Megaphone and Grassroots Marketing
In makerspace marketing, the call for audacity is a must for fostering a vibrant, inventive community. The need isn't just critical; it's the pivotal heartbeat that fuels the very essence of innovation. Imagine a marketing initiative that not only informs but also grabs attention with the unapologetic flair of CBGB Punk and the substance of a TED Talk.
In the realm of community-building, retention is as crucial as attraction. Your marketing initiatives shouldn't merely bring people in; they should create a gravitational pull that keeps them returning for more. As individuals arrive, provide them with something tangible: an act, a voice, a role, and a seat that authentically connects and welcomes them to your community.
A hurdle to getting the word out is that marketing campaigns are so pervasive they are easily ignored, especially if the message isn’t unique and directly addresses each stakeholder as an individual.
To engage a diversity of stakeholders, collaborate with your staff and a team of stakeholder advisors to develop big, bold campaigns alongside quiet, individual, and personalized ones. Regardless of the approach, your marketing strategy must attract stakeholders with a unique appearance and voice.
The likelihood is that your stakeholders are a mix of diverse backgrounds representing a wide range of disciplines; good (!) your community's diversity is your strength. However, developing clear, compelling messaging on the mission and values of your creative space that resonates with all your stakeholders takes time and effort while integrating the following ideas.
Audacious marketing initiatives themselves become a testament to the creativity brewing within the makerspace. Inclusivity isn't just a buzzword; it's the magnetic force that pulls in minds from all walks of life. Break down the barriers and embrace diversity because innovation thrives in the fertile soil of varied perspectives.
Uniqueness isn't a choice; it's the very fabric of a successful makerspace. The marketing should be a manifesto, a bold declaration that this isn't your average community. This is a hub of trailblazers, a breeding ground for the avant-garde. Each initiative should scream, "Expect the unexpected because here, we redefine the norm."
Interdisciplinary collaboration is the heartbeat of any thriving makerspace. Make marketing a tapestry that weaves together the seemingly disparate threads of technology, art, and science, a fluid exchange where ideas move freely across disciplines.
Thoughtfulness should permeate every marketing endeavor. Don't just advertise; tell your story. Craft narratives that resonate, inspire, and linger in the minds of your audience. Infuse empathy into every word and image because a thoughtful approach isn't just about attracting attention; it's about forging connections.
And then, there's audacity within audacity. Be bold, be daring, and dare to push the boundaries of what marketing can achieve. Make a statement based on the definition of who and what your community is that reverberates. Let the world know that this makerspace isn't just a place; it's a movement, a revolution, a standard-bearer.
Your marketing initiatives are a symphony of audacity, inclusivity, uniqueness, interdisciplinarity, thoughtfulness, and retention strategies. With these ideas in mind, engage a diversity of stakeholders: work with your staff and a team of stakeholder advisors to develop big, bold campaigns alongside quiet, individual, and personalized ones. The following are examples of embedding audacity, inclusivity, uniqueness, interdisciplinarity, thoughtfulness, and retention into two marketing strategies.
“Batsignal” Marketing:
Like Batman’s Bat-Signal, projected on the clouds as an unmistakable call to action, you need a marketing strategy that differentiates you from everyone else and can’t be ignored. The formula for getting your message flying above the standard marketing tools is:
Begin by spending time with your team and stakeholders, identifying the unique personalities, culture, infrastructure, thinking, output, politics, etc., of the community you hope to attract.
Make sure to incorporate your makerspace’s fabrication equipment.
Brainstorm what graphic design elements, copy, and physical artifacts will resonate broadly yet individually in your community.
Then, make the outreach audacious by intentionally adding challenging design elements built on your team and stakeholder research that will grab the eye of your community. (Your makerspace is a forward-thinking innovation center, after all!)
The results should be exciting, enticing analog and digital solutions that look and feel like nothing your stakeholders have seen before.
“Bat-signal” marketing is big and loud and contains the innovative and prototyping spirit of your makerspace. Now, to develop something quiet and personalized for each individual who walks in the door for the first time.
Grassroots marketing:
The recipe for Grassroots marketing is a hands-on project that anyone can learn in thirty seconds, a uniquely creative act that solves a problem and connects them to your makerspace.
By far, the most successful, quiet, and individually customizable campaign I designed we called the “Pom Pom Project.” After attracting stakeholders to our space, we wanted to provide them with a hands-on project that contained the intention and culture of our space: Creative Expression, Making, and Community. The Pom Pom project encompasses all three in an “Avitar” of every stakeholder.
Creative Expression, in that each pompom contained unique colors of yarn and scale representing their aesthetic and design preference. The PomPom Project defined our space's teaching and learning mandates as it was a simple act of creation and learning for many who had not made one before.
This project connected stakeholders by (literally) tying them to our community. Above the box of yarn was a mesh on which folks could tie on their pompom and help muffle the echos in the space. When they did, their pompom avatar took up residence and grew our culture. We often heard folks who returned say, "That’s me up there!
Side note: I used to have a mantra in some of the former makerspaces: "No 3D-printed cell phone covers!”. This means don’t waste time, money, and plastic making a tchotchke you can buy for much less that does the same job. However, if framed correctly, plastic 3D-printed doodads can be an excellent way to market your creative space. Instead, try another more effective novel strategy: running a customizable 3D-printed earrings workshop.
This simple peer-to-peer grassroots effort may be slow compared to large, expensive marketing campaigns; however, folks who engage in a makerspace in this way tend to become involved profoundly and for the long term.
If your makerspace has the capacity, I suggest simultaneously implementing the above two campaigns. However, if your makerspace is newly opened, I recommend the first strategy followed six weeks later by the second. Or if your makerspace has been operating for over a year, I suggest launching the grassroots strategy now.
You can go big or small or both. But, no matter what, constantly work to empower your community by developing honest, enthusiastic campaigns to promote your space's vibrant, safe, welcoming, making culture.
Artwork: Kat Válastur; Arcana Swarm