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Marketing and Audience Engagement
MARKETing EXPERIENCE
At the ODYSSEY we all participate in a marketing project to gain subscriptions and raise money for the program. In my first year I had both the most sales, my second year was good but not as good as the first year. I am determined to top my first-year numbers.
Marketing reach out email example
Left: In this image is a text message I sent to one of my mother's friends to market an ODYSSEY subscription. In my experience with marketing, depending on the person you are selling to you need to change the tone. Mrs. Deborah is someone I know sort of well, but not well enough to drop a formal tone. Along with this message was a direct link to the ordering website and a video of me going through the entire purchase process to help users. When marketing you have to be willing to meet people where they are and I am excellent at that.
Marketing communication examples
Left: Here is the email I sent to Sheila Coffeen, who is the principal of my middle school. In this email, I changed a small portion to personalize it while keeping the majority of the information.
Right: Here is an image that shows the communication I had with Sheila Coffeen who is the principal of my middle school. After sending an email that asked for them to purchase a subscription she replied with a yes. From there the image just shows how we communicated back and forth. I kept my professionalism but I did add more more personal details to engage with her and let her know I cared and appreciated her purchase.
Above: Here, the picture shows what we call the Spheres of Influence in the ODYSSEY. This document has a list of people and contacts for marketing. As you can see, I have highlighted the names in different colors to help me track who I asked already and who hasn't responded. This was a big help in the marketing process since it held onto my contacts that I was able to get my hands on.
Spheres of Influence
ENGAGInG AUDIENCEs
Above: In these two images is a note that a substitute I had for my production ODYSSEY class named Mr. V. handed me. The story he is referring to was my podcast on my experience growing up with religion (you can find it on my writing page). He connected to what I wrote very deeply and it meant so much to me that he took the time to give me this note. As a writer and journalist the awards are nice, but personally, it is the handwritten notes or spoken words that mean the most. I still keep this note in my backpack.
On the right of this text box is a typed-up version of the note.
Feedback on my story, it means a lot
Peter,
This is Mr. V, your guest teacher for Mr. Ragsdale today. I've been the one sitting up here superquiet - (because) I didn't know this class was both self-directed and has a UGA student teacher. Anyway: my point is -> I came across your religion article last night while I was just trying to see what classes I had today. I thought your article was a beautifully written expression of the struggle involved for people that are indoctrinated into a belief system, only to then start having big doubts. I have the same thing. Lastly, I wanted to recommend you a song (if you don't already know it) ->Hot Mulligan's "John 'The Rock' Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker"-> very similar themes -> peep the lyrics.
"
"
I have always been very open to feedback and the editing process. I often submit something I just wanted to try even when at times they don't work. Instead of just following the rules I like to break or bend them and just see what feedback I get.
Letters To The Editor 1
Right: In this image are three submissions for one of the things I was responsible for when I was the Viewpoints editor called Letters To The Editor. I would find someone from each grade and a faculty member to write a 5-6 sentence review of an article in the last issue of the ODYSSEY. This is our main means of finding that feedback from our audience. on the stories we write.
Left: Here are some more LTTE submissions I had to seek out. In the first one, you can see it is very short and while still useful feedback I could not use it because my chosen letters needed to be about 4-6 sentences long. I appreciate any feedback but obviously, the feedback that is explained more is what I prefer so we can understand it better. I am all about criticism so I appreciate the people who take the time to let me know how to improve.
Letters To The Editor 2
Final Thoughts
Audience engagement is critical, without our audience, our work would float off into the void. By engaging with our audience, we can build a bond between writer and reader.
On the marketing side, it is really fun, but I don't get many opportunities to really get into it. We have a project at the begining of the year to sell subscirptions and I have performed very well in the past three years.
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