Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Bringing in New Members (was New Member Mentoring Guidelines)--marketing outlets

[Alicia George (ajgeorge]

Some of the marketing outlets we use to announce our tours and homes for sale 
or rent include the following:

* Emailing an announcement, sale flyer, and floor plan to folks on our email 
notification list (384 names)
* Posting a sale flyer, floor plan, and photos on our website.
* Posting a “Home for Sale” sign and a literature box with sale flyers on the 
kiosk / bulletin board at the entrance to our property.
* Emailing an announcement, sale flyer, and floor plan to Takoma Village 
residents as well as former residents asking them to forward the materials to 
family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances (151 names)
* Posting an announcement to the Washington DC Area Cohousing Meetup (2,251 
names)
* Posting a sale announcement and photo album on our Facebook page (696 
followers)
* Creating an Event for the tour or open house on our Facebook page.
* Posting an announcement to the Cohousing-L email list (1,100 names)
* Emailing an announcement to our wider neighborhood email list (2,897 names)
* Posting a classified ad on the CohoUS website.
* Creating an event on the CohoUS Calendar of Events for the tour or open house.

There are likely similar opportunities in the Atlanta area and in many other 
locations across the country.

We have been surprised at the number of people who have picked up sale flyers 
from the kiosk at the front of our property while they walked to the nearby 
coffee shop or swimming pool. We allow others in the neighborhood to post 
announcements there, but we make sure our “Home for Sale” or “Tour of Takoma 
Village” signs are prominent.

Since there are several cohousing communities in the mid-Atlantic area, the 
regional group (Mid-Atlantic Cohousing) created the Washington DC Area 
Cohousing Meetup where each community can post announcements of events. It is 
an excellent way to reach out to people with interest in sustainable living, 
intentional community, or any number of other targeted interests.

Takoma Village is a member of CohoUS. Free classified ads are one of the 
benefits of membership and help us reach a nationwide audience. We’ve had 
several people reach out to us because they were relocating from other parts of 
the country to D.C.

We distinguish tours from open houses. The focus of tours is the community. 
They include a structured presentation about how TVC operates, a walk-around to 
see our facilities, and a brief look at a couple of homes shown as examples. We 
also provide light refreshments (grapes, pretzels, cookies).

We require folks to register for tours through the Washington DC Area Cohousing 
Meetup so we have an idea how many to expect. We’ve found about half of those 
who sign up attend. Attendance is usually around 25 people, although last 
September we had 50 folks show up and earlier this month only 15 came.

We offer tours quarterly. Since the pandemic, we’ve done two tours in person in 
June and September and two online in March and December. We decided to continue 
with the online tours because we discovered it gave folks from other parts of 
the country a good chance to learn about us. You’re welcome to sign up to see 
how we do it when the next online tour is offered in December. Check our 
website in November for the exact date and link to register.

We only offer an open house when there’s a home for sale and the home is held 
open for prospective buyers to see. The seller shows the home, but our team is 
in the common house providing information about the community, answering 
questions, and providing tours to folks who want to see the common areas.

We usually have 25 or 30 households show up at an open house. Many are not 
specifically interested in the home that’s for sale but use the opportunity to 
start getting acquainted with Takoma Village. It’s all good!

We publicize our tours and open house events the same way, using the outlets 
listed at the top of this message. And we continue to seek more outlets that 
would help us get the word out about cohousing in general and Takoma Village in 
particular.

Alicia


Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2024 19:34:19 +0000
From: "Chapel, Thomas (CDC/NCIPC/DOP)" <tkc4 [at] cdc.gov <mailto:tkc4 [at] 
cdc.gov>>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Bringing in New Members (was New Member Mentoring
        Guidelines)--marketing outlets
        
Alicia you mentioned: "Over time we've developed local, regional, and national 
marketing outlets that enable us to send our announcements out to several 
thousand people who are interested either in cohousing or in our neighborhood." 
Hate to bug you again, but can you elaborate on what some of those might be? 
Even if peculiar to DC area there are likely some similar ones in Atlanta?  
Also how often do you do the open houses?  I presume you use these same 
marketing mechanisms to promote that? Are they well attended?