MENTORINGPLUS_UNIVERSITYOFBATH
Action
Mentoring Plus wish to double their income from their venue hire, compared to the previous year. Through several consultations with the charity, our advisor and amongst ourselves, we created our Action Plan:
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Market research to determine the best price
Design and create a new website template with a section dedicated to the venue hire for the booking scheme online
Design and print a flyer which can be distributed in public places to raise awareness for the spaces on offer.New booking form with new price
Draft social media posts, which can be used as ads, advertising the spaces.
Target
We are mainly focused on two target audience groups of parents and teenagers who can become regular customers that will generate a steady income for the charity. Regarding McCrossan (2021), more Millennials than any other generation become a parent, therefore implementing the marketing strategy via social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are the most effective to raise awareness amongst Millennials (Post Beyond, 2022). However, the charity venue offers space for several activities for Generation Z such as music studios, games room and a basketball court, so the target age bracket of 16-25 are also a major focus. In order to reach attention from Generation Z, content created via YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram is the most effective (Post Beyond, 2022).
Market
Research
We studied Mentoring Plus’ competitors to understand what else is on offer in the local area and at what price. We analysed 6 places in Bath that have similar venues for rent which are:
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- Percy Community Centre
- Bath City Farm
- The New Oriel Hall
- The Hive
- Odd Down Community Centre
- Burdall's Yard
Key issues
01
The Hive is similar is Mentoring Plus and offers cheaper prices for room rental – however, it is further outside of Bath and not in the city centre.
02
Burdall’s Yard is the closest in proximity to Mentoring Plus but is more expensive and has less rooms on offer and less amenities.
03
The studios hire seems to be considerably more expensive at Mentoring Plus compared to Percy Community Centre – could look at introducing an hourly rate.
04
The prices for the whole area do not go up by much for the weekend compared to The New Oriel Hall’s price increase.
05
Overall, prices for Mentoring Plus are the best in the area.
Price Comparison
Venue Hire Marketing
Strategies for
Long term
Room hire website
- Have different landing pages on the website for each option so visitors can easily filter their search to what they want
- Provide room tour video
It is indicated that people tend to see the venue first and then decide whether to book the venues or not (Guest, 2020). Therefore, we filmed a room tour video to show the rooms and facilities Mentoring Plus provides. We also suggest Mentoring Plus to create a virtual tour web page to impress them with experiential and convenient service.
Social media
Hashtag
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The name of your venue and the name of your venue + location.
For example: #MentoringPlusBath #MentoringPlusSomerset #MentoringPlusBathandNorthEastSomerset and so on.
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your industry hashtags
For example: #YogaMentoringPlus #yogacourse​
It is stated that hashtags can help to increase the chances of being searched clicked (Wood, 2022). Therefore, we recommend Mentoring Plus to include hashtags in their posts and encourage their hirers to share their experience with hashtags at the bottom of their posts. Furthermore, we also suggest Mentoring Plus to contact local groups, organisations, societies and so forth to ask them help Mentoring Plus to share the information of room hire on their social media accounts.
Promote user-generated content
- Encourage the visitors to upload content using a certain hashtag or tag you
- Build your brand, trust, credibility, and social proof of your venue
Create Facebook & Instagram paid ads
- Re-targeting ads
- Geo-targeted ads
It is indicated that online advertising is more reliable compared to other types of advertising due to its advantages of available for being targeted and personalised according to its target market (Fuchs, 2021). To reach more potential customers, we recommend Mentoring Plus to invest in social media adverts.
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Google search
- SEO
- Encourage online reviews (e.g. Google comment, Yelp and TripAdvisor)
Local groups
Local Group
Activities
Based on Davies (2021)’s research, 25% of interviewees indicated that they are more willing to engage in activities that benefit their physical and mental wellbeing due to the pandemic. Therefore, we think seeking physical and mental health-related groups or clubs and tell them Mentoring Plus can provide them with rooms to do exercises such as Yoga, Pilates, dancing or chatting, playing music, doing artwork and many other activities together. In addition, it is reported that some people are hesitant about going into crowded indoor spaces (Duckett, 2021). Thus, we can also look for teachers who plan to chart new courses for small groups of people, people who want to watch movies by using projectors, play music and basketball with friends and so on.
Potential hirer Mentoring Plus can contact
Frequency
Link
Bath Mums
Promote anything relevant with parenting activities
Everyday
Bath Live
Activities happening in Bath
Everyday
Free to Collect
Business advert
Three times a week
Bath Creative Socials
Writing/reading/drawing/movies
Three times a month
Creative Coding in Bath
Coding
Once a month
Bath Philosophy & Debate Group
Debate
Once or twice a month
Bath Games and Geeks
play tabletop board games and drink some beers in pubs
Once a week
TechSPARK Bath
Drinks & Networking
Once a month
Bath Social Group
Various activities
Frequently but not regularly
The Community Farm - Wellbeing Groups
Two free wellbeing courses[
Once a week
Creativity works
Creative activities and courses
Different projects vary
Bath mind
Online and face-to-face training
Different projects vary
New Booking Form
Regarding the market research, we revised the booking form by adding some necessary information and setting the document format to make it easier to book.
Moreover, we design the template and suggest Mentoring Plus use an online booking form which will be more convenient for them to receive and track the response
Budget
With a budget of £150, use it to raise awareness for our target audience through traditional marketing; put the flyer on the community board and advertise in a local newspaper.
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Flyer
Printing Price with University: £127
Overall: 1000
Instagram Post
Mentoring Plus already has a social media prescience on Instagram however we decided to make minor changes to the communication method they have opted for in the past.
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We enhanced the Aesthetic of their Instagram grid along with creating a set of uniform posts as an attempt to create a brand for Mentoring Plus.
Creating the illusion of a brand could help Mentoring Plus showcase a solid image of themselves and enhance the brand recognition and recall factor among key audiences.
Another reason we chose Instagram as a key marketing tool to advertise their vacant spaces for rent is because of the convenience factor that comes with it.
It’s very easy for individuals to share, save and navigate redirection to the website if they’re interested in the offer.
A business account on Instagram offers the ability to track engagement and see how successful / unsuccessful posts are which will make it easier for Mentoring Plus to understand weather or not the content they’re providing the public with appeals to them. Modifications to posts and marketing strategies can be made taking these insights into consideration.