The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth. Rae Stonehouse
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth - Rae Stonehouse страница 3
Название: The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth
Автор: Rae Stonehouse
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Учебная литература
isbn: 9781456625917
isbn:
One of the missions of this manual is to provide you with enough background info for you to decide if incorporating social media into your Toastmaster’s club marketing plan is worth your time and effort.
Before we delve into offering tips & techniques for specific social media venues, we will explore the concept of branding as it is integral to the success of any of your marketing initiatives.
Chapter Three: Branding
As we learned earlier in this manual, the customer has to see your product or service seven to eleven times before they make a buying decision. That decision may be to come out to your club to learn more information.
We are fortunate that Toastmasters International has conducted a great deal of research and development of a recognizable brand. While that is a good thing … it can create challenges in differentiating your club from others if you have others in your geographical area. It can be argued that as Toastmaster clubs, we are not in competition with other Toastmaster clubs, there are lots of potential members out there to go around. However, if you are in a club that has difficulties building your membership and your meetings are poorly attended, then you do have to be competitive … at least for a little while until you pack your meeting room.
So how do you brand your club, just a little?
Toastmasters International’s rebranding initiative included developing and promoting the tagline “Where Leaders Are Made.”
Why not create a tagline or a motto for your club? My club originated in a pub, then as it grew it moved to a larger pub. We used to order beverages that would be delivered to us for our break. Our slogan or tagline was “the club in the pub!” Later when the club outgrew meeting in pubs and was looking at a more professional image and meeting space, our slogan became “You can take the club out of the pub, but you can’t take the pub out of the club!” My club is called Kelowna Flying Solo Toastmasters. It started life as a single’s club that provided speaking & leadership skill development. That idea didn’t fly for very long … pun intended …then it developed into a regular community club. Our tagline now is “Flying solo … but not alone!”
In addition, I created a couple other graphics that we use on our website, social media venues and printed materials.
The Toastmasters Branding Portal is an excellent resource for logos, images & templates you can use to develop your club brand. Here is the address for their brand portal.
http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/VirtualBrandPortal.aspx One thing to keep in mind is that while you are encouraged to exercise your creative side in developing your club brand, you are not permitted to use Toastmasters International logos etc. as part of a graphic that you create.
Your club brand, which includes The Toastmasters International corporate brand as well as what you develop locally, should be prominent on everything you touch i.e. your website, social media venues and printed literature. This should also include contact info so that a potential guest can easily see how they can contact you for more info. Make it easy for them!
Here is a look at our branding in action as seen on our club Facebook Page:
Chapter Four: Toastmasters Club Websites
Does your club have one? If so, great! If not, why not?
If so … why not have two of them?
Website development has evolved from a skill that only a few possessed and they likely charged a lot of money for their specialized services, to the point that almost anybody with the time and an interest can create a reasonable website. FreeToastHost as well as other Toastmaster-backed club management systems such as SpeakEasy make it easy for a club to have a web presence.
While I think that this is a great idea, I would strongly suggest that if you have website development skills, that you create another site targeted at the public. This becomes your on-line billboard to encourage visitors to your website to actually come out and visit your club.
I’ve recently created a site for my club at http://flyingsolotoastmasters.ca
Here is the header and top navigational bar (above) for my club. Note the top banner which incorporates Toastmasters International’s brand i.e. colours, logo & tagline. There is also a link that goes to our FreeToastHost site via the Member’s Site Login link. Not only does it provide a secondary site to be indexed by the search engines, it also provides a secure site for our members to sign up for our weekly agendas, gain access to some useful resources and provides access to club administrative tools.
As mentioned above, the main purpose for a stand-alone website is to encourage visitors to your website to visit your club. Providing useful content by way of articles gives them reason to dig deeper into your website and while doing so, be exposed to your promotional copy. While your copy should be factual, it should be written in a manner that causes the site visitor to learn more about your club.
For promotional copy I used the following:
Communication Skills:
Find the right words and your audience will find you!
•Develop better speaking & presentation skills.
•Learn to think quickly and clearly on your feet.
Leadership Skills:
Is lack of leadership skills holding you back in your career?
Toastmasters can help!
•Build strong leadership abilities.
Self-Confidence:
The Toastmasters program will improve your communication skills and open doors in your personal and professional life. Instead of labouring in an academic setting or spending money on costly seminars, you’ll learn in a self-paced atmosphere of fun and fellowship.
I’m sure that it has been used elsewhere and it still works.
Your website also allows you to tell a story about your club. It can be accessed by an About Us link. In this case it is ABOUT FLYING SOLO.
Why does your club exist and how did it come to be? This is marketable promotional material that allows you to differentiate your club from other Toastmaster’s clubs. You should also post this same content in the Long Description field in your Club Facebook Page. We discuss Long Descriptions later on.
A promotional video, some testimonials from your members, News Updates and info as to when and where your club meets, add valuable content to your on-line presence. For some light-hearted content I added the Top 10 Reasons for Joining Our Club. You can easily create your own version.
Top СКАЧАТЬ