You might assume that an auto museum with over 50 collections (rotating and permanent) tucked away in Seal Cove would easily slip into stagnancy when it comes to marketing and self-promotion. Seal Cove Auto Museum proves this assumption wrong- in fact, they go above and beyond the marketing call of duty. Not only do they offer year-round events for “children of all ages,” they know how to get the word out, which helps when you throw a good party. They also keep their website and social media up-to-date and user friendly.
Event Marketing with a Turbo Boost. When it comes to marketing an event online, there are several bases to cover. The first, most logical place is your own website. They also utilize Chamber membership to share their event on community calendars, and use their social media (Twitter and Facebook) to market.
In addition to marketing the events, they do an excellent job of taking photos during the event to share on social media later on. People love seeing pictures of other people, so sharing photos of an event has a way of encouraging on-the-fencers to attend your next event (personally, this is what pushes me).
Their video section of Facebook has a healthy library as well, yet another medium to share the work that they’re doing. The video below is a promo for the Centennial inspired Auto Wars exhibit this summer. In writing this post, I actually learned that back in the beginning of the 1900s when cars came around, people almost banned them from the island. Now, in 2016, it’s pretty hard to imagine this being the case.
Fun for the whole family. It’s one thing to market an event well, and entirely another thing to host an event that is actually fun. Seal Cove Auto Museum is accessible for all ages, and hosts events for children and adults alike. Lego Day at the Museum encourages kids to come in and play with the museum’s Legos while checking out the exhibits (this is marketed to “kids of all ages,” by the way). There’s also the annual Speakeasy, which is a highly popular event in the community that allows adults to play dress up and pretend they’re in the Roaring Twenties (swing band included). We’ve heard from their executive director they have had an opportunity to increase the size of the event but have decided to keep the event small and exclusive to create demand.
Online Donation Form. Having the ability to donate online directly from your website is huge (we’ve talked about it A LOT), and Seal Cove has theirs set up so you don’t have to navigate to a 3rd party site (like PayPal). When you click “Donate Online,” this is what shows up:
As you can see, having this donation form built directly on the website itself offers a few advantages. The first is user-friendliness- they can stay right on your website. Second, you have more control. This form matches the rest of the website in terms of color and fonts- something you don’t necessarily get with a 3rd party site. You might not be able to add in the options of making contributions in honor/memory of another person, or specify the program to benefit from your contribution. If people want to give you money, why not make it easy for them?
Seal Cove Auto Museum is a pretty amazing example of a local non-profit that doesn’t rest on it’s laurels in marketing. They’re an auto museum, so it’d be easy to let their exhibits take the wheel and just coast on that (pardon my terrible puns). However, they’ve done amazing work with their online presence, both on social media and their own website. Kudos, Seal Cove Auto Museum!