Plan, Plan, Promote

Getting someone else to tell your story is what publicity is all about. It is usually at no cost and effective. The media are willing to promote a non-profit.

General Tips

• Recognize that your group must constantly work to communicate with the outside world.
• Ask what can you do without much (or any) cost.
• Set short-term goals to become more visible to community groups.
• Set more general, long-term goals that will reach beyond your immediate group.
• Collaborate as a team, make a master list of the best ideas and work these into your goals.
• List ways to bolster your PR, i.e. press releases, promotional events, Internet marketing ideas, etc.
• Designate who is responsible for what, including a time frame for each campaign.

Basic Publicity Tools

• The News Release: This should present your story/event after it occurs and include the 5 W’s. There should be a “hook” at the very beginning, much like the lead paragraph in a news story. Including quotes from an expert, board member or keynote speaker lends credibility and puts a human face on the subject.

• Backgrounder: This is an overview of your group (mission, etc.) and would be included with press releases to provide additional information.

• Media Advisory/Media Alert: An advisory is like an invitation to the media to attend your event. The alert is used to promote an event and is sent out a week or so before the event. In both instances, the 5 W’s are always included.
  
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Get Attention - Use Publicity

Is DKG known in your community? Are members recognized for their contributions to education? Publicizing your chapter and members is one way to gain name recognition for the Society and a positive image for its members.

 

Simple Definition of Publicity

• something that attracts the attention of the public
• attention that is given to someone or something by newspapers, magazines, television news programs, etc.
• the activity or business of getting people to give attention to someone or something  
  
  

There are residual benefits to gaining publicity – the impact of unbiased media coverage may lead to improved member recruitment and retention. Who does not want that?

The right ingredients for successful publicity include:

• effective planning
• a truly newsworthy story or message
• provided in the right format
• pitched to the right media contact
  
  

Over the next few weeks this blog will cover planning, writing your story in the right format, online publicity ideas, and leveraging social media.

“The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.”- David Ogilvy

“ Without publicity a terrible thing happens – nothing.” –  Legendary Publicist & Entrepreneur, P.T. Barnum

Communicating with Email (Part 2 - Distributive emailing)

Email marketing companies (MailChimp, Constant Contact, iContact, etc) have several things in common. They have a good relationship with major ISP’s (Internet Service Providers such as Comcast, TWC, Juno, etc.). Otherwise your emails would not get delivered. They have support for the customer. They abide by common anti-spam policies in accordance with CAN-SPAM, the official anti-spam policy that requires a postal address, an unsubscribe option, information on how the recipient joined the list, and prohibits false or misleading headers and subject lines.

PROS

• Personalization - Even though you can create one campaign/mailing in a very short time, each one can address the individual: ”Dear Helen.”

• Tracking Date - Distributive email offers you the tools to check and analyze data in email campaigns. How many were opened?  When did they open it? Did any bounce? Why did it bounce? Links opened by users give the group an understanding of the audience and can help with planning future projects and outreach efforts.

• Easy Customization - your email can look very professional using provided templates and your own images. It can convey your recognized “brand”.

• Fast Sending/ Scheduling - Emails can be scheduled or sent in the matter of minutes

• Importing Contacts - A very large list of contacts can be imported in a few minutes.

• Integration with Social Media - Sharing with Facebook, Twitter, etc. is easy.

• Surveys - Surveys are available with many providers.

• Sign up new recipients - A signup form can be posted on your website/Facebook.

CONS

• Delivery Problems - You can experience issues on delivering email campaigns. The problem occurs when recipients to do not receive the email message because it is filtered and classified as spam. That can happen on the provider level or on individual computers.

• Recipient’s view - In other situations, the person does not open the email because the headline is not enticing, lacks appeal, or they don’t recognize the sender.

As either a provider or recipient, what experience have you had with distributive email services?