Have you attended an open house or club meeting with only one or two members in attendance? Is the membership strength in your club shrinking at a slow but steady rate? Do you have the same members attend all your events without any guests for a long period of time?
If the answer to the above questions is yes, then it is time to come up with strategies to increase club strength and reduce churn rate (number of those that leave clubs).
Promoting your clubs is a necessity for club growth for the following reasons:
* It increases the awareness of the Toastmasters Brand in your community (a conducive place for people to improve their communication and leadership skills and boost their self confidence).
* It is a recipe for successful club meeting and your events like workshops, open-houses, speechcraft
* It serves as a reminder to existing members highlighting meeting themes, speech topics, meeting agenda and other meeting components. Note that including the meeting theme in your club promotions can spark an interest to both members and guests.
In the next few weeks, the PRM team will be publishing some articles on some tips that can be implemented to help promote your club events. We will also be rolling out some workshops to make this easier for you to follow.
Here is one important tip to help you get started:
1. Review the current state of your marketing materials. Does it have the right information (correct meeting date/time or does it need updating? Your marketing tools include, but not limited to:
* Flyers (Printed or Digital)
* Club Website
* Social Media handles
* Club newsletter
* Your local newspaper
* Club MeetUp account
2. Try adding more information about your next meeting, like meeting themes, speech topics including ice breakers, Educational Awards, etc.
3. Additional Tip: Position your club meeting information on the TOP PART of your website’s HOME PAGE. If you are using social media, PIN the next meeting so it appears at the top of the feed. Most people look at the top part of your website, without scrolling down to the bottom part.
If you need to reach out to the PRM for more tips, please email us at publicrelationsmanager@toastmasters86.org.
Created by Matthew Ogbulafor Public Relations Manager 2022 – 2023