Tips on raising your group's profile

17 November 2010

To make the best use of the materials, why not sit down as a group and go through the stages below to make sure you have everything covered.

Preparation

• What is it you're trying to do?
• Do you have the materials to do it?
• Which materials are you going to use?
• Once you've ordered them who will they be delivered to?

Plan your communications

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What's the one thing you want them to remember? How will you say this in a positive and engaging way?
• If you want to appeal to a particular type of person (eg young mothers), what's the best way to reach them? Put yourself in their shoes.

Writing and production

• Who's the best person in the group to write the materials? This may be one person or a small team.
• Do they have access to the internet to download any necessary templates?
• Do they have access to a printer or photocopier?

Distribution tactics

• How will you get the right message to the right people? Where are they?
• Does someone in your group have better access to them?
• Do you have people in the group who can get your materials out there? You may need a small team of people responsible for different tools.

Maintenance

• How will you know when the materials are running low? Why not put a contact sticker on the back of the leaflet dispensers, so that the shop keeper or librarian can get in touch when they need more?
• Do you need to update your communication? Maybe the campaign has moved on, or if no-one has shown interest, maybe you need to speak to your audience in a different way?