Women’s Business Center of California (WBCC)
Programs to Support Brand Awareness and to Increase Attendance at Classes

Research

The Women’s Business Center (WBCC) launched in San Diego in Sept of 2003; its first year was marked by enthusiasm and excitement. Women entrepreneurs in San Diego were glad to have a hub for business education, networking, loan education and funding resources. But by Feb. of 2005 class attendance and participation had fallen off. The director and staff of the center knew they needed to pump up their marketing and media relations efforts in order to gain exposure so they hired Clearpoint Agency in March 2005 to assess the situation, plan new tactics and execute the plan.

Clearpoint initiated research to determine what the WBCC had been doing to date for marketing, assessed the attendance at classes, and investigated women-owned business data in San Diego and California. Stats were gathered that would help us in drafting pitches to the media as support for story ideas. We reviewed the WBCC Website and collateral materials, looking for key messages and value statements that would resonate with the target audiences.

We discovered that there were significant problems with unclear and confusing messaging. The WBCC had no planned schedule for promotional messages, causing inconsistency in the way they promoted the various classes and events. Emails that went out to contacts had a very large header on them identifying the Center, but text was small and hard to read; sometimes value statements were clear and other times they were non-existent. Info about certificate programs was not clearly differentiated from current class programs, making some content confusing.

Planning

The first thing Clearpoint did to facilitate planning was to conduct a Positioning Workshop with the WBCC’s executive staff and graphic designer. We looked at each of the audiences that WBCC was trying to attract and assessed compelling benefits for each, identified why WBCC was the logical choice for them, what conflicts they resolved, how they could create a sense of kinship and what “character” or item WBCC brought to audiences that they didn’t have without it. Key messages and an elevator pitch were derived from this and became the basis of our materials moving forward.

We also met with the San Diego Daily Transcript, a sponsor of the organization, to assess what advertising support they were willing to give. Clearpoint then put together a PR and marketing plan with strategy, objectives, tactics, and an execution schedule.
A new design for the marketing emails was planned, working with the WBCC’s graphic designer; and Clearpoint recommended a revised strategy, focusing on better communication of the benefits of WBCC programs for women business owners and other target audiences.

Clearpoint also planned a complete calendar for classes that WBCC staff could hand out to entrepreneurs visiting the Center for counseling. In addition, Clearpoint suggested that executive staff reassess all strategies at the beginning of the WBCC’s fiscal year to ensure the continuation of only those programs that were working to meet the charter of the organization.

Execution

Upon approval by the WBCC Board, Clearpoint began to implement the plan. New emails with a revised, smaller header and more content that communicated the benefits of the classes were developed and distributed to the WBCC database and that of its partners. We also differentiated seminars from certificate programs in both color and name identification.

Press releases were written that incorporated the new boilerplate and key messages, and these were distributed via Business Wire for broader exposure (something they had not done before). In addition, Clearpoint sent updates to all local calendar editors letting them know what WBCC classes or special events were coming up. Our team created media lists for editorial pitch targets and drafted news story ideas and contributed articles to support the Center’s mission. We developed supplements that would run in the San Diego Daily Transcript in conjunction with major events, giving additional exposure to the sponsors of the organization and helping to secure their continued sponsorship moving forward.

Clearpoint also secured several media interviews and appointments for the director of the Center, and coached her before broadcast appearances on Channel 10 and KUSI. In addition, Clearpoint submitted the WBCC and its director for appropriate awards, helping to raise the profile of the organization and its mission.

Evaluation

Clearpoint’s efforts were a success. Attendance increased significantly for the one-day programs and attendees at the WBCC’s annual Mining for Corporate and Government Gold event nearly doubled. Year to year attendance of monthly programs was increased by more than 150 people. Clearpoint developed evaluation forms for classes, which the WBCC never had before, to establish regular assessment and improvement tools for the center.

Clearpoint received high marks from WBCC management and the Board. Clearpoint continues to oversee PR efforts of the Center’s annual Small Business Expo and Awards Luncheon as well as regular strategic planning. Clearpoint and the WBCC board continue to collaborate on surveys to assess perceptions of WBCC clients (those who have attended) regarding programs and brand awareness as well as surveys for contacts who have not yet attended any programs to ascertain ways to expand the WBCC’s reach and programs to benefit entrepreneurs throughout the region.

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