Author: Mark Krosse, SCORE Cleveland
The following are key Marketing levers for One SCORE Region Chapters to grow educational services and more effectively market your Local Events.
“Local Events” under the One SCORE Pilot are defined as
- Any In-Person workshop, including “hybrid” events
- Roundtables, Awards, Networking events [Engage event types]
- Local Partner events whether in-person or virtual
- Virtual events require Region Events Committee pre-review
- Local Sponsor events whether in-person or virtual
- Virtual events require Region Events Committee pre-review
- Any workshops where a Fee is collected
Local Marketing of Local Events
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[Automatic] Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Engage automatically posts a published Local Event on the originating chapter’s website
- The event appears in the local chapter’s website Local Events listing
- The event also appears on the local chapter’s homepage if the chapter has implemented the Upcoming Events content block
- [Automatic] National SEO via www.score.org: all chapter events are listed and searchable in the national Upcoming Events listing
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[Automatic] HiPer Social Media marketing: HiPer [free support provided for all chapters] automatically reposts your local events to your chapter FaceBook social media property
- [Local Action] Publish events on Engage by the 15th of the preceding month
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[Automatic] Additional non-event ‘organic’ posts [8 per month] are made to your chapter’s
- Google My Business profile
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[Local Action] The chapter can supplement with additional custom posts by using the free HQ SOCI tool
- Getting started–how to schedule and post content:
- [Local Action] Optionally, HiPer offers paid marketing packages to supplement your Marketing program
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[Local Action] ConstantContact [CtCt] email marketing: of your local events
- MidAtlantic Region: Use form here
- Central Region Prior to February 22, 2024 - continue local email marketing of local events as in prior years from your chapter CtCt account
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Central Region After February 22, 2024 - Create the monthly campaign for your upcoming local events in the Regional CtCt account
- Each chapter will have a “Content Creator” userid to the Central Region CtCt account
- Also complete the Region CtCt Campaign request form specifying your requested campaign scheduling & publishing date
- Regional Events Administration will schedule and publish your local campaign
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[Local Action] SBA’s SEO, Twitter & GovDelivery weekly email newsletter: Enter the event information into the SBA National Events Calendar [see below for ‘how to’]
- SBA in turn remarkets calendared SBA affiliate events via
- Local SBA District email newsletter
- GovDelivery subscription-based email marketing
- SBA in turn remarkets calendared SBA affiliate events via
Local Marketing of National Events
Your local chapter receives services credits for client attendance of National live events and client views of National event recordings. Crediting is by client zipcode.
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[Automatic, with configuration] Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO): You [or Ecropolis] can configure your chapter website to automatically display upcoming National events
- The event appears on the local chapter’s website depending on how you have configured it
- In the Upcoming Local Events listing content block if so configured
- alternatively, in the Upcoming National Events content block
- The event also appears on the local chapter’s homepage if the chapter has implemented the Upcoming Events content block[s] on it’s homepage
- If not, Ecropolis can add the homepage content block for you
- The event appears on the local chapter’s website depending on how you have configured it
- [Local Action] Optional Local Target Marketing of National Events: If you think a specific National Event is especially important for your local demographic, you can further target market it by your chapter SOCI and a local CtCt campaign
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[Local Action] Mentor Training: Your Total Services KPI growth and the SOM requires mentor referrals to all available score.org resources relevant to the client’s question[s].
- Remind chapter members to ‘Teach with Tools’ and use these Pro Tips
- National Volunteer Lifelong Learning Event is tentatively scheduled for early Feb on how to find and leverage score.org resources for clients [yes, it will be recorded]
Regional Events Marketing
Region [or District] events will be marketed by Region Administration across all digital marketing channels and respective zipcodes [unless otherwise specified]
- [Automatic] Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Regional Administration will “pin” Regional Workshops across all chapters in the region as a collaborative effort to reach more clients. What this means is that for all workshops that are virtual in nature, and where content is applicable across the region, the events will be posted to each of your chapter websites.
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[Automatic] Social Media Marketing: Regional Administration will publish a post for each upcoming regional event across all social media channels for the chapter. This includes:
- Google My Business profile
- [Local Action] If chapters have local Instagram or X (formerly Twitter) accounts you may request these accounts be added to our Regional social media posting by reaching out to maonescore@scorevolunteer.org (MidAtlantic) or centralevents@scorevolunteer.org (Central). The team will follow up to configure the connection with you.
- [Automatic] Regional Constant Contact email marketing: Regional Administration will develop and distribute client newsletters for regional events. This outlet will be implemented on or before March 1, 2024. Cadence of newsletters and information on marketing list maintenance will be published in the coming weeks.
- [Automatic] SBA’s SEO, Twitter & GovDelivery weekly email newsletter: Regional Administration will submit all regional workshops to the SBA distribution list.
How-To Use the SBA Events Calendar
Below is the step by step guide and link to add events to the SBA District Office Calendar that were mentioned:
Step 1. To submit an event you would visit:
Event submission | U.S. Small Business Administration
Contact your local SBA District Office to have your submitting email address authorized for submissions
Step 2: Enter in your email address then enter in your email address again to confirm (they need to match exactly, upper/lowercase specifically)
Step 3: Enter in the event title (do not use all caps and ensure your spelling is correct)
Step 4: Enter a description of the event (do not use all caps, ensure your spelling is correct and check grammar. Remember the system will not tell you if “too” should be “to”)
Step 5: Check the “Registration Required button” and enter the registration link in the box just below.
Step 6: If the event is “Free” check the free box. If there is a FEE do not check the “Free” box, instead enter the fee in the “event cost” box.
Step 7: Enter the start and end date of the event and time. For time zone use “America/New York”.
Step 8: Is the event in-person (check the box enter the address)
Is the event online (check the box and move to step 9)
Is the event a hybrid (check the box and enter the address)
Step 9: Select the type of event:
Resource partner event – an event hosted by a resource partner where SBA staff are not involved. (If an SBA Staff member, is participating they will add the event to the calendar.)
Step 10: Select SBA District Office – [YOUR OFFICE]
Step 11: Host Organization (This is the name of your organization (if your agency is collecting registration) If you are not the host it is very important to complete step 15.
Step 12: Enter the contact name of the person responsible for the event. This would be someone that would be familiar with the event and registration to answer any questions that may arise.
Step 13: Enter the email address of the person responsible for the event (Do not use a general email inbox).
Step 14: Event contact phone – this optional
Step 15: Notes for the approver: If you are not the host, please list out who the host is/affiliation with your agency and any details that will help with the review/approval process.
Step 16: Check the box “I’m not a robot” (click the reCAPTCHA pictures as they come up)
Step 17: Click submit
SBA will receive a notification once your event has been submitted. Allow up to 48 business hours to update. The system will not notify you of the update, however if you do not see your event listed in the link below, reach out to your local SBA office to let them know:
Find events | U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov)
Tips:
- Submit only events where you are the host. (Host is defined as the agency responsible for collecting registrations. “Hosting” the event.)
- Events not hosted by SBA resource partners are subject to approval at the sole discretion of SBA District Office leadership.
- Use plain language as often as possible.
- Spell out acronyms (i.e. instead of SBDC use Small Business Development Center at the Urban League of Greater Cleveland)
- Once an event is approved it is very difficult to make any edits, please be thorough.
Try to minimize clicks for attendees to get registered. - Events posted and approved on the website by the last day of the week will be included in the Events newsletter for the following week.
- Remember the SBA District Office calendar is where SBA will be looking to promote events via GovDelivery and Twitter.
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