Best Places to Advertise for a Non-Collegiate club

[Vince]

What are the biggest 'bang for the buck' places to advertise to the general public?

Also, if you yourself are not a fencer, tell us what would catch your interest!

[ysbadadden]

What are the biggest 'bang for the buck' places to advertise to the general public?

Also, if you yourself are not a fencer, tell us what would catch your interest!

I hope someone else replies to this, because my own club could use the advice. Here are some of our thoughts. I hope people will tell us other things that they've tried that have worked (or not).

Club officers have magnetic signs on their cars
Club members have bumper stickers / decals
These are low expense, low effort

Members place flyers in store windows / checkout counters / community service bulletin boards
This is low expense, medium organization, lots of follow-up if anything is to get done. Everybody says they'll do it, including you, and nobody does unless someone gets on them.

Community cable TV – someone wants to do a feature on fencing. I guarantee it.
Stories in community newspapers.
Medium effort to find that key contact, if they don’t find you first.

“Give away” a free introductory lesson “”worth $25)or (even better) a group fencing party (“worth up to $250!!!) to school parent association fundp0raisers as an auction item.
This takes organization and follow-up. Actually hosting the party would take work.

[griffindm]

My club has had some success with offering to assist the public school PE teachers with their fencing units in middle schools. It increases the content in the school fencing programs and lets us try to point the interested students in a direction to continue the sport after the unit concludes.

Like others, I'm also looking for another mechanism or medium (print/radio/etc) that can be cost effective in reaching the interested students or parents outside of our school contacts. We have a website, and it does help. But I think we'd prefer additional ways to reach people.

[jjefferies]

I posted one reply on Craig's thread about marketing, regarding the approach of one young man in the Sacramento/Davis area who found a way to get 40,000 some odd advertisements into the hands of middle/high school students by going through the system. The cost (ok I don't remember his numbers exactly) was on the order of 1cent or less per advert and they were passed out by teachers in home room.

That was very cost effective.