Are your programs a well-kept secret?

A carefully designed promotional strategy can increase community response without breaking your budget.

By Vance Barrie

How do you promote your programs and facilities? What's the best way? What's the most inexpensive way?

I believe the best promotion is by word of mouth from satisfied users. But, in many cases, the problem is getting them there in the first place so they can promote the program later.

Let's explore some of the promotional avenues available.

News releases

The most basic are news releases and public service announcements (PSAs). Most of our news releases are one page, double-spaced and have an individual's phone number to contact for further information. The releases are generally sent two or three weeks in advance of the registration, starting or actual event date. This facilitates the deadlines of the three weekly papers that serve our area.

We also send the news releases to local middle and high school papers during the school year and to some of the bigger industrial firms which have weekly newsletters. The releases are used by both groups.

The PSAs are mailed on a schedule similar to the news releases, with copy taking no more than three typed lines. These public service announcements are used by local radio and television stations.

Advertising

Another mass media avenue open to the park district is advertising, or paying for a guaranteed space or time in the media. In our market, there is one radio station which dominates, one daily newspaper and three local network affiliate television stations.

Which advertising avenue is the best? Actually, using all of them via a campaign is the best, but not very practical. Park districts usually don't have the thousands of dollars needed to effectively blitz all the media. Moreover, television advertising is getting more complicated, as VCRs and cable networks share the market with the local network stations.

It may be best to spot advertise. For example, a horseback riding event could be promoted on a country western radio station, a jazz concert on a Jazz radio show and a community center program in a paper that serves a substantial portion of your district.

Printed material

Brochures, flyers and other printed material are great. We bought a printing machine and do most of our own printing — on brightly colored 60-pound Wausau Astrobright paper. These printed pieces definitely stand out on a bulletin board.

We also use outside typesetting services and, in many cases, only need to update dates, fees, etc., each year. The greatest benefit from printing our own brochures and flyers is using the local school systems to promote our youth programs.

For example, it's much cheaper for the district to distribute 24,000 brochures about our summer camping programs through local elementary schools than it would be to buy a newspaper ad. Also, we reach our intended constituents through the district distribution system.

Brochures are also distributed to local libraries, personnel offices of the bigger companies, doctors' and dentists' offices, realtors, chamber of commerce offices as well as past participants. Developing mailing lists of past users is important. This is much easier today with computers in the office.

Most of our program or facility brochures are one sheet, 8 1/2 x 11 or 8 1/2 x 14 inches, usually printed both sides with a registration form.

We print an annual golf newsletter for pass holders and send it out in February

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or March as a reminder to buy those passes. There's also historical pictures of the courses, cartoons, tournament information, fees, regulations and planned improvements for the four courses.

A group outings brochure was developed in 1985. It lists all of the things a group could do, whether it be a church group, a senior citizen group or a day care center. These brochures were sent to churches, day care centers, schools and businesses in a 40-mile radius of our district. A mailing list was developed by using phone books for local and surrounding areas.

We also print a monthly calendar of events. This one-page flyer contains facility addresses, hours of operation and phone numbers. It is available at all of our facilities, and is also sent to area businesses, firms and many neighborhood groups which produce their own newsletters.

Media awareness

Be aware of the media people as people. One of the photographers on the local daily newspaper is a gardener. We contact him whenever there's a special item at our greenhouse and gardens. A couple of the local media people are train buffs. They're good contacts for our turn-of-the-century trolley car ride.

Know which sports people like and appeal to their interests. If you've got a radio disc jockey who likes jazz or country and western music, and you've got that type of concert coming up, alert him and get some extra mileage.

Local radio stations often give away tickets to special events. It is usually cheaper for an agency to provide tickets on a radio giveaway than it is to buy time on the same station. Check station policy beforehand, however.

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If there are local radio and television talk shows or segments of the newscast, have your facility or program people get on the air to talk about their special areas. Ask the television stations if they'd like slides to accompany the talk.

Talks, slide shows

It is important to inform the public how tax money is being spent. An overall view of the district in slides is an excellent way to do this. Church groups, civic clubs and schools are always looking for different programs.

The slide show does two things. First, it tells about the programs and facilities and lets the public know how tax dollars are being used. It is also an excellent opportunity to bring along current brochures and flyers, answer questions and get a feel of the community pulse.

We take along a simple six-question survey card, asking members of the audience to rate the level of services, what they would like to see in the future, where they live and how long they've lived there.

Free listings

Most communities have a bank or savings and loan with an electronic signboard which can be used to list community activities. Brevity is the key here, since the message goes by very quickly.

There are a couple of realtor magazines in our community filled with real estate listings. One of them uses our material, photocopied from a printing master, and often runs it in a second color.

Other ways

Work with the local chamber of commerce and/or tourism bureau. If you have a tourism site, such as a museum, cooperate with these agencies to help promote it. Setting up a travel

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writers' familiarization tour will help. Contacting bus tour operators and letting them know what you have in your area may bring revenue to your whole community.

We have a signboard along one of the busiest stretches of roadway in our district with four by eight foot canvas signs announcing programs. Again, make the message brief. When people are traveling by at the legal speed of 45 miles per hour, they don't have much time to read a detailed sign. The sign is lit up at night, but it is not garish. It fits nicely into the park setting.

Give out t-shirts as part of the program and let your patrons be walking billboards for it. Usually the shirt is given as part of the program registration fee.

The best approach

Back to the word of mouth. Putting on excellent programs serving the needs of your users is the best promotion.

In 1984, we started running dinner rides on our excursion riverboat. Rather than do a news conference or paid promotion, we gave out some tickets to the radio disc jockey with the highest rated show. After he raved about the program on the air, we were soon sold out for the season and had to schedule dinner rides on three nights and a Sunday brunch in 1985 to keep up with the demand.

Our summer camps have such a good reputation that usually we fill up eight weeks of our kindergarten through second graders' camp in three weeks of registration in March. The camps don't start until June.

Placemats and/or sugar or salt packets may be other avenues to explore with local restaurants or your own facilities if you have dining places.

Always be on the lookout for other ways to promote your programs and facilities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Vance Barrie, a Northern Illinois University journalism graduate, has been with the Rockford Park District for six years, serving as its public information officer. He formerly worked at Kishwaukee Community College, the DeKalb Daily Chronicle and in military journalism in Japan.

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