Marketing & Publicity
Virtually Legato, 2021 WSMTA State Conference
Client: Washington State Music Teachers Association
Timeline: 9 Months
Context
As a flagship program for WSMTA, the annual state conference serves music teachers, students, and students’ families. Pre-pandemic, conference attendance averaged around 130 teachers, and 60 students and their families. It provides two and a half days of pedagogy lectures, performances, and masterclasses, networking opportunities, and a chance for teachers to build friendships with colleagues. 2021 was the first ever virtual conference for the organization. In a group where the average teacher was closer to 60 than 30, a virtual conference was going to be a tough sell, and the conference planning committee had no marketing experience.
When I created the publicity plan, I needed to leverage existing outreach channels, train a team of two on basic marketing principles, and use outside-the-box methods of not only reaching current members, but serving teachers outside Washington.
To that end, I created a publicity plan that used physical media, social media, member contacts at a radio station, the state newsletter, local chapter newsletters, the WSU music department and direct outreach via email to publicize conference offerings and registration. The efforts led to an earned media contact with NWPB, and three radio spots broadcast across eastern Washington, and streamed online.
Rather than repeatedly reminding folks to register as had been the approach in the past, I highlighted elements that would make the conference worth attending: informative presentations, inspiring concerts, and social connection. Social media and direct outreach thus mixed spotlights on presenters and performers with volunteer opportunities, mentoring opportunities with masterclass application reminders.
Results
125 teachers registered for the conference with 57 student performers, in line with the goal of keeping attendance close to pre-pandemic levels. I led the publicity team’s efforts to foster relationships with two radio stations, and those partnerships continued in 2022 and 2023. I also revived the relationship with the Washington Music Educators Association, and after two years of outreach, WSMTA and WMEA completed an ad exchange for the 2023 conference.
Rekindle, Reconnect 2022 Conference
Client: Washington State Music Teachers Association
Timeline: 9 months
Context
As a flagship program for WSMTA, the annual state conference serves music teachers, students, and students’ families. The conference includes pedagogy lectures, performances, masterclasses, performance opportunities, and a chance for teachers to build friendships with colleagues.
Pre-pandemic, conference attendance averaged around 130 teachers, and 60 students and their families. Rapidly evolving pandemic conditions made safety uncertain, and WSMTA leaders opted to host a hybrid conference with most elements in person, and some elements available virtually. Given time constraints and competing priorities, I directed the majority of publicity efforts towards in-person registration.
Publicity Goals
- Increase awareness of WSMTA as an organization
- Demonstrate the pedagogical and social value of the conference to Washington members and potential members
- Maintain historic registration numbers
- Drive registration for and attendance at three social networking events
I led a team of four to build on what had worked in 2021 and expand our reach into more targeted messaging including:
- Visiting Chapter Meetings to give a short presentation about the conference and why they should attend
- Direct emails to collegiate chapters and music schools with custom messages detailing which sessions would be a good fit for them
- Post directly onto state chapter Facebook pages with a custom advertising message
- Post directly onto music teacher/musician groups’ Facebook pages
In addition to those efforts, the team used physical media, social media, ads and interviews at two radio stations, the state newsletter, and local chapter newsletters, to publicize conference offerings and registration. The efforts led to an earned media contact with the Columbia River Reader; an article covering the conference appeared in the June 2022 issue.
As community building was the theme of the 2022 conference, social media posts focused on volunteer opportunities and social events more heavily than presenter spotlights. To that end, I coordinated closely with the hospitality and registration teams to publicize the new social elements and streamline the sign-up process to ensure their success.
Results
101 teachers registered for the conference with 40 student performers, shy of keeping attendance close to historic levels. However, guest registrations tripled and ticket sales for recitals and concerts quadrupled.
The three social events were very well-received with 20% of attendees participating in the Conference Pal initiative, 28% of attendees participating in a mentoring session, and 50% of attendees participating in the Trivia Night. Conference survey results indicated high satisfaction with the initiatives, and all three were repeated in 2023.
Carrie Purcell Kahler 