The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth. Rae Stonehouse
International’s rebranding initiative included developing and promoting the tagline “Where Leaders Are Made.”
Why not create a tagline or a motto for your club? My club originated in a pub, then as it grew it moved to a larger pub. We used to order beverages that would be delivered to us for our break. Our slogan or tagline was “the club in the pub!” Later when the club outgrew meeting in pubs and was looking at a more professional image and meeting space, our slogan became “You can take the club out of the pub, but you can’t take the pub out of the club!” My club is called Kelowna Flying Solo Toastmasters. It started life as a single’s club that provided speaking & leadership skill development. That idea didn’t fly for very long … pun intended …then it developed into a regular community club. Our tagline now is “Flying solo … but not alone!”
In addition, I created a couple other graphics that we use on our website, social media venues and printed materials.
The Toastmasters Branding Portal is an excellent resource for logos, images & templates you can use to develop your club brand. Here is the address for their brand portal.
http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/VirtualBrandPortal.aspx One thing to keep in mind is that while you are encouraged to exercise your creative side in developing your club brand, you are not permitted to use Toastmasters International logos etc. as part of a graphic that you create.
Your club brand, which includes The Toastmasters International corporate brand as well as what you develop locally, should be prominent on everything you touch i.e. your website, social media venues and printed literature. This should also include contact info so that a potential guest can easily see how they can contact you for more info. Make it easy for them!
Here is a look at our branding in action as seen on our club Facebook Page:
Chapter Four: Toastmasters Club Websites
Does your club have one? If so, great! If not, why not?
If so … why not have two of them?
Website development has evolved from a skill that only a few possessed and they likely charged a lot of money for their specialized services, to the point that almost anybody with the time and an interest can create a reasonable website. FreeToastHost as well as other Toastmaster-backed club management systems such as SpeakEasy make it easy for a club to have a web presence.
While I think that this is a great idea, I would strongly suggest that if you have website development skills, that you create another site targeted at the public. This becomes your on-line billboard to encourage visitors to your website to actually come out and visit your club.
I’ve recently created a site for my club at http://flyingsolotoastmasters.ca
Here is the header and top navigational bar (above) for my club. Note the top banner which incorporates Toastmasters International’s brand i.e. colours, logo & tagline. There is also a link that goes to our FreeToastHost site via the Member’s Site Login link. Not only does it provide a secondary site to be indexed by the search engines, it also provides a secure site for our members to sign up for our weekly agendas, gain access to some useful resources and provides access to club administrative tools.
As mentioned above, the main purpose for a stand-alone website is to encourage visitors to your website to visit your club. Providing useful content by way of articles gives them reason to dig deeper into your website and while doing so, be exposed to your promotional copy. While your copy should be factual, it should be written in a manner that causes the site visitor to learn more about your club.
For promotional copy I used the following:
Communication Skills:
Find the right words and your audience will find you!
•Develop better speaking & presentation skills.
•Learn to think quickly and clearly on your feet.
Leadership Skills:
Is lack of leadership skills holding you back in your career?
Toastmasters can help!
•Build strong leadership abilities.
Self-Confidence:
The Toastmasters program will improve your communication skills and open doors in your personal and professional life. Instead of labouring in an academic setting or spending money on costly seminars, you’ll learn in a self-paced atmosphere of fun and fellowship.
I’m sure that it has been used elsewhere and it still works.
Your website also allows you to tell a story about your club. It can be accessed by an About Us link. In this case it is ABOUT FLYING SOLO.
Why does your club exist and how did it come to be? This is marketable promotional material that allows you to differentiate your club from other Toastmaster’s clubs. You should also post this same content in the Long Description field in your Club Facebook Page. We discuss Long Descriptions later on.
A promotional video, some testimonials from your members, News Updates and info as to when and where your club meets, add valuable content to your on-line presence. For some light-hearted content I added the Top 10 Reasons for Joining Our Club. You can easily create your own version.
Top 10 Reasons for Joining Kelowna Flying Solo Toastmasters
Better entertainment than Cheap Tuesday night movies.
More fun than a barrel of monkeys. (actually, a lot more fun than playing a Barrel of Monkeys!)
Provides you with an alibi should you need one as to where you were on Tuesday evening.
It is the best place in town to develop your communication skills, including public speaking.
It is the best place in town to develop & hone your presentation and leadership skills. (Industry is desperately looking for leaders that can communicate well. You can be one!)
Where else can you have a panic attack while public speaking, get support from people that have been there themselves and want to get back up and do it again? (yes, it does happen!)
Have you ever been presented with the Bart Simpson Award for being the best Humourist of the evening? (Well you could be … but only at Kelowna Flying Solo Toastmasters!)
Do you struggle with thinking of ideas to fit into conversation? (You will walk away from every Flying Solo meeting with something to talk about.)
Do you like to tell a good story? Flying Solo Toastmasters can help take your story-telling skill to the next level.
You get to hear regular updates from that amazing world of Rae Stonehouse [or not!] (Flying Solo Toastmasters is a club that we choose to belong to. As a member you will make new friends & colleagues, some that will last you a lifetime.)
This custom made Toastmasters club website features a link to Our Blog which allows us to create and publish content that is both of value to our members and to visitors to the website. The Blog articles are also indexed by search engines to help increase our visibility and reach. We’ll expand upon blogging later on in this manual.
The same applies to our Resource Library. Here we have helpful articles on Public Speaking, Speech Evaluation Skill Development & Toastmasters Protocol.
As the site’s Webmaster and the main content creator, when I post a new article to the site I also promote