Community Memories Program – Marketing Tips

Raise awareness and attract visitors to your online exhibit through marketing.

You have done your community a service by bringing to life an important part of your shared history. Spread the word by marketing your exhibit, and many will share in your pride.

Launch Your Product

This section will help you to successfully launch your exhibit.

Spread the Word!

“Spread the Word!” provides five simple and inexpensive ways to promote your new online exhibit. Here are five easy but effective ways to start the ball rolling:

1. Press Release
2. Media Events
3. Web Linking
4. Promotional Materials
5. Presentations

1. Press Release

The best way to tell the public about your new online exhibit is through the media. And the best and easiest way to contact the media is through a brief and clearly written press release.

How a Press Release Works

Yours is a good news story with wide appeal. Your local newspapers, radio and television stations, and websites, will be happy to share it with their audiences. It may also be that your topic makes a good fit with specialized media from outside your region, such as The Beaver or Cap aux Diamants magazines.

Editors may choose to turn the release into a public service announcement, write a full-fledged article, or even contact you for a broadcast interview. You will find writing and distribution tips at the end.

How to Write a Press Release

The media receives countless press releases every day, so it is important to make yours as effective as possible. Brief and to the point, it should fit on a single page. If you are using the release to invite media to a public launch, call it a Media Advisory.

Structure

Title: Try to catch the editor’s attention with a telling and catchy title and, if you wish, a subtitle. 
Date and town: If you are writing a media advisory, refer to the date of the event. Otherwise, use the date of distribution. 

First paragraph: Summarize the ‘what, who, when, where, why and how’ of the story. 
Body: Describe the exhibit and consider including quotes.

Conclusion: End with a description of each partner organization, followed by the following symbol, centered immediately below the final paragraph: - 30 - 
Contacts: Following the symbol, include the name and coordinates of a contact at the museum, and a contact with the Community Memories Program. 

VMC Connection

The VMC’s role should be mentioned in the first paragraph. For example: “This online exhibit was developed in partnership with the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) at virtualmuseum.ca, an initiative of the Department of Canadian Heritage.”

In the conclusion, the VMC can be described as follows: “The Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC), an initiative of the Department of Canadian Heritage, was established in partnership with over 1,300 Canadian heritage institutions. Virtualmuseum.ca is a unique portal to the countless stories and treasures held in trust by Canada’s museums, and lies at the core of the Government of Canada’s strategy to nurture and promote Canada’s culture online.”

Timing

If you are using the release to announce a media event, distribute it the day before. Otherwise, you can distribute it on the morning that the exhibit becomes accessible online. In either case, avoid sending your press release on a Friday.

Follow-up

Make follow-up phone calls to ensure the press release is noticed, to discuss possible coverage, and to answer any immediate questions.

VMC Logo

Don’t forget to include the VMC logo in all of your promotional materials. That way you ensure people remember where to find your exhibit. You are also helping to promote the online content created by fellow Canadian museums.

2. Media Events

A media event draws attention to your online exhibit and raises your institution’s profile. The media event or public launch is also a wonderful way of recognizing the efforts of everyone involved.

The Public Launch

The public launch can be a stand-alone event, or you can have it included in the program of a larger event, such as a conference or a festival. If you decide to organize such a media event, include the time and place in your release, and attach screenshots that can be used in either printed documents or on the Web.

Spokesperson

Other considerations include selecting a spokesperson to demonstrate the exhibit and answer questions, and perhaps inviting public figures from the community.

3. Web Linking

Help raise your exhibit’s visibility through Web linking. This means linking your exhibit to your institution’s main website and as many other sites as possible.
         
Your exhibit is online, so it makes sense to pay special attention to those already browsing the Web.  Luckily, Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) content is very well ranked in search engine results thanks to CHIN’s online marketing efforts. But you can still increase visitors through Web linking.

How to Link Your Website

Send the exhibit’s URL, along with a brief description, to webmasters maintaining the sites for chambers of commerce, tourism authorities, popular portals, other cultural organizations, and any others of which you can think.

Why? Visitors to other sites may turn out to also be interested in your exhibit. A less obvious reason is that search engines take into consideration how many other websites link to your site when determining how well yours will rank in results.

4. Promotional Materials

Consider printing promotional materials if your budget is big enough, or if you have the support of local business or skilled volunteers.

Brochures, posters, bookmarks and postcards can be passed on from person to person, and serve to remind people to visit your exhibit once they have settled in front of their computer.

Include Your Website

Even if you cannot print a handout dedicated to the exhibit, you can be sure to include the URL in all of your emails, business cards, museum programs, etc.

VMC Logo

Don’t forget to include the VMC logo in all of your promotional materials. That way you ensure people remember where to find your exhibit. You are also helping to promote the online content created by fellow Canadian museums.

5. Presentations

Long after the initial buzz has passed, the story that your exhibit tells will continue to resonate with people. One way you can keep spreading the word is by making presentations, not only in your museum, but also at club meetings, seniors’ residences, libraries and other places where people gather.
Offer to speak to students at local schools. Teachers will appreciate your efforts and you can be sure that many of the students will then tell their families and friends about the exhibit.

Contact Us!

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Attention: Community Memories Program
15 Eddy Street (15-4-A)
Gatineau, QC K1A 0M5

Email: service@chin.gc.ca
Tel.: 819-934-5965 or 1-800-520-2446