How can we reach wider audiences effectively? – April’s Community Conversation

April’s Community Conversation had a theme of marketing and outreach to newcomers. SOA comms & marketing Director, Katherine Ivory, started the session off with an overview of three practical tools that are being used to promote orienteering to wider audiences, leading into discussion about the new SOA leaflet for newcomers.

Event Publicity and Planning for Success

Communications work never stops, with continuous needs around sharing information and encouraging interest. Given the limited resources for this within the volunteer-driven orienteering community, what can help make things as efficient and effective as possible?

As for anything orienteering related, it helps to have a map! Using a planning template at the start of thinking about event publicity can really help by prompting thinking around the who/what/why/when/how. Working through options for publicity channels (not forgetting more traditional ones – not all about social media) is more likely to lead to success in using them. A simple two-pager is available HERE

Thinking Creatively about Connecting with Wider Audiences

Wider interest and trust can be built through interest in and affinity with things connected to the needs of the people we’re trying to reach. This might involve, for example, social media posts and web articles to show support for particular causes where there are shared interests with orienteering, e.g., driven by our values around inclusion or sustainability. Again, planning ahead helps make things more efficient, and SOA has been building a communications content calendar of relevant Awareness Days as hooks to stimulate wider interest in orienteering by making it more relevant to more people.

For example, 11-17 May is Mental Health Awareness week, with opportunities to promote sport and orienteering as supportive for positive mental health. It’s also UK Anti-Doping Clean Sport Week, promoting fairness in sport. The first week in June is Volunteer Week when we celebrate the contributions of all those who give their time and energy to making orienteering happen. Then on the inclusion theme, June is Pride Month and an opportunity to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.

Quality Marketing Materials – New SOA ‘Try Orienteering Leaflet.

Marketing and effective outreach is not all about social media. Old fashioned printed resources can be very useful too. SOA can help clubs by producing core materials such as flyers. The team has created a new leaflet as a resource for clubs and would welcome your feedback.

You can see a PDF of the flyer here. Please contact Heidi heidi@scottish-orienteering.org with suggestions on its content and how you think it could be used effectively.

Connecting at Events

Face-to-face communication can of course work wonders to sell our sport to newcomers. Discussion touched on taking orienteering to where communities are, e.g., local shows and summer fairs etc, with fun orienteering-related activities such as mazes or POC maps, friendly chat and good signposting to how people can get involved. If you have the facilities, drinks and cake at local competitions provide a focal point for conversations and making new participants feel welcome.

Finally, remember that there are lots of resources available to help clubs. British Orienteering has an extensive Club & Membership Toolkit, including a recent article here on boosting social media post, another helpful and fairly low-cost approach to expanding reach.

FUTURE COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

The next Community Conversation will be on Thursday 7 May, on creating welcoming club environments, with Development Officer Louise Adams and Youth Director Mairi Eades. Further information to follow in due course. Visit the SOA Community Conversations webpage Community Conversation sign up to sign up. A Zoom link will be sent out nearer the time. Contact Nikki via nikki@scottish-orienteering.org for any queries.