Best ways to market your collection

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To ensure that the ALAP collection reaches as many people as possible, visibility is important both before and after the event. Pre-event marketing increases donations, while post-event marketing builds awareness of the club and can bring in new members and facilitate future collections by raising the profile of the collections themselves.

Proven free marketing channels:

• A store bulletin board, store entrance door, and hallway advertising.
• The shopkeeper adds information about the ALAP collection to the shop’s weekly advertisement.
• Local Facebook groups, the retailer’s Facebook page and local events calendars. We recommend multiple postings, for example: 4 weeks before, 2 weeks before and on the day of the collection.
• Local newspapers (stories) and all communication channels of partners.

Shops, may be happy to share information about the collection on their social media accounts.

If they want to invest in paid marketing, a shop can, for example, sponsor or run a Facebook ad campaign within a certain radius of the shop or buy a paid advertisement in the local newspaper.

Message format and timing

The collection should be announced at least a week in advance to ensure that as many people as possible are aware of the event. The club can run an advertisement on behalf of the shop, and if the collection is repeated regularly in the same shop, the basic advertisement can remain the same so that customers learn to recognise it.

Each club member should comment and share both club and store posts about the collection, as this will help spread the word in the local community.

On collection day, volunteers can post photos of the event on social media throughout the day. Finally, a thank you message will be published to remember everyone who participated – donors, volunteers and partners. For example, you can post it on the club’s Facebook account and ask the shopkeeper to share it on their Facebook page. Or you can post a thank you note to customers on the shop notice board with a picture of the collection.

A consistent ALAP image is important

In addition to social media, the visual appearance of the collection day is also part of the marketing effort. A uniform Lions outfit for volunteers makes it easier to find the collection point and adds credibility to the collection. It is also important to use the ALAP look and logo on all materials.

After-marketing is just as important as pre-marketing. When people see how successful the collection was, they are more likely to participate in the next one.

Pre-event marketing:

Think about the following and make a short marketing plan for the collection. It is not worth doing everything in the first collection. Pick a few of the easiest things to do and do them during the first collection.

1. Facebook campaign on a bush radio group in your area (photo and text).
2. On the retailer’s own social media channels (photo and background text for the retailer).
3. Include a story about the upcoming ALAP collection in the retailer’s weekly advertisement (headline, slogan andALAP logo).
4. An advertisement for the collection on the shop notice board. Print the ad from the Ads folder in Google Drive, write the date on it in pencil and deliver it to the store bulletin board and give a few copies to the retailer.
5. Local where to go media, see if there are any and place an ad in them. (Headline, caption and photo)
6. PR story for the local paper, try to find a contact with a suitable reporter for the paper and get a meeting with him/her. Suggest doing a story on the event or that you can supply him with the story and photos.

All marketing materials can be found in ALAP’s media bank on Google Drive.

Marketing at the collection point:

Find out if there are any ALAP materials available to borrow in your district or even a ready-made ALAP bag. Agree to use it or, alternatively, prepare the necessary printed materials and advertisements yourself and print or pre-print them.

The instructions for making an ALAP bag can be found here.

Links to different print product options:

• The official bases of the Lions Clubs Finland for collection materials
• ALAP bag making guide + order form for ready-to-print products by B-Disctrict.
• B-District campaign materials with QR codes and support from seuraa.lions.fi

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