Category Archives for "In-person marketing"

In-Person Marketing: Networking

Networking is fundamental to community development and community-based marketing.  Many businesses find networks of local contacts a great platform for marketing their business.  I found much the same as a community development worker, supporting community groups building their membership.

Businesses have enshrined the one-to-one over coffee, whilst as a community development worker I met a lot of people in their workplace or home.

The first step is to meet people.  This can be hard if you are, like me, introvert.  I can happily hide out in a crowd and not talk to anyone.  This is never particularly helpful.  There are broadly two ways to do networking.

The Networking Event

These are often advertised as network events but any events where people gather will do.  At a big event you will speak to a small number of people, even if you are extrovert.  So, the first point for my fellow introverts is you will never get to speak to everyone so don’t worry if it doesn’t feel as if you are meeting enough people.  No one speaks to everyone at networking events.

Once you’re in a conversation and you’ve found some common ground, here are a few things to remember:

  • Exchange business cards. These are the best way to maintain contact.
  • Ask for a one-to-one and if they say yes either organise it on the spot or promise to call them within 48 hours (and do it!).
  • Make a note on their business card of what you’ve agreed to do.
  • Send a reminder of the meeting a few hours before.
  • Think through what you want to find out at the meeting and mostly listen.
  • Have some way to keep in touch, eg by signing up to your website, and
  • Follow up with an email afterwards.

Referral Networking

Another approach to networking often used by community development workers is referral networking.  You make first contacts and arrange one-to-ones with them.  These might be members of a management committee or officers of local groups.  Anyone who is willing to meet with you.

During the conversation you ask if they can think of two relevant people who might be willing to meet with you.  Also ask if it is OK to tell the referrals they recommended them.  This latter is your credentials.  They are more likely to meet you if a friend or associate recommends you.

Get their phone number, call them and explain your previous contact suggested they might like to meet you.  (Usually email is not a good way to make first contact.)  The last four bullets in the list above can then be followed.  Don’t forget to ask your new contacts for their two contacts and credentials during your meeting.

This approach works well if you are familiarising yourself with a neighbourhood.  It can help you reach people you would not otherwise contact.  You will eventually have more contacts than you have time to contact but usually some people can’t think of anyone or some contacts drop out for various reasons.

Both these approaches are good ways to make contact with people.  What I haven’t really mentioned is what you discuss at the meetings.  That will be my topic next time.

Do you have an approach to networking that works?  What are your tips for making networking more effective?

In-Person Marketing Techniques

So far, most of my posts under the category “Technique” have been about online marketing.  Online marketing is hard to escape these days, especially if you are in business.  Customers do not have to go online but if they are online they are aware of marketing daily.  However, online marketing is secondary to in-person marketing.  It always will be so because in-person interactions will always have a more profound impact.

This is especially true for local marketing.  We can use the Internet to market offers nationally and even globally.  In-person interactions will be fewer under these circumstances.  Cost is the reason for this.  Few people can afford to fly all over the world and meet people in expensive hotels.  The traditional approaches to marketing on this scale such as newspaper or TV advertising, are still very expensive.  The Internet has opened up global marketing to many more people.  It is cheaper.  It is still difficult but certainly possible.

However my focus is on community-based marketing and there are many in-person techniques you can use to build a marketing strategy locally.  Mostly these remain unchanged.  The Internet can support most of these approaches but they are much as they always were.

Marketing

In this blog, I apply the language of marketing to community development.  The way I see it, local businesses need to market to communities, while community organisations need to recognise business as an essential element within their neighbourhoods.

When I write about promoting or campaigning, what I say is just the same.  There is, however, one difference between marketing and promoting / campaigning.  Marketing aims to make a sale, usually in a business context.  It may make sense to keep this distinction.  I market when I’m aiming for a sale; I promote or campaign when I seek to do something else.  This is fair enough if only because it allows these three words to retain distinct meanings.

Marketing in its narrow meaning has a business context and aims for sales.  In its more general sense, marketing means any kind of promotion.  Why?

  1. Whether you are marketing towards a sale, promoting or campaigning, the methods are indistinguishable.
  2. The marketplace is central to community development and not solely for financial transactions. Fundamentally I want to distinguish between genuine marketplaces, where people have a right to promote whatever they wish (so long as its legal) and the private shopping centre where the campaigner is moved along.  The private shopping centre is not a marketplace because it lacks the fundamental right we all have to live our lives in public; they are leisure centres, where the primary leisure pursuit is shopping.

Promoting

In its specific sense, promoting is where you are seeking support for an activity.  So, you are organising an event where there is a guest speaker and you want people to attend.  A flyer or email to a list informs people of the venue, time and place.  You’ll say a little about the speaker and their subject and hope people turn up.

There are many activities that need to be promoted.  Here are a few:

  • Events
  • Recruiting Members
  • Sharing information
  • Meetings
  • Persuading people to take on responsibilities
  • Debating, eg through a blog

So, promoting covers a range of recreational and business events, where people might listen to a speaker or debate a current topic.  Where there is a charge it is usually understood to cover costs and the event is not a business venture.

Campaigning

Specifically, campaigning is marketing a cause, with social or political change in view.  The aim is to (1) change people’s minds about a topic and then (2) to persuade them to take action.  So, campaigning will draw attention to a problem, suggest why current solutions are not good enough, promote a particular approach, provide evidence it is right and so ask people to take action.  Possible actions might include

  • Donate to the cause
  • Sign a petition
  • Write a letter
  • Join a demonstration
  • Subscribe to a newsletter
  • Join an organisation

There may be a charge for some of these but the main point is the political message; charges cover costs.

Conclusion

Whilst most people agree these are distinct approaches, there is significant overlap of the activities involved.  The in-person marketing techniques I will describe in this sequence of posts can equally be used to market, promote or campaign.

Do you agree all these approaches are marketing methods?  How do you set about promoting your activities?

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