If only finding that "one simple thing" were that simple
In my other life (as opposed to my writing life), I'm the president of the Southern New England Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology. Officially, we're dedicated to exploring, studying, and sometimes preserving America's industrial heritage; in practice, we're a motley crew of engineers, archeologists, historians, academics and enthusiasts (I'm in the last category) who just have to see how things are made, how things run, why things are.
Two weekends ago, my chapter hosted our annual symposium at Higgins Armory, a strange and wonderful collection of arms and armor in Worcester, Massachusetts. Two years prior, we had hosted a similar event with disappointing results; at most, we had about 30 attendees. This year, we had close to 100.
What made the difference? Well, the location was strong, a good central point for a membership base distributed across Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. And the venue was intrinsically interesting -- museum admission was included free as part of the registration package. Plus, we threw in a free lunch.
But one of the keys to success came out of a simple piece of research we had conducted in response to our frustration two years ago. After we had scratched our heads wondering why turnout had been so poor, we used an e-mail survey tool (Beeliner) to poll the attendees and, more importantly, the much larger number of members who chose not to attend. The survey was short and simple -- no more than 10 questions -- but the results successfully uncovered one clear culprit: A failure to send out sufficient advance notification of the event. Without a previous "save the date" announcement, many of our members had already made plans by the time the official registration form arrived in the mail about a month before the event itself.
For this year's symposium, we got the word out early. In late August 2004, we sent out a calendar of upcoming events that highlighted the February gathering as one to watch for. At the next two chapter events, we reminded members that the symposium was approaching. Finally, we followed up the initial registration mailing with a quick e-mail that scooped up almost as many registrants as the mailing itself.
So, getting the word out early proved important. Simple, right? But getting to these simple nuggets often isn't so simple. When it comes to improving response, few things are as frustrating as the nagging suspicion that one simple thing might make all the difference in the world. But which simple thing?
Good marketing is rarely easy, but I think my chapter's experience with attendance offers some clues:
1) We need a willingness to set aside assumptions in favor of active digging.
2) We need to dig, preferably with simple tools we can use quickly and efficiently.
3) We need to apply what we learn in our next round of marketing.
Anyone else have a "simple, yet not so simple" story to share? E-mail me if you do.
Two weekends ago, my chapter hosted our annual symposium at Higgins Armory, a strange and wonderful collection of arms and armor in Worcester, Massachusetts. Two years prior, we had hosted a similar event with disappointing results; at most, we had about 30 attendees. This year, we had close to 100.
What made the difference? Well, the location was strong, a good central point for a membership base distributed across Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. And the venue was intrinsically interesting -- museum admission was included free as part of the registration package. Plus, we threw in a free lunch.
But one of the keys to success came out of a simple piece of research we had conducted in response to our frustration two years ago. After we had scratched our heads wondering why turnout had been so poor, we used an e-mail survey tool (Beeliner) to poll the attendees and, more importantly, the much larger number of members who chose not to attend. The survey was short and simple -- no more than 10 questions -- but the results successfully uncovered one clear culprit: A failure to send out sufficient advance notification of the event. Without a previous "save the date" announcement, many of our members had already made plans by the time the official registration form arrived in the mail about a month before the event itself.
For this year's symposium, we got the word out early. In late August 2004, we sent out a calendar of upcoming events that highlighted the February gathering as one to watch for. At the next two chapter events, we reminded members that the symposium was approaching. Finally, we followed up the initial registration mailing with a quick e-mail that scooped up almost as many registrants as the mailing itself.
So, getting the word out early proved important. Simple, right? But getting to these simple nuggets often isn't so simple. When it comes to improving response, few things are as frustrating as the nagging suspicion that one simple thing might make all the difference in the world. But which simple thing?
Good marketing is rarely easy, but I think my chapter's experience with attendance offers some clues:
1) We need a willingness to set aside assumptions in favor of active digging.
2) We need to dig, preferably with simple tools we can use quickly and efficiently.
3) We need to apply what we learn in our next round of marketing.
Anyone else have a "simple, yet not so simple" story to share? E-mail me if you do.
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