Camp Brochure Basics and Flyer Fundamentals

Everyone has a camp brochure and various flyers, right? Here are some tips that make sure that your brochure and flyer marketing is effective.

Design, design, design.

• The moment you can afford to have your materials designed by a professional, do it! A designer can combine the best colors, pictures, fonts, and style into a captivating piece. Camp directors can give lots of input and guide the process, but a designer will make it work.
• If you need to do the design in house, find a marketing layout you like, and model your design after it. Insert your own pictures, program names, etc, but you can definitely model your brochure layout after a professionally produced one.

Pictures

• Rule #1: Use pictures of smiling campers doing fun activities under the watchful eyes of caring staff. Parents number one concern is safety, followed with a concern that their child will be having fun.
• A really cute camper is simply not as effective as a camper as described before.
• Try to use pictures of campers and staff wearing camp shirts to reinforce your branding efforts.
• Make sure that the pictures do not show campers engaged in seemingly inappropriate activities. Sometimes the really funny pictures can be alarming to parents, so choose carefully.

Information Fundamentals

You want people to be able to register upon reviewing your brochure, without having to call you for basic information. Be sure to include the following:

• Session Dates
• Gender & Ages
• Mailing Address
• Daily Activities
• Prices
• Registration Form & Process
• Actual Location of Camp
• Open House Dates
• Program Descriptions
• Directions to Camp

Distribution
Get your brochure into the hands of as many people as possible! Here are tips:

• Distribute through schools.
• Send to last year’s parents.
• Gary Forster, from the YMCA of the USA, recommends sending brochures to currently registered families with a “Give to a Friend” sticker on the cover.
• Drop off lots at pediatrician offices.
• Keep a box or two in your office. Put them wherever you go (well, wherever they let you!) Dentist, grocery store, hotel lobbies.