Aquatics Guide - 2017 - 14

Media Engagement
By Caroline Seward, CPRP, AFO, and Maria Denison

edia engagement and information consumption are fast and furious,
and if there's one thing we learned last year, it's that engagement is
fostered best through high-quality content, relevance, tactic diversity
and personalization. For municipal marketers promoting aquatic facilities and programs, it can seem more furious than fast because we're often challenged
with increasing engagement and creating content on multiple platforms with limited
resources. We're also often faced with the idea that in order to spend more on one
marketing platform we have to reduce spending on another.
The challenge to creatively engage has
become an increasing necessity as we
widen the gap between offline and online
marketing and promotions to accommodate a whopping 86 percent of Americans
who are now online. What makes this
an even bigger challenge for municipal
aquatics marketers is that we're competing for attention online with platforms
that are forecasted to gain $35.98 billion
in social advertising in 2017 and expected
to grow 20 percent a year by 2019.
Fortunately, marketers love a challenge, and one of the best ways to in-

Parks & Recreation

corporate new strategies in 2017 is by
making the most of what we learned in
2016. Knowing the media landscape and
identifying trends can help marketers improve both media and consumer engagement to increase sales and ROI. Here's
how to clamor for attention:
Drive Quality Content
Reliable and relevant content is as important to consumers as it is to the media. We
know this because the 2016 PWR News
Media Survey reveals that 85 percent of
consumers regularly seek content from

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trusted sources. To execute a strategy that
creates a following, shift your approach to
think more like a reporter and less like an
advertiser. Create credible content by using
resident experts and customer testimony
for posts, tweets, videos, blogs and emails.
Doing so can increase customer engagement, while also encouraging a rise in media coverage given that journalists research
their stories online with 79 percent using
Facebook and 63 percent using Twitter.
Maximize Tactic Diversity
There's no doubt online platforms can
lift engagement. It's a hard target to miss
with 2.5 billion active social media users.
Combining a diverse mix of tactics to
educate and entertain specific audiences
can maximize strategies that stimulate engagement. In other words, don't just rely
on Facebook because it reigns supreme.
By the end of 2017, marketers can expect to see a rise in the use of email mar-

Aquatics Guide - 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aquatics Guide - 2017