The Local Marketing Strategies Most Play Café Owners Are Overlooking

If you're an indoor playground or play café owner, I want you to think about how much time you spend every week creating content for social media. Between Instagram Reels, Facebook posts, stories, promotional graphics, and trying to keep up with whatever the algorithm seems to be favoring, marketing can easily become one of the most time-consuming parts of running your business.

And yet, despite all that effort, many owners are finding it increasingly difficult to consistently reach potential customers.

Maybe you've had a Reel receive tens of thousands of views, only to realize that most of the engagement came from people who live nowhere near your business. Or perhaps you've spent hours creating content for a birthday party promotion, only for it to reach a small fraction of your followers.

The frustrating part is that even when your content performs well, that doesn't necessarily mean it's producing more birthday party bookings, memberships, or visits.

I think this highlights one of the biggest challenges with marketing a local business: visibility and effective customer acquisition are not the same thing.

An indoor playground doesn't need to become famous on the internet to become successful. It needs to become recognizable, trusted, and consistently chosen by families within a realistic driving distance of its location.

And while social media absolutely has a place in accomplishing that, I believe many play café owners have become so focused on digital platforms that they're overlooking some of the most valuable marketing opportunities available in their own communities.

That's why I recently sat down with Marissa Jeffrey, publisher of Orchard Park Living and West Seneca Living in the Buffalo, New York area, through Best Version Media. We discussed creative local marketing strategies, the value of neighborhood publications, geographically targeted advertising, online reputation management, and why some seemingly traditional approaches to marketing may be particularly effective in today's increasingly crowded digital environment.

What I appreciated most about our conversation was that it wasn't simply about purchasing advertising space in a magazine. It was about approaching local marketing more intentionally, understanding where your ideal customers actually live, and finding ways to make your business stand out in a community where families have countless options competing for their attention.

1. Stop confusing social media engagement with local business growth

Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for indoor playground owners, especially because our businesses are naturally visual. Beautiful play structures, thoughtfully designed cafés, birthday party setups, and children enjoying imaginative play all lend themselves to engaging content.

But there's an important limitation that I think owners need to recognize.

Social media platforms are designed to distribute content based on signals such as engagement, relevance, and user behavior. They're not necessarily prioritizing the people who live within 15 or 20 minutes of your business.

That means an indoor playground in Buffalo, New York, could publish a Reel that reaches families in California, Texas, Florida, and even other countries. Those viewers might genuinely love the content, but they're unlikely to become paying customers.

This doesn't make the content worthless. Broad visibility can create opportunities, and some businesses may benefit from attracting visitors from outside their immediate markets. But for most indoor playgrounds and play cafés, the majority of revenue comes from families within a relatively defined geographic area.

So rather than measuring marketing success primarily by views and follower counts, I encourage owners to think about the actual customers they're trying to reach.

Consider the difference between two hypothetical marketing campaigns. One generates 40,000 views from an audience scattered across the country. The other reaches 2,000 households within a few miles of your business, many of which include families with young children.

The first campaign looks considerably more impressive on social media. But the second could be much more valuable if it reaches families who are likely to purchase memberships, visit regularly, or book birthday parties.

Of course, reach alone doesn't guarantee results in either scenario. The message, audience, offer, and timing all matter. But the example illustrates why local businesses need to evaluate marketing through a different lens than businesses selling products or services nationally.

Instead of asking only how many people saw your content, ask whether the people seeing it are actually capable of becoming customers.

2. Reconsider the power of neighborhood magazines and print advertising

One of the most interesting parts of my conversation with Marissa was our discussion about community publications and the role they can play in modern marketing.

Marissa publishes two neighborhood magazines, Orchard Park Living and West Seneca Living, which are mailed directly to selected households in their respective communities.

These aren't simply collections of advertisements. They feature local families, business owners, community events, charitable organizations, and articles from local experts.

That distinction is important because the publication itself gives readers a reason to engage with the content.

A family might pick up the magazine because someone they know is featured on the cover. They might browse the events calendar to see what's happening nearby or read an article written by a local professional. Along the way, they encounter advertisements from businesses serving their community.

This creates a different experience from scrolling through social media, where advertisements compete with an enormous volume of unrelated content.

Marissa also pointed out that print advertising has become less common in many households, which can make a well-designed, relevant publication feel more distinctive. She described the value of a magazine remaining on someone's kitchen table or coffee table, where family members may encounter it more than once.

That doesn't mean print advertising is automatically more effective than digital advertising. Results depend on the publication, audience, creative, cost, and business objectives. But it does mean print deserves consideration rather than being dismissed simply because it's a traditional medium.

How this could work for an indoor playground

Imagine that your play café specializes in birthday parties and serves several affluent suburban neighborhoods.

Rather than purchasing a broad advertising campaign that reaches households throughout an entire metropolitan area, you identify a community publication distributed to families in neighborhoods where your existing birthday party customers frequently live.

You could advertise your birthday party packages, highlight your private party experience, or introduce families to your play café through a story about why you opened the business.

The advantage isn't simply that your advertisement appears in print. It's that you're placing your message in front of a geographically relevant audience within a publication that already has a relationship with the community.

And if that publication also offers digital advertising, you may be able to reinforce the same message across multiple channels.

Before committing to any print campaign, however, I'd want to understand the publication's distribution area, household demographics, frequency, advertising costs, and how success will be evaluated. A high-income neighborhood isn't automatically the right audience if its households don't include enough families with children in your target age range.

The goal isn't to advertise in the most prestigious publication available. It's to reach the households most likely to become valuable customers.

3. Your story can be one of your strongest marketing assets

Something Marissa and I agreed on during our conversation was the importance of sharing the story behind your business, rather than focusing exclusively on the products and services you offer.

When Marissa features a local business owner in one of her publications, she encourages them to share why they started their business, what inspired them, and how they're connected to the community.

I think this is particularly valuable for indoor playground owners because so many of our businesses have deeply personal origin stories.

Perhaps you opened your play café because you struggled to find a clean, welcoming place to bring your own young children. Maybe you wanted to create an inclusive play environment that accommodated children with different developmental needs. Or perhaps you recognized that families in your community needed more opportunities to connect, especially during the colder months.

Those stories can help potential customers understand what makes your business different.

Consider two advertisements for the same indoor playground.

The first says:

"Indoor playground featuring open play, birthday parties, memberships, and a full-service café. Book your visit today!"

There's nothing necessarily wrong with that message, but it could describe hundreds of businesses.

The second introduces the owner, explains why the business was created, and describes the experience they wanted families to have. Perhaps it focuses on a parent being able to enjoy a good cup of coffee while their child plays safely nearby, or the relief of hosting a birthday party without having to handle setup, cleanup, and entertainment.

The second approach gives families something more meaningful to connect with than a list of amenities.

Ways to use storytelling in your local marketing

You don't need to be featured on the cover of a magazine to incorporate storytelling into your marketing strategy.

You could pitch your story to a local publication, contribute an article to a community newsletter, participate in an interview with a neighborhood organization, or share your background through your own website and email marketing.

You could also highlight the people who make your business special. Introduce your team, share the inspiration behind a new program, or explain how customer feedback influenced improvements to your space.

For example, if you recently introduced a dedicated baby area because parents were asking for a safer environment for younger siblings, that's an opportunity to tell a story about listening to your customers and responding to their needs.

The goal isn't to manufacture an emotional narrative around every business decision. It's to help families understand the people, values, and thoughtfulness behind the experience they're purchasing.

And importantly, that kind of storytelling can reinforce relationships with existing customers, not just attract new ones.

4. Position yourself as a local expert instead of simply another advertiser

One of my favorite opportunities Marissa discussed was the ability for local business owners to become expert contributors to community publications.

She shared an example of a chiropractor who contributed educational articles to one of her magazines while also using digital advertising. The chiropractor received feedback from existing patients who recognized and read his articles, reinforcing his reputation within the community.

Marissa also described another small business owner who initially participated through expert contributions before expanding into additional marketing services.

What I find compelling about this approach is that the business isn't simply asking people to buy something. It's providing information that readers find useful.

And I think indoor playground owners have far more opportunities to do this than they might initially realize.

You work with families every single day. You see the challenges parents encounter, the questions they ask, and the experiences they're looking for. Depending on your background and expertise, you may have valuable insights to share about age-appropriate play, birthday party planning, family activities, or creating opportunities for children to socialize.

Article ideas an indoor playground owner could pitch

• Five Ways to Keep Young Children Active During a Buffalo Winter: Share practical indoor activity ideas, including options families can enjoy at home.

• How to Plan a Birthday Party for Toddlers Without Overwhelming Them: Offer advice about timing, guest counts, age-appropriate activities, and managing expectations.

• Why Open-Ended Play Matters for Young Children: Discuss the value of imaginative play, drawing on reputable child-development resources rather than presenting yourself as a clinical expert.

• How to Make Family Outings Easier With Multiple Young Children: Share practical tips based on common customer experiences.

• A Local Guide to Rainy-Day Activities for Families: Highlight several community resources, not just your own business.

These articles provide an opportunity to establish familiarity and credibility while giving the publication content that benefits its readers.

And unlike a promotional advertisement, an educational article can be repurposed across several marketing channels. You might publish it on your blog, share it in your email newsletter, reference it on social media, or use it as the foundation for a short educational video.

Before contributing content, be sure to understand the publication's editorial guidelines, any fees or sponsorship requirements, and whether you retain the right to reuse the material.

The bigger lesson is that your expertise can become part of your marketing strategy. Rather than relying exclusively on promotional messages, look for opportunities to help local families solve problems, answer questions, and make better decisions.

5. Hyperlocal advertising can help you reach the neighborhoods that matter most

Another major topic in our conversation was geographically targeted digital advertising.

Marissa explained that Best Version Media offers digital advertising that can complement its neighborhood publications, including campaigns through Meta and display advertising.

For anyone unfamiliar with display advertising, these are the visual advertisements you might encounter while browsing websites, reading online articles, or checking the weather.

Unlike an advertisement that appears exclusively on Facebook or Instagram, display advertising can reach potential customers across participating websites and apps.

Marissa described how her company uses geographic targeting to help businesses reach audiences within selected communities. She also explained that some of its packages allow advertisers to select specific ZIP codes, giving businesses flexibility to focus on particular neighborhoods.

For indoor playground owners, this raises an important question:

Are you advertising to the neighborhoods most likely to generate revenue, or are you simply targeting everyone within a certain radius?

Those aren't necessarily the same thing.

Imagine you operate a 3,500-square-foot play café in a suburban market. You might initially assume that every household within 20 miles represents an equally valuable potential customer.

But after reviewing your customer data, you discover that the majority of your birthday party bookings come from four ZIP codes, while most of your weekday membership customers live within 10 minutes of your location.

That information should influence your marketing decisions.

Your birthday party advertising might be worth expanding into neighboring communities where families are willing to travel farther for a special occasion. Meanwhile, your membership advertising might perform better when concentrated on households close enough to visit multiple times per month.

Use your own customer data to guide geographic targeting

Before investing in a new hyperlocal campaign, I'd encourage you to look at where your current customers are coming from.

Your booking software, membership records, waiver system, and point-of-sale data may provide valuable geographic insights, depending on what information you collect.

You can begin by identifying the ZIP codes associated with your highest-value customers, looking for differences between revenue streams, and evaluating whether certain neighborhoods have particularly strong repeat-visit or birthday party activity.

From there, you can make more informed decisions about which communities deserve additional marketing investment.

For example, suppose you discover that one nearby ZIP code generates a disproportionately high number of premium birthday party bookings. That might make it a strong candidate for a targeted neighborhood publication or digital advertising campaign.

But don't assume that a neighborhood is valuable simply because household incomes are high. You also need to consider the concentration of families with children, competition, accessibility, and whether the households are a good match for your business model.

This is where I think hyperlocal marketing becomes particularly interesting. It allows you to move beyond the assumption that everyone within a broad radius is equally likely to become a customer.

6. Your marketing channels should reinforce one another

Marissa made an important distinction between simply advertising across several channels and creating a coordinated marketing strategy.

She described Best Version Media's approach as omnichannel marketing, meaning the different marketing efforts are intended to work together rather than operate independently.

I think this is something indoor playground owners can apply regardless of whether they work with an agency or manage their marketing themselves.

Many small businesses approach marketing as a collection of disconnected activities.

They post on Instagram when they have time, send an email when they're running a promotion, update their website occasionally, and perhaps purchase an advertisement when someone approaches them with an opportunity.

The problem isn't necessarily that any individual activity is ineffective. It's that there's often no consistent strategy connecting them.

Consider how a coordinated campaign could work for an indoor playground promoting birthday parties.

A family first encounters your business through a feature in a neighborhood magazine. A few days later, they see a geographically targeted digital advertisement highlighting your private birthday party packages. When they search for your business online, they find a professional website with clear pricing, attractive photos, and recent customer reviews.

Later, they see an Instagram Reel showing your staff setting up a beautifully decorated party room, and they remember the business they encountered in the magazine.

By the time they're ready to book, they've already had several opportunities to become familiar with your business.

Not every family will follow this exact path, and the number of interactions required before purchasing varies considerably. But the principle is valuable: marketing becomes more cohesive when your different channels communicate a consistent message.

Build campaigns around specific business objectives

Rather than promoting every service equally at all times, identify the revenue stream or customer behavior you want to influence.

For example, if your birthday party bookings are below target, you might create a campaign that includes a dedicated landing page, local advertising, customer testimonials, and an email sequence for families who request more information.

If your goal is to increase memberships, you might emphasize convenience, repeat visits, member benefits, and the value of having a reliable place to bring young children throughout the year.

The key is making sure the message remains consistent while adapting the creative to each channel.

Your print advertisement doesn't need to look identical to your Instagram Reel, but both should reinforce the same reasons a customer would choose your business.

7. Local SEO, online reviews, and AI discovery deserve more attention

Although our conversation began with community publications, we also spent considerable time discussing how families discover local businesses online.

Marissa emphasized the importance of keeping business information accurate across multiple platforms, including Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, and other directories.

She also discussed how AI tools are influencing the way consumers search for recommendations and why businesses should pay attention to the consistency and freshness of their online information.

I think this is an especially important topic for indoor playground owners because many families discover businesses through searches with very specific local intent.

Someone might search for "indoor playground near me," "toddler activities in Buffalo," or "best birthday party places for a four-year-old."

Increasingly, some consumers may also ask conversational AI tools for suggestions instead of using a traditional search engine.

There's no universal formula that guarantees your business will be recommended by an AI assistant. Different search engines and AI services use different information sources and ranking methods. But maintaining accurate, accessible information about your business is a sensible foundation for local discovery regardless of which platform someone uses.

Start with the information you control

First, review your Google Business Profile and make sure your business name, address, phone number, website, hours, and business categories are accurate.

Then check other important platforms, including Apple Maps, Facebook, and relevant local directories. If your website says you're open on Mondays but another major listing says you're closed, that inconsistency can create confusion for customers.

Your website should also make it easy for visitors to understand what you offer.

If birthday parties are an important revenue stream, don't bury that information several clicks into your website. Create a dedicated page that clearly explains your packages, what's included, your location, and how to book.

Likewise, if your play café offers memberships, classes, camps, or toddler-specific play sessions, those services should be described in language that potential customers are likely to use when searching.

Recent reviews matter, too

Marissa also emphasized the value of maintaining an active online reputation rather than relying exclusively on reviews collected years ago.

I agree with the broader point that reviews should be an ongoing part of your customer experience strategy.

For a family choosing an indoor playground, recent reviews can provide reassurance about cleanliness, customer service, the quality of the play environment, and the overall experience.

An impressive average rating is helpful, but a steady stream of detailed, authentic reviews can give potential customers more current information about what to expect.

I recommend building review requests into your existing customer journey. For example, you might send a follow-up email after a birthday party thanking the family for celebrating with you and inviting them to share their experience.

You can also train your team to recognize opportunities to request feedback, while ensuring that reviews remain voluntary and aren't conditioned on positive ratings.

And don't ignore negative reviews. Responding professionally and thoughtfully can demonstrate that you take customer feedback seriously.

The goal is to build an online presence that accurately reflects the quality of the experience you're delivering in person.

8. Your marketing message needs to communicate what makes you different

Toward the end of our conversation, Marissa shared something that I think every indoor playground owner should consider.

When she's helping a business develop advertising creative, she doesn't begin by simply listing its services. She wants to understand who the business is trying to reach, what makes it unique, and how the advertisement should make potential customers feel.

She used the example of a daycare advertising its basic services. If every daycare offers supervision, meals, and activities, simply listing those features doesn't necessarily give a parent a compelling reason to choose one over another.

The same principle applies to indoor playgrounds.

If your advertisement says you offer open play, birthday parties, memberships, and coffee, you're describing the basic business model of a play café.

But what makes your experience worth choosing?

Perhaps your biggest advantage is that parents can enjoy a genuinely comfortable café experience while their children play. Maybe your birthday parties are exceptionally convenient because your team handles nearly every detail. Or perhaps your space is thoughtfully designed for younger children, making it particularly appealing to families with toddlers.

Those distinctions should influence your marketing.

Match your message to the customer you're trying to attract

Let's say you're promoting birthday parties.

Instead of focusing exclusively on the fact that you have a party room, consider the problems your ideal customer wants solved.

A parent planning a child's birthday party might be concerned about finding entertainment that appeals to the guests, keeping everything organized, or avoiding the stress of hosting at home.

An advertisement emphasizing a seamless, fully hosted birthday experience may resonate more strongly with that customer than one that simply announces that party packages are available.

Now consider memberships.

A family evaluating a membership is making a different decision. They want to know whether they'll visit frequently enough to justify the cost, whether the space is convenient, and whether their children will continue enjoying it.

Your membership marketing should address those considerations rather than repeating the same general messaging you use for birthday parties.

Marissa suggested that businesses periodically adjust their advertising to reflect changing priorities and seasons. She noted that a general brand-awareness advertisement can be a good starting point, but businesses should also highlight specific services when those offerings need additional attention.

I think this is particularly relevant for indoor playgrounds because our revenue streams often behave differently throughout the year.

Birthday parties, open play, camps, memberships, and special events may each require different promotional approaches depending on demand, capacity, and seasonality.

Your marketing should reflect what your business actually needs, not simply repeat the same message month after month.

9. Don't disappear from your community during slower seasons

Another point Marissa made was that businesses sometimes reduce marketing during slower periods because they're trying to conserve cash.

That's understandable. When revenue declines, advertising expenses are often among the first costs owners consider reducing.

But Marissa made an important observation: consumers continue making purchasing decisions even when they're not ready to purchase immediately.

For example, a parent might begin researching birthday party venues several months before their child's birthday. They may see your advertisement today, compare options over the next few weeks, and ultimately book at a later date.

If you completely disappear from your market during slower months, you may miss opportunities to influence those future decisions.

That doesn't mean you should maintain the same advertising budget regardless of your financial circumstances. I would never recommend continuing an unprofitable campaign simply for the sake of consistency.

Instead, I encourage owners to distinguish between reducing inefficient spending and abandoning marketing altogether.

During a slower period, you might shift more of your effort toward lower-cost activities such as email marketing, local partnerships, organic content, customer referrals, and community outreach.

You might also continue a smaller, carefully targeted brand-awareness campaign while reducing spending on promotions that aren't producing worthwhile results.

The important thing is to plan rather than react.

If you know that certain months are consistently slower, build your marketing calendar around those patterns. Identify which revenue streams have the greatest opportunity for growth and which customers are likely to be making purchasing decisions in advance.

For example, if you want to increase birthday party bookings for January and February, waiting until January to begin promoting those dates may be too late for families who plan several months ahead.

Marketing should support your future revenue goals, not simply respond to whatever your sales happen to be doing this week.

10. Measure marketing success without expecting every campaign to produce an immediate booking

One of the challenges with traditional advertising and broader brand-awareness campaigns is that results can be more difficult to attribute to a single marketing activity.

When you run a digital advertising campaign, you may be able to track clicks, landing page visits, inquiries, and purchases, depending on your website and booking software.

With a community magazine, the path from advertisement to purchase may be less direct.

A family might see your advertisement several times before ever visiting your website. They might eventually search for your business by name, ask a friend for a recommendation, or encounter another advertisement before booking.

That doesn't mean the original advertisement had no influence. But it does make evaluating the return more complicated.

Marissa explained that Best Version Media provides monthly reporting covering elements of its print and digital campaigns, including impressions and other available performance data.

Those reports can be useful, but I would encourage owners to look beyond exposure metrics when evaluating a marketing investment.

How I would evaluate a local marketing campaign

Start by defining what success looks like before the campaign launches.

If you're promoting birthday parties, establish your current booking volume and determine whether your goal is to generate more inquiries, increase bookings, or attract customers from a new geographic area.

You can then monitor changes in relevant metrics over time.

Some of the most useful measures may include branded website searches, birthday party inquiries, bookings, new customer ZIP codes, membership signups, and revenue from first-time visitors.

You can also use campaign-specific landing pages, QR codes, promotional codes, or intake questions to gather additional information about how customers discovered your business.

None of these methods is perfect, and it's important not to attribute every increase in sales to a single campaign without considering seasonality, other marketing activities, and changes in demand.

I also recommend considering the lifetime value of the customers you're attracting.

A family that discovers your play café through a neighborhood publication might initially spend $40 on an open play visit and café purchases. But if that family later purchases a membership, books a birthday party, and becomes a regular customer, the long-term value of that relationship can be substantially greater than the initial transaction.

That doesn't justify unlimited spending on brand awareness. It simply means we should evaluate marketing investments in the context of how customers actually engage with our businesses over time.

11. Build a local marketing strategy instead of chasing individual tactics

If there's one theme that connects everything Marissa and I discussed, it's the importance of having an intentional marketing plan.

Toward the end of the interview, she cautioned against simply putting your business name everywhere without considering what message you're communicating or how the different pieces fit together.

I think that's excellent advice, particularly for owners who feel pressure to participate in every new marketing trend.

You don't need to advertise in every neighborhood publication, join every community organization, sponsor every local event, or maintain a presence on every social media platform.

In fact, trying to do all of those things can quickly become expensive and overwhelming.

Instead, start with your ideal customers and the revenue streams you're trying to grow.

Where do your most valuable customers live? What influences their purchasing decisions? Which businesses and organizations already have relationships with those families? What makes your play café meaningfully different from other options in the area?

Once you understand those things, you can identify marketing opportunities that are worth exploring.

A practical 90-day local marketing plan for your play café

The following is my suggested implementation framework based on the ideas discussed in the interview.

Days 1–30: Understand your market and strengthen your foundation

Begin by reviewing customer ZIP codes, birthday party booking patterns, membership activity, and other available data to identify the neighborhoods that matter most to your business.

Audit your online listings, website, and recent reviews. Make sure customers can easily find accurate information about your hours, location, services, and booking process.

Then research local marketing opportunities that reach your target audience. This might include neighborhood magazines, community newsletters, school publications, family-focused organizations, or local businesses with complementary customer bases.

Days 31–60: Test one or two new approaches

Choose a small number of opportunities that align with your budget and goals.

Perhaps you pitch an educational article to a community publication, arrange a cross-promotion with a complementary local business, or test geographically targeted advertising in a ZIP code that already produces strong birthday party sales.

Develop messaging that highlights a specific customer benefit rather than simply listing your services.

Make sure the campaign directs customers toward an appropriate next step, whether that's learning more about your business, viewing party packages, or booking a visit.

Days 61–90: Evaluate and refine

Review the available results, including inquiries, bookings, website activity, customer feedback, and any changes in geographic customer patterns.

Ask new customers how they heard about your business, recognizing that their answers may reflect only part of the journey.

Determine which activities deserve continued investment, which need adjustment, and which aren't producing enough value to justify the resources required.

Most importantly, use what you learn to create a more intentional marketing calendar for the months ahead.

The goal isn't to find one magical marketing tactic. It's to build a system that consistently introduces your business to the right families and gives them compelling reasons to choose you.

The biggest takeaway: Become a household name in your community

I spend a tremendous amount of time teaching indoor playground and play café owners how to improve their marketing, and I still believe that social media and digital advertising are essential tools for many businesses in our industry.

But I also think we need to be careful about allowing those platforms to define what successful marketing looks like.

A viral Reel isn't necessarily a successful marketing campaign. Thousands of followers don't automatically translate into profitable revenue. And a business can have a beautiful Instagram account while remaining relatively unknown to families who live just a few miles away.

At the same time, a play café with a modest social media following can become an incredibly successful local business if it's consistently reaching the right customers, delivering an excellent experience, and building strong relationships within its community.

That's why I found my conversation with Marissa so valuable.

It reinforced the importance of thinking beyond the platforms we're most familiar with and considering how traditional advertising, local storytelling, digital targeting, online reputation, and community involvement can work together.

You don't need to implement every strategy discussed in this article. And you certainly shouldn't invest in an advertising opportunity simply because it's different from what you're currently doing.

But I would encourage you to look at your marketing efforts and ask whether you're investing enough time and resources into becoming genuinely recognizable within the communities your business depends on.

Because ultimately, I'd much rather see your play café become a household name among a few thousand local families than have a video viewed by a million people who will never walk through your doors.

And I think some of the best opportunities to make that happen might be the ones you've been overlooking.

Listen to the full conversation with Marissa Jeffrey

In this episode of The Profitable Play Podcast, I sit down with Marissa Jeffrey of Best Version Media to discuss neighborhood publications, creative local advertising, community storytelling, digital display ads, geographic targeting, online reviews, and the growing influence of AI on local business discovery.

Marissa is the publisher of Orchard Park Living and West Seneca Living in Western New York. You can learn more about her publications and services at Living WNY  or explore Best Version Media .

And if you're looking for ongoing support with marketing, revenue growth, operations, and building a more profitable indoor playground or play café, I'd love to welcome you into Play Maker Society, my private coaching community for indoor playground and play café owners. Inside, we discuss strategies like these alongside the real-world challenges of operating and growing our businesses, with opportunities to learn from other owners who are implementing them every day.