M1: Learner Manual

17.1. Promotion of the meeting

One important step in encouraging attendance is to ensure that the meeting is promoted or advertised as widely as possible. Strategies for doing this include:  

• social media 
• emails 
• faxes 
• local community radio, newspapers and television 
• letterbox drops  
• networks with other stakeholders 
• mailed personal invitations  
• posters on community and supermarket notice Boards 
• flyers under car windscreen wipers 
• websites 
• personal telephone calls 
• house-to-house visits 
• reference to previous successful projects supported by the community 
• word-of-mouth (community grapevine) 

Whilst the list of strategies for promotion of the meeting is an extensive one, an organisation may not use all the strategies listed above. Before choosing which promotional strategies it could use most effectively, an organisation needs to consider a number of factors before deciding which of these strategies it could use. These factors may include: 

·       who is to be invited 

·       the venue 

·       associated costs of promoting/advertising the meeting. 

If those organising the meeting are given a budget, they will need to consider the most effective way to use it in order to achieve the maximum benefit. 

Examples of factors affecting advertising methods include: 

·       social media which is widely used, but not everybody may have access to it; and 

·       community media such as radio, television and newspapers, may be too expensive