Administration

Marketing and publicity

Image: Photographs and a press release can be sent to local papers.

There are various ways of marketing your service including: * Mailing out to schools. Mail out on a regular basis – at least every term – just before or after a holiday when teachers are planning the next term’s work in detail. Term dates and schools’ addresses should be available on the local education authority website. It is also advisable to try to get specific names of teachers at the schools because a general posting to a school tends to get lost on a table in the staff room never to be seen again! Try aiming for different targets each mailing. For example, you could address some things to ‘Headteacher’ the first time then ‘Head of Science/History’ the next time (secondaries and colleges only) or ‘Science/history co-ordinator’ (primaries) and so on. Keep a note of all the teachers that you make personal contact with and what their position in the school is. * Press releases Press releases or articles written up about workshops that have already taken place can be sent to local magazines and newspapers. It is useful to try to build up a relationship with your local newspaper as it will help you to get pieces in on a regular basis. * Schools intranet service. Some Education Authorities have a system for disseminating information directly to schools through the internet and may be happy to include information about your service. * General advertising Any adverstising material produced for the museum should include information about the education service since teachers are museum visitors in their free time! * Website Set up a website for your museum with easy links to education service pages. So much ‘finding out what’s on’ is done through the internet these days that it pays to pop up on a search engine. *Reciprocal arrangements Make reciprocal arrangements with other education providers (this is where it helps not to be in direct competition with other sites) and get links put to your website from theirs if possible. * Support groups Join a local support group eg EPIC (see Working with Other Providers) - they may have websites or publications which carry publicity for individual museums and galleries. * Local radio and newspapers Most local media services have free listings of ‘what’s-on’ in the local area. Sending in information about events regularly may also result in the media picking up on you and doing a special article about your site. * Other local events Use any other special occasions or activities in your vicinity to distribute information. Even church and school fetes can be useful places to put out some information. * Teachers’ days or evenings Techers may come out at weekends if offered free admission for themselves and possibly for their families. You can then take the opportunity to give them information about your education service and actually show them what is on offer. You could set up after-school teachers' evenings if you are fairly near a school cluster.