How to Advertise in the Gun Industry Part Two: Actual Techniques That Work

About a year ago, I published “How to Advertise in the Gun Industry” and it has proven to be one of my more popular articles. I believe this is because I succinctly answered the question of what practices online gun shops could follow to help them skirt the search engine and social media regulations that hamper their success. 

That article has got me thinking, even though I put good information in it, I could have gone a lot deeper with what online gun shops could actually do – like actionable steps – to market their store or services. 

So I’m following up with a part two that has some specific techniques and topics that I’ve seen work for clients during my tenure so far as a copywriter. Here they are. 

Social Media and Influencer Marketing

If you can afford to work with an influencer to drive organic revenue for your online gun shop, that can prove lucrative, as long as you recognize there is sometimes a disconnect between organic leads and the ultimate profit they turn. It’s not like paid marketing, and it’s usually slow to build. 

Still, there are some very popular outdoor influencers out there on Instagram, Tik Tok, and other platforms that post visual and video based content that is both informative and engaging. 

If you plan on running your own social media campaigns in-house without relying on the leverage of an influencer, you’re going to have to get creative attracting followers. Remember, no one really wants to see a “buy now” or “we sell this” post (as a general rule). They want to learn something, be challenged, or be entertained. 

You only need to look at some of the social media channels for some of the greats in the industry, like CCI, Federal, Remington, Winchester, MidwayUSA, or Cabela’s to see what I mean. Yes, there is some product-based mercantile promotion on their social channels, but by and large they’re teaching you something. 

It could be the history of a cartridge, how one performs next to another, what the relative virtues of an action type are, hunting tips based on the season, or some other sort of tutorial. Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram reels let you leverage the power of video to engage and captivate your audiences by driving engagement through content on these platforms. 

PPC for Online Gun Shops and Other Firearms Retailers 

Yeah, you read that right. While you can’t use PPC to sell firearms (or any other products that are restricted) if there is anything else your company sells that is not restricted – think hunting clothing, holsters, stuff like that, you can use those to build a mailing list. 

Notice I didn’t say to drive revenue. Even if you can find a marketing loophole, the goal here is to think bigger. You’re never going to make it in PPC as a gun shop, but you can use PPC to market unrestricted goods for the purposes of building a mailing list.

Think about it, if you capture leads using PPC you can then build out that mailing list and market directly to them with your other promotions. Remember, people buying hunting calls and holsters also have and use other restricted goods that your shop sells. You need to get creative here. 

Email Marketing 

Now that I’ve detailed the importance of building an email marketing list, you have to capitalize on it. 

Email marketing is one of the best ways for online gun shops to market online since they can directly advertise to their existing customers and solicit sales right through that channel.

But not all email marketing has to be executed with an eye on turning a profit. You can also use your email marketing list to drum up interest in your content and social media channels (see below for content ideas). 

Believe me, while it’s important to sell (that’s what keeps the lights on, right?) distributing interesting content through your email marketing channel will make you more credible and make customers more likely to open your email in the first place.

You want to position yourself so that your customers don’t see your emails as solicitous spam, but actually look forward to seeing that message in their inbox. 

So what are the sorts of content ideas that really attract interest? I’ll go through some of them below.

SEO for Gun Shops: Content That Generates Leads 

Now we’re going to get into the real meat and potatoes of this article. As I mentioned in my last article on the same subject, SEO (and content marketing, which is ultimately SEO anyway) is the single best channel for generating leads and keeping afloat when you’re selling firearms and other restricted goods online. 

Hunters and shooters are passionate about their sport, in some ways so much more so than other athletes and fans of other pursuits. This makes the customers in your target market especially hungry for good content, and if you publish it, they will come to you. Many will then convert into customers. But you can’t fake it. The people in this industry can sniff out inexperience so you need to be able to talk the talk. 

In my experience, here are some good ways to generate interest and “sell” content that will engage your audience. 

• Gun cleaning tutorials 

Every gun owner needs to know how to clean his or her arms, and let’s be honest, not everyone knows how to do it right. How many do you think know they shouldn’t be cleaning from the muzzle end? Or that you need to take special considerations when cleaning a rifled vs. a smoothbore firearm? What about the fact that cleaning a black powder arm requires substantially different acumen and experience from cleaning a modern breech loader that shoots smokeless powder cartridges? How many of your customers remember to remove their choke tubes and clean and lube the threads when cleaning their shotguns? 

These are the sorts of things you can write about, along with how to disassemble, clean, lube, and reassemble firearms, especially since all platforms are different. That sort of maintenance related content is a gold mine. 

Plus, your shop sells gun cleaning kits and essentials, right? So there’s a cross-selling opportunity built right in. 

• Historical content 

Does your shop sell or specialize in historical and military platforms? There is a surprising paucity of good information out there on old guns. I know firsthand as it is conventionally one of the areas in which I have a hard time when researching. If you have someone on staff that is particularly interested or knowledgeable about historical arms, do a video interview or have him or her write a post about the history and influence on some platforms or action. That sort of thing will get attention. 

• Educate on erudite gun terminology 

Believe it or not, not every gun owner knows that much about how their gun works, or the parts it contains. Think about it; some gun owners are just like car owners. They know how to use it but don’t really know what’s going on under the hood. 

Writing or posting a guide on gun parts, what they do, or how to replace or upgrade them, can be particularly valuable, especially if you post it with a video or a helpful visual aid. 

Of course, this goes far beyond gun parts. There are other terms you could explain along with their implications. How many of your customers do you think really understands the difference between direct impingement vs. gas piston actions? What about rate of twist? Types of shotgun chokes? Different types of bullets? Those are the sorts of things you should be writing about for the edification of your clients. 

• Write evergreen content like guides 

Evergreen content is content that is going to remain as relevant in ten years as it is this year. Basically, it’s content that doesn’t go out of date. News rarely qualifies, but fortunately this industry is very forgiving of old content. For instance, the rules of gun safety have not changed and never will. The barking calls that the squirrels respond to in the woods will be the same in 50 years as they will be this fall. These are the sorts of things you can write about to attract readers in your niche, which will not only not become irrelevant with time, but which will probably pull views and leads years down the line, if they are accurate, informative, and well-written. 

• Publish something controversial 

I’ll never forget some of the things that have been recommended to me. One had to do with recommended shot size for a particular species of small game in my state. Needless to say, that caught my attention, even though I won’t disclose what the actual advice was. It will catch your customers’ attention, too. Here’s another instance: I read an article in Field and Stream a little while back in which the writer claimed he’d “never hunt deer with .30-06.” What a claim – it got the hate I’m sure the author was expecting, but you know what they say, any publicity is good publicity, right? 

By the way, you don’t just need to publish controversial hot takes in your blog, you can also do that on your socials. Run a poll asking users what their favorite cartridge is for hunting a specific species or for defensive applications. That sort of thing will get you a lot of attention. 

• Do a review 

Every year, there are new models and gear that hit the market. There’s a smattering of new cartridges, too. Getting in on the ground level is a way to ensure positive optics for your business in both the short term and the long term. 

Besides, reviews are the sort of thing that people are looking for before they make a purchase. The overwhelming majority of shoppers read reviews before buying and hunters and shooters are not in any way different. 

Take pictures, take video, tell what you do and don’t like about it and be honest. Not every gun or game call is going to be a winner, and that’s OK – as long as you are the authority on why. 

• Do a comparison 

Comparisons get people really heated, especially when the subject matter is something people are really interested in. For instance, you could do a comparison on the performance of a select 12 gauge load vs. a 20 gauge load for clay shooting or hunting pheasants. Put the 870 head-to-head with the 500 (that’s something that’s been done before, plenty of times). How about wheelguns vs. semi-autos for defensive applications? These are the sorts of things you can write or make videos about that will get people interested. 

• Ballistic breakdown 

What’s better for plinking? An air gun or a rimfire? There are arguments for both, right? What’s the best shot size for turkey? Which handgun caliber offers the best balance of stopping power and recoil for defensive applications. Everyone has a thought on these sorts of questions, and certainly you do too if you’re reading this. Answer the people with a post or a video exploring the performance of a specific cartridge or even a specific load, as well as its appropriate intended uses. 

• Keep up with gun news 

I admit this runs counter to my suggestion above to write evergreen copy, but keeping up with news is another way to draw leads. Also, what is news today may become evergreen in the future. For instance, Remington just recently released a new straight-walled cartridge, .360 Buckhammer, intended to appeal to hunters in states with straight-wall-only restrictions. If you did an exposition on that cartridge and its development a year or so ago when it came out, it would have been news at the time, and useful on social media and in email marketing. However, if you made that copy a blog, a news article, or a CMS page, it would still be getting views today (and in the future) as long as you adhered to SEO best practices, anytime someone looked up information on the cartridge. 

This is just one hyper-specific example, but you get the gist. If you have employees that attend or follow the SHOT Show and other industry events, key on their expertise to help craft copy for marketing that is informative, follows the news, and which can be utilized further down the line. 

• Do guides on customization with upgrade parts/shooting accessories 

Do you know how many gun owners want to cut recoil but haven’t heard about muzzle brakes, or how to adjust buffer weights? Do you know how many clay shooters don’t know the difference between a full choke and an I/M? 

There are all sorts of upgrades and customizations you can make to all different platforms, and plenty of shooters know next to nothing about them. By writing about upgrades and customizations with which you have experience, you can position yourself as an authority. 

• Post about drilling/training 

Range time is where true skills are developed, whether the goal is improving sporting clay scoring, long-distance shooting, or filling a deer tag. It’s the time spent training at the range that gets sportsmen where they want to be. 

Drilling is one big aspect of it. Does anyone on your staff have experience with dry-fire training? Drilling to counter flinching? Reload drills? Anything of that nature? 

Write about what you know. This will serve as evergreen content that will generate leads down the line. 

• Hunting content 

This is a broad category that may be irrelevant to your particular shop. Then again, it may be its bread and butter. 

I want to say this with a caveat, as well, because it is an extremely competitive market, with a lot of really big, really trustworthy authorities that have been in the business for a long time, in some cases more than a century.

At the same time, outdoorsmen are passionate about their sport and hungry to learn more. One way is to get super specific instead of writing about “turkey hunting tips” write about specific calling techniques and environments to look for in your state. The more specific you can get, the better. 

• Other interesting “stuff” 

I’ve already gone over several concrete examples of the sorts of content you can write about and distribute through your marketing channels to captivate attention in your industry. The rest is on you. Just remember this, if a topic is interesting to you, it’ll likely be interesting to others in your industry. 

How to Advertise in the Gun Industry: Put Some of These Techniques into Practice Today

I hope you can put some of these practices to work for your business soon. The last thing I have to say is that the organic marketing required in the gun industry is intensive and takes a long time to generate a head of steam, but it is well worth the payoff because at the end of it your business will become recognized as an authority in the industry. It does take a long time. Just don’t get discouraged.