Centers spend money reaching strangers while ignoring a list of people who have already walked through the door, paid, and know where the building is. Your existing customer list is the cheapest and most responsive audience you will ever have.
Collect the details at the right moment
The natural point is registration — a name, a phone number and an email, gathered once when someone first plays. Explain plainly what you will send and how often. A short, honest line about tournament announcements and offers converts far better than an unexplained form field, and it keeps you on the right side of consent rules.
Send few messages, each worth opening
- One monthly roundup. What happened, what is coming, any new hardware or titles.
- Event announcements with a direct signup link, sent twice — announcement and a reminder the day before.
- Win-back messages to players who have not visited in sixty days. This single automated message routinely outperforms everything else you send.
- Birthday and milestone notes with a small free-time offer. Cheap, personal, and they get used.
Respect the channel difference
Email tolerates length and detail. Messaging apps do not — a message to a phone should be short, immediately useful, and rare. Overusing a messaging channel gets you muted permanently, and unlike email there is no coming back from that.
Measure, then cut what does not work
Track opens, clicks and — most importantly — visits that follow. If a monthly newsletter drives no measurable footfall after three months, change its content rather than sending it harder. A list that stays engaged because you only send worthwhile things is an asset; one you have trained people to ignore is not.
Make unsubscribing easy
A one-tap opt-out in every message. People who no longer want to hear from you are not customers you are losing — they are noise you are removing from your own metrics, and keeping them trapped only earns you spam complaints.