If you want people to take part in your activities, marketing is an essential and inherent part of what you do. It is about communicating with people who are interested in what you are doing, giving them access to something they want, and building a closer relationship with them. Marketing Campaigns are a good way of engaging the customer. Some of the essential aspects which act as the backbone to marketing campaigns are listed below, they need careful consideration in order for success to ensue.
Your Budget - ESSENTIAL!
Whatever marketing you do it will cost either time, money or goodwill (and probably all three). So before you finally decide which marketing activities to use you will have to consider whether you have the equipment, time and money you need to carry out your marketing campaign. At the very least you will need access to computers and up to date mailing lists for direct mail, word processing for press releases, money to pay designers and printers, volunteers for stuffing envelopes, distributing print and selling tickets.
- It will pay to think and plan carefully, and spend your time and money on a few well-selected marketing activities which you carry out well, using good quality material, rather than trying to do everything you can think of and doing none of it properly.
- Tight Budget? If money is really tight, concentrate your budget on attracting media coverage and personal contact. This will still require a small budget to cover the costs of stamps, phone calls, person hours, photographs etc.
Your Product
Your product might be a person, an exhibition, an artwork, an idea, a performance, a fund-raising event, a workshop, membership of your organisation, your new website or even your organisation itself.
1. Research the product carefully
- Why are you doing this work, now?
- What inspired you to create the work?
- What's the central idea?
- Is it different to things you (or others) have done before or are doing now?
- How do you want the audience to feel when they leave the event/ theatre/ gallery etc?
Decide what is going to attract the most people to your 'activity'. Some Possible selling points could include:
- Rarity: has it ever been seen before? What makes it unusual (eg location)?
- Scale: a spectacular / one off / unique attraction on large scale?
- Appeal: is it funny, entertaining, escapist, family entertainment?
- Topicality: does the event hit the nerve of hot issues / popular pastimes?
- Need: will it help people in their lives, at work, with problems?
- Known credentials: previous success, familiar performers/ painter/ writer etc
Find out what your members or audience enjoy about your 'activity'.
What makes you or one of your colleagues want to take part, go along, do whatever it is you do? Make a list of all the things that make your activity worthwhile. Often things you might not have thought about are important: eg social factors - coming along with family, making new friends, and sharing an interest with others.
What makes you or one of your colleagues want to take part, go along, do whatever it is you do? Make a list of all the things that make your activity worthwhile. Often things you might not have thought about are important: eg social factors - coming along with family, making new friends, and sharing an interest with others.
Similarly consider all the things that could act as barriers, no matter how small.
We've all experienced lack of car parking, inadequate box office facilities and poor refreshments spoiling an otherwise wonderful time. (note: pay attention to disability access).
We've all experienced lack of car parking, inadequate box office facilities and poor refreshments spoiling an otherwise wonderful time. (note: pay attention to disability access).
Your Message
By developing a creative concept - usually an image or a slogan - you can create a central reference point which will become identified with your product. For a short-term campaign, this means coming up with a great idea which sums up the activity, will be noticed and will encourage people to buy, visit, give, become a member and so on. Repeating the concept gets recognition for your activity quickly and if you get the right message to your target audience they will then spread the word for you to people with similar interests.
The best concepts are simple, powerful and evocative. They relate strongly to their target audience and the product they are selling and show people what it will feel like to be involved. Be creative - brainstorm as many ideas as possible. Go through all the images you have of the show / event. Talk to the whole team involved. Trawl through magazines, leaflets and design books to get ideas.
They are designed to generate a response ie getting people to come to a performance or an exhibition, having new members sign up, attracting donations, enlisting volunteers or changing how people think about your organisation. If you do this well, in the future they will feel comfortable about getting in touch and participating in your activities again.
Your Target Audience
Your activity will probably attract different kinds of people but it is most important to identify who you think the main audience will be, so you can target the right people. Ask yourself:
- How old your core audience is likely to be.
- Will they have young children, be grandparents or students?
- Are they likely to work in similar jobs or professions?
- With many of the activities you run your target audience is likely to share similar characteristics to yourself and the people already taking part - so perhaps do some 'market research' and examine your current audience. Look at your mailing list to identify where most of your participants live, what the proportion of men, women and children is, how old they are etc.
Ways Of Reaching People
Once you know who you are targeting and where you are likely to find them, you can decide which marketing activity will be most appropriate.
- List your target audiences and think about the different ways of reaching them.
- Consider their interest, wants and needs and where they congregate. Your target audience may include people working in similar jobs and if so, get information to their places of work or education (eg local hospital, college/school, factory or office.
- Or alternatively they may not work (such as older people) in which case you will need to consider where they go for leisure activities (eg adult education centres, leisure centres, bowls or golf clubs). In larger buildings, entrance halls, rest rooms and cafeterias are good places for leaflets and posters. Read my previous post for a list of marketing tools in reaching people.
The Competition
It is worth finding out who you are competing with. If you are going to attract and keep your audience, you need to make your product not just 'as good as' whatever else is out there, but 'the best'. Try to discover:
- What they are offering
- What similar events charge for admission
- How your product differs from theirs
- What gives you the edge
- If you could perhaps run a joint promotion
It is important to plan your marketing well in advance because of the time it takes to compile mailing lists, place advertisements, and prepare leaflets. For example, if you were to produce a leaflet using a professional designer and printer, you would need to allow time for:
- Writing the copy
- Layout by the designer
- Proofing
- Printing
- Distribution
Think About The Future
If you intend to make this a regular event, then you must get things right the first time. You will only sell a poor service once - people just won't come back next time. Having done this you can then decide what to say about your activity in your publicity material ie your leaflets, press releases etc. It will also enable you to do something about overcoming the problems you might encounter: if car parking is a problem, tell people so they can arrive early, or use public transport.
0 comments:
Post a Comment