Program
This program area carries two completely different thrusts:
- Pointers on developing a program for clubs accepting advertising.
- How to do the best job of advertising your club.
Clubs Accepting Advertising
For the average club, selling advertising looks like an easy way to expand the club's revenue base, particularly if you already have a vehicle (or vehicles) which may lend themselves to accepting advertising. Here, we are talking about a club publication, a club website, or perhaps the annual convention program.
Before jumping into an advertising program there are a number of factors that should be considered.
- Is the club leadership fully committed to exploring an advertising program, or are there some concerns, and if so, what are they?
- Explore your advertising potential. Do you have enough dealers or others who may be interested in committing to a long range advertising program? Although "one time" ads are fine...and greatly needed to be successful, you should have an advertising base of 50-70 percent advertisers who will advertise on a regular basis through an annual contractual arrangement.
- Are people who will be directly involved - your publication editor, webmaster, and others - committed to the program? Remember, if you are offering advertising in your publication, the publication deadlines must be clearly stated and adhered to. This probably means one year in advance. And, what this really means is that if the Fall issue is scheduled to be distributed on October 1 and it doesn't get out until Nov 15, advertisers are not going to be very happy!
- Do you plan on offering advertising opportunities only to your membership, or to the public, in general? There are pluses and minuses to both options. Generally speaking, you have more control over advertising if it is offered to members only, but it may cut down on your advertising potential. Opening it up to the general public should not be a problem if you have a strong, firm advertising policy and clearly articulate what types of advertising will be acceptable or will not be acceptable. (We will be including several examples of club advertising policies in the program reference section and archives for this program area.) Potential advertisers like collector supply companies or auction houses are examples of potential advertisers who may be missed if you go the member only route.
- Do you have someone in your club who is committed to serving as an advertising manager? Clearly define their role and job assignment. There are several major areas here: advertising recruitment and promotion, working with the advertisers on ad layouts and specifications, and the overall advertising billing and other managerial functions. These jobs can often be handled by the same person, or the jobs may be split up amongst an advertising "team". You must also make the decision of whether or not your club advertising manager will be working solely as a volunteer, or perhaps on some type of percentage of ad revenue reimbursement. This depends entirely on the club and what ramifications it may have for others who may have key volunteer leadership roles. Contracting with an outside professional for handling advertising sales is always an option but is seldom used by collecting clubs because of costs and the fact that a collecting club probably knows who their targeted potential advertisers are better than an outside advertising agency.
- Advertising campaigns. Be aware of the special advertising potential that may coincide with a special feature in your publication or a special program at the convention. If you know of potential advertisers who have products or services akin to the upcoming feature or special program, let them know that you feel they should be a part of this by placing an advertisement in that issue of the publication or in the convention program. Also, if your club has several potential outlets for advertising, like a publication, a website, an electronic newsletter and a convention program, offer your advertisers a special package deal for advertising in all of them!
So, assuming you are starting an advertising program, or perhaps already have one but it is in need of a "jump start" what do you need to do?
First, consider your advertising "tools" - do they sell? ...are they exciting? ...do they clearly articulate to the potential advertiser what you want them to do and what they can expect to get for their advertising dollar. An advertising kit or portfolio is always a good option. If you are approaching potential advertisers via e-mail (due to the cost factor) a kit may not be useful, however we still recommend one as something that may be vital for the final "sell". Include a covering letter from the advertising manager, a brochure or fact sheet on the club itself, demographic information on your membership (who the advertiser can expect to be reaching), an advertising rate card, advertising layout specifications and other specifications, e.g. can ads "bleed" to the edge of the page or must they have margins, can you accept full color advertising, 2-color advertising, etc., your advertising policy, possibly a copy of your club's publication, and anything else which may seem appropriate, i.e. a listing of current advertisers, advertiser testimonials, etc. If your club leadership is dedicated to an advertising program, make sure you get their commitment to spend some money on the advertising portfolio so that it represents your club in the best possible way.
Types of advertising. For your club publication, you probably have the options of offering both display and classified advertising. Display ads may be of more interest to dealers, show promoters, auctioneers, collector suppliers, book sellers, etc. Classified ads may be of more interest to collectors. Again, remember the advantage of package deals - selling an advertisement on the annual basis can be done for a measurable discount if the same ad is running time after time with no changes being required.
Selling advertising in a convention program is very similar to your regular publication but would normally have an entirely separate rate structure and probably different advertising specifications.
Offering advertising on your club's website can be a more difficult task - although it shouldn't be. Although, granted, all your members may not have access to the Internet, undoubtedly your site is reaching several times the total membership number and should be a great place to advertise. Unfortunately, few clubs are reporting "wild success" with website advertising. There are a number of options however - banners, buttons, ribbons, classified ads, display ads... We will attempt to add more information on club website advertising as it comes to our attention.
Setting Your Advertising Rates. This is very tricky. You may think, well our club only has several hundred members so it may be a difficult `sell'. But, if these several hundred members are the exact audience that the potential advertiser is wanting to reach, then the selling may be easier than you think.
Regarding publication advertising, you must get the editor to do his or her homework in determining the per page cost of the publication from a production standpoint. If more advertising means an additional page size, this also means an increase in weight, i.e. an increase in postage costs. Make sure your expenses are well covered...and then some...when establishing the ad rates. It's very easy to be too expensive or too cheap. Publication inserts are another lucrative form of advertising revenue for club publications, such as a specialty auction catalog, but again, watch the weight from a postal standpoint.
Also, if your club is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation, there may well be page percentages to deal with - number of editorial column inches versus number of advertising column inches - and inserts are usually considered a part of that page count. This is also a factor with certain postage rate classifications. Ask your local postmaster for clarification.
If your club has a policy of selling your membership list - either mailing labels or e-mail listings - even if its restricted to within the club membership, this will cut into potential advertising sales to some degree. This must be a factor in your initial advertising decision-making as to whether or not it is something the club wants to continue or discontinue.
Advertising Your Club
There is a complete program section on club promotion and membership recruitment. This section deals strictly with paid or `comp' (complimentary) advertising programs for your club.
The need to spend advertising dollars in promoting a collecting club, a club event or to recruit membership may vary greatly depending upon the hobby area your club supports and your club's individual needs.
Perhaps one of the first givens is that most collecting clubs do not have a large advertising budget. For this reason, it makes it even more critical that you have a specific advertising plan and that you spend your budget wisely. To do this, simply answer the basic questions. Who are you trying to reach? What is your message? Is a paid advertisement the best approach? Quite frankly, we have often seen display ads for clubs in some publications where we really wonder why that was the route the club took for promotion. Probably for most clubs, paid advertising should be only one of a number of options, and most of the others may be less expensive and reap better results. (If possible try to build some type of code into your paid advertisement so you can tell how well it has done determined by the response you receive. This can be done easily in several ways. For example if you are advertising in a publication called "Spotlighting Antiques" by simply placing the code letters "SA" for Spotlight Antiques at the end of your club name or street address, this will be an indicator of where the information came from.)
Rule Number One. Don't preach to the choir, as the saying goes. In other words, don't spend good advertising dollars reaching an audience you already have, or have exposure to in other ways. If you are targeting specific audiences, perhaps the "harder to reach" or more non-traditional audiences are the ones on which you should be spending your advertising dollars. Readers of a publication who may be surprised to see an ad from your club in that particular magazine or newspaper may just be more apt to notice it, and read it, because it is a surprise.
Complimentary ads. A club should always have a selection of advertising "slicks" or "glossies" as drop-in ads, offered in a variety of sizes, which can be given to a publication editor to use at his or her discretion as they see fit. Most publications, from time to time, have a last minute hole they have to fill and like to have these ads on hand. If you have a website, have your webmaster put a special section on the site where an editor can pull down the ad copy and use it. (This section is also a good place to include club logs and past club news releases.)
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