Re: Just going off for a minute... Don't mind me...

Johnny Mo wrote:

>The sponsor is paying to
>have exposure, plain and simple

Agreed. Have we looked into ways for advertising the Guild?

Many search engines allow organizations/companies to post banner ads. Maybe
the Guild should consider that as a part of our pr/marketing scheme.

Typically, sucessful marketing and advertising programs do not focus on one
item. The idea is generally to blanket the market, using a variety of
media.

We need a marketing plan. The goal of the plan is not only to recruit new
members but to provide an important need that, in my opinion, the Guild is
greatly lacking: name recognition.

A lot of people on this list and -ops are tossing around arguments about
what one "gets" as a member. Well, what most would expect to "get" is
satisfaction from involvement in a Guild that is nationally/internationally
recognized. As I have mentioned before, two years ago, I saw the Guild
listed on an applicant's resume. The entire committee, all web-savy, new
nothing about this Guild. With name recognition, a lot of people _would
pay_ to simply be a part of this Guild, regardless of the services the
Guild provides. I realize we are an educational organization and I _know_
we have a lot to offer, but name recognition provides us with something
that all the hard work and money cannot give us: validation!

If we focus on a broad, strong marketing campaign, I strongly believe we
can improve not only name recognition but our financial situation (by
becoming more favorable to donations), our membership (by offering our name
as a reason to join), our services provided (by having more revenue)
available volunteer resources to draw upon, and so much more.

So, to sum up, not only do we need to allow other companies a way to spread
the word about themselves, we need to get the word out too!!

Marketing Plan.

Tanya Spain

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