Promoting your Group
Promoting your group is important. You want more members for your group – they will add to the fun and social mix and may bring with them additional skills and connections. Your target audience will almost inevitably be your local community, which is good – local communities offer many low cost communications channels including the local press and local radio. You will be able to get their attention with a little consistent effort and by adopting a brash approach. Here are some ideas:
1. Good research pays dividends
Read your local papers, all of them! Find out what and where they cover and what sections they run. Many local papers run a “What’s On?” section where you can promote your regular meetings. Send in details of where and when your meetings are held.
2. Hungry for stories
Local papers all have one feature in common – plenty of stories about local people, so tell them about the activities and places your group has done and been to recently. How your group has supported or provided a service to the community is always a good angle for a story. This is the kind of thing the local press are interested in - colourful stories about colourful people.
What might be commonplace for you and your group might not be for others – not everyone travels the country at weekends and you could be just what they a looking for! You’re a friendly bunch of people, enjoy good social lives and others will want to hear about you and what you are doing.
3. Get their attention
To get their attention you will need a story about an activity you have done or something you plan to do. You can resort to the time honoured approach of a news release (some notes on writing these later). Phone up your local paper and ask for the news desk. Tell them you have a news release you plan to send over and ask if they want it by fax or email. Get the name of the person you speak to and keep a note of it. Names and contacts are important. Once you have sent the release, phone up to make sure it has been received. Later you will need to make sure you are available to answer questions.
4. More than a thousand words
Pictures sell stories. Many of your members have cameras and some of the pictures they produce can accompany your story, sent with the news release or offered if wanted.
5. Talk, talk
Local radio offers another avenue. Listen to your local radio and if a phone-in covers a subject relevant to your group phone in and tell the listeners about your group and where you meet. If a special occasion is coming up – an anniversary for instance or a recruitment drive – make contact with your local radio. You can use the news release approach outlined above. Listen out to some of the announcers and if any of them sound like they might be sympathetic to your group and their activities phone in and ask to speak to the show’s producer. Persuade a member of your group who is confident and articulate to speak on your group’s behalf and who can project fun and enthusiasm.
6. Paying as the last resort
You can take out paid advertising in local papers and sometimes there will be an occasion when this is the right approach – as part of a membership drive or for a special meeting.
7. Keep talking
Once you have made contact with your local media keep in touch. Phone them in if you have an interesting story. Local papers want stories about local people and you can make the most of that.