/Sports marketing guide / Camps
Open summer camp registration in January, with a short early-bird window that ends on a fixed date. Parents start planning in December, many camps open in January, and most are open by March. If you wait until spring, you're selling to the families who missed everyone else.
I think an early-bird deadline does more work than an early-bird discount.
January, for most sports camps. Families plan early and the best weeks go first. The CEO of the American Camp Association advises families to start planning as early as December, and a University of Toronto guide for parents says many camp registrations open as early as January, with most open by March.
Some camps fill within minutes of opening, Scripps News reported. Others open later: the City of Brockville opened its 2026 camp spots on March 23. You don't need to be first. You need to be open before the families you want have committed somewhere else.
A simple calendar for a summer sports camp:
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| December | Post next summer's dates. Start an interest list. |
| Early January | Open registration to past families and the interest list first |
| Mid January | Open to everyone, early-bird window starts |
| End of February | Early-bird deadline |
| March | Spring break camps run (Surrey and Toronto: 15 to 19 Mar 2027). Sell summer at every one. |
| April to May | Fill the last spots, start a waitlist |
/Sources: as early as December" and "fill within minutes · as early as January ... most by March · March 23 · spring break dates
Only if you have to. A deadline creates urgency on its own. A discount trains parents to wait for the next one, and it costs you on every family who'd have paid full price anyway. If you want an early-bird offer, make it something other than price.
Early-bird perks that don't cut your price:
Parents are already spending a lot. US families spent an average of $1,016 on a child's primary sport in 2024, up 46% from 2019, according to the Aspen Institute's Project Play survey. They'll pay for a good camp. What they want is certainty: the right week, the right coach, a spot for their friend.
/Sources: $1,016 ... up 46%
Start with the families you already have. Past campers, current players and anyone on your interest list should hear first, by email and text, before you spend on ads. Then run short reels from last summer and paid ads to parents near you, with the deadline in every post.
The order I'd run it in:
Dates, ages, daily schedule, price, what's included, who coaches, the location, the refund policy and the early-bird deadline. Put the register button at the top. Every question a parent has to email you about is a parent who might register somewhere else while they wait for your answer.
Checklist:
Usually because nobody follows up. Families fill in an interest form or start a registration, get distracted and never finish. I think camps have a follow-up problem, not a demand problem. A same-day text, a reminder before the deadline and a call to anyone who started but didn't pay will recover registrations you've already earned.
The follow-up I'd set up before you open:
BC Prep is our best example. Its reels, posts and ads got 600K+ views, and it got 400 leads in 6 months at under $7 a lead, with 175+ camp sign-ups. Content and ads bring the leads in. Turning a lead into a sign-up is the follow-up's job.
/Sources: BC Prep case study
Count registrations, not clicks. Compare registrations by the early-bird deadline with the same date last year, and how many came from past families vs new ones. If most early registrations are returning families, your retention is strong and your new-family marketing needs work.
What to track every week from January:
| Measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Registrations by week | Shows whether the deadline is pulling families forward |
| Returning vs new families | Tells you where to spend |
| Interest forms vs registrations | Shows your follow-up rate |
| Cost per registration from ads | Tells you whether to spend more |
| Weeks at 80% full | Tells you when to stop advertising a week |
/Keep reading
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