Not many people may think of it this way, but your sporting club, school, charity or community group is actually a brand in every sense of the word.
Effectively, a typical market for these types of groups are made up of 4 sections:
- Those who are significantly involved and will enthusiastically attend everything due to their participation in the group
- Those that will attend either out of a sense of obligation
- Those that will attend because what you are offering sounds more appealing than other options they have
- Those that either don’t engage, can’t be bothered, don’t care or don’t get enthused about what you have offered.
The aim is to:
- Get more of group 1
- Turn group 2 people into Group 1 or 3
- Increase the number of group 3 people
- Convert some group 4 people to group 2 or 3, but also accept there will always be a number of them.
When you hold or promote an event, the ‘market’ considers a number of things before committing time, money and effort to your brand. They ask themselves questions like:
- What else is on this date?
- Does it sound like a worthwhile event?
- What does it cost?
- Does it sound like value for money? (this is a very different question to the previous one)
- How long will it take?
- Who else will go?
- Can I be bothered given how much else I do?
- Do I feel ‘engaged’ enough to the group to attend?
If you don’t get a positive reaction to most or all of these questions, you miss out. People are time poor. They are stressed. They are busy. They have hundreds of options and demands on their social time. They constantly need to evaluate every event choice offered to them and decide which ones are a yes, and which ones are no.
Here are a few basic tips to help you more effectively promote your ‘brand’ to the marketplace.
Do fewer events – sausage sizzles etc do nothing to enhance your relationship with your market. If anything, it deteriorates it. You need more volunteers, more often, and you’re asking your customer base to more constantly dig into their pocket. This creates what is known as ‘volunteer burnout’ and ‘donor fatigue’. You want to avoid both! If you do an event, do it have maximum impact, raise maximum revenue, require the least effort by your staff and volunteer base and provide the best value for money to your ‘market’. Avoid fetes in particular. These are massively resource and people intensive and when you calculate the return for effort, it is generally one of the poorest returns around.
Get help – Yes we have a vested interest in this statement, but there are loads of good reasons. Professional event people know what is available. They know what works. They know where to get it from. Generally, they will be able to both do ‘the hard stuff’ and guide you how to best use your people to reduce the workload and stress on them. They will not have to reinvent the wheel, as they will generally take a tried and proven formula to make it easier for them and you. At Event Masters, we will certainly discuss working on a performance fee basis, where the more we are able to help you raise, the more we earn – creating a win-win partnership rather than a traditional supplier arrangement where the provider has no responsibility for the outcome.
VALUE – This is the most vital point. You are competing with EVERY OTHER FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT. Yes, you’re special because you’re a school, club, charity etc. But that will only work for the inner circle of followers. You have to be seen as an attractive alternative with NO CONDITIONS. Not ‘that was good for a school show’, but ‘that was good.’ People are time poor, mindful of their expenditure and want to get the most out of their available time, money and effort. Make it great!
If you’d like some guidance, contact us anytime at info@eventmasters.com.au or call 0419 943 000. Good luck with your planning.