Learning captured by People First Ltd. This is part of the learning and resources from a project supported by the Strengthening DPULOs Programme.

1. People First Ltd – Easyread Marketing Report: July
2012
1. Our needs
We developed and piloted our Easy Read training,
this service is now fit for purpose. Although we had a
steady flow of requests for this service, we wanted
this service to play a key role in sustaining People
First, as well as meeting our organisational aims and
therefore needed to increase the number of requests
through marketing.
2. Options available
Initially we brainstormed information with people
within our organisation of ways we could market this
training and at whom we should be aiming this
training. We decided that one of the key ways of
promoting this training would be through contacting
Local Councils in London.
We started to make contact with London Councils,
seeking the key contact and letting them know about
our training. We felt that they would be a key target
for the marketing of our training as we know they have
lots of contacts and a high need for this training. It
was not practical to go and visit each council to
promote our training so we emailed them to find the
correct person to contact, who deals with equality and
accessibility; we got their emails and phone numbers
to contact them directly.
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2. During the course of our marketing we got in touch
with the Media Trust, which offers a free service to
charities, whereby charities and marketing/media
experts are matched in order to offer advice and
support in marketing. With our match Alex, we looked
at a range of different ways of marketing and
considered points such as:
Who to target: we had a very broad list of
possibilities; our main consideration was whether
we knew the contact and if they had contacts in our
target area. We had to consider the public sector,
private sector, partner charities and our existing
networks.
How to contact people: by phone, email, or
arranging a meeting etc.
What to say and our key messages as it is vital to
get the point across as to why we are doing this
training, making sure the personal value and
principles of People First are clear.
How to engage with our target audience and
considering how we use this information to market
the training.
3. Chosen strategy
We decided that we would take 2 approaches, we
decided to continue contacting key people within
London Councils and informing them of what Easy
Read is, why it is important, and the training that we
offer.
We also decided with the Media Trust’s support that
we should take a second approach to target the public
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3. sector as this is where many of our contacts lie, and
combine this with possible partner charities and our
existing networks. We decided that it would be good
to meet with key contacts that have large networks of
people within our target market to promote our
training. The key contacts that we meet with, and
present to, will then promote the Easy Read training
on our behalf in a range of different ways.
We decided that when meeting with our key contacts
we would present a very short, emotive and thought
provoking story from Ray’s (our Training Manager’s)
point of view. This would tell the key contact exactly
why we are offering the training and why Easy Read is
so important. Our message changed a lot through
practising it, we realised that although we knew why
we were doing the training and the value on a
personal and policy level, this didn’t come across as
effectively as it could have. As Alex said “Ray’s
personal story is a very powerful way to engage with
our target audience and considering how we use this
information to market the training is key”.
We learnt several things through working with Alex,
which made us choose this strategy, these include:
Meeting face to face is a much better way to
communicate (as well as Ray communicating most
effectively in person)
Telling the story from a personal perspective gives
a stronger message to the person
Targeting people we know who have higher
positions in work and lots of contacts is the best use
of time, this is because they have hundreds of
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4. contacts and if they recommend or support what
you do then this is a lot more effective than you
personally contacting hundreds of people
4. Work carried out
We have been in contact with all London Boroughs,
have the key contacts and are at different stages
with each council with respect to providing training.
We have got the contacts and have emailed them
our information, we have had some success, in that
people have said they will put the information in
their newsletter, send it out to their contacts, put it
on their website, etc. We are still waiting for some
replies.
We have met with Alex 6 times over the past 2
months, before and after each meeting we have
been preparing and editing our strategy and key
messages.
We have perfected Ray’s story and we are now
ready to present to key contacts.
We have decided a short list of key contacts that we
have and arranged 2 meetings whereby we will
present Ray’s story and ask for support from their
organisations/bodies.
We have set monthly dates for training and have
had interest in the next 2 training dates; we have
also had a request for in-house training for 12
people from a third sector organisation.
The next step after meeting with the key contacts will
be very much different i.e. some contacts may say yes
we will support People First by inviting them to do a
presentation in front of our contacts about the training,
or others may simply email their contacts or put the
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5. training information on their website. This is a much
more long-term, relationship building approach to
marketing.
In our initial bid to the ODI we costed the purchase of
directories to give us information about potential
organisations and departments. But now, after
working with our marketing mentor we realise that this
Is not the best way forward, and that a much more
personalised approach, which is more time
consuming, is much better in terms of result rather
than firing off 1000’s of leaflets to people we don’t
know and who don’t know us or understand the
importance of Easy Read. We are therefore putting
extra time into the intense, personalised marketing of
Easy Read, rather than buying the directories,
although we will still be providing information in a
targeted way.
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