RE: Advertising and Marketing advice | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Eileen McCourt (emccourt![]() |
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Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 14:30:12 -0600 (MDT) |
Eileen from Oak Creek Commons (currently chair of our marketing committee). Having a website is essential. It is one of our most effective marketing tools. We also advertise in alternate journals; we have received very solid leads from the local Sierra Club newsletter, parenting magazines, and local alternative press. We also have presentations about once a month that we advertise in the local press, with fliers, and calendar listings in the local press. We create direct mail pieces about every 6 months (when we have a new calendar) and use mailing labels purchased from The Cohousing Network (who can provide localized labels targeted to certain zip codes), and/or our own database labels of contacts. We go to every festival and farmer's markets in our area, too, which are good PR and give some contacts. We have a marketing consultant, who garners a lot of PR exposure for us, and helps with presentation content and continuity. She has encouraged us to have an event associated with most of our advertising, which seems to work pretty well, even if the event is just the availability of a new calendar. I would say that most of our members (we have attracted about 35 members and associates altogether, some of whom have moved on) have come from one of three points of contact - direct mail, local presentations, and our website. Targeted advertising supports those efforts, but in itself, would not be an effective tool for us. Of course we have a marketing budget that supports all of this. It has been as high as $3500/mo, but right now we have $2,000 a month. Even when we had a development pause about 18 months ago until we reached a certain number of members, we maintained a marketing budget and even intensified our marketing efforts. New members are the engine that drives the development project to timely completion, and ultimately help to contain the cost of the project. I use a very rough rule of thumb that it costs $2500-$3000 of marketing money to attract each solid member who contributes their 5% and even invests additional money in the project. Of course, at the very beginning, a group will not have this kind of money to spend, but a marketing budget should be a top priority. We have 26 full equity members and have spent about 75K to get them. --eileen Eileen McCourt Oak Creek Commons Cohousing in Paso Robles, CA http://www.oakcreekcommons.org -----Original Message----- From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org [mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org] On Behalf Of pattymara [at] juno.com Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 7:04 AM To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org Subject: [C-L]_Advertising advice Dear List, Once again, Chris nails it right on the money. Advertising is a waste of money, in conventional, print ad formats. The alternatives worked for us, the local public radio station volunteer time (with plugs, interview shows etc) worked for us, and the "posters in the right places" worked for us. We advertised in the Cohousing Journal for a couple of years with a quarter page ad, because the price was very affordable, but I'm not sure if it hooked us any hot buyers. We just felt good about supporting the journal. This all happened over four years ago when Tierra Nueva was in our marketing phase. In the past year, we have had a couple of resales, and the owners used the classified ads on the cohousing website. They did get responses from that. I have a feeling that a group website, with a link to the national cohousing website, is one of the best ways to get the word out. Getting the address of your website out: alternative press, public radio, posters in the right places. It's all a circle. coheartedly, Patty Mara Tierra Nueva, central CA coast mmm ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
- RE: Advertising advice, (continued)
- RE: Advertising advice Rob Sandelin, June 2 2002
- Re: Advertising advice/Collaborating w/ other Cohos Ann Zabaldo, June 3 2002
- Re: Advertising advice Chris ScottHanson, June 3 2002
- RE: Advertising advice Catya Belfer-Shevett, May 31 2002
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RE: Advertising and Marketing advice Diane Simpson, May 31 2002
- RE: Advertising and Marketing advice Tree Bressen, June 5 2002
- Communities magazine Racheli Gai, June 5 2002
- RE: Communities magazine Rob Sandelin, June 6 2002
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