks, “What is Float-a-Palooza?”
You take a breath, smile, and launch into your literal elevator pitch.
So, what do you say?
Employee Handbook Template
Whether you are a small or large float center, you most likely have other employees working for you. Regardless of the size of your staff, for reasons of efficiency and legality, it’s essential that your organization has clear and straightforward policies and guidelines. No matter how good employee communication is, it’s always safest and cleanest to have clear parameters and expectations written down.
This is why Float Tank Solutions has created a customizable Employee Handbook Template. Free for anyone to download, it contains federally compliant language (current as of October 2016) and contains a multitude of sections, from employee benefits and compensation descriptions to job guidelines and discrimination policies.
