Advertising wins

[ashultz]

One observation I've made is how similar many of the backgrounds of HEMA folks are. Here's my own example. See if this rings any bells......

1 Studied history in university
2 Higest inerest was in Medieval period
3 Always loved swords and Armour
4 Sword keenerness led to doing a few years of Kendo (that was 20 years ago so no HEMA Then)
5 As time and resources allowed, started getting into armor making
6 Still practice Karate, ju Juitsu and Kubodo

only #3 and #4 are true for me, and many guys in my group probably also ring only one or two of those bells. I think in a given group backgrounds tend to be similar because of how groups form and stick, but between groups there's a lot more variation.

[Clint_Schaaf]

One place not mentioned, Gyms and fitness clubs. Not everyone at a gym is a mindless jock and many people there have very good work ethics and discipline. A lot of them also have an interest in martial arts. Also (from personal experience starting a Kendo club in college) having a picture on the flyer of you smoking someone with a sword in a real sparring match works WAY better than an illustration (period or modern).

[Richard Marsden]

Went out today to every rpg and comic book store to pass out fliers for our organization. There is an Eastern Martial Arts supply shop we'll be hitting up soon in search of people.

[Michael-Forest]

I'd be interested in hearing what size flyers people are using...

[JohnPatterson]

We are doing half page fliers. After making the rounds at comic and RPG shops our website traffic is up 150%. Also 2 new guys showed up to the park last Saturday.

[Richard Marsden]

Advertising Wins

Website!
www.worksofrichardmarsden.com has a section on sparring sword reviews. It gets lots of hits and PurpleHeart sent me an email to update it (which I did). So that's good. The website is mostly my short-stories and a link to my novel, but there is plenty of WMA stuff which has drawn in potential practitioners.

http://phoenixsocietyofhistoricalswords ... .webs.com/ has worked wonders. Our hits for videos on 'sword pals' is way up and I get an email from interested WMA sorts here and there. Had one last week who I think found us on the flyer, and another who said he found us on the web.

On top of that I get the occasional, "How do I..." or "Where can I find..." questions from people along with the occasional invites to decoding books from long-dead secret societies.

All in all, I'd say our advertisement is working out! Our next task is getting people to 'stick'.

[Joey Nitti]

yeah that's probably the tough part: getting people to stick.

Since I started, there's been maybe 6-7 new people (maybe more, I'm only there on saturdays) who have shown up. Most of these new people came because my instructor ran a deal through LivingSocial.com, which got a decent amount of attention. Problem is, I don't know if any of them are "hooked". I mean, I have a feeling they're not..........I hope they are, but.....

[ChrisWalters]

That's why I'm targeting the SCA.... You've got a pre-loaded group of geeks, some of whom are OK with people swinging at them...

My approach within the SCA is to do a slow introduction of the Synthetics at events. There is already a Cut & Thrust culture within the organization... but it's more focused on the later rapier play and it often goes to a "touch" - so I don't get the sense that anybody is thowing with intent... For the guys who are normally into the rattan combat.. that intent is a significant part of thier fun... So the use of the synthetic longswords dovetails into an are where there isn't a lot of exposure.... Also, it's cheaper and for the most part, safer than live steel. And, you can get someone going close to full speed really quickly (which is hard to do with steel from my SCA experiance - ie, injury due to loss of control) But I think the key is to get that new person up and running as soon as possible... ie, it's ok if they suck.. but they should be doing it...

Here's something that put me off Kendo... there was such a long gap between when you first start training till you actually find yourself in armor, that I pretty much lost interest in it... Also, I didn't find it to be very realistic in terms of the target areas and all the shouting seemed silly... However, I might have gotten "hooked" (cause it's really just like fencing) if I had been in armor from day one... that being said, the group in Charlotte really seem like a good bunch of guys/gals... It just wasn't my bag...

Mostly, I think doing your thing out in public will draw in the interested. Ie, the practice in the park, university commons, etc... Also, lots of YouTube video helps...

[Michael S]

yeah that's probably the tough part: getting people to stick.

Since I started, there's been maybe 6-7 new people (maybe more, I'm only there on saturdays) who have shown up. Most of these new people came because my instructor ran a deal through LivingSocial.com, which got a decent amount of attention. Problem is, I don't know if any of them are "hooked". I mean, I have a feeling they're not..........I hope they are, but.....

My attitude is that, well, HEMA isn't a hobby for everyone, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's expensive, hard on the body, a big commitment and requires a lot from you to get 'good' at it. Running a group you're going to have a fairly high turn-over no matter how guided your advertising is. Equally though you might get an email out of the blue from someone that knows about HEMA, knows it's right for them and wants to train with you.

That said, I don't think that high attrition is a reason not to try your best to get new people involved. Sometimes people have an attitude of 'We'll just make the new guys do the basics (for HEMA something like learn the guards and the names of cuts). If they keep coming back after a bit then we'll get to know them and introduce them to the fun bits.' This isn't HEMA specific mind you - my archery club's introductory course is enough to make me think about quitting... I try and do the opposite, and spend the first session one on one with new people, normally guiding them towards discovering a technique for themselves (for example covering themselves with a cut), and then have a bit of free-play. Even if they don't come back for a second session then fair enough - hopefully they've had a fun time, a cool experience and might tell their friends about it.

As for advertising - I find that having a website that's open and honest about what you get up to is best. Cool pictures from the manuscripts are nice, but I'll echo the suggestion that pictures from classes, sessions or sparring are more likely to have people tempted to get in touch. Personally I also prefer receiving business cards over paper fliers. I think people are more likely to keep hold of them, and I find word-of-mouth advertising to be the most effective anyway. I found one of LSDC's in my wallet the other day and realised quite how useful some would have been.

Also, the ungrateful public can use them as cigarette roach.

[Jason Taylor]

We use meetup at Kron as well, and it's worked really well. Part of our attendance is from being on a school, but we also got a ton of people who found us through meetup alone. Some of them are SCA guys who are also into the faire scene, but they're cool guys, interested in what we do, super knowledgable historically, and decent fighters to boot. It's totally worth the $12 a months or whatever it is to keep that thing running.

A couple of hints, though: really ride your people about RSVPing. Make sure everyone RSVPs who is coming, because people who first find the club on the site will see the number of RSVPs, not the actual number of people who showed up. So if people are flaky about the RSVP system, the practice looks like a ghost town, even if it's quite healthy.

We actually charge a $1 fee for saying you'll attend on the site and then not showing up, which seems to keep our numbers up a bit. But all in all, we've done pretty well recently. KMA has 60-something members, and we routinely get crowds of 30-40 at our main Wednesday night meetings.

Jason