Communication 5/26/2009

Marketing/Outreach Committee Notes from 5/26/2009 meeting

Participating: Lou Leonardis, Eileen Masio, Christine Phillips, Jennifer Hezel, Georgette Weir

1. GW suggested four broad audiences: TC members; members of TC-member clubs & organizations (self-identified as being interested in trails); unaffiliated trail users (including those who use meet-up sites and other social networking tools to arrange hikes; members of the public who use parks and open space and some trails, but do not identify themselves as hikers or trail users.

2. Additional audiences: Retail partners, corporate sponsors, partner organizations

3. We reviewed and made no changes to the Outreach Goal:

"A significant portion of users on Trail Conference trails are aware of the Trail Conference's role in providing a good trail experience and actively support the organization's work."

4. We reviewed the list of straw objectives and on a first pass proposed the following additions and priority arrangement:

1)      The Trail Conference website is the highest ranked web portal for trail experiences in the metropolitan region

(a)    Needs to be fully functioning for Join/Renew, Donate, and Purchases, both front-end and back end, before other major marketing/outreach/recruitment efforts are made

(b)   When above is a fact, consider adding appropriate Social networking

(c)    Should be donor-backed

(d)   Strategic vision implemented on every page

(e)   Someone to administer Google Adwords

1.       Campaigns/Sponsors for specific trails

2)      Area media reference the Trail Conference as the trails authority in the region

3)      Membership demographics show large gains in 18-34 year olds, ethnic diversity and trail user types

i)        Consider Family Day-Hiking Features (short hikes close to home); suitable to meet obesity concerns; No Child Left Inside; funding opportunities from government, foundations, corporations

4)      Retail partner/sponsorship programs expands 100%

i)        Leverage TC assets (membership list) for advertising, other kinds of support

5)      70% of Trail Conference trails are visually identified as managed by the Trail Conference in cooperation with the land owning partner

i)        Leverage results from West Milford sign project

6)      The Trail Conference shall have a consistent voice and look across all platforms (including Facebook and other online social networking tools)

7)      Trail users are surveyed annually and results reported (this item was not discussed)

Jennifer suggested that marketing of Trail Conference books and maps be added to the mix, but not clear where or how to incorporate at this time.

Next meeting: Tuesday at 2pm; phone; call-in #: 1-616-347-8400; code 849837#

Agenda: We will review the above list of objectives and begin to attach action steps and timelines to each one