Who else would be better at spreading the word about your club’s events and projects than the people who have dedicated their time and effort to the cause? Your club members can become beacons for your club within their own social groups, clueing friends in on upcoming club events and inviting them to the party. This style of advertising is close and personal and has a big effect simply because people trust the source – their buddies! What’s more, people are more apt to attend events with someone they know.
Additionally, you can ask your members to bring up the program in their classes. Often times if you ask your professor before hand, she or he will agree to give you a minute at the beginning or end of the class, and perhaps even to pass out fliers. Persuade folks by sharing personal club experiences, letting peers know why you are passionate about your club’s goals, and how fun the event will be.
The Daily Flyer is a student run flyer issue that is distributed in the UC and across the campus each morning of the regular school year (summer excluded). The friendly staff at I.M.P.A.C.T. handle advertising in the Daily Flyer and provide space for ads ranging in the following sizes: 1/6 Daily Flyer page, 1/3 Daily Flyer page, 2/3 Daily Flyer page, or full page Daily Flyer page. You can pick up paper copies of the order forms available in front of the I.M.P.A.C.T. office (UC 142) or print out Daily Flyer ad printing request forms & find pricing at the I.M.P.A.C.T. site.
Since the Daily Flyer is printed in grayscale, achieve better Flyer advertising outcomes by designing your ads in black and white or grayscale rather than in color. It’s not fun seeing your bright, colorful club logo morph into a massive gray blob on your ad due to the grayscale printing process. If you have already designed a color ad, test the transition by printing it out in grayscale first to see if it’s worth the price your club has to pay for some real estate in the Daily Flyer.
At the latest you need to submit your ad requests by 2pm of the day before printing.Leave the finished form with the adcarefully glued or taped to it in the drop box outside the I.M.P.A.C.T. officeon the lower level of the UC. [back to top]
Another form of face-to-face advertising is tabling. Tabling allows you to talk to others about your club or event while having your paper resources close to you i.e. on the table. Tabling is a good way of introducing your club to the public, raffling, letting others know of an upcoming event, and holding a petition signing, just to name a few ideas. Engaging in conversation and making eye contact are two key actions to remember when tabling. For more tips, check out “Successful Strategies – Tabling Tips.” [back to top]
Whether you are tabling, at an event, or advertising for an upcoming event, handing out giveaways that remind folks of your club or the event is a definite plus. Items that bear your club name or logo such as T-shirts, stickers, bracelets, pins, or goody bags act as friendly mementos that promote your club once a club event or project has finished. Giveaways do not have to be expensive. Putting some creativity and thoughtfulness into your giveaways will advance the message of your club further than a costly, yet generic party favor. [back to top]
Post flyers on the Residence Hall bulletin boards after getting approval for posting from the Residential Life office. You can place flyers in Residence Hall mailboxes or restrooms with approval by the Residence Hall Director (RD) of that particular Residence Hall.
Room-to-room contact can be done for purposes of program promotion or election campaigning. This includes placing promotional materials under the doors of individual residents. This advertisement method is subject to the approval of the Residential Life Office (who will consult with both Residence Hall Association and the Resident Directors). [back to top]
Make sure to get an approval stamp from the Student Involvement & Leadership (SIL) front desk located on the lower level of the UC before you post you posters up in buildings. You are not allowed to stick advertisements on trees, shrubbery, light standards, benches, sculptures, signs, vehicles, trash receptacles, fire hydrants, flag poles, or exteriors of buildings on PLU campus. Once your event has passed, be courteous to other clubs and help maintain the aesthetic of PLU by promptly removing your posters and recycling them. [back to top]
Colored chalks are available in the Clubs & Orgs Office (UC 135). You must get the exact wording of what you intend to chalk approved by the Student Involvement & Leadership (SIL) Office located on the lower level of the UC before your begin chalking. [back to top]
Crafting
an e-mail that will be read by the receivers can be a challenge. You
want to make your e-mail informative, simple, and easily understood.
Have a subject title heading that gets to the point, perhaps introduced
by terms like “INVITATION” or “UPCOMING EVENT” before giving specifics.
For example, “INVITATION: Fundraiser BBQ next Friday! Eat ‘n help raise
$$$ for local kids,” lets your reader know what’s happening and what
actions they can take. The e-mail body text should again have a big
title that perhaps goes into more detail about your event and RSVP
contact info on the line immediately following. Use a couple lines of
text afterwards to tell why your club is doing this event and why
people should come. Just remember to always put the important
information first. If relevant, end your message with the EVENT NAME,
DATE, TIME, & PLACE in list form, RSVP contact info and RSVP
deadline.
Keep in mind the different methods people use to
check e-mail. Not everyone will have Garamond Font! Lucida Handwriting
is hard to read—shocking! Too many changes in font, size, and color can
quickly turn off even the most willing mail checker. Be alert to
formatting pitfalls that could otherwise botch a well-written e-mail.
Stick with a basic, easy-to-read font, and a dark font color. You can
certainly use a different font size for headings vs. body text. Just
don’t go overboard like this: “This week, we will be having an awesome
BBQ, so come on down and JOIN US!!!!!! [insert random emoticon]”
Annoying, isn’t it?
When you’re finally ready to send out the
e-mail to the 120 people on your club e-mail list, enter one e-mail
address into the “TO:” slot and then place the other 119 e-mail
addresses into the “BCC:” slot. “BCC:” stands for back-copy, which
allows you to send one e-mail out to hundreds of folks without any of
them seeing the hundreds of other e-mail addresses. This keeps the
contact more personal. Make your reader feel like he or she is one of a
kind not one among a million. [back to top]
The Facebook
“Events” Application lets you create an event and send out invitations
to your Facebook friends. If you have created a Facebook Group for your
club, you can send out invitation to members who have joined your
Facebook Group by clicking on your Group’s link from your Facebook
Profile. Once you are at your Facebook Group’s site, click on the
“Create Related Event” link to start an event, customize it, and pick
the guest list.
A word of caution: Facebook, like other forms
of digital media, creates an oxymoronic relationships among its users,
connecting them at the same time that it widens the space between you
and your audience. While a Facebook invitation does give an instant
on-line shout out about your event to many Facebookers, it is easily
ignored and will not carry much impact flying solo. Fortify your event
promotion with other advertising methods and use the Facebook
invitation as that gentle reminder to folks about what your club is up
to. [back to top]
I.M.P.A.C.T.
is the on-campus creative advertising & design office (UC 142).
I.M.P.A.C.T. artists can be very useful collaborators for club
promotion because they have experience in developing advertising media
targeted towards the PLU crowd. Does your club or event revolve around
a theme or idea? Bring it to I.M.P.A.C.T and work with one of its team
members to create a logo, poster, or even T-shirt design around it.
The list of services offered by I.M.P.A.C.T., as stated by its website (http://www.plu.edu/~impact/home.html):
You can check out I.M.P.A.C.T poster & print pricing on its website. Have questions? Give them a call at 253-535-7479 or e-mail impact@plu.edu. [back to top]
Copy cards can be secured through the library to be used for small jobs. For larger jobs, fill out a University Printing Services print request form (available at www.plu.edu/~ucom/printing-publications/forms) and charge the copying fee to your club's account. Quick copy jobs usually take one day, and offset printing requires 1-2 weeks. [back to top]
It’s always
nice to have your club advisor and other professors who are interested
in your club’s project advertise through class announcements.
Alternatively, you could ask them to send out an e-mail announcement
about your club event if they need to prioritize class time for other
things—like ya know, teaching. In either case, before you approach
them, craft a script for the announcement or an e-mail release, so that
your professors can readily forward the message by mouth or mouse to
your classmates. This ensures that your message will get passed forward
the way you want it to, along with the boost of your professor’s
support.
Also consider having a professor be part of your event.
This would certainly encourage your professor to advertise for the
event a bit more. Seriously though, having a professor or PLU staff
member on board for a discussion on healthcare or a panel about
cultural diversity can be a big plus. They lend credibility to your
event and can enrich the conversation with their background knowledge,
personal experience and perspective. [back to top]
Copy cards can be secured through the library to be used for small jobs. For larger jobs, fill out a University Printing Services print request form (available at www.plu.edu/~ucom/printing-publications/forms) and charge the copying fee to your club's account. Quick copy jobs usually take one day, and offset printing requires 1-2 weeks. [back to top]
Mail Services assists departments in coordinating and scheduling of bulk or vended mailings which may include:
PLU has specific rules for the rose window logo prescribed by University Printing. For more information, please download the branding guidelines(pdf).