Topic of the Quarter
Promoting Your Club
by Jim Watson, Mid-Ohio Boogie Club
This is a new feature for our ABA newsletter. I hope it will generate some interest in sharing what we have learned in running our own club, so others may benefit. I am open to both topic suggestions and feedback on any topic within the current newsletter.
The theme chosen for this quarter’s newletter was “How have you promoted your club and what ideas can you offer”. I thought this was an important topic for all clubs, and particulary the ABA itself. I posed the following possible items to discussed. Have you ever:
 | Had a Newspaper articles done? |
| Were you every on a local TV or Radio station? |
| Do you list you club in some sort of publications? |
| Do you activity use your web site? |
| Do you have special “newcomer” workshops? |
| Have you done some sort of activity in a local Mall? |
| Have you ever been in a parade? |
| Have you ever been someplace unique, like a tractor pull? |
| Do you depend solely on the word of mouth? |
Sandie Gammon, from the Memphis Boogie Bunch, reply to these question, I suspect, is typical for most clubs. Here’s her reply.
- We advertise in a shopper news. It is free and brings us alot of people.
- We have been on TV before. It was a New Year's Eve.
- We do list our club in publications.
- Our website is not finished yet.
- No workshops but sometimes we do have a couple that teaches the swing.
- No Mall activity
- Have not been in a parade or tractor pull.
- We do depend on word of mouth. Also, there are 2 other dance clubs here in Memphis and we all advertise the others club and when they dance.
There are four articles that follow this one. I saw a couple of common threads in these article, “Hard Work” and generating a positive “Word of Mouth” message to the community that we live in.
I know from my connections with the Mid-Ohio Boogie Club that “Word of Mouth” is very important. Our dance registration desk hears it all the time when they ask “How did you find out about us?”. The person would often state “so and so said I should try coming here, it's fun.” A couple of the articles mention they did not know if something they did would help bring in new members. Well, it probably did. We have had people call and ask about our club based on an article or notice they saved from a newspaper that was over a year old, and in a few cases two (2) and three (3) years old.
Our access to the newspapers seems to be slowly going away. It appears that increased costs is causing them to think twice about “free” ads and notices. They are still willing to do articles, and I think “Frosty” promotion article offered some excellent ideas in this area.
I also know from discussions that a few clubs have done some wild things to promote their club. Perhaps they will share their experiences with us in the next newsletter either as feedback or by writing an article.
I am going to end this with a quote most of have heard from Paul Hennsey as he has said it oh so many times, and it related to this topic “...promote, promote, promote, and never stop promoting!”