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Welcome to the RV Park Mastery Podcast, where you will learn the correct way to identify, evaluate, negotiate, perform due diligence on, renegotiate, finance, turn-around and operate RV parks. Your host is the 5th largest owner of RV and mobile home parks in the United States, Frank Rolfe.
Baby boomers are those who were born between 1946 and 1964, and they used to be the largest demographic in the United States. And all we talked about and all the articles out there and every book was all written about marketing to the baby boomers. But then suddenly, quietly, slowly, they no longer held their number one status, being replaced instead by the millennial generation. Those born between 1981 and 1996. But sadly, many RV Park owners did not recalibrate. They were so focused on the baby boomer customers that they failed to make the necessary adjustments to be more attractive to the millennials. This is Frank Rolfe with the RV Park Mastery podcast. We're gonna talk all about How To Attract Younger Customers to your RV Park. Now, the first thing you have to know is that young people are much more into online marketing visibility. The baby boomers aren't. Most baby boomers really don't dig the internet.
I should know because I'm a baby boomer and I have no interest in technology at all. I've learned to do it by necessity. I know how to go on Google. I even can use my cell phone now instead of my Garmin as my GPS system. But there's no question that if you wanna be successful today with an RV Park, you've got to get the following accomplished. Number 1, on a Google search of RV park in blank, whatever blank may be, you need to come up on that list. Number 2, you must have an excellent website that when someone clicks on those different options of RV parks, they find you and you look professional. Number 3, you must have really, really good social media rankings, preferably five star. But if you have a few bad ones, a few unhappy customers, you may drop to four star.
But you gotta have that as a basic starting spot. And yet shockingly, many RV park owners don't. They don't have a professional looking website. They only have one star reviews 'cause they've never asked any happy customer to put a review out there. And some are not even to be found on a Google search. So that's our first stop. If you wanna appeal to younger generations, you've got to be more internet savvy. Number 2, is you might consider getting a younger manager. Many people long had this belief that the older manager was the right mix for an older clientele. That if you had a manager who was in their 60s, 70s, when people walked in the door, they say, aha, that manager looks just like me. So as a result, I know this is the right place for me to be. But with a younger group now dominant in the RV park industry, I'm not really certain that that's true.
Now, even though you might say, well, I'm the owner and I get along best with old people like myself, that's not always the best way to make the decisions on your hiring. It may just be that the younger candidate you didn't choose because you preferred the older candidate, you may want to change that. Because obviously, every customer likes to work with people like themselves. And since we've got a age group change going on, we wanna make sure that our manager is more of the variety of age and customs as your customers. Also, you may wanna consider better signage. There's a lot of bad signage in many RV parks across America, and that's bad because signage sets the first impression of what you have going on. And the younger generation, they have grown up in a world where people don't paint their signs on a piece of plywood, but that everything is professionally produced through a group out there that does great signage online. And everything we see on the internet is so professionally polished and type setting and color choice. You gotta have better signage today. So look at your signage. Realistically, say to yourself, okay, now is this pro quality in the modern world? And if the answer is no, it's really not. It's really kind of dated, probably time to change it.
Also, don't forget to use the various elements you can use to gather visibility from the street. Things like feather flags. Anything out there that gets people to look, it also creates excitement. And young people, well, they love excitement. Also, remember that people need to want to do everything virtually today. People no longer like to call up and talk to people. I find this shocking being a boomer. I hate when I can't physically call and talk to someone. Yet the millennial generation, they like that better. They prefer not having the face-to-face encounters, by phone or in person, instead wanting to do it all online. I find it very impersonal but that's because I'm a boomer. So set it up so they can make whatever reservations, whatever plans in the complete absence of talking to anyone because they just pretty much prefer it that way.
Also, make sure that your RV park is pet friendly. I do not know what has triggered such an embrace of pets among young people. Maybe many of them have substituted pets for children or spouses or maybe that's just a better way to live. That I can't say. I've had dogs for decades but I've never seen a group ever that has such an affection for animals as the millennials. So don't try and make your RV Park where it's negative on pets because that will be a total turnoff to most of these younger clientele. Also, make sure that your property has a very high property condition, no litter on the ground. Touch up the paint on things that look kind of shopworn because again, the millennials are a more discriminating group. They grew up around more aesthetically professional things than I did for my generation. Maybe it's because we just didn't have all the clean and easy stuff that they can do today.
Today, they can make flooring which looks just like hardwood that's made out of vinyl. They're able to do all kinds of amazing things today. You can wrap a car with a wrap rather than repaint it. So young people are just more accustomed to those little details being sharper. And many RV parks are lacking those sharp details. It's not hard or expensive to get there. It's more of an attitudinal issue. And then finally, make sure that whoever manages your RV Park has a positive attitude. Because if they don't like young people or they just don't like people in general, that is not going to send a very inviting or welcoming vibe to your customers as they walk in the door.
Now, it may be hard if you're a boomer, and I'm a boomer, to accept the fact that we are now in the minority. It's hard to imagine it was ever possible because we heard so long that the boomers were the key to everything in the world. We're so proud of the fact there's 10,000 boomers retiring per day in America, many of which are buying RVs and going across America. But the good news is that even though the millennials have become the dominant demographic today, they also love RVs. They've been a huge boon to RV parks because they also own RVs and are buying plenty more. In fact, they're buying more RVs than the boomers are, and they're using them frequently. Sometimes they're using them full time as many work now remotely. And it's great for the industry. No one really knew what would happen as the boomers became smaller if young people would in fact embrace RV parks. But they did. So the good news is there's plenty of customers out there. The younger generation is a very good customer base. You just have to put a little more effort in to get them. This is Frank Rolfe with the RV Park Mastery podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.