Digital Arts Service Corps - marketing

More Workshops, Instructors, & Blogs

Chris Anderson — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:05:22 +0000

Marketing
January 2011 is the first month of my redesign of our workshop brochure. The original lacked our image of who we are- a MEDIA ARTS center. It looked more like a school lunch calendar, or a hospital manual. I added images, descriptions, and tried to make it easy to look at. Please!! Any input is appreciate on what works and what doesn't with this design.
This is my first attempt with Adobe InDesign. It's a great program for designing print material, and has plenty of add-on scripts users can share with one another. I would like to have a template designed so that you can just drop in new images, and paste new descriptions for each workshop without knowing anything about graphic design. The time and skills needed for the task will be cut tremendously.

Meetup.com helps incredibly with organizing events.
Most of our ShareSD jammers have found us through meetup.com

Volunteer Recruitment
Our members and visitors are growing. We've had visits from high school and university classes, independent artists, and local residents attending events and workshops. Thankfully, we are receiving more interns, donations, and volunteer instructors to help with all the new attention.
One goal is to have a migration of our curriculum onto a web-based system. Our server is slow, old, and has duplicates of everything running around all over the place. Google docs is my current stomping grounds for keeping new curriculum and managing new and potential volunteers to teach workshops.
I just created a Google Form so potential instructors can submit their workshop proposals to us. It clearly defines their goals and outcomes, while creating a contact database of those interested in volunteering. The form is a spreadsheet in disguise, so this information can be visualized, redirected, and published in several ways. Here is a copy of the form I've created: Proposal Form And here is how I want the information presented and archived (on its own): Doc View.

Tracking our Technology
As we approach closer to our annual 10 day film festival, the need for a reliable and organized system to track our equipment grows. We have seven screenings that happen simultaneously, and it all happens outside our walls. I discovered a Drupal program called MERCI(Manage Equipment Reservations, Checkout and Inventory), it can extend any content type into a list of unique reservable items (like studios) or buckets of interchangeable items (like DV cameras)." Developed by Chad Phillips for Open Media Project. (Thanks to Gavin for directing me to MERCI contacts!) This has everything I've been looking for, BUT...

1. Do I have the time to learn Drupal and fix any bugs before I leave?
2. Will anyone have the ability to maintain/update MERCI once I leave?

Before I step into uncharted territory, I'm going to see if I can Excel my way through this assignment. I recently took advantage of my IST and had a six-hour excel training, which gave me a few tricks to try out.

CMS
We have Kintera. And I do not like it. I had to call tech support. Their solution to my problem was that I had to be on Internet Explorer, clear my cookies, and restart IE in order for my duplicate contacts to update. Not exactly good workflow, especially when you are working in a Mac lab. I'd like to hear your thoughts on Kintera. Email me if you have any!

A growing community: http://macsddiy.posterous.com

Last month's Videographer's Lounge,a free gathering, was hosted by video artist Ilan Katin. This is a video mapping demo. Photo by Miguel Vega: portfolio.accent.tv/

My Favorite Marketing Resources from a VISTA

Bill Brown — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:52:23 +0000

If you've never done a marketing plan, I can definitely point you to some great resources that you should know about right away.

Depending on how in-depth you want to get with the marketing plan, a good place to start is a communications audit- this helps you assess the lay of the land and identify potential problem areas. This site is great for that: http://www.mediaevaluationproject.org/WorkingPaper1.pdf

The best tool for marketing planning I've found is Smart Chart- it takes you through the planning process step-by-step and is absolutely fantastic: http://www.smartchart.org/

Then, if you're going to have a social media component to it, you really can't beat the Idealware Social Media Decision Guide: http://www.idealware.org/reports/nonprofit-social-media-decision-guide

These three resources are absolutely fantastic tools that I highly recommend. Anyone else have any good ones?

From Morgan Sully:

I'm currently developing a Marketing Plan and Schedule for Media Arts Center San Diego and two things I found useful are:

http://www.marketingrealestatemadeeasy.com/marketing-schedule.html

http://masterful-marketing.com/small-business-marketing-plan/

The DASCorps Survival Guide: Marketing

Bill Brown — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:57:34 +0000

At some point during your VISTA year, you might be tasked to create marketing materials for your program or even a marketing plan for the entire agency. In this section, you will learn the steps and ideas inherit in a marketing plan.

What is Marketing?
Marketing is the process of discovering the needs and wants of a prospective customer and satisfying them.

What is a Marketing Plan?
A Marketing plan is a document that details the actions and overall plan to achieve certain marketing objectives.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan
A business plan details the goals of the business, including reasons for and plans to attain the goals. The marketing plan is a part of the business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Communication Plan
The communication plan is the detailed actions to achieve certain marketing objectives. The communication plan is part of the marketing plan.

The Four I’s of Service Marketing
When marketing services, there are four unique elements that must be taken into account.

Intangibility: Because services are intangible, they are harder for consumers to evaluate, both general quality and benefit.
Inconsistency: Service depends on the people who provide them; their quality varies by provider.
Inseparability: Can the consumer/client separate between the deliverer of the service and the service itself?
Inventory: How much downtime is built into providing the service? How does that affect the client and volunteer experience?

Marketing Plan Part 1: Situation Analysis

The situation analysis describes what is happening in the market your agency is engaged in. The situation analysis consists of the following: marketing summary, SWOT analysis and competition/alternative provider inventory.

Situation Analysis: Marketing Summary
The marketing summary details the market your agency serves. Some details that can be included are:

Market demographic behaviors: geography; age; gender; income; behavior profiles (including motivation, personality, perception and learning)
Market Needs: What do people in your area need? How does your agency’s mission/vision address those needs?
Trends/Growth: Take into account political, economic, social and technological factors in your community

You have options to obtain this info: secondary, such as market and/or demographic reports produced by other agencies/organizations; or primary, where you collect the data.

When surveying consumers/clients, you can use gap analysis, where consumers assess their experiences and expectations of service quality.

To review Inconsistency and Inseparability, 2 of the 4 I’s of Service Marketing, you can develop a customer contact audit, where you list the points of interaction between the client and service provider.

Situation Analysis: SWOT
Review your agency’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Situation Analysis: Competition/Alternative Providers
Research other non-profit agencies, for-profit organizations and government agencies that deal with the same market and general service needs that your agency does. Keep in mind info such as: events, donors, and features.

Marketing Plan Part 2: Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy details how you plan to communicate the value of your agency and programming. It takes into account what your goals are, who you are trying to reach, how you want to be seen, and the tools you will use.

Marketing Strategy: Marketing Objectives
In this section, you detail the goal of the marketing strategy, which usually compliments a business/strategic plan goal. Goals should be quantified and measurable in terms of what is to be accomplished and when.

Marketing Strategy: Target Markets
For non-profits/agencies, one of the differences in marketing is who your target market is. For-profit organizations’ target market is their customer or the consumer of the product or service. For non-profits/agencies, there are generally 3 target markets.

Consumer/Client: This is the same as a for-profit; it is the person who will use your service or product.
Donor: This is someone who is giving financial or material support to your agency.
Volunteer: This is a person who is offering service to your agency.

These target markets will have different wants and needs to be addressed. You might have to use different media and tools to communicate with these targets.

Target/Target Audience:
There is a difference between the target and the target audience. This can be especially present when dealing with non-profit consumer/clients. Target is who will be using your service. Target audience is who hears your message and can create change or drive people to your program/agency. For example, a service tasked to reach out to diabetic children could have a target of diabetic children and a target audience of parents of diabetic children.

Marketing Strategy: Positioning and Messaging
What associations do you want consumers, donors, and volunteers to have about your agency? Positioning and messaging help determine these associations.

When you position your agency, you are defining the brand of the agency and where it fits in the market you compete/work in. One way to determine the agency’s fit in the overall market is by using a marketing mix or the 4P.

Product: What is the service or program you are marketing to the consumer? How is it different or the same from competitors and alternative providers’ offered items?
Price: How much does the service/product cost. This cost can be monetary, volunteer, or in the amount of time invested in the program by consumer.
Promotion: How do you communicate to your target and target audience? This takes into account both media and relationships, such as volunteers and community organizing.
Place: Where can consumers/clients access your services?

Messaging is the tone of the marketing and communications, which reflects the positioning or branding of the agency. This can be anything from logo and colors used to literacy level of written marketing.

You must also communicate these ideas to the agency’s staff; this is internal marketing. Due to the 4 I’s, your program’s marketing is dependant on your staff. They communicate with the consumer (through providing the service), donors (through general contact and special events) and volunteers (who work with staff). Staff might also have to interface with media. The staff should share the same idea of what the program is and it’s importance, so that these values and ideas can be shared with the target markets they come into contact with.

Marketing Strategy: Marketing Execution
Marketing execution is the tactical marketing plan, or how you will communicate with your target audience and market. You should review all previous marketing materials and initiatives to determine what worked and what audiences have previously been targeted.

Review what competitors have been doing in terms of marketing, and whom they are targeting.

Determine the medium you want to use to relay your message, taking into account your audience.

Compile a list of tools and partnerships you can use in your marketing execution.

This is where your communication plan comes into play. Your communication plan will help you manage medium and other factors such as public relations.

Marketing Strategy: Marketing Model
The marketing model details the marketing execution of both programming and the agency as a brand mapped to the target and target audience.

It can be displayed as a table or matrix.

Audience/Who Goal/Why Objective/What Tactics/How and When Success Metric

This can be an easy guide for others to follow. You can detail specific audiences and how to deal with them, such as press or family members of clietns/consumers.

Links/Other Resources
Nonprofit Marketing Plan Walkthrough

Strategic Communications Planning

Consistent Social Media Practice

Brand Strategy Tool Kit

SPIN Project Resources

All About Marketing

Marketing & Outreach

Bill Brown — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:43:53 +0000

This area is for any and all resources related to Marketing & Outreach.

"Freedom of Speech is Having a TV Show"

Erica Jones — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:09:51 +0000

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and may the warmer weather be treating you kindly and hopefully not causing your body to react to unfortunate world of allergens or even to the adjustment to the change in weather. My allergies are sucking bad right now, especially considering I do not even know what is causing this discomfort out here in the South West! GO NETI POT!

On a positive note, my service here with Quote...Unquote, Inc could not be going better. I am re-signing my VISTA membership with QUQ, YAY! I really feel confident in the work I am executing and I have a great staff support system, which is always reassuring.

I also attached a nice outline/spreadsheet that our fundraiser committee developed. Please check it out & provide feedback. This outline is proving itself effective as it is easier to organize which development ideas are more feasible than others.

Here is a list of some things I have been working on and developing (Every 2 weeks I send my boss a bi-weekly report of the things I have been doing, so it is easier to copy & paste that report into the field report):

-Researched an effective and efficient underwriting/membership tier system to assist with the fundraising committee to develop a membership package. This model will be used by Amelia Salas, who is QUQ's Underwriting/Sales staff person. When she meets with prospective sponsors this will help with the sale.

-Compiled content from other staff for the creation of our monthly e-newsletter and sent it out to all subscribers (I have also created a "How To create an e-newsletter" that will be used as a guideline for it to become eventually sustainable).

-Mike Trujillo and I developed a contract/template to send to the NM Film Office which will help to clarify the terms in which QUQ receives programming for Encantada TV and ways to cross-promote each organization

-Had a meeting with Regina Chavez, Creative Albuquerque, discussing ways we can partner with eachother (cross-promotion)

-Had a phone meeting with Maresa Thompson from the Albuq. Convention & Visitors Bureau office about them submitting programming and QUQ receiving a trade membership that would allow QUQ to get listed on their website and to send out an article in their monthly e-newsletter

-Meetings about the Prometheus community radio tour--helping to develop the schedule for when they visit and how their presentations will pertain to QUQ and youth

-Fundraiser Meeting (every Tuesday) to update eachother about grant opportunities and to develop a strategies to execute some of these funding models

-Met with members of Enlace Comunartio and Citizen School to discuss ways QUQ can help them with creating a youth-focused PSA about healthy vs unhealthy relationships (focusing on domestic violence within teenage relationships)

-Had a productive phone meeting with Anne from Miro Community to discuss how QUQ is utilizing our Community Media Space to the best of our ability with highlighting local offices (ACVB) and giving Anne feedback on the site, advice

-Met with members from the NM Latin Dance Festival. John Ortiz & I discussed how we can help cross-promote each other. The exchange is that QUQ will work on media/videos for them and in exchange they give us advertising space

-Steve and I went to the NM Community Foundation website to create an organizational profile that as certain funding comes in through their office, when they do a search they match up projects with available funding. They basically have a searchable database that they use, they do not have an application.

-At the fundraising meeting, we delegated different grants to the members to research & report back their feasibility and application to QUQ (i.e. is it worth our time to fill out the application). I will include this in my "How to Outreach & Fundraise Guide."

-Also, Steve, Amelia and I finalized a draft for the "QUQ Annual Membership Package" which breaks down the membership into tier levels (different incentives for each category, more incentives for the "higher category"). This will hopefully be an incentive for producers to want to enhance their membership and purchase the higher of the categories. I will include this in my "How to Outreach & Fundraiser Guide."

-Attended the in-service training/staff development for the Prometheus workshop (learning about different communication models and how to effectively construct a message to convey to a particular audience)

-Attended the main Prometheus event at MACCS which presented more of a media literacy 101 and how to better understand your community and their issues

-Sent out outreach email through a media industry listserv requesting filmmakers to submit their programs to Encantada TV, I have received a few emails indicating their willingness to submit!

-Worked on compiling content/articles for the newsletter (which Steve and I decided to only send out once a month)

-I was brainstorming ways to better promote our community media space and I came up with sending out a monthly e-bulletin titles "Community Video Showcase." This will highlight a video from our CMS and send it to everyone on our newsletter mailing list. This had a high "open" rate from our subscribers.

-Had a follow up meeting with Maresa Thompson, from Albuq Visitors & Convention Bureau about finalizing our contract/trade agreement. QUQ will supply broll footage to ACVB and event/video coverage of the arts & culture festival "Savor" in June, in exchange we get a ACVB (valued at $400) membership

Marketing Strategies For Your Website

Kevin Bulger — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:17:36 +0000

I have been given the task to increase the viewership and participation in www.sflregionalequity.org (a website dedicated to achieving greater equity in the Southeast Florida region through promoting and enabling affordable housing, transit-oriented development, stronger neighborhoods, and equal access to education and health).

I believe in the cause and I think demand for the website is out there. However, I did not know how to best get the word out. At first I spent approximately 60 hours identifying 1800 possible organizations and local activists who would possibly be interested in the purpose of the site. I then went ahead and emailed and snail mailed invitations to the website with very little response. I believe that of the 1800 pieces of mailings I received 2 phone calls and 7 emails. So that tactic did not get the results I was hoping for.

Next, I decided to create an e-newsletter through Constant Contact. The Collins Center already has an account with them so there is no additional cost to the website. Otherwise, It would cost over $300 a year to run the newsletter. However, I can not use my current email list to send out newsletters because if a certain percentage unsubscribe from the newsletter the account will be cancelled, thereby ruining the service for the whole organization (Constant Contact has a strict NO-SPAM policy). So that tactic could possibly produce the desired results, but it could also get me in some hot water with the Collins Center if the service gets cancelled.

After I spent some time reviewing my ineffective attempts, it became clear that the website needs an informed and focused marketing plan. I scheduled a "Marketing for Nonprofits" seminar this week that the Collins Center was gracious enough to pay for, but one seminar can only do so much. The website is in serious need of tried-and-true marketing strategies that work, and I plain have no expertise in marketing.

Therefore my plan is to a) gain knowledge of basic marketing principles; b) identify best practices for marketing websites; and c) choose one or a combination of best practices to implement.

If anyone else has the assignment of increasing participation in a website or project and would like to share your experience let me know! I think working on similar projects and having others share their input really helps, and it makes the whole process more enjoyable.

New Beginning

Erica Bledsoe — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:19:27 +0000

Glazing over at most of the discussions due to the fact that they are very tech specific, and I am not. I am fundraising and marketing for my organization and have no clue regarding computer parts, software, etc. My idea of computer maintenance and upkeep is taking it to my computer repair guys and saying "here - fix it" and they do. I don't know what they do, how they do it and prefer to keep it that way. I am not a computer tech minded person, I come from a strong social work background and not technological, but this is a new beginning and I have much to learn. I guess I will have to learn how to "glaze over" less.