The Community Hubs

Business Development
Programme
SMART Marketing
for
Community Hubs

2
This Toolkit is based on the work of Freer Spreckley and Sally Hunt
www.locallivelihoods.com

Adapted for the Islington Community Hubs

(CHBD Programme)

by

CENTA Business Services

Voluntary Action Islington

&

Octopus Community Network

October 2012

3
Contents

What is the CHBD programme?

The CHBD Toolkit
Space Marketing Strategy
Marketing Goals
Users, Competitors and Collaborators
How to Use the CHBD Toolkit
Marketing Management
The Marketing Process

Step 1 What are your Financial Targets?

Step 2 What Resources does your Hub have?
Step 3 Which Users can your Hub attract?
Step 4 What Skills do you have, and need, for marketing?
The Marketing Mix
Step 5 Place
Step 6 Provision
Step 8 Promotion
Step 9 Marketing Plan
Useful Links
Pick and Mix Ideas
Glossary

Annex:
Annex 1 Marketing Ledger
Annex 2 Marketing Plan
Annex 3 Research Matrix
Annex 4 Example Community Centre Brochures Links

4
Background: the CHBD programme

The Community Hubs Business Development (CHBD) programme was

designed for Islington’s Community Hubs (a network of the larger community
centres.) It was conceived through discussions with member Hubs seeking
practical solutions for generating additional revenue. Through these initial
discussions, a consensus emerged that the physical space occupied by all
Hubs would represent the best focus for a planned marketing drive. Its
primary purpose was to enable all Hubs to develop Marketing Plans, to add
to their existing Hub Business Plans.

The toolkit received positive feedback from hubs in Islington; we hope that it
will be useful to other community centres and community buildings and we
are delighted to make it available for free.

This programme of support was designed to be flexible. Each community

building will be at its own stage of hiring space and generating income, and
you can work through the exercises and guidance at your own pace.

For more about the CHBD Programme, please see Appendix 5.

The CHBD Toolkit

This guide was adapted and modernised for the Islington Hubs from a
resource developed in 2007 by Freer Spreckley and Sally Hunt
www.locallivelihoods.com. We hope that as you progress through the CHBD
programme of support, this Toolkit with its discussion points, guides and
exercises, will become a practical framework to assist you to:

• Review and generate new ideas primarily for your organisation’s

second most important asset – Your Space (people being the first!)

• Identify strategic, effective and viable ways to enhance your existing

Marketing Strategy

• Generate a practical Marketing Plan, customised for the needs of your

Hub, staff, volunteers, users, stakeholders and the unique challenges
and opportunities that your Hub faces.

Space Marketing Strategy

Marketing starts by looking at what you have - you have a Hub with Space
that has the potential (or spare capacity) to be hired, but maybe few
resources or options to make changes so you need to make the best out of
your facilities and your financial circumstances. Once this has been assessed,
5
the next stage is to identify the most appropriate users or markets in order
to generate a proportion of your total revenue needs.

Sometimes a lot of thought can go into what the current users from the
community, or the management committee, consider would be good things
for the centre to contain or do. This programme aims to build on this by
assisting Hubs to explore what potential users might want also.

In less urban areas, there are some centres that for various reasons are
not suitable for extending their use outside the immediate community, but
this is not the case for the vast majority of Islington hubs, which have, at
the least, a ward-wide reach, and generally a wider scope.

Capitalising on your unique offer might also require certain skills, resources
and investment. Setting realistic timescales will be important here along with
effective planning, management and delegation. Ultimately, you will need to
decide how best to navigate the changes required for generating additional
revenue from increased trading.

Marketing Goals

The ledgers and exercises within this Toolkit will assist your organisation to
review and decide:

• Situation Analysis – where are we now?

• Objectives. What do we want to achieve?

• Strategy. How are we going to get there?

• Tactics. What are the details of the strategy?

• Actions. Who is going to do what, and by when?

• Controls. How are we going to measure success?

This approach will help you to create a ‘Road Map’ with a ‘SMART’ plan.
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound)

6
Users, Competitors and Collaborators

A major advantage in Islington as a central London borough is the number

and diversity of potential users. This makes it highly likely that you’ll have a
large range of existing and potential users to choose from. Of course, you will
also have more competition. Identifying which partners (perhaps other
hubs?) you can collaborate or partner with is just as important as assessing
who you will be competing against.

To explore these options further, we will introduce Hubs to the concept of

Business Model’s during key workshops and 1-2-1 sessions. According to
Osterwalder and Pigneur, a business model describes the rationale of how an
organization creates, delivers, and captures value. In 2009, the authors
developed, along with 470 collaborators from 45 countries, the Business
Model Canvas http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas . This
innovative tool has the flexibility to apply to any type of enterprising
organisation, including community Hubs.

Hubs may wish to use The Business Model Canvas to identify the ideal mix of
users and services. However, whether individually or collaboratively, each
centre will be able to decide, amongst other things, what their own
opportunities are and how they will promote and deliver them.

How to Use the CHBD Toolkit

This self-help Marketing Toolkit is designed to help the staff management

committees and volunteers of centres develop a marketing plan. It is a
practical self help guide which can be worked-on in stages; it will also be used
to facilitate short training events and 1-2-1 sessions, as a part of the CHBD
programme

Below are a series of practical steps, which will assist your Hub to develop
draft results to be recorded in the accompanying Marketing Ledger. The
Marketing Ledger is a working document: the Marketing Plan is a document
which can be given to your wider committee, your supporters and be
attached to fundraising documents.

The Toolkit is broken down into eight steps; each step has information and a
practical exercise. The result of each step is recorded in the Marketing
Ledger.

7
Step 1
W HAT ARE YOUR FINANCIAL TARGETS ?
How much Income do you want the space in your Hub to generate?

Step 2
WHAT RESOURCES DOES YOUR HUB HAVE?
Identify existing resources and those planned for.

Step 3
WHICH USERS CAN YOUR HUB ATTRACT?
Who uses the centre, and which users are you planning to attract.

Step 4
WHAT SKILLS DO YOU HAVE FOR MARKETING
?
What skills and capacity do you have in the staff,
committee and volunteers, and what skills
do you need.

Step 5
PLACE – WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF YOUR LOCATION ?
What is special about your location and how can you take advantage of any features.

Step 6
PROVISION – WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER?
What provision and services do you currently have a nd what are you planning to
provide in the future.

Step 7
PRICE – HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE?
What pricing structure do you have in relation to your current and planned users? How do
your prices compare with those in other comparable venues?

8
Step 8
PROMOTION – HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SELL YOUR SERVICES?
How are you going to promote your space?

Step 9
PREPARE YOUR MARKETING PLAN
Transfer the information from the Marketing Ledger to a Marketing Plan

9
 Marketing Management

Our definition of Marketing encompasses the whole process for matching a

centre to its best market opportunities.

Marketing is a management process that

identifies, anticipates and supplies customer
requirements - and makes sure it is done
efficiently and profitably.

As a management process, the key activities involve:

• Instilling a marketing led ethos throughout the Hub

• Researching external opportunities

• Understanding current and potential users

• Managing the User/Stakeholder journey (constituency relationship

management)

• Developing the marketing strategy and plan

• Management of the marketing mix

• Managing collaborations

• Measuring success

• Managing budgets

• Ensuring timely delivery

• Writing copy

• Approving images and other types of content

• Developing guidelines

• Making User focused decisions

Adding Value

In marketing terms what you have to sell is the venue and the additional
services you can and are willing to provide, such as catering, office space,
meetings, training equipment hire, etc. Additional features such as customer
care, accessibility, community sustainability, etc., will make your venue stand

10
out to certain users. Quite often, we choose things because of the ‘Added Value’
rather than price. This is what we call your Unique Solution Proposition (USP)
and is often the key to satisfying your user’s needs.

‘A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not

dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an
interruption in our work - he is the purpose of it. We are not doing
him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us
the opportunity to serve him’.

Mahatma Gandhi

The Toolkit will help you to make an inventory of all the resources, services and
Added Value features that you have, and to understand your range of current
users and their needs. You may think you know who they are but it is still worth
mapping and listing them, understanding their level of satisfaction with your Hub
and what they might wish to see improved.

Existing users
It’s important not to neglect your existing users when seeking new users.
Establish how you can improve current users’ satisfaction levels, to retain your
existing users, though you may have to explore whether it is possible to
continue your offer to some categories of user – e.g. where the income does not
cover the cost of provision. You may decide that there are compelling reasons
to continue to serve these users, e.g. they are marginalised and experiencing
deprivation and lack the resources to pay more. However, these decisions need
to be taken explicitly, at a policy level, and you need to know that you have the
capacity to cross-subsidise between user groups.

The Marketing Process

In marketing terms your Hub is a venue where individuals, groups, public and
private organisations (your Stakeholders) will pay to use the resources, and
services, and to undertake activities. The potential user base is therefore
enormous, in fact it is so large you can’t possible attract all of them; so you
need to decide who you want to attract, who you can attract, and how.

As a venue you are selling your resources and services; resources are what you
physically have, the building and its facilities, and services are what you can
provide with them. You need to be very clear what kind of resources and what

11
services you have to sell, and you need to be clear about who can be attracted
to use them, and make sure the two match up.

Once you have got the match right between what you have to offer and the
potential users, you need to work out how to promote the centre and attract
those users, so that they will enjoy using it and want to return to your venue
again. Marketing touches everything and the key is to make sure that the service
you provide to your users is clear and consistent.

Marketing your Hub is as much about securing repeat bookings from existing
users as it is about promoting services to new users. Pay equal attention to
the quality of services provided: customer satisfaction is the best way of
getting repeat bookings. Satisfied customers will be those who have
received a quality service from booking the venue to the final invoicing
and aftercare support. Also, satisfied customers will often market the centre
for you, by recommending your centre to other potential users through ‘Word
of Mouth’ marketing.

Understand your Current Position and Opportunities

Assess your current position with hiring / renting space – how much
income/revenue have you made in the past year? Did you have a target, and
did you meet that target, or under/over achieve? Does the Hub have a budget
deficit this year – by how much? How much additional Space could you hire to
reduce the deficit? This will give you a base-line, against which you can
measure your progress.

Get information on the market

Once you have a set of goals, explore the opportunities that could help you
achieve them over the short and long-term. Investigate new users, who are
they, what do they need/want, how will they find you, how will they make the
booking and what will entice them to return when they next want to hire a
venue? This will also apply to renting space over longer periods, e.g. office
space.

12
The 4P’s
(Persuade users to access your services)

Successful selling is based on getting the four Ps (Place, Provision, Price and
Promotion). For example, if you want to sell the venue for business courses the
Place has to be convenient, with access to tube/bus or parking spaces; the
Provision has to be a warm, comfortable, and well equipped training room, the
Price can be higher than for local users but must be competitive in the eyes of
your target users, and the Promotion should be designed to appeal to the right
customer segments, using the right channels e.g. leaflets to local businesses or
through a Linkedin network group. The right type of communication should
‘pull’ potential users in, perhaps through effective social media channels, rather
than ‘push’ a marketing message out to the masses. We will explore using Social
Media channels further in Step 7 PROMOTION ).

The concept of the four P’s was developed in the 1960’s and has been adapted
into the 'seven Ps' which refers to the four Ps, plus 'physical evidence', 'people',
and 'process', which you may wish to add. 'Physical evidence' refers to elements
within the space -- the equipment, the uniforms employees wear, signboards,
etc. 'People' refers to the employees of the organisation with whom customers
come into contact with. 'Process' refers to the processes and systems within the
organisation that affects its marketing process. Getting the Ps right in relation to
the user is the key to good marketing.

13
 Step 1
W HAT ARE YOUR FINANCIAL TARGETS ?
How much Income do you want the space in your Hub to generate?

Deciding where to start with marketing can be a bit like the analogy of the
‘chicken or the egg’. Do you find target users first or should you start by setting
an income/surplus target? The latter may well determine the type of target user
your Hub should aim for in order to generate the revenues required.

The key financial numbers to start with are:

• Income. What percentage of the overall income should the space

generate in the financial year?
• Costs. How much will it cost to promote and rent/hire the space–
including the true cost of the space and staff?
• Surplus (net income). Will a surplus be generated as a result of Income
generated minus the costs? If so, how much?

Exercise One - Double click on the table below to complete

the Calculator (increase page size to read if required)

14
Annual Cost Recovery Calculator for Islington Community Building

15
 Step 2
WHAT RESOURCES DOES YOUR HUB HAVE?
Identify existing resources and those planned for.

Who you can promote your centre to as a venue, and how it can be used is
partly dependent on the resources you have to offer. Having a clear
understanding of what you can offer will help you when it comes to mapping
and identifying potential new users.

Exercise Two - Fill in the Resources Checklist in the Marketing Ledger.

Use the checklist to identify the resources you have, and those that you would
like to acquire, either now or at some point in the future, and those that are not
relevant to you, and try to summarise your key resources in the Marketing
Ledger.

Under the ‘comments’ column make a note about the quality of resources on
offer. You can grade those Poor, Satisfactory, Good, and Excellent. Also
comment on suitability for purpose – you may have lots of chairs but can you sit
on them for 2 hours or 4 hours? Are they good enough to sit on all day for a
training course? If you decide they are not of good enough quality you are
restricted as to who you can hire the venue to, or what you can hire it as, until
you are in a position to acquire better seating.

For any resources you might like to obtain or develop you can identify those
which won’t cost much and those you will need to raise additional finance for.
You may find that with limited expenditure it is possible to improve or add to a
range of resources which can have a bigger impact overall on your venue than
one big expensive outlay.

16
 Step 3
WHICH USERS CAN YOUR HUB ATTRACT?
Who uses the centre, and which users are you planning to attract.

Exercise Three - Fill in the Users Checklist in the Marketing

Ledger.

Fill in the existing and potential users in the checklist and try to summarise your
existing and potential users in the Marketing Ledger. (The list is only a guide so
fill in more users or different users as appropriate). Then refer back to the
Resources Checklist and try to match up resources with existing and potential
users. We have included a research matrix as an annex to the Marketing Ledger
which shows the type of resources required by a range of user groups, you can
use this to help you.

At this point you will have started to build up a picture of the existing users and
the existing resources, and the future potential users once new resources are put
in place.

Market Segmentation

Segmenting your users into groups has a number of advantages; it can help you
to:

• identify your most and least profitable users

• focus your marketing on the users who will be most likely to hire your
services
• avoid the markets which will not be profitable for you
• build loyal relationships with users by developing and offering them the
services they want
• get ahead of the competition in specific parts of the market
• use your resources wisely
• identify new services
• improve services to meet user needs
• increase profit potential by keeping costs down, and in some areas
enabling you to charge a higher price for your services

17
Talk to your users and potential users
Your users are a valuable source of information: sometimes you need to
develop a relationship or stronger links with your users in order to create a
useful dialogue and build your market information. Giving information to, and
getting information from, your users and potential users can be undertaken in
a variety of ways.
Questionnaires and surveys can be excellent ways to start the process but
they are seldom enough on their own: they are best as part of a process
which will lead through to some action. Many people are reluctant to be
interviewed unless it is convenient and they can see benefit for themselves.
Incentives are quite good if you can afford them such as a prize draw for
those who return them. However, if your users are online, with new survey
platforms such as www.surveymonkey.com, the process of survey design,
distribution and analysis has become efficient, more effective and more fun!

Questionnaire Styles:
• Closed questions Yes/ No questions
• Multiple choice
• Open ended
• Statements inviting responses or comments
• Scaled responses, e.g. 1-5 or excellent to poor
• Variance questionnaires, e.g.; how it is now, and how you think it should be, on
a scale of 1 to 10.

However, sometimes you need to create a dialogue to find out more:

• Rapid Appraisal (go to where people are and ask them questions)
• Face to Face Interviews
• Telephone Interviews

Or seek feedback via:

• Formal Meetings
• Short Presentations
• Posters/ Bill Boards
• Newsletters with a reply slip (link to surveymonkey.com if online)
• Newspaper articles
• External Newsletter

Or create a participative dialogue between you:

• Outreach work
• Workshops and consultative events e.g. focus groups, welcome days, etc.
• Public Voting (likes if online)

18
Or create a dialogue through holding Social Events:
• Arts projects
• Music/entertainment sessions
• Sports
• World Food evening events

Or create a dialogue via your website and social networking platforms:

• Generate online content and invite feedback
• Develop a regular Blog
• Set up Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter accounts

19
 Step 4
WHATSKILLSDO YOU HAVE FOR MARKETING
?
What skills and capacity do you have in the staff, management committee and volunteers?
What skills do you need, and how will you acquire them?

Marketing is an on-going process and will need to be managed over a longer

time span than just a month or two so it is best to set up a small sub-
committee to be the ‘marketing team’. As well as staff and members of the
management committee you may wish to include individuals within the
community, who are not keen to be fully involved in the Hub centre
management, but do have professional skills and are willing to serve only on
the marketing team. These people will be worth seeking out and courting to
secure their involvement. Being part of Hub network offers a fantastic
opportunity for sharing of skills, knowledge and joint marketing activities.

Look for these types of skills:

• Management experience
• Customer care
• Graphic Design
• Promotion/ PR
• Online Social Media editing/Copy
writing
• Networking
• Co-ordinating resources, people and
venues
• Fundraising
• Booking and customer care

You may not call upon all these skills that often so it is worth identifying as
many people with the above skills as are available and apportion specific tasks
if and when they arise. And those who want to get more involved can
obviously do so.

It may be advisable to train staff or volunteers in some of these skills, but be

sure that this is a cost effective way of providing these skills. It may be more
appropriate to try to use expert volunteers, or to try to find the resources to
buy-in specialised services when needed.

In the Marketing Ledger - record the skills you have and the skills you
need.

20
PEST Analysis – Exercise Four

PEST is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors in a

given market. Although analysis is usually used by large businesses to examine their
markets, we think it’s an important starting point for any organisation. You don’t need
to analyse all of the issues below but it will help your hub to be more Market focused.
It should help you to flag up the challenges and opportunities within the Space hire
market place and help you judge potential opportunities more accurately. For example,
the PEST analysis is a useful tool for understanding market growth or decline, and as
such the position, potential and direction for Hub’s space marketing strategy.

Political:
 ecological / environmental issues
 current legislation home market
 future legislation
 European/international legislation
 regulatory bodies and processes
 government policies
 government term and
change
 trading policies
 funding, grants and initiatives
 home market lobbying/pressure
groups
 international pressure groups
Economic:
 home economy situation
 home economy trends
 overseas economies and trends
 general taxation issues
 taxation specific to product/services
 seasonality /weather issues
 market and trade cycles
 specific industry factors
 market routes and distribution trends
 customer / end-user drivers
 interest and exchange rates
 international trade / monetary issues

 civil disturbances, wars and conflict

Social: Technological:
 lifestyle trends  competing technology development

 demographics  research funding

 consumer attitudes and opinions  associated/dependent technologies

 media views
 law changes affecting social factors
 brand, company, technology image
 consumer buying patterns
 fashion and role models
 major events and influences
 buying access and trends
 ethnic/religious factors
 replacement technology/solutions
 maturity of technology
 manufacturing maturity and capacity
 information and communications
 consumer buying
 mechanisms/technology
 technology legislation
 innovation potential
 technology access, licensing, patents

21
  advertising and publicity  intellectual property issues
 ethical issues  global communications

SWOT Analysis – Exercise Five

A SWOT Analysis is a quick and smart exercise which you can use to
determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing your
centre. It will help you profile your centre and it enables the ‘marketing team’
to gain insights into strategic opportunities and the potential for strengthening
and capacity building. The Strengths and Weaknesses are internal influences
and Opportunities and Threats are external influences. These can be
prioritised in order of importance.

A SWOT should be undertaken as a brainstorming exercise. It uses a statement

or question as a start - in this case the statement might be: Marketing the
Centre

• Draw a SWOT diagram on big piece of paper or flip chart, and write down
what people think of the centre in terms of its strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. Issuing each individual with a pack of post-it
notes, and asking them to write a strength, weaknesses, etc. on a note
and then stick it on one of 4 large sheets of paper, one for each category
in the SWOT often works well.

• You can prioritise and decide upon the most important areas and discard
the rest.

• Discuss the four lists and identify potential strategic moves to enhance the
internal strengths and external opportunities and diminish the internal
weaknesses and external threats. Use the positive to reduce the negative.

SWOT Profile SWOT Strategy

POSITIVE NEGATIVE POSITIVE NEGATIVE

Use Strengths to overcome

Weaknesses

Strengths INTERNAL Weaknesses

to exploit in order to avoid

Opportunities Threats
Opportunities EXTERNAL Threats
22
 Example: SWOT Profile

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

 Committee members
 Some skills not available
 Experience of some
 Unclear tasks and roles
volunteers
 No money for website/ brochures
 Sustainable community
 No parking spaces
action
 Good quality furniture
 Members are friendly
 Able to teamwork

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Insecurity of revenue funding
 Local residents’ skills and  Changes in the VCS sector – closures,
potential mergers, etc. affecting customer base
 Islington Hub Network  Not enough volunteers
 Local Authority Support  Increasing competition from new
Volunteers can get involved meeting spaces
Grants for  Talk of closing some community centres
equipment/services

In the Marketing Ledger - record the results of the SWOT.

The difference and relationship between PEST and SWOT

PEST is useful before SWOT - not generally vice-versa - PEST definitely helps to identify
SWOT factors. There is overlap between PEST and SWOT, in that similar factors would
appear in each. That said, PEST and SWOT are certainly two different perspectives:

PEST assesses a market, including competitors (or ‘collaborators’), from the standpoint of
a particular proposition or an organisation.

SWOT is an assessment of an organisation or a proposition, whether your own or a

competitors.

Strategic planning is not a precise science - no tool is mandatory - it's a matter of

pragmatic choice as to what helps best to identify and explain the issues.

PEST becomes more useful and relevant the larger and more complex the business or
proposition, but even for a very small local businesses a PEST analysis can still throw up
one or two very significant issues that might otherwise be missed.

The four quadrants in PEST vary in significance depending on the type of business, e.g.
social factors are more obviously relevant to consumer businesses or a B2B business
close to the consumer-end of the supply chain, whereas political factors are more
obviously relevant to a global munitions supplier or aerosol propellant manufacturer.

23
All organisations benefit from a SWOT analysis, and will also benefit from completing a
SWOT analysis of their main competitors, which interestingly can then provide some feed
back into the economic aspects of the PEST analysis.

Develop the Marketing Mix

At this point you should have lots of notes in the marketing ledger and have
got a picture of where you are and what your potential is: you should have
identified your current and planned resources; your current and potential
users; the skills available to manage the marketing and those still needed to
be found; and profiled your strengths and weakness.

You are now ready to develop the marketing mix. This uses the four Ps:
Place; Provision; Price; and, Promotion to sell your facilities to customers. It is
generally agreed that if you can get the four Ps to be consistent with one
another and clearly focused on attracting and servicing your customers you
will have got a good marketing system in place. Developing the marketing
mix is as much about exploring options as it is about planning; see what mix
of the four Ps works. It is an iterative process, and can go round and round
until you have got what you think is a solid and consistent set of facilities.

Place:

This is about your building and its location. Is it accessible or and near to
public transport, you might even have free car parking! Is there full disabled
access, a kitchen and good quality toilets? Place can be enhanced if the
building is attractive, you have good surroundings and local features such as
outdoor space or great independent restaurants, etc. If your Hub is located
within a social housing estate, you are likely to have to work harder and be
more creative in promoting your centre to people beyond the estate.

Provision:

This is about making sure you have the right venue, features, resources, and
special service that the customer is expecting.

Example: if your customer is running a training course; they will need a quiet,
large, warm, and airy room, with tables and comfortable chairs, a large blank
wall on which to stick paper and project PowerPoint and a broadband
connection. They will also need good quality coffee and tea and lunch. If all

24
these things are available there is more chance they will return next time they
run a course.

Price:

This can be varied for different users. Obviously in a community centre the
local user is the focus and the price charged to them should be affordable, but
for other users the price can be increased without jeopardising their custom.
However, price and quality have to match. Before developing a pricing policy it
is essential that you first work out what the real running costs of the centre
are, and costs of any future plans.

Example: training providers will usually have a budget for venue hire that can
be geared towards hotel or specialist meeting venue costs, and they will
expect a good quality of service. So it is essential to investigate the
venue hire and lunch costs in nearby facilities to compare prices.

Promotion:

This is getting existing and potential customers to know about your centre and
facilities – particularly any new services offered. Promotion is the way you
present the centre; cleanliness, reception, the impression people have when
they use it, and things like aftercare support. Remember the internet has
changed the way people promote their facilities and the way people search for
facilities, so you need an attractive, user-friendly website, and you need to
give them an opportunity to comment on your social network feeds – good
and bad!

Example: training providers may look for a venue via the Local Authority,
through word of mouth, by recommendations from colleagues, search
engine, reading a twitter feed or a blog, etc.

25
26
 Step 5
PLACE – WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF YOUR LOCATION ?
What is special about your location and how can you take advantage of any features.

What are the advantages of your location?

Think carefully about how you describe your place, it most probably has some
excellent strengths. These can differ according to whether you are located in
the heart of Islington, or further out. Is it with your building, your immediate
surroundings such as a sports field, parks, or your wider environment such as
views over London skyline, canals, and historic monuments? Maybe your place
is on a main road or near a busy tube station, or can only be reached via
walking through a social housing estate. The trick is to use any situation as a
strength, always remember that different users want different things.

Location
Where is it, what is its special situation, are there neighbours – can you make a
noise, is there a good view, are you close to complimentary services e.g.
restaurants or sporting venues?

The building
What is special about your building, it could be size, design, situation, facilities,
location, sustainability etc.

Access
Are you near good public transport, is there car parking, disabled access, suitable
for a range of disabilities, is it near a main road.

Links with other resources

How will you network with and work with the other Islington Hubs, other centres
and venues, both in
Islington and other boroughs nearby or beyond?

In the Marketing Ledger - write down all the good things about the Place, and
think about the not so good things and how they can be improved. Keep a
note of the improvement that can be made, some will be expensive and
others might cost very little. Consider which users might use the Place and
how they might make use of it. You can note these down on the Users
Checklist.

27
 Step 6
PROVISION – WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER?
What provision and services do you currently have a nd what are you planning to
provide in the future.

What does your Hub provide and how is it managed?

Provision, sometimes called ‘product’, is what you offer. This includes the
actual venue and facilities, additional or special services, the way the centre is
managed and the after care provided. Think about your own experiences of
being a customer, you will know that it is not just one thing that makes a
service good; the combination of a number of service provisions that can
make the whole experience very good.

Marketing is dependent on consistency; so what Provision you offer has to be

consistent with the Place and re-enforce what the Place offers. Build strength
between the two and the two become more attractive than one or the other
alone. Consider the service components below; they are all part of your
provision:

Contact and booking

• How will be people contact you – in person /online?
• Is it easy to contact you, do you have a booking form?
• How do they pay cheque/cash/online e.g. PayPal?

Size and quality of building

• Recognise the number of people who can use the centre in different
circumstances:
• Meetings training, receptions, rehearsals, performances, sports, social
events,
• Recognise the quality of the building

Amenities
• Do you have a playing field, are you near a popular venue, do you have a
swimming pool (or nearby), is there a local B&B, pub, restaurant

Facilities
• Chairs and tables, natural daylight, moveable walls, kitchen, broadband,
training equipment, fitness/sport facilities

28
Services
• Meet and greet, catering, facilitating meetings, organise walks,
sightseeing, accommodation

After care support

• Lost property, pass on information, online feedback, follow up on a
question.

Special Provision
• Can you provide something that is not available elsewhere locally, such as
equipment for children’s parties, music equipment for teenagers, catering
equipment, etc.?

In the Marketing Ledger - write down all the good things about the
Provision, and think about the not so good things and how they can be
improved. Keep a note of the improvements that can be made, some will be
expensive and others might cost very little. In relation to the Provision
consider who might use the services and how they might make use of it.
Consider which users might make use of the Provision and how they might
make use of it. You can note these down on the Users Checklist.

29
 Step 7
PRICE – HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE?
What pricing structure do you have in relation to your current and planned users? How do

Do your charges cover the costs?

It is vital to set your charges at a level that cover your costs, but you need to do
more than this. You need to generate a surplus (a profit) to build up your
reserves and to invest in the venue. Consider the following points:

• Depending on how you prepare your budgets, you will first need to decide
what proportion of you total costs need to be recovered by space hire.

• What are the running costs, maintenance costs, repair costs, insurance,
and costs for additional services associated with space hire?

• How will you establish you Baseline, and

• How will you measure and record improvements in earned income.

Financial requirements for Hubs are made up of three component parts:

1. The fixed assets - One-off purchases of equipment, computers, chairs

and tables, etc. They are things you will purchase outright and which
depreciate over a fixed period of time.

2. The fixed costs – these are the running costs; costs that you will incur
regardless of how much you hire out the building and include items
like, staff, heating, lighting, telephone, stationery, insurance,
maintenance and repairs etc.

3. The variable costs – the costs which are linked directly to sales or
activities or unexpected catering, event, staff, etc.

30
Fixed Assets Fixed Costs Variable Costs
equipment electricity raw
computers insurance materials
furniture, fixtures wages & NI fuel/heating
and fittings hire purchase catering
buildings sundry items advertising
land maintenance
postage
audit fees
stationery
cleaning

Whether you cover your costs will depend not only on how much you charge – it
will also depend on how successful you are in hiring out the space. If it stands
vacant a lot of the time you will run into financial problems.

You need to try to work out the ‘occupancy rate’ for the past year, for each room
you rent/hire. Out of the time a room could have been hired, was it occupied for
50% of the time, or 20% or 90%?

You need to know these figures, which along with the income, will give you a
BASELINE- the point at which you start and against which you measure and
record performance in future years.

Think about how you will measure and record changes and improvement in your
renting/hiring performance, and put a system in place at the outset.

Is the level of charges competitive?

Who are your competitors, how does the price compare with other centres
and relevant venues, how do the facilities and amenities compare with local
competitors, what is it that makes your Hub competitive? Find out what local
venues including offices, pubs hotels, and other meeting rooms charge.

Are there pricing options?

Can you offer a range of services, can you charge different groups different
prices, and can you work with other centres within the Islington Hub network
to reduce costs? Your target customers may prefer to book by the hour, half
day or full day. Divide your bookings into morning, afternoon and evening
sessions and consider a price per session for each category of user. Of course,
an ideal user may require a longer term let, maybe a ‘Block Booking’ or a

31
much longer stay over 12 months. This might be for office use with and
offered with flexible break clause or an easy in/easy out desk space or
‘Business Hub’ arrangement.

In the marketing ledger Write down all the expenditure you have for one
year, make sure you don’t underestimate how much and at the end put in a
good contingency amount for unknown expenditure. Make sure the increases
in utility bills (fuel and electricity) have been taken into account. Then look at
your income – can you cover your costs and make a profit? Are you pricing
effectively and are you competitive?

You can complete the calculations for expenditure and income by using the
accompanying excel template.

32
 Step 8
PROMOTION – HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SELL YOUR SERVICES?
How are you going to promote your centre’s space?

The Social Media Era

Traditionally, promotion has always been about a ‘one way’ communication to

your prospective users: what you have to offer; how they can access it; and
how much it costs. But increasingly this approach is yielding less fruit. A
fundamental shift has taken place in the way people prefer to buy. Today,
people trust the advice of strangers. Who wouldn’t go to comparison site
before buying these days, who wouldn’t look for reviews and community
opinion whilst researching a product or service? This culture shift is massive.
And Social Media plays a huge part in changing the way today’s buyer buys,
whether it’s a car or hiring a community space.

In most cases, existing users of your centre would have found out about you
through word of mouth, which is probably the most powerful form of
promotion. However, attracting new users outside of this network usually
requires more investment in effort, creativity and resources.

Rule No.1 in selling is that it’s better and (cheaper) to sell more to existing
customers than to new customers. So your first aim should be to focus on
your existing user network, (or at least to the profitable parts of your existing
network of users.) Social Networking offers the opportunity to nurture
existing communities in an efficient two way dialogue. It’s this dialogue that
holds the key to strengthening the relationship, and your offer, in line with the
community’s needs.

For targeting new clients, the obvious point is that no one will buy from you if
they don’t know you’re out there! If your existing users have good
experiences, then they are likely to share this with their wider network. Make
it as easy as possible for them to do this for you.

33
What works and what doesn’t work with Social Media?

Effective Practices Ineffective Practices

Rich, engaging content, video, games etc. Basic posts

Current, real-time and user generated Infrequent, dated content.

content
Listening, responding and interactive
Supporting, informing and acknowledging
contributions
word of Mouth/viral marketing using
compelling multimedia
Proactive community building by
entertaining, informing, adding value
Social Media ‘Tone of Voice’
Self-regulating communities
Open and transparent
Social media integrated into marketing mix
Identifying and engaging with opinion
leaders/ cause champions.
Social network monitoring and analytics
used for better engagement
User content not encouraged or suppressed
One-way broadcasts
Asking outright for donations.
No recognition to contributors
Overt banner/traditional advertising
No effort made to know and knit networks
Formal, corporate defensive responses.
Strict moderation
Closing down sites
Social media isolated from other campaigns
and strategy
No community demographics/segmentation
Basic monitoring using basic tools

Inbound Marketing

So the buyer has changed. What does that mean for marketing and
promotion? It means that outbound techniques are less effective than they
were. For example, why would you read let alone respond to every piece of
junk mail you found on your doorstep, when you can review products and
services on-line – at a time that suits you?

The answer is of course that you wouldn’t. You block many messages coming
your way – phone calls, emails, ad banners, TV commercials. You have the
luxury of choosing when you learn about them.

You no longer have to take the opinion of the seller as valid. You can read the
opinion and experiences of past customers and make your own mind up.

To reflect these social changes, your centre needs an alternative to relying on

outbound marketing techniques - techniques which may have had some
success in the past. Ultimately, the consequence will be an increase in
difficulty and cost of reaching new target users.

34
Do you promote your centre to the best advantage?

So what does an effective promotional campaign look like for a community

centre? Firstly, you need to accept that searching for your next new customer
from mailing lists or cold calling is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

You could consider doing more of the following:

• Attend relevant networking events
• Presentations to stakeholders and potential new users on the work of the
centre and recent achievements
• Secure a sponsor to open up new networks of influence
In any interaction with potential users or influencers, emphasise the quality,
use examples such as “the furnishings are suitable for all day training courses”
or “there are 30 plastic stacking chairs available” if the quality is not so good.
You don’t want to miss- sell b u t nor do you want to sound negative about
your provision. People will appreciate knowing exactly what to expect.

USP ‘Unique Solution Point’

A fundamental offer community buildings can make is that organisations who
pay for, and use your facilities are in fact contributing to a stronger and more
sustainable local community.

Online Presence
Aim to extend your web presence so that people can find you. Make it as easy
as possible for people to self-select your provision at the point when they are
ready to make a buying decision. This will probably mean understanding the
social media and forum preferences of your target users. Where does your
ideal user go for information, what search terms and key words are used for
research into the provisions that your centre can offer, are they on Facebook,
Linkedin or Twitter?
Does your website include photographs of your venue, and make clear how
many people your rooms will accommodate in different arrangements –
theatre, board room, etc. Does it specify your charges and make it easy to
book a room and other amenities (e.g. projector, flip charts, etc.)
As well as putting information about your premises on your own website,
consider posting the information on the My Community space website:
www.mycommunityspace.org.uk
This website was designed especially for the community and voluntary sector
and seeks to be the key online guide for organisations looking to rent out or hire

35
space. The service is free to both users and advertisers. You can register for
free and start uploading the details of the various buildings/rooms you would like
to hire or hire out.

Social media definition

Social media is any form of online publication or
presence that allows end users to engage in
multidirectional conversations in or around the
content.

Advertising is the most expensive form of promotion and if well focused can
be effective; often however, it can fail to reach the right people and offer the
right services, at the right time. Community centres should think carefully
before paying for advertisements.

Look at the list below and start to create a profile of your users and how you
could communicate to them.

Who is your market?

• VCS and third sector organisations , local people, local authority,
education, companies, tourists, groups

Where are your markets?

• Local, Central/North London, Regional, UK, International

When is your market?

• Weekends, daily, evening, seasonal

How do you/will you promote to them?

• Website, advertise, word of mouth, notice board, after sales, quality of
service, online/offline networks, marketing officer, brochure

How do they/will they contact you/ find you?

• Website, email, telephone, letter, network, directly, agencies, tourist
information, post code, search engine, affiliate link?

Do you advertise?
• Cost, design, special features, how effective, do you have a website? Your
own, as a page or on another website?

36
In the Marketing Ledger – prepare a list of how you presently promote
your services to the different categories of user in the Users Checklist. Then,
discuss and write down new ways of promoting your centre. At this point
don’t worry too much about the cost; you can decide later if something is too
expensive, it is still useful to be clear on the options.

37
Promotion and Publicity Suggestions for Consideration

Segment your market

If you decide that your centre will concentrate on different types of
events, or target particular customer markets, you can develop several
promotional ‘packages’ for potential customers, such as the Local
Authority, training providers, voluntary sector organisations etc. This could
form a key part of your online marketing. In it, show the facilities on offer
and the services that can be provided, or organised by the customer.

The promotional packs can be developed to include a layout plan if

there are several rooms and promotional photographs of the rooms laid
out. For online promotions, consider videos on
YouTube.

If the venue is suitable for birthday parties/ wedding receptions/training

events etc., include a contact list of relevant local suppliers and
businesses, such as caterers, entertainers, musicians, party planners,
mobile disco, cake makers, drinks suppliers, china hire, chair and table
hire, hotels and Bring &Buys etc., to make putting on such events much
easier. You might want also want to explore commission arrangements
with suppliers!

Word of mouth
If you are on a centre committee take the opportunity to mention the
centre and its facilities/ activities and promote what is going on; you can
do this both formally and informally. Provide a good service to users and
the word of mouth publicity you receive can be invaluable.

Talk to local groups, businesses, about the centre and ask your customers
about how they found using the centre. This will give you useful
information and also create a feel good factor.

Have an open day/ evening with drinks and nibbles and invite users and
potential users to view the facilities.

Consider rewarding existing users who recommend your venue,

where a booking results.

Special events
A particular annual event is a good way of getting your centre known, for
example an art exhibition, because it stands out. Quality is essential – it
needs to be well organised and presented then visitors will remember the
event and remember your centre by association. The capacity within the
staff and the committee, or the funds to pay for someone, to do the
organisation is essential. It is also a focus around which you can hang a
publicity campaign and involve the wider community.

Radio and television

If you can organise an appearance on these networks in editorial feature
for free then it’s definitely worth considering. Obviously publicity of this
type can reach a very wide audience and will be easier to achieve if you
have, or can make, a contact within the media. To get a publicity feature
on television you will need something to ‘hook’ them with - this could be a
special event, a celebrity opening, a successful fundraising campaign etc.,
but you have to bear in mind that even if booked to come the cameras
won’t turn up if there is something more exciting happening elsewhere

Off-Line Promotion ideas

A Notice Board and Signage

Try to have a notice board outside the centre with, at least, the up to date
contact and booking information, facilities on offer and prices, and
forthcoming events. There are some lovely notice boards inside centres,
unfortunately you can often only see them when the building is open,
which is no use to someone passing who perhaps wants to find out how to
make a booking, or when an event is on. Sometimes even members of
the local community can’t access this information. If your centre is difficult
to find make sure it is signed from the nearest main road, and that the
entrance is clearly signed.

Posters
A computer designed format can make poster production cheap and
efficient – look for free icons, pictures and logos. Look for an image that
can be identified as representing your centre – good if your poster has to
compete with others.

Compile a list of locations for putting up posters or businesses that are

happy to accept one – it makes it easier to delegate the job to a willing
volunteer if they know where they can go and who they can ask. Posters
need to be managed and replaced when tatty and removed as soon as
they are out of date.

Leaflets and Flyers

Something that people can pick up and take home. Don’t just have them
on table in the centre (no use if it’s shut) but in the pub, local shop and
libraries and other facilities further afield, such as doctors’ surgeries, play
groups and dentists. If there are specific event flyers, as opposed to
venue information, make sure that someone is responsible for collecting
and removing them when they are out of date.

Newspapers
39
Many local newspapers have a free what’s on or listings section.

Find out if there is a community correspondent for your area and build a
relationship with them so you can keep them informed; they need stories
to report.

Send out press releases, or event reports with a photo (check the format
required first), of anything you which to promote. Sometimes local
newspapers have some space to fill and if there is some print ready copy
available you have a good chance of getting it in.

Advertising – this can be expensive and eat into any profits to be made
from putting on an event so needs careful consideration. However, placing
an occasional advertisement can help to build a working relationship with
your local newspaper and make them much more inclined to print the
copy you send in or perhaps send a photographer out to an event.

Newsletters

If your community doesn’t have a newsletter, then consider starting one –

it may be worth establishing one for the Islington Hub Network to make it
more feasible. It is a good way of involving local people, schools,
churches, businesses, young people, clubs etc.

Create a file of leaflets and newsletters you can advertise in for free.
These might include local free newsletters, ward magazines, local school
magazines, Local Authority bulletin boards and websites. Libraries may
also have listings information you can contribute to.

On-Line Promotion ideas

There are a number of free listings websites nationally which you could
contribute to (see Useful Links). Your borough or ward may also have, or
be developing, a website so make sure you are included.

Social Media
Social media can be divided into at least four broad categories:

• Social publishing (blogs, YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, Twitter,

Google Docs)
• Social collaboration (wikis, instant messaging, crowd
sourcing)
• Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)
• Social feedback (TripAdvisor, Yelp)
40
 All these categories involve user-generated content and all hold great
potential for meetings and events.

Some activities to consider

1. If not yet in place, ensure you have an attractive, user-friendly website

with a CMS (content management system, e.g. www.ning.com or
wordpress http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/get-interactive/)
that means that most staff can be authorised to post new content,
remove old information, etc. Integrate the website with relevant social
networking channel conversations.

2. Publish great content. You should also take photographs of the centre,
of the interior of the building and any surrounding features such as
Flickr/SlideShare

3. Create user-centric content and tools. Such as an article on hiring

community space or an online calculator to make it easier for users to
choose the space they require

4. Blog your opinions. Choose some key themes that relate to your centres
activities, locality and motivations of target users for content e.g.
sustainable communities/health and recreation etc.

5. Listen to others. Provide a platform for comment and debate

6. Optimise your site. To increase traffic based on key search terms of

target users. e.g. ‘community space hire in Islington’

Joint Working

Below are examples of where centres and other facilities can come
together for joint working and marketing. Because the Islington Hub
Network has been formed, most of the hard work has already been done.
Your centre may already be engaging with the network and other
organisations on some of these opportunities:

Shared resources and services

Centres can share or pool resources to cut individual costs and increase
the range of services offered. This could be joint buying, as is already the
case with some Hub members - consider shared cleaning contracts. Other
ideas to consider are children’s play equipment, a good quality catering
service, training equipment, display boards, cinema facilities, a moveable
dance floor, etc.

41
 Joint Marketing
There may also be scope to reduce the costs of promotion individual
centres, through a joint marketing campaign. This approach could be seen
as competition, but from the user’s point of view, it makes it much easier
to select and compare spaces if they appear in a single place. – So they’ll
be more likely to hire.

Project focused
Hubs can come together to prepare project proposals for providing local
services, such as art and drama classes, renewable energy exhibitions,
clubs, scenic drawing groups, special interest groups, dry stone wall
tuition etc.

Link with business

Can you provide an extra or breakout venue for a nearby hotel or pub, or
sports facility? If there is an understanding of the quality of service
provision long term mutually supportive relationships can be built. For
example, a local pub or restaurant could offer a pre–event meal for a fixed
price.
Approach catering companies so they will list you as a venue they provide
services to.

Tourism
There may be tourism opportunities for your centre, register with your
local Tourist Office; identify facilities and events aimed at tourists in your
area and start looking at ways you might be able to provide a commercial
service.

User focused
There are some potential users, such as universities, painting groups,
music groups, etc. who want special features like quality furnishings, very
good views, away from residential areas to make a noise, etc., who
perhaps want the same type of venue. If groups of centres who have
these qualities come together they may well find a good market by
offering similar features but in different locations.

Step 9
PREPARE YOUR MARKETING PLAN
Transfer the information from the Marketing Ledger to a Marketing Plan

Developing a marketing plan is vital for developing a more entrepreneurial

approach to venue hire and service provision for your centre. Without
one, your efforts to attract users and supporters are likely to be haphazard
and inefficient.

42
The Marketing Plan is a management document to help the staff and
committee focus on an agreed approach. The Marketing Plan can be used
to provide information to other stakeholders, support funding bids and
tenders and as a monitoring tool to against which to measure
performance.

Central to any successful marketing plan is an understanding of your users

and their needs. The ability to constantly satisfy your users' needs better
than your competitors will make you the preferred venue in the area. The
marketing plan will use the information you have gathered during the
previous exercises in this Toolkit and the Business Model Canvas, and
recorded in the Marketing Ledger, all you have to do now is to review
what you came up with, make sure it all fits together, make adjustments if
required and write the marketing plan.

As you transfer information from the Ledger to the Plan check that it
supports the market orientation, the potential uses and that within the
four Ps it is consistent. It is best to write it electronically so that you can
keep copies and when you need to review or change it this can be done
with ease.

At this point, armed with your completed ledgers, you should be able to
begin writing up the marketing plan.

Develop the Plan

Once you have described the four P’s you need to develop them into a
single plan. However, by now you will have done much of this and you
should have a good idea about what you have and how it will work
together.

Decide which users to target based on:

the Place – accessibility, location and special features;

• the Provision - facilities for hire, type and quality of building, furniture,
and additional services offered;
• the Price based on Place and Provision, the quality of what you are
offering and additionality of services;
• the Promotion - whether you can promote and attract users and will
they be pleased with what you offer.

This process is quite straight forward; it is just about making sure that
your potential users will be satisfied with the venue, equipment and
services if and when they use them. Be prepared to either delete some of
the potential users because your centre will be unable to meet their

43
 requirements, or be prepared to add new potential users because you
have discovered that your centre has certain attributes that will attract
them. This is your target market.

Exercise Six - Fill in the Marketing Plan

1. Name of Centre
Make sure you put in the correct address with the post code, contact,
telephone, and email.

2. Market Orientation
Make a simple statement about the main focus for hiring out your venue
and services; it could be as a sport facility, a performing arts venue, a
training and conference centre, etc. Try to summarise this to provide
yourselves and your users with a clear message. See this statement as
part of promoting the centre.

3. Users
Describe your current and proposed users, and if you find it helpful, put
the future users in terms of this year, next year and so on to provide a
plan over time.

4. Building, Rooms and Ground Hire

Describe what you currently have to offer and what you propose to offer
in the future. Again, if you intend to develop or refurbish rooms or
outside space over time, plan these out by indicating this year, next year,
etc. Make sure your plans for proposed users match any plans for the
buildings.

5. Facilities, Equipment and Services

Provide information on the type and quality of facilities, equipment and
services you currently offer and any proposed in the future. Again, if
there is a relationship between the users, the building and the equipment
and services make sure the timings correspond.

6. Skills and Capacity of your Committee

Identify and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your committee and
volunteers in terms of the current services and the plans you have for any
future services. (Some of this will be in SWOT exercise in the Marketing
Ledger). Think in terms not only about skills and experiences but also
about time and availability. If you find you have certain weakness you
may be able to recruit new volunteers or buy in paid staff, etc.

44
 7. Pricing Structure
By now you will be clear about the cost of running the centre, the income
you need to earn, in the current year and for 2-3 years in the future, and
the amount you earned last year. If you have less income than you need
or want, then you can either plan to increase the number of users,
increase the cost per user or do a bit of both, depending upon the market
you are in.

Develop a pricing schedule; lay the costs out clearly for different users and
describe any discounts you may provide, such as multiple use or use for
the local community. It is advisable to make this price look formal so that
users are quite clear about the price and how the charge is allocated.
You may charge extra for some items like training equipment or children’s
play equipment, you may charge more for catering or the use of the
kitchen for self-catering.

However you design the charges make sure it is consistent and clear.

Go back to the Users Checklist and categorise them into payment category
groups; for example:

Group 1. People and groups from your local community who will often
pay a basic rate; however, this should cover the cost of running the
venue. You may want to charge different rates for providing (say)
meeting space for a new small group than for a local individual to hold a
party.

Group 2. The corporate user, such as local government, private

business, and voluntary sector projects. You may consider raising the
rate for these organisations, but remember that their alternative is to
use a local/city based meeting centre so you will be competing with
them and you should find out what rates they charge and as long as you
know your margins, consider reducing your rate.

You should undertake this exercise in looking at different rates for

different users even if you do not anticipate that your venue will be used
by all categories of user. It is valuable to know what you could charge a
specific category of user, and it might help you in looking to the future
when planning for the present.

8. Promoting your Centre

Having identified your target market(s) think about how each user group
needs to have your facilities promoted to them.

45
As a basic promotional action, all centres should have a Notice Board
outside, they should prepare and print or photocopy a basic leaflet with
information about the venue and services, location, price and contacts.
You should distribute it widely. However, as previously discussed, it is now
crucial to have an online presence so consider improving your web
promotion platform. In addition to this, identify what specific promotional
approaches you intend to make to your target market.

9. Action Planning Chart

The Action Planning Chart can be used to list all the actions you have
identified when writing this Marketing Plan and to set them out in the
order they need to be actioned. Use coloured marker pens to fill in under
the months when you start and finish a particular action. At the right
hand side you write in the name of the person(s) who will be responsible
for carrying out the action

46
Links

Support to the Voluntary Sector

NCVO provides a wealth of knowledge relating to first hand local income generation
initiatives: support to the third sector including community centres and village halls;
financial planning and funding service, general information, guidance and support,
trustee and governance support, training framework, partnerships and joint working
services, community regeneration. www.ncvo-vol.org.uk

Funding

www.awardsforall.org.uk

Information about community centres and marketing

Action with Communities in Rural England - www.acre.org.uk

Rural Community Council Leicestershire and Rutland - www.ruralcc.org.uk

DEFRA Rural Community Buildings Network

www.defra.gov.uk/rural/communities/centres/rcbn.htm

A good example of a community centre website www.hurstvillagecentres.org.uk

Example of a catering service to a group of three community centres

www.conferencematters.co.uk

Community Matters www.communitymatters.org.uk/local_information

Check out the competition

www.conferences-uk.org.uk

Promote your Hub on these listings websites

www.hallshire.com

www.latemeetings.com

www.thelocalchannel.co.uk

www.wherecanwego.com

Make links with Tourism

www.touristinformationcentres.com
English historic monuments and castles www.english-heritage.org.uk

Cycle routes www.sustrans.org.uk

Advertise events, find artists and performers

Arts Council www.artscouncil.org.uk

www.voluntaryarts.org

General information and advice

Volunteering England www.volunteering.org.uk

For information on social economy and interactive online software

www.locallivelihoods.com
Pick and Mix Ideas

During our research we have come across many activities and ideas for events which
could be put on in your centre. Most importantly, those centres with the most varied
and exciting programmes have been proactive in finding people to start societies or
interest groups, or a dance class etc., they haven’t just waited for someone to
approach them.

Below are just some of the ideas we found:

Active clubs/Societies Children and Young people Parent /

Walking club. child
Running club Carer and Toddler Group Pre-school
Gymnastics Playgroup
Line dancing Toy Library
Belly dancing Junior Youth Group
Aerobics Senior Youth Club
Basket Ball For kids Brownies/scouts/guides
Easy Exercise to Music After School Clubs
Access to Fitness Class for Men Summer play schemes
Chair Exercise Group Children’s discos
Table Tennis Ballet/ children’s dance
Badminton Theatre outreach/ drama
Short bowls
Karate/martial arts
Social benefit
Yoga
Age Concern Luncheon Club
Jazz dancing
WI / Towns Women’s Guild
Pilates
Credit Union
Tai Chi
IT Cafe
Clubs/Societies Coffee and chat
Photographic society Visit from mobile library
Art Group Computer Courses
Crafts Class Community first aid responders
Bridge club centre
Genealogical society Tourist information
Drama
University of the 3rd Age
Bird watching Events/other
Flower arranging Farmers’ market/ basket sale
Young Farmers Bingo Night with visit from mobile fish
and
Slimmer’s Support Group
Burger van
Gardening club
Salsa/Zumba
Local history group
Art Exhibition
Sewing Group/Stitch and Bitch
Community shop
Post office
Table games evening Murder mystery evening
Burns night supper
Halloween fancy dress
Quiz night Film night
Tea dance
Glossary

Hub – Community Centre

Road map – A practical description of what can be achieved and how to get there

Marketing strategy- The approach taken to create value for users and profitable
income streams

Marketing plan – The tactics employed in realising the Marketing strategy

Markets – The competitors, stakeholders, users and other external dynamics

Marketing ledger- Format for consolidating ideas about tactics

Business Model Canvas - Is a strategic management tool used to describe, design,

challenge, invent, and pivot your business model.

USP – Unique Solution Proposition

SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

PEST – Political, Economic, Social and Technological

Marketing mix – The 4Ps

The 4Ps – Provision, Place, Price and Promotion

Market segment – categorisation of target users, based on a combination of

evidence and stereotypes of the Unique Solutions propositions they are searching
for

Marketing channels- Potential ways to communicate to users about provision

Online social media – fast growing multidirectional communication channel

Push marketing –selling what you have to users

Pull marketing –engaging users to find out what they want to buy

Users – your visitors and customers - paying, subsidised or no charge

Stakeholders – those who share your mission plus your visitors and customers -
paying, subsidised or no charge

Added value – the reason why a user would want more and share their
experience others

Revenue – Also called income or turnover. The total amount of money received
before any costs are deducted

Surplus – the amount of money remaining after all costs are deducted
Fixed assets – Buildings, machinery, vehicles owned that need to be maintained
or replaced at some point in the future

Fixed costs – rent, rates, utilities, administration staff etc.

Variable costs – catering for an event, travel costs for trip etc.
 Annex 1

Marketing Ledger
The Marketing Ledger is follows the same order as the Toolkit and is for you to
keep a draft summary of what you have either decided to do under each heading
or your ideas for further research. Once you have filled in as much as you can
then you can transfer the information into a Marketing Plan (Annex 2) that you
can use to manage the marketing process.

Step 1- Centre Resources

Do you When will Not Comments

have this? you Relevant
acquire
this?
An easily contactable booking
person or system
Locally available booking
information
Booking information on- line
Office space to hire
A pick up brochure or leaflet
Information in parish
magazine/local listings
An accessible location for
cars/ public transport
Are you located in a tourist
area/ on a walking route
Attractive appearance
Parking
Outside space
A Notice board outside
Security systems
Toilets
Large centre space
Meeting room/ break out
room
Disabled access/toilets
Good heating
Basic kitchen
Well equipped kitchen
Outside Catering Facilities
nearby or opportunities to
establish
Equipment storage
IT Facilities and Broadband
Quality furnishings
Chairs/Tables
Large number of chairs/tables
Training Equipment, e.g.
 projector, wall panels
Range of Lighting/ side lights,
dimmers/ theatre lights
Good acoustics for speaking
and music
Staging
Dance floor
Public Entertainment licence
Cycle washing facility
Drying Facilities
Camping space
Overnight accommodation
Self-catering facilities
Could you offer afternoon teas
Changing/ shower facilities
Sports equipment
Sports field
Could you link with events
happening nearby?

Identify those key or special resources that you have and list them here, also
identify those resources that you would like to acquire in the near future.

Existing Key Resources

Planned Resources
Step 2 – Hub Users

Already Potential Comments

user user
Community Use
Social Events/ fetes
Sports
Playgroups/ children/ youth
Interest clubs/societies
Community private hire
Celebration parties
Meetings
Office space
Civic Events
Polling station
Public meetings
Political meetings
Social benefit
Post office/ shops
Community learning resource
Advice service
Voluntary Sector
Information events
Training / Meetings
Office space
Local Authority
Meetings
Conferences
Training
Business
Meetings
Conferences
Sales venues
Sub-let office space
Annex to hotel
Education
College outreach
University of the Third Age
Holiday Play Schemes
Training companies
Seminar/training
Longer courses
Tourism
Walkers
Cyclist
Visitors to local attractions
Projects/Programme
Training
Meetings
Office space

Arts Sector
Arts festivals
Theatre
Cinema
Dance/Music
Extra

Centre Users

Identify the users and potential users under the following headings in the list
below:

Existing Users

Borough

Gtr. London

Region

UK

Potential Users

Borough

Gtr. London

Region
 UK

Step 3 - Skills for Managing the Marketing Process

List the skills on your staff members.

List the skills on your committee.

Skills needed

From the SWOT exercise and from looking at the skills available to the Hub
prepare a skills list of the Strengths, Weaknesses
Strengths Weaknesses
 Step 4 - Place

In the box below describe the Place and any special features it has.

Location:

Access:

The building:

Links with other resources:

Special features:

Step 5 - Provision

Provide information on the key facilities you have in and around the
building, and any services you can provide in addition.

Number and size of rooms:

Other facilities:

Equipment:
Step 6 – Price

Describe the cost of running the centre, and the charge rate for hire and other
services, if you have different rates for different users please put them in.

Fixed Assets Fixed Costs Variable Costs

 How much does it cost to run the centre annually?

Do you have different charge rates for different users?

Local residents and groups:

Other community groups:

Local Authorities:

Private sector:

Step 7 - Promotion

Please describe below how you are promoting or will promote the services offered
by your centre.
Networking

If you are part of a network of centres or even if you have a loose arrangement
with just one or two describe the purpose of the network and how it is organised.

Could you start a network with some other Hubs?

Annex 2
Marketing Plan

The marketing plan is where the organisation’s committee set their ideas out in a
clear way and plan their future actions. Please use the information from the
Marketing Ledger you prepared as part of the Toolkit exercises as the basis for
completing this plan. When planning think in terms of a number of years and try
to specify start and finish times where appropriate.

Name of centre:

Address:

Contact details:

Website:

Market Orientation:
Describe the main focus of the market you intend to develop over the next few years

Users:
Describe your current users

Describe proposed future users

Building, rooms and grounds hire

What do you currently offer?

What do you propose to offer in the future?

Facilities, equipment and services
Current facilities, equipment and services

Future facilities, equipment and services

Skills and capacity of your committee

Identify which skills and capacities will be needed to meet proposed future users / facilities,
equipment and services

What strengths and weaknesses do you have?

What weaknesses do you have, and how are you going to improve your skills and capacity
to support your plans?

Pricing Structure
Describe how you are going to charge for the venue hire and services you provide

Promoting your centre

How are you going to promote your centre to the users you have identified?
Action Planning Chart

Identify those actions that need to be done within the next year and list them in the
left hand column in the order that you think they need to be done. Then use a
coloured marker pen and draw lines from when you will start to do them and when
you plan to finish under the corresponding months. In the right hand column you can
write who is going to do the work.

Action M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12 By

to be whom?
done
 Annex 3 Marketing Matrix

Target Markets
Local community Voluntary Sector Public Business Education Training Other…
sector companies

Holiday Play schemes

Sub-Market

Seminars/Training
Playgroups/ children

Information events

Annexe to main site

Student outreach
Celebration parties

Summer school

Longer courses
Sub-let space
Social Events

Conferences

Sales venue
Sports/Arts
Meetings

Meetings

Meetings
Seminars

Training
Facilities

AG

U3
M

A
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Booking Person

x x x x x x x x
Booking info local

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Booking info on- line

x x x x x x x x x x x x
Pick up brochure

Accessible x x x x x x x x x x x x x
location

Location tourist area/ x x

walk

Attractive x x x x x x x x
appearance

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Parking

x x x x x x
Outside space

x x x x x x x x x x x x
Notice board outside
 x x x
Security

Target Markets
Local community Voluntary Sector Public Business Education Training Other…
sector companies

Sub-Market

Holiday Play schemes

Seminars/Training
Information events
Playgroups/ children

Annexe to main site

Student outreach
Celebration parties

Summer school

Longer courses
Sub-let space
Social Events

Conferences

Sales venue
Sports/Arts
Meetings

Meetings
Meetings
Seminars

Training
Facilities

AG

U3
M

A
Dance floor x x

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Toilets

Entertainment licence
x x

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Large centre

x
Meeting room x x x x x x x x x

Drying facilities x

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Disabled access/Toilets

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Good heating

Self-catering/ fully x x x x x x x x x x x x x
equipped kitchen
 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Refreshment facilities

x x x
Play/sports equipment

Changing/Shower x x x
facilities

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Broadband/IT Facilities

Target Markets
Local community Voluntary Sector Public Business Education Training Other…
sector companies

Holiday Play schemes

Sub-Market

Seminars/Training
Playgroups/ children

Information events

Annexe to main site

Student outreach
Celebration parties

Summer school

Longer courses
Sub-let space
Social Events

Conferences

Sales venue
Sports/Arts
Meetings

Meetings

Meetings
Seminars

Training
Facilities

AG

U3
M

A
X X X X X x x x
Storage facilities

Sports field/Outdoor X X X
space

Chairs/Table/Soft
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
furnishings

Training equipment X X X X X X X X X X X X

Range of lighting X X X X X

Good acoustics X X X X X X

Staging X X X X X
Other…
Annex 4 Example of Brochures for Centres

West Hampstead Women’s Centre

http://www.whwc.org.uk/services/rooms/docs/Rooms_for_hire_WHWC.pdf

The Threshold Centre

http://active4life.eu.com/a4l/index.php/threshold-centre-services/hall-hire/

St Luke’s Centre

http://www.slpt.org.uk/roomhire/documents/StLukesRoomHireEbrochureJul
y2012.pdf

Other websites providing good examples of how to market premises attractively on

line include:

Centre Comments
Coin Street (South Excellent website – although a much bigger operation than the majority of
Bank, London) Islington centres, this is a good example of how to present information well.
www.coinstreet.org
The Abbey Centre Good website – at a glance overview, taking you through to lots of details
(Westminster, London) about each room (capacity with different seating arrangements, etc.)
www.theabbeycentre. Also link to special conference brochure
org.uk Download our conference/catering PDF. Interesting emphasis placed on the
wider benefits of hiring their space. Examples from their website:

‘CSR Bonus: your meeting room hire fees help support our dynamic
community centre, bringing together children, families and older people
from our diverse neighbourhood’

Parker Morris Hall

Large hall for meetings, conferences and events.
Hire this hall to contribute towards activities such as ballroom dancing for
older people

Wash House Annex

Hiring the Annexe supports activities such as the Bosnian & Herzegovinian
supplementary school on Saturdays.
St. Mary’s Church Website has some good features. Includes a virtual tour – see what you
(Sheffield) think!
www.stmaryschurch.co.u
k
Shoreditch Trust Good website. Waterhouse Conference Centre - Interesting at how promote
(Hackney, London) social and environmental awareness angle in marketing.
www.shoreditchtrust.o
rg.uk
Kesgrave Conference Quite a good website – good, at a glance overview of facilities + quite good
Centre & Community on catering offer
Centre (Ipswich)
www.kwmcc.co.uk
Clarendon Centre, Bigger outfit, but website has good points that smaller organisations could
Brighton replicate. Clear website with lots of info, including plans of each floor so you
www.clarendoncentre. can see how rooms relate to each other (useful if trying to plan [say] a big
org.uk meeting needing breakout rooms.)
Annexe 5 More about the Community Hubs Business Development
Programme

Background: the CHBD programme

The Community Hubs Business Development (CHBD) programme was

designed for Islington’s Community Hubs (a network of the larger community
centres) by a partnership of Voluntary Action Islington, CENTA (Camden
Enterprise Agency) and the Octopus Network (formed by Islington’s
community hubs.) It was delivered by CENTA, and overseen by Octopus.

It was conceived through discussions with member Hubs seeking practical

solutions for generating additional revenue. Through these initial discussions,
a consensus emerged that the physical space occupied by all Hubs would
represent the best focus for a planned marketing drive. Its primary purpose
was to enable all Hubs to develop Marketing Plans, to add to their existing
Hub Business Plans.

The programme was designed flexibly, in order to respond to individual and

collective needs. Each community building was at its own stage of generating
income, and the idea was for each centre to work through the programme at
their own pace, with tailored support.

The partnership offered the following support to the hubs:

 a minimum of 12-hours of support for each Hub, which can be tailored

to feature 1-2-1 support and workshops.

Participating hubs were asked to commit to:

 attending planned events and 1-2-1 support sessions

 completing ledgers and exercises
 preparing individual Hub Space marketing plans