The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth , livre ebook

The Power of Promotion!
 
On-line Marketing For
Toastmasters Club Growth
 
 
By Rae Stonehouse DTM PDG
Copyright 2015 Rae Stonehouse,
All rights reserved.
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2591-7
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Section One
Chapter One: Introduction
A few years back my Toastmasters club stopped meeting and took the summer months off. Summer in our part of the world is July and August. We ended June with a healthy twenty members, however when September rolled around and we started up again, we only had six members return.
As the club President this caught me by surprize. I had to quickly put measures in place to bring us up to charter strength of twenty members. One of those measures was to look at our club as a business and what we would have to do to make our club a successful “business.”
I hate not knowing how to do something. Even more … I hate knowing that somebody else can do something that I can’t do.
In over 21 years with Toastmasters, presenting and listening to countless number of speeches, I have become an expert in many subjects that I knew absolutely nothing about. A funny thing happens when you research subjects that you are interested in but don’t know that much about, you very quickly begin to know more about the subject than others do.
William Feathers back in the 1790s is often quoted as saying “knowledge is power!” I often state publicly that I don’t agree with him. Knowledge is only power when you do something with it.
Social media is here to stay. At least until the next “big thing” comes along and replaces it. It has added a new dimension to social interaction. Whether it is for the better or worse would be the subject of an interesting debate. While many people use it to stay in touch with the daily activities of their family members whether they be local or afar, it has been embraced by the business world. Promotion and marketing is essential to the success of a business.
I believe that Toastmasters clubs should be run like businesses and social media platforms provide promotional and marketing opportunities that can help spread the word about one of the world’s best kept secrets.
This manual passes the power of knowledge on to you that I have collected over the past few years on the subject of marketing and promotion using social media. I have multiple profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Slideshare, Meetup and Google+ that I use for promotional purposes. Sometimes it has worked … sometimes not.
Besides my own personal profile on Facebook where I am somewhat conservative, I have five or more Facebook (fan) pages that I have created for marketing purposes. Each is based upon a specific theme and the content posted is related to the topic. I have also posted to hundreds of Facebook pages across North America. In addition, I have 10 or so Twitter profiles that I utilize for promotional purposes, once again, each with a specific purpose.
In case you are wondering … yes, it does take up a lot of my time.
Over my two decades in Toastmasters I have seen the evolution of how Toastmasters clubs promote themselves for the purpose of growing their clubs i.e. enticing new members to join.
During those years in my own leadership journey I’ve had the opportunity to organize and provide club officer training for all of the roles both at a local level as well as on-line as part of District 21’s remote club officer training.
When conducting the training for the Club Vice President of Public Relations I divided promotional methods into categories of Traditional and New Strategies .
The club VP Public Relations should be the main person tasked with overseeing the club’s social media initiatives and on-line presence. Promoting the club and increasing its membership falls into their duties as a club officer supporting the mission of the club, however …
You can’t do it alone, recruit some assistance.
• Utilize the talent in your club. Create a Public Relations team.
• If you aren’t experienced with using Facebook, recruit someone who is. (you will learn a new skill)
• Recruit another member as an Administrator for the Facebook page (you can have several)
Consider completing a project in the Competent Leader manual project or perhaps a High Performance Leadership project (HPL) while serving as VP Public Relations.
For a “big picture” view of how Toastmasters International is embracing the marketing of the Toastmasters brand I would suggest reading Strategic Plan 2015 Future Envisioned, by Toastmasters International at http://www.toastmasters.org/~/media/BC35DE17AA044405860761FDB85E66C5.ashx
Chapter Two: Traditional Toastmasters Club Membership-Building Marketing Strategies
Organizing & hosting open houses to introduce your club
Publicizing club events
Creating & utilizing promotional Public Relations (PR) posters
Distributing posters at key locations in your community
Ordering free brochures, pamphlets, handouts from Toastmasters International (TI) whenever you place an order, or by free download from their on-line store
Getting out in public - Holding a meeting at a local book store, library, coffee shop or a public venue
Publicizing speech contests and the winners
Creating and distributing a Newsletter: internal & external
Conducting a Speechcraft and plugging your club and benefits of joining
Having a sign “Toastmasters meets here” at your meeting room
Creating a club listing on your District Website with up-to-date contact and meeting information
Ensuring that your club meeting information, as well as contact info is up to date at TI
Developing a relationship with a local news reporter/columnist
Sending out Media Releases of value i.e. promotional material that would be of interest to their readers or followers
After delivering several webinars on the VP Public Relations role I discovered that while I considered the above strategies to be traditional i.e. they have been effectively used for a while, to a new club officer, these are “brand new.” These strategies still work and you should at least consider if any or all of them would support your task of increasing your club membership.
The New Marketing Strategies
Think marketing !
Think like a business!
 
Marketing , as defined by the American Marketing Association “is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
Hmmm. Another definition is: The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:
(1) identification, selection and development of a product ,
(2) determination of its price ,
(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place , and
(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy .
Our Toastmaster’s product is easily definable. Around the world we all follow the same communication & leadership skills building program.
Our pricing varies from club to club depending on operational expenses that may include the cost of renting a meeting room, if it is not available for free and the exchange rate of our currency against the US dollar used by Toastmasters International. If we have other Toastmaster’s clubs in our geographical region within the same classification say for example a community club, we have to be comparable to their pricing. Potential members may price shop for what they consider to be a better deal, no different than what they would for everyday goods and services.
There’s an old saying: “Advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for.” It can be said that advertising is paid media, public relations is earned media. With advertising, you tell people how great you are. With publicity, others sing your praises.
Most Toastmasters clubs don’t have the operational budget to spend on paid advertising and are discouraged from doing so. Advertising is expensive. Publicity and public relations, while not necessarily totally free, can have a better return on investment than money spent on advertising. Many people confuse advertising and public relations. This table (below) compares the two.
 

Table Source: Robert Wynne
 
“If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten!”
 
Conventional marketing wisdom says that you have to touch your customer 7 to 11 times before they make a purchasing decision. In our case, our customers are potential future Toastmaster members. When it comes to touching our customers, don’t take that too literally as it will likely get you in trouble if you were to do so!
In a marketing context, a touch is every time that your customer sees or hears a mention of your name or brand. We discuss branding a little later. Touchpoint examples could be your website, a tweet from your Twitter account, a post to your Facebook page or someone else’s, a blog post focusing on your Toastmasters club, a Linkedin post, a poster on the wall of a public place etc. The list goes on and on.
The individual has to see the word Toastmasters over and over again before they make a decision to check it out. When they think of developing their self-confidence and their communication & leadership skills you want them to think about Toastmasters. And even more importantly, you want them to think about your Toastmaster’s club first!
Enter social media! Social media, if used proactively can maximize your marketing effectiveness and increase your club membership. Think of it as ad