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How To Run A Recruitment Campaign Guide 

The best times to run a recruitment campaign are January and September. January because at the start of the year and towards the end of the holiday period people are looking for new things to do. The advertising should be started the week immediately after Christmas since people off work will have more time to read local newspapers with your adverts in or visit places where your leaflets and posters are displayed.
The September campaign is aimed at the end of the holiday season when people are looking for new activities and also at young people who have just left college or university and are settling into work.
Both campaigns should be intensive and last all month long.

Programme Planning

  1. When organising your programme decide which are your strongest and weakest group night events. Put the four strongest events during the recruitment campaign. Remember prospective new members have four weeks to decide on whether to join or not and any poor group nights could turn them away.
  2. Choose events which encourage team participation and conversation between members.
  3. Avoid events which rely on familiarity with other members such as 'Who's Baby' or 'Who's Parent' (identifying members from baby photos or pictures of their parents) etc.
  4. Ask other groups in your area if they have had any good group night events recently. See if you can exchange events with them. Similarly if you have recently had a good event at your group why not make it available to other groups. remember to provide instructions with it.
  5. Plan some good and varied weekend events, a disco on the first or second weekend of the campaign would be ideal. Also events such as visits, meals out, sports, horse riding etc.
  6. If you belong to one of the smaller groups in the federation and have difficulty in attracting members to weekend events speak to the activities officer from a neighbouring group and see if you can do joint weekend events.

 

Publicity

  1. The publicity campaign should begin before the New Members Evening and run throughout the duration of the recruitment campaign.
  2. If your group can afford to, put adverts in the local press over a number of consecutive weeks throughout the campaign instead of spending all your money on one large advert promoting just one evening.
  3. Find out the areas covered by your local papers. Contact the other groups within this area and put joint adverts in promoting all groups served by the paper.
  4. Advertise the actual events rather than just your Plus group is meeting. This will tell people what Plus does and if you have followed step 2 it will give an indication of the variety of events on offer.
  5. During your advertising campaign write articles for the local papers about forthcoming events. Remember that the papers are more likely to print your articles when you are spending money on them.
  6. Ensure that you have leaflets ready for the campaign. If you are unable to produce leaflets speak to your area PR officer or chairman. They will probably be able to produce a master copy for you or know someone who can.
  7. If your leaflets are monochrome photocopy them on to distinctively coloured paper.
  8. Make up a standard introduction letter to send to local companies and superstores together with leaflets. Give a brief description of what Plus is and ask them to display the leaflets on their notice boards.
  9. Places to put leaflets and posters:
    • Community Centres
    • Libraries
    • Leisure Centres
    • Doctors Surgeries
    • Dentists Surgeries
    • MOT Testing Stations
    • Local Transport Ticket Offices
    • Council and Rent Offices
    • Sports Centres and Clubs
    • Shops
    • Newsagents windows
    • Local Company Notice Boards
    • Village Halls
    • Stalls at Car Boot Sales
    • Your Plus Venue

Group Nights

  1. Make sure that a few of you are at the venue about fifteen minutes before the publicised start time.
  2. Assign a couple of members, preferably one of each sex, the task of looking out for new faces and welcoming them.
  3. Get the room set up ready for the evening before other people start to arrive.
  4. Organise a display showing all the events on offer. As well as just your notice board, put out on a table every poster leaflet and booklet you have publicising Area and National scale events. This will show prospective new members the range of events on offer.
  5. Throughout the year keep a scrapbook of the groups events. Put in photos, press clipping tickets from shows, etc. Put this in with your display.
  6. Prepare your announcements in advance. Ensure they are concise and informative.
  7. Ensure the event starts promptly, after a short introduction. Long silences at the beginning of the evening give a poor image to any new people there.
 

 Last updated 22 February 2007 by webmaster@18plus.org.uk