Advertising

[suregrip]

Here's a question that causes groans -

How does your particular club advertise itself to the community around it? How do you attract new members?

[Mergs]

Oh boy, are you right about the groans.

First of all find the fax numbers and/or emails of ALL the sports editors of newspapers, TV and radio stations, and locally produced sports and health related magazines within about a 10 mile radius (or more, depending on how far out you want to go). Then flood them with press releases about accomplishments of club members, announcement of classes, announcement of tournaments, etc. Make sure that you do it in a timely manner (don't send an announcement of a tourney two days in advance of when it is supposed to take place!). Also, see if there are any of the papers that have a section for recurring events and place something there with your meeting times and location and a contact number/email. Be consistent and persistent.

Another technique is to collect all the past issues of American Fencer you can and see if you can put them in doctors/dentists/salons, etc. with a large sticker with your club address and phone number on it.

If you can afford it, get a bunch of the 18" x 24" plastic adevertising signs and stick them aound town.

I see that you are in Baltimore. I am now in DC for the next year and am going to try to see if I can break the code on getting fencing recognized/covered in the papers. PM me if you want to explore other avenues.

Mergs

[Bebop and Rocksteady]

If you can afford it, try advertising on TV and movies. Other advertisements work, like shooting fireworks off from your school and using giant search lights while making cool pictures with your hands, but dont go overboard with the advertising...