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Leadership & Administration >> Synagogue Administration >> Synagogue Operations >> Publicity >> PR in Action

Synagogue Publicity: PR In Action -- Promoting Your Ideas, Creating Newsletters

Taking Stock -- A "Case Study" from USY

In this section, we will deal with some issues that may arise when promoting a particular program. While I have selected USY as an example, you can mentally substitute any other program as you read through the material. For example, you may be more interested in promoting KOACH, or adult education, or seniors programming, or Family Education. I have selected USY as the focus of this study because it presents a particular challenge. In this age of computer, MTV, and cable-televised sports, it is difficult to come up with images "sophisticated" enough to attract our teenagers. We need all the help we can get!

In the case of USY, our primary customers, or clients, are teenagers and their parents. While you may think this statement is self-evident, it is, in fact, often overlooked. We must ask -- with every program we design, with every publication that goes out, with every phone call that is made -- "Is this serving a need of our targeted group? Will this reach them? How will it be perceived by the typical parent and child?"

Next, we have to find out: What do the teenagers want? We cannot just give them what we think they need or what we would like them to want. I would suggest that teens and pre-teens have some very definite desires we must keep in mind in developing a marketing program:

They want to belong. They like being part of a group -- it gives them a feeling of security. This is as true for the natural leader as it is for the child who is more of a follower. Keeping this in mind, we must emphasize that other youngsters they know, or who are like them, will also be participating.
They want to conform. Few teens want to be trailblazers. They will attend a function when they know their friends will be there. Thus, attracting groups is often easier than attracting individuals.
They want to be with teens who are "cool" (if that is still the right word). Just as adult Jewish organizations have identified the leaders, for example, in charitable giving, we must identify and include the leaders among the youngsters whose participation we solicit.
They want to exercise power and control. Therefore, the message we get out to them must emphasize their choices.
They do not want to feel they are being treated "like kids" -- being told what to do or what is good for them, or to feel that they are being overprotected. As young adults, they will thrive in the knowledge that they are trusted and are being held responsible for significant parts of the program.

Our youth want to enjoy music, to participate in sports activities, to meet youngsters both in their own and other communities, to contribute to society, for example, through tzedakah programs, Operation Isaiah, etc. We must keep these factors in mind and, when designing and publicizing programs, make sure that these needs are prominently featured.

It is also important that we find out how youngsters in the community perceive the group or the chapter.
Is it seen as too secular? too religious?
Are the other members too young? too old?
Do they see the group as being closed to outsiders?
How do they view the programs? How do they view the leader?

The answers to these questions are critical in shaping your marketing program. For even if the programs do meet their needs, if the teenagers do not perceive this, they will not join. One of the major purposes of public relations is to correct negative impressions. By increasing public awareness of what it is you actually do and stand for, you effectively reduce the spread of untruths and half-truths that could lead to a decline in membership.

We also need to know what parents want, since they are part of our target audience. While they generally cannot force their teenagers to attend something the youngsters are not interested in, they can -- if they perceive the group as being what they and their children want -- pay the dues, provide contact names of other families, and encourage their children's interest and attendance. They will arrange the necessary transportation and participate when their assistance is required. Thus, it is mandatory that we find out what the parents think of us and what they expect of us.

For example:

Do they simply want their children kept busy in a non-dangerous activity?
Is their main concern the youngsters their children associate with?
Are they aware of and worried about intermarriage?
Do they understand the unique social/religious nature of USY?
Do they understand the need for informal Jewish education as a necessary supplement to formal Jewish education, even when their child attends a Jewish day school?

Once we are clear on what parents want, we will know better how to appeal to them. As you evaluate the activities your USY chapter actually undertakes -- religious, social, sports, fundraising, administration -- consider whether the group is actually providing what the teenagers and parents want. In other words, is it meeting the expectations of your customers?

The easier (though not always easy) part of marketing is selling a product that meets a need -- air conditioning in south Florida, for example. A more< difficult task is creating a demand when the potential customer does not yet recognize his or her need. Of course, we could tailor our programs and our publicity to the lowest common denominator. However, we might then end up with an organization that is indistinguishable from a dozen other extra-curricular programs.

In this case, that is not good enough. We do have a mission and we must, as part of our message, educate our customers as to the values that are important to USY as a Conservative Jewish organization. In order to be successful in this endeavor, we must start with our customers' perceived needs and build, so that our message becomes the natural outgrowth, the logical conclusion, of those needs.

The next step is to find out about the competition.

Are you up against school activities, TV, sports, other Jewish groups, other clubs, apathy, the demands of family?
Are you holding your own against these groups? Do you know why?
What type of publicity and marketing is working for them?

In this regard, it's important to remember the concept of "product publicity," or publicizing your successes, discussed above. Maybe the federation down the road just started an exciting new youth group and it¦s time to remind the community just how excellent your own program is.

Also, you may recall the principle that public relations can be used to remind people of something they may already know. For example, youngsters may know your group has a particularly dynamic social action component but they may have neglected to consider that when deciding how to make their own personal contribution to society. It is up to you to remind them.

Moving On

Stage II, discussed in detail earlier in the book, involves soliciting the opinions of your clients.

Remember: Everything you do should be perceived as part of your marketing effort, since everything you do or say, as well as everything said about you, affects your public image. In fact, the very process of information gathering affects your image. For example: Adults asking children questions may not only elicit skewed responses but may project the unfortunate image that this is one of those adult-conceived and planned activities that we believe (perhaps like the bad-tasting medicine or the extra study evening) is good for them. Therefore, a preferable technique may be the use of the roundtable discussion.

Set up informal meetings with select groups of teenagers to talk about what they would like and how they can get involved. Properly done, this informal survey technique will not only provide you with information (for example, what your real competition is, when to schedule activities, what the difficulties are in getting youngsters to meetings), but it will also increase interest and demand, letting the youth know both that you are interested in what they want and that they can exert some influence.

Similar roundtables are helpful for parents as well. I might note that our target group is not just those youngsters who have been active or have joined as members before. Nor is it simply those adults who are active in the synagogue. There are a large group of unaffiliated families who have needs that we can serve. We must find ways of bringing them in as well.

Note: It may be that roundtable discussions held as informal gatherings in people's homes will be more attractive and more conducive to candid discussion than similar meetings in the synagogue. Personal invitations to such meetings are most effective.

Once you find out how you're perceived by the people you serve and that you want to serve, you can begin to conceptualize the kinds of messages you ought to be disseminating. For example, if you are perceived as being too "exclusive," you can have members write individualized invitations to other youngsters describing an upcoming program and inviting them to participate. And, similarly, the very nature of that program can be selected with an eye towards how you're perceived. If you're seen as "too secular," for example, you can organize a Tu B'Shevat Seder or a Shofar Squad.

Printed Materials

The Membership Brochure

Just as the synagogue itself should have a membership brochure, so too should the USY chapter. This is a one-time piece which describes the history, membership, purpose, offerings and affiliation of the USY group. There are very attractive, professionally produced brochures available from the national office of United Synagogue Youth describing the organization itself as well as special programs and activities. Not only can you take advantage of these, but you can -- and should -- supplement them with customized material describing your particular group.

This is a piece that should be carefully targeted. Since, we hope, it will be nicer than the average publication, you do not want to engage in random (and therefore costly) distribution. The brochure can be distributed by the synagogue office, to follow up requests for information about USY. A stock of them might also be kept with the advisor and chapter president. You might consider having teenagers strategically placed in synagogues over the High Holy Days distributing these leaflets to teenagers and families with teenagers who come in for services. Not only will this provide specific targeting but it will convey a powerful message that the members of this group are involved directly in its success and operation and provide something for the young people to look at when their eyes wander from the Mahzor.

Remember: When the brochure is distributed with a personal word: "Hope to see you at our next meeting," it is sure to have a greater impact than it would if it were sent in a more formal manner.

Another idea is to make some of these brochures available to the principals of local congregational Hebrew schools as well as to Solomon Schechter schools, since you definitely want to attract the youngsters in these two groups.

It is particularly important that this brochure be as attractive as possible. That's why I suggested hooking it up with one of the glossier four-color publications available from our national office. If you've got the luxury of some extra funding, you might want to divide it between this and the newsletters discussed below. At any rate, some combination of local and national material might make a nice impression, particularly because it effectively ties you into a much larger network, which might prove impressive to the consumer.

In producing the brochure, seek the assistance of professionals in your congregation: printers, computer whizzes, publishers, graphic designers, editors, and public relations people. Do not forget pictures -- especially those focusing on teenagers participating in some lively or socially beneficial activity.

Clearly, the hoped-for response to this material is that additional youngsters will join, and become active in, the local chapter. However, where the membership brochure includes both national and regional USY information in addition to local material, you may elicit an additional reaction, as well. In exposing a youngster to information on such excellent programs as Wheels and Israel Pilgrimage, you will also be conveying the message that the individual USY member can expand his or her horizons and meet other Jews from all over North America.

Indeed, if you elicit the recognition that membership in the local chapter is one way of expressing one's association with the wider Conservative Movement, then you have done the teenager, and the community, an invaluable service.

The Member Newsletter

The second kind of publication I recommend is a newsletter by and for the youth. Synagogue bulletins are simply not directed at teenagers -- whether in content or graphic design. In fact, the y are unlikely even to reach them. Therefore, I wouldsuggest that group members have their own newsletter.

I would suggest that this be sent out or hand distributed first to group members and only then, if resources permit, to potential members -- not to their parents, just to the youth. Since it will be produced by the group itself, those who contribute to it may want extra copies for families and friends. Since word of mouth is absolutely the best advertisement, this can be a very valuable tool.

Perhaps handing it out rather than mailing it will also serve as an inducement for people to attend meetings. For example, you can announce that at the next meeting, "The incredible newsletter you worked so hard on" will be given out. Also, particularly nice issues can be posted on the synagogue bulletin board and/or the Hebrew school bulletin board. This will give the youngsters who produce the piece a tremendous sense of pride and ownership not only in the product but in the group it represents.

We cannot overlook mail distribution, however. Not everyone attends every meeting. Also, everyone likes receiving mail. Further, it serves as a "reminder" between meetings -- a particularly important factor during vacations or over the summer. A summer brochure, highlighting what happened the year before and describing what is coming up, mailed to members at their summer addresses, is a nice touch. Produced in advance, this "summer bulletin" can simply be mailed by synagogue office staff during July or August.

Newsletters can range from the very simple to the very formal, depending on the resources available to produce them. I would recommend that the member-produced newsletter be deliberately less formal than the parents newsletter, discussed below. (Still, as I mentioned before, teenagers will no longer tolerate "throwaways," since they are constantly exposed to more sophisticated graphics.)

As regards production of the newsletter, every group is sure to have numerous members with access to computers and laser printers. On a low budget, it will be hard to include photos, but graphics and illustrations are certainly easy to incorporate. [See Part I for hints on layout.]

As regards content, you might include the following:

Information on upcoming programs or a calendar of events -- both of the group itself and for general community events, such as an upcoming Jewish film festival
New books for teenagers in the synagogue library, or new publications produced by the program bank of the national USY office. Perhaps a review of a Jewish book by one of the members might be a good feature, since it probably carries more weight than a similar review by an unknown adult critic. Also, this might be a good place to mention upcoming programs in the media -- radio, TV, cable -- dealing with any of the issues the group has been discussing or is interested in.
Social news; smahot in the families of members -- weddings, births, bnai mitzvah, so that members can congratulate one another on Jewish life-cycle events.
Substantive, topical items -- whether on the plight of the homeless in the community or the issue of religious pluralism in Israel. Here you can either reproduce excerpts from interesting material printed elsewhere or else ask one of the members to offer an opinion or analysis of the issue.
A welcome to new members feature, a rap column, or "letters to the editor" column
Focus on alumni members -- teens often want to contact someone who has "been there before" to find out, for example, about a particular summer program, a college, or just to talk. Sometimes, our alumni can be our best marketers.

Note: While you will want to use the talents of your most capable editors, writers, and computer geniuses, you should ensure that this does not become the sole preserve of one or two members. Pieces should be solicited from the whole group, and the contributions of all members should be seriously considered. The extent of editing will depend on the quality and nature of each piece received, but generally, the more contributors you have, the more readers you will have.

The Parent Newsletter

We must keep in mind that parents are an absolutely necessary component in our marketing efforts. They, too, deserve our attention; but what is suitable and has been produced for our youth may not necessarily produce the desired result with parents. Thus, you might want to consider producing a newsletter exclusively for them. This should be sent, I would suggest, at least twice a year to the parents -- and perhaps grandparents -- of members and potential members.(that is, to parents of children in afternoon Hebrew schools and Schechter schools, as well as parents of children of the right age group who may be registered in the activities of other local organizations, such as federations.)

This should be a direct mail item and, as I mentioned above, it should be "more elegant" than the members' piece. Publishing a newsletter several times a year allows you both to advertise -- say, just prior to the High Holy Days -- and, at the very least, to wrap up, probably in early to mid-June.

A parent's newsletter should:

Inform parents about ongoing programs: what they are, why they have been selected, what their goals are
Introduce the local leaders and perhaps include some news of the national organization so that parents feel plugged into the wider network
Talk about USY as an organization and describe its unique mission -- and perhaps include a letter from the rabbi or educational director of the synagogue testifying to the importance of such groups to the synagogue, to the community, to the survival of the Jewish people
Include excerpts from articles on how more intensive Jewish identification works to prevent intermarriage
Contain a tear-off response form, encouraging parents to ask for further information or allowing them to volunteer their services (as long as you're writing to them, make use of the opportunity to get their help and expertise --for example, in helping with the newsletter itself).

Additional Suggestions

You might also consider marketing your USY programs through the following:

Synagogue Bulletins: Always submit an item on upcoming events as well as on particularly successful past events. Remember, however, that these newsletters are geared primarily to adults and to synagogue members only. Generally, they do not reach either teenagers or unaffiliated families.
Regular Mailings: These can include reminders about meetings and programs; news about national programs, such as Operation Isaiah or summer programs such as Wheels; and updates on important issues. They can be sent both to members and to potential members. While they can be less formal than the other printed material we spoke of, you must still ensure that they are as well-ordered, eye-catching, and as substantive as possible.
Press Releases: Local newspapers love news about local teenagers, so this is a good place to announce your more important projects, awards won by the chapter, or particularly exciting upcoming events. (Remember: An article announcing a program will be more readily accepted than an after-the-fact account of a limited event.) Also, local newspapers appreciate receiving pictures, particularly pictures of youngsters engaged in some worthwhile activity. Use the caption to give the vital statistics but otherwise let the pictures speak for themselves.

As we discussed earlier, it might be sufficient simply to submit a notice to the Community Calendar. Another way to use the press is to send letters to the editor reflecting your chapter's point of view on a particular issue. Not only will this get you publicity, but it will help to shape the image you are trying to create. One other point: Media other than newspapers may be interested in your activities. Contact your local cable stations and let them know what your group is doing. You may be pleasantly surprised by their response.

Word of Mouth

While printed materials are important, we must never overlook the most important marketing tool available -- word of mouth. Particularly in dealing with an organization whose members are teenagers in local chapters, word of mouth is critical to your success. If one or two youngsters tell their friends that they are going (or not going) to any particular activity, it is likely that a half dozen others will follow.

When my son decided to go on USY on Wheels, he was alone among his immediate friends in choosing this program. However, after he spoke with them about his intentions, another boy immediately made the decision to go as well. Ultimately, at least three others teenagers in his class opted for this program. This resulted from teens talking to teens and parents calling parents. Similarly, when my daughter was debating what program to attend in Israel during her freshman year in college, we found out who had participated in the NATIV program the previous year and suggested that she call them. The student-to-student connection proved invaluable.

Another "word of mouth" technique is the telephone squad. Either the president of the chapter or designated group members can call prospective members inviting them to events, helping them to arrange transportation, or simply offering to tell them more about the group. Imagine how nice it would be if a youngster who attended a meeting for the first time received a personal call shortly afterwards saying how nice it was to see her there and telling her that they hoped to see her at the next event. This kind of follow up is invaluable, particularly when it follows the provision of printed materials that excite the interest of new or prospective members.

Putting It All Together

Throughout this manual, we have discussed techniques for defining and promoting the image of the synagogue through the messages sent out to target audiences. We have discussed both tangible and intangible aspects of outreach, stressing the importance not only of timely and well written publicity materials but also of receptivity, warmth, and enthusiasm on the part of all who speak in the name of the congregation. As we discussed above, tools are means to achieving an end -- not an end in themselves. Your goal is not simply to create the country's best newsletter but rather to participate in a conscious and concerted effort to create an institution that matters to its members and enriches their lives.

We encourage you to utilize the ideas found in this manual and to let us know which of these techniques prove most effective for your congregation. Please feel free to contact us for additional assistance or to offer other pointers and suggestions we may have overlooked.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Written by Lois Goldrich.