Rotary Club of Angel Fire Marketing (For an 18- to 24-Month Two-Year Organizational Marketing Plan)

1. Goals: What You Need to Accomplish o

Key Questions: What are your organization’s main one to three goals?

The Rotary Club of Angel Fire will encourage and foster service as the foundation for excellence in humanity and to inspire the achievement of the following specific objectives: 1. The Rotary aims to increase opportunities for community service by the development of membership and partnerships with organizations that serve the world community. 2. Through our service to both our local and global community, the Rotary will seek out ways to change the world in an effort to make it better for humanity. 3. The Rotary will strive to implement high ethical standards in both business and personal life while recognizing every Rotarian’s occupation and passion as an avenue to serve society. 4. The Rotary will work to add value to the life of every Rotarian by fostering the ideals of truth, friendship, goodwill, fairness and service in personal, professional and community life.

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And what are your one to three marketing goals (how marketing can best contribute to achieving organizational goals)?

1. Build a solid and credible understanding of the Rotary Club of Angel Fire so that our community knows who we are and what we do through the following actions: a. Person-to-person contact b. Enhance publicity strategies c. Direct marketing 2. Develop awareness in the region by marketing our members, their roles and their contributions to our community. Prepare individual profiles that highlight member contributions in the organization, in the community and how the member benefits from Rotary. 3. Motivate our community to become involved with Rotary through donation, membership or service by marketing our fundraisers and the results of the community service that our fundraisers support. Make the community aware of the organization’s five avenues of service and the wide span of benefits that Rotarians and the community receives from our club.

2. Benchmarks and Measurement—Staying on the Pathway to Success Part One—Benchmarks Key Questions: What are three to five concrete, specific and measurable (when possible) steps to complete en route to achieving your marketing goals? 1. Establish a concrete marketing plan. 2. Specify a budget based on what the club decides to market and work to stay on budget. 3. Keep the community regularly updated about the Rotary’s goings-on—at least a weekly message through rotating media outlets. 4. Survey the community to establish a base of their concepts about Rotary. Continue the surveys to the community to determine the change in their concepts. 5. Establish a metrics for measuring fundraising and membership goals.

Part Two—Measurement Key Questions: o

How will you know if you are moving down the right path or not? You need to know: 1. Community survey results 2. Measurement of donations against goals 3. Measurement of membership against goals 4. Membership survey results

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What is working best so your org can do more of it? 5. Word of Mouth promotion 6. Partnerships with educational and charitable organizations

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What targets are engaged and which segments do you need to engage differently? 7. People that belong to other non-profit organizations are engaged 8. The retired full time resident community is engaged 9. We need to find out way to engage the younger working class in our community

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What content is most compelling to your base? 1. Word of mouth discussion about successful projects support by Rotary 2. Educational presentations about our community

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What messaging generates action and what fails to motivate? 1. Direct request and presentations from organizations in need generates action 2. Messaging that does not communicate who will benefit and how the community will benefit are less successful in motivating the community or Rotarians

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3. Situation Analysis—The Conditions Inside and Outside Your Organization Key Questions: What is the environment in which you are working, including the perspectives of current and prospective audiences? You can assess the situation in several ways. o

Environmental scan: What policies, practices, or other factors could help or hurt your marketing success? 1. We need to invite more powerful and entertaining guest speakers. 2. We should increase our presence in newspapers and other media forms. 3. We should organize fundraising campaigns that are entertaining and meaningful to the community. 4. Evening meetings and fellowship gatherings should be held regularly. 5. A majority of all funds raised (near 100%) should continue to be directed to charities that serve the local and global communities. 6. Rotary needs to develop strategies to take advantage of how Rotary interacts with other local charities.

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Competitive analysis: What are other organizations providing in terms of content, programs and resources? How successful are they? 1. There are other service organizations existing within the community that we compete directly with for contribution dollars and service time. 2. A great number of people are asking for donations and financial help so we need to differentiate Rotary and educate the community on how they benefit from Rotary. 3. The charities that have a specific project or goal have an easier time developing a following based on the interest of specific community members. 4. Other charities have established events that the community has embraced as standard events they participate in. 5. Most other charities are focused on their specific beneficiaries and are not approached by other charities for help while Rotary is open to any worthwhile project which means we are often helping our competitors. But that is who Rotary is. We just need to recognize this and included it in our goals.

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Audience research: What does your audience think about your organization, its work and/or the issues you work on? 1. The community is not yet fully aware of goals and accomplishments of Rotary and what its role is in the community. 2. People do not understand the membership process. They do not understand who is eligible, the qualifications required to be a member or what is expected of our members. 3. The Rotary should conduct more research to understand the community’s opinions, wishes and thoughts about Rotary and its members. 4. The commitment required is sometimes a roadblock to gaining new members. 5. The Rotary should approach churches, charities and other community oriented organizations to build partnerships and seek out new members. 6. The Rotarians should make themselves more visible and identifiable when conducting community service and other activities to promote the people’s awareness about the club.

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Marketing audit: What current marketing work is succeeding, and what needs to change and how? 1. Word of mouth is our strongest form of marketing currently. 2. It would help the Rotary’s marketing programs if we enhance our online presence by doing email marketing campaigns, working on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), and create a comprehensive website that is regularly updated and strictly monitored. 3. It would be beneficial for the club to establish healthy relationships with other local clubs. 4. Pancake breakfasts and other similar strategies are a great way to enhance the club’s publicity and exposure in the community. 5. As of today, there’s no clear analysis of the marketing programs of the club and that needs to be immediately looked into if we want clear results. 6. Clear goals and budgets need to be established and managed.

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Internal audit: What are the perceptions, hopes, ideas and concerns of staff and leadership in relation to the marketing agenda? 1. It would be ideal if people in the community get to better know the Rotarians and better understand the benefits that Rotary brings to our community. 2. We would like as many people from our community to join the club as is possible and reasonable. 3. We would also appreciate getting as much community involvement as we can with the various activities and events that we conduct in the community. Solicit help from nonmembers. 4. The club should establish a deeper relationship with the resort and other businesses in order to facilitate achieving Rotary’s goals. 5. Encourage and inspire community members to be more generous and uplift the spirit of sharing. 6. No clear-cut set of goals for the club has been presented or discussed resulting in an ad hock approach to operations. 7. Potential members don’t see how they would benefit from membership in Rotary. 8. The club needs to work to provide opportunities for our business oriented members to benefit from membership.

4. Target Audiences and Segments Key Questions: Who are the one to three top audience groups you need to engage to meet your communications objectives and what do you need them to do and what are their wants, habits and preferences so you know how to connect with them? 1. County residents: Enhance their understanding of what the Rotary is and what we do so that they will be inspired to become part of our organization. 2. Retired residents with disposable time and income: Help them understand their authority and influence in establishing powerful social connections that will allow them to make a difference in the society. They always want to have something to do with their time. 3. Youth, families, business leaders, entrepreneurs, etc.: They would like to be involved in organizing more family events, a better life for the kids, and establish excellent business relationships and networks.

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5. Calls to Action—What You Want Your Target Audiences to Do Key Question: What are you trying to get your target audiences to do? Be specific. Your Support will Change the World – Contact Rotary Today (Standard) Your Change will Change the World – Donate to Rotary Today (Donation request during events) Your Time will Change the World – Volunteer with Rotary Today (Ads to recruit volunteers) Your Membership will Change the World – Join Rotary Today (Ads to recruit members) Your Appetite will Change the World – Buy Your Tickets Today (Ads for food based fundraisers) Your Choice will Change the World – Place Your Bet Here (Signage for bet oriented fundraising at an event) Your Talent will Change the World – Donate Your Art Today (Ads soliciting donations for silent actions) Your Laugh will Change the World – Buy Your Ticket Today (Ads for a comedy fundraiser)

6. Framing the Message—Benefit Exchange and Barriers to the Call to Action Part One—Benefit Exchange Key Questions: Why should your target audiences care? What’s it in for them? 1. Our target audience should take part in Rotary as it will give them the satisfaction of making a difference in our society. 2. Rotary members will experience a sense of pride in belonging to a team of top notch people that have had great success in improving the lives of people across the world. 3. Joining the Rotary will also enhance the member’s business networking circles which will help boost his exposure in the community and business opportunities while improving his people skills. 4. Donating and/or joining Rotary means being associated with a world-renown organization that is highly respected globally, has a credible record of experience and success, and has had a considerably large impact not only locally but across the world. 5. Current members will benefit from a larger membership because the club will be able to expand the impact of our charitable projects while distributing our efforts and energy more evenly. 6. Rotary members build lasting relationships that bring great joy to their lives. 7. Rotary members are entertained and educated while developing an in-depth knowledge of their community through guest speakers. 8. Rotary has the opportunity to serve multiple aspects of our community and world while most other charities are focused on one aspect.

The variety provides more opportunities to experience the

benefits of serving.

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Elevator Pitch: Rotary is a highly successful international service organization with a community focus.

We serve our

neighbors by helping people in need, funding beneficial programs and working on local and international projects. Rotary consists of people from every ethical, financial, religious, political and business segments. All Rotarians share a desire to promote high ethical standards while finding ways to improve the quality of life for the people around us. Put simply, Rotarians want to change the world through service to our community.

Part Two—Barriers Key Questions: What challenges do you face in motivating the action? What’s going to be difficult? 1. Competition with other charitable organizations will prove to be a challenge in implementing a program to expand membership or increase donations. 2. Bad taste from the past, gossip, and word of mouth will also affect how a program or marketing strategy will be implemented. 3. The limited awareness that people in the community have about what Rotary is and what is does will be a big deterrent for the organization to motivate action. 4. The marketing budget will also be a big consideration that needs to be given enough attention and focus prior to program implementation. 5. Limited publicity and exposure of the organization’s projects in the media (newspaper, radio, etc.) will also inhibit the event for getting maximum positive results. 6. When people get so sensitive about what they hear, see, and experience, they will have the tendency to take things personally. 7. While the Rotary is a charitable organization, there will still be times where some people will look at any activity or event organized by the club as something with a political purpose in it.

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7. Best Strategies—The Best Ways to Achieve Your Marketing Goals Key Question: Given your target audience groups you need to engage and the actions you want them to take, what are the best ways to motivate them to do so? 1. To be able to effectively motivate the targeted community, it is essential that they are first made fully aware of the issues affecting the community. They need to be presented with proof, facts, figures, and actual statistics instead of just estimates and wild guesses. 2. Rotarians should also be fully trained and knowledgeable about these issues and must be able to confidently answer questions that community members may throw at them so that the community gains confidence that Rotary knows what how to help solve community issues.. 3. The club should also maximize the use of modern internet techniques and social media tactics in spreading the word on any project or program they are organizing. 4. Rotarians must take part in other community organizations and events to promote the goals and achievements of Rotary via word of mouth. Rotarians already walk the walk; it is time to talk the talk. 5. The target audience must be educated in the benefits contributors and Rotarians receive from donating or being a member. 6. The successes that Rotary has realized in the past must be promoted in an effort to motivate the target audience to participate in Rotary. 7. The club must tell the target audience what the club wants them to do. It is not enough to share our successes and the benefits of Rotary. We must ask the target audience to take action.

8. Tactics—How to bring your strategies to life Key Question: How to connect your organization with your target audiences via these strategies? 1. Have every member memorize the elevator pitch on how Rotary benefits our members and the community. 2. Develop marketing collateral to distribute throughout the community and at all Rotary events. 3. Weekly ads in the local media that promotes our members and our message. 4. Quarterly or annual newsletter to our community that keeps them informed about recent projects and promotes upcoming events. 5. Prizes and/or internal competitions to motivate members to invite new members. 6. Develop relationships with event sponsors to cover the cost of advertising for all events. 7. Work with members to develop promotional skills they can use in the word of mouth campaigns. 8. Co-market events with other organizations to maximize the exposure of events and minimize the cost of advertisement. 9. Establish an advertising checklist to assure that each event is properly advertised in a timely manner. 10. Develop standards in promotion that build a Rotary brand that is widely recognized in our community. 11. Promote Rotarians to wear the Rotary brand at all events and whenever possible.

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9. Resources—What’s needed to implement Part One—Roles and Responsibilities Key Questions: o

Who does what?

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Existing staff? (Board members, volunteers, other connections)?

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How many hours (per week or month) is it expected to take?

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What training (if any) is necessary to build necessary skills?

Part Two—Budget Key Question: How much is it going to cost? o

Ideal to begin planning process with an idea of what you can spend so you can plan realistically.

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Goal is to develop an understanding of greatest ROI (return on investment) and to track budget in coming year.

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These findings will inform the budget for the following year.

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More on budgeting here:

10. Step-by-Step Work Plan—Start with a 90-day plan, Key Question: o

How to roll out the program?

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What are the immediate steps to take once you have an approved plan?

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Elements: Every discrete task that needs to be done, who tackles each task, start date and deadline for each task.

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