PUBLICITY 101

Click on a topic below for tips to promote your workshops!

Community Speaking Engagements
Bookstore Workshops
Public Libraries
Hoy, a Spanish-language newspaper in NY, LA and Chicago
How to Get Good Press

Community Speaking Engagements

All over the USA, in the smallest towns and largest cities, program committees are frantically trying to line up speakers for their fall and winter meetings. Now is the time to be proactive and contact several groups with the offer to present a parenting education program tailored to their membership. For example:

Civic and Professional Organizations . . . may enjoy a program about the parenting education programs you are currently offering in the community and the impact on local families and schools. Members of civic clubs tend to be involved in many other organizations and are well positioned to spread the word about your Active Parenting program.

Mothers Groups . . . meet weekly or monthly at many libraries, churches and community centers and generally feature a guest speaker on a parenting topic. Scan the calendar listings of your local newspaper to find nearby group(s) and call to offer to present a parenting program.

Be sure to ask if you can show a short video segment. People tend to remember the lively video vignettes and mention them later when talking to friends.

If you call and find that all the meetings have been assigned, offer to be on-call as a substitute in the event a featured speaker is ill or has to cancel. As a former program chair, I know the heart palpitations that come with a speaker cancellation and would long remember (and speak fondly of) the speaker who offered to substitute on short notice!

Finally, bring attractive flyers with information about you and your Active Parenting education program so participants can take them home or pass them on to friends and neighbors.

-Diana King, Publicity Director

Click for more information:
More free promotion ideas for your program.

Parent workshops at bookstores

Want to get people in your community talking about parent education and grow your local program? Assuming the answer is a rousing "YES," I suggest you approach local bookstores (large and small, chain and independently owned) about presenting a 45-minute parenting workshop.

Having worked for a national bookstore chain, I know the first question running through the event coordinator's mind is, "How will this event help bring customers into the store and sell books?" Thus, you need to be prepared with a brief description of your workshop and the Active Parenting books/audiobooks (with ISBN number) that can be displayed and sold at the event:

• Active Parenting Now Parent's Guide (1-880283-492)
• Active Parenting Now AudioBook (1-880283-89-1)
• 1,2,3,4 Parents! Parent's Guide (1-880283-17-4)
• Active Parenting of Teens Parent's Guide (1-880283-19-0)

(Active Parenting books/audiobook are distributed to bookstores by National Book Network (NBN), Ingram, and Baker&Taylor)

Keep in mind the bookstore's monthly event calendar is scheduled, approved by management and printed weeks before it appears in the store.

Because most bookstores do not have VCR/DVD equipment to show Active Parenting videos, you need to be prepared with a 45-minute presentation supplemented by a colorful flip chart and parenting tip handouts that include upcoming classes and contact information.

When you are successful in scheduling a parenting program, ask how the store will promote your event (calendar listing, store signs, local newspaper event listing, etc.). It's also a good idea to request that the upcoming parenting education workshop be announced to parents who bring their children to story time events in the Children's Department.

-Diana King, Publicity Director

Promoting workshops at libraries

I've just run across an interesting publicity idea in the Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) magazine. They suggest "library tours" for promoting book sales, but it seems to me the same tips could be used to promote your parenting classes.

From the article:
"Libraries tend to promote their events heavily, so even if the number of attendees is low, your name and the title of your book [parenting class] may be published in local newspapers or mentioned on radio. Multiply this by the number of visits you plan on making, and you will have a sense of your
potential media coverage."

Here's a link to the PMA article about Library Tours:
http://www.pma-online.org/scripts/shownews.cfm?id=922

-from the Leaders Forum

(Posted 2/23/04)

Hoy, a Spanish-language newspaper in LA, NY and Chicago
If you are in the Los Angeles, NY or Chicago areas and are leading Spanish parenting workshops, you might want to try getting a listing with this newspaper. Who knows, maybe they'd like to run an article about your program!

Hoy, the nation's fastest growing Spanish-language daily newspaper, just hit the newsstand in Los Angeles. Hoy will publish four zoned editions providing local news and ads specific to Hispanic consumers in Los Angeles, Orange County/Long Beach, San Gabriel/Inland Empire and the San Fernando Valley area. The publication is broken down as follows: Monday: Overtime, Sports and At Your Service; Tuesday: Travel; Wednesday: Food and Health; Thursday: Style, fashion, home furnishings, lifestyles and education and technology; and Friday will be Vida Hoy.

Hoy is already published in New York and Chicago. Here's the newspaper's web site for contact information:
http://www.holahoy.com/

(Posted 3/1/04)

How to Get Good Press

From Child Care Information Exchange - written for child-care center directors, but useful for parent educators too!
The power of positive publicity is undeniable. It is one of the most cost-effective ways you can market your program. Publicity generates understanding and good will, so can effectively emphasize the message you are trying to deliver through other methods of marketing. When used well, good publicity can make it easier for you to generate more inquiries and referrals.

In a publicity article or broadcast, your message is delivered through the words of a newspaper, magazine, or internet news service reporter, radio or television assignment editor, or talk show host. That gives your information third party endorsement, which can be seen by many prospects as a type of referral. When that news is good, it can help motivate those prospects to inquire, and that's exactly what you want!

With very little time and effort, you can generate a significant amount of good press for your center. So how do you get started?

To learn the answer, go to the new Marketing Exchange feature on Child Care Information Exchange's web site at http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0614.

Here you can view the full tip sheet "How to Get Good Press for Your Early Childhood Program." This tip sheet was prepared for Exchange by marketing guru Julie Wassom and is one of her monthly marketing features for Exchange.

ExchangeEveryDay
Date: May 5, 2005
Issue: 1244
http://www.childcareexchange.com