Swanage Railway General Discussion

Any advertising should be to known target audiences.

 

I’ve returned from an event planning meeting this evening where that disparity was evident. However, so was a cost of not using paper flyers in terms of lost attendance and volunteer goodwill.

 

Was this a Swanage Railway meeting?

 

Have you considered that you might not be the target audience, or that this fragmentation of media is why most marketing strategies involve more than one channel?

 

Say for Polar Express you want to reach families, the mums and their friends will listen to Heart Dorset so worth advertising on it, together with local Facebook and posters.
Leaflets in key places will also help.

 

No. But the issues described arose, and are not unique to either Swanage or railways.

 

Successful marketing is about sending the right message to the right audience at the right time at the right price using the right channel. When budgets are constrained (aren't they always?) then you have to choose how many markets you are going to cover and which ones have more spend than others. Where is the low hanging fruit? What gives the best return on the marketing investment? Where is the tipping point of diminishing returns that makes further expenditure a waste of money? How can you obtain free marketing?

 

Without question the best advertising cannot be bought. That’s why “influencers have become so important to advertisers…. The appearance at least of objectivity and trust from the followers. For Heritage Railways notwithstanding what I said about TV, the biggest impact is certainly when you have something which the mainstream TV companies want to put on the news. That’s about a strong message, something new and good PR. I think we were talking about advertising though, and there radio (specifically local radio) is the best value for money, or was. The impact of consolidation in the radio stations is something to worry about.

 

There are distribution companies that will take care of that for you (at reasonable costs as the costs will be spread amongst all their clients). They should also monitor and top up leaflet racks regularly (where as relying on volunteers can be very hit and miss).

 

Swanage Railway used a number of leaflet distribution companies (for example placestogoleaflets.co.uk) because each had exclusive racking rights in a number of key high footfall locations within the target catchment area. The racks would be checked and refilled by the distribution company on a pre agreed frequency. They would also remove any unauthorised leaflets from the racks. A site visit report would be provided which showed the leaflet pick up rate.

 

What about influencers?

 

What's Heart Dorset?

 

The previous company that advertised the Polar Express also used the huge fixed LED advertising displays at certain pinch points on roads.

 

What about them?

 

I suspect for the general public reviews on Google maps and trip adviser come high in the decision process
Most people can generally also recognize the ones that are put of the ordinary and discard them, but get a few good ones of a party like yours may just swing people to visit. But please make sure the basic info like times etc appear right, although it is easy for people then link to a website so ensuring that there is a comment like check website www..... to get the latest visiting info is really good.

Sent from my SM-A556B using Tapatalk

 

I mentioned them because last year after the 'press day' a couple of influencers turned up the following day on a busy train. They were courted like royalty and found seats. Oh to have that power and influence.

 

"Influencers" are in the main given way to much credence.

We have had a situation where we were approached by one who wanted to do some off road driving and gave a load of spiel about their reach etc....

We went back and said, you can pay full price *but* if your videos/photos result in any enquiries we would pay them an amount for each that converted to a sale.

Apparently "that's not how it works".

 

A radio station Heart Dorset Radio - Heart 102.3 - Dorset

 

Thanks, but you used this as a radio channel that everybody uses.
Not.
This compounds this whole discission.
What is the best advertising medium?
Methinks that the best is word of mouth.

 

A good website and a decent, well managed social media presence is very effective- it does need to be well managed and targeted well by people who understand how to get the best out of it.

I don't really like the social media side of it but it's a necessary hassle for business now.

We recently had our website updated by a company that does SEO really well, and our website has had significantly more traffic- this has brought quite a lot more enquiries and sales.

Word of mouth is by far the most effective in our experience too however.