How to Use Online Marketing to get the Best Results from a Big Event like Jungle City Clonakilty

This article was started before the flood hit town. Of course, I don't want to take away from the challenges business owners and residents are having in Clonakilty due to the effects of the flood, but it's message is more important than ever:

Online Marketing (whether it be through your website, social media or email marketing) will get the message out that you are back in business, that Clonakilty is open and bustling with the most amazing people in the World and that visitors should choose to come here for their holidays/breaks or just a day out. 

Consider how you can use your online marketing channels to communicate how the flooding has effected (or NOT effected your business); including:

- Showing the Clonakilty town crest and or other imagery to show your town pride.

- Talking about shopping local and supporting businesses and others effected by the flood.

- Communicating how people can help those effected and publicly thanking those that have helped you.

Some may feel that this will take away from marketing the town to bring in visitors, but I have found the response on my social media channels -- and from just talking to people while on a recent holiday in Wicklow - shows that people do want to support the area and are specifically coming to Clonakilty to shop/eat/drink/etc. These people were probably thinking of coming to Clonakilty any way, but this has prompted them to come now, which is what we need people to do -- not put it off and never getting around to organising it.

A few weeks ago I was talking to someone from the Social Media group of the Chamber about how to get 'Clonakilty' trending on Twitter. Now, I didn't want to go so far as creating a natural disaster, but Clonakilty was trending for a couple of days from all the news reports about the flooding, but mainly from people showing concern and just spreading the word about what was going on here and what people could do to help. We can now turn that sympathy and support into interest for Clonakilty as a great place to go no matter what is going on and get Clonakilty trending for our own reasons!

A big event like Jungle City can have a large impact on visitors to your website or sales in a shop, but it can be short lived unless you have a plan for your sales and marketing (online and offline) in relation to the event that will create a long term effect.

How Chamber Members can make the most out of the Jungle City Experience

Jungle City Clonakilty is an amazing opportunity for Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce members to increase their profiles and profits from the publicity and the visitors it will bring to our town.

Your individual business will benefit the most if you do a bit of planning and forward thinking on your sales and marketing strategy alongside the marketing and promotions being organised by Jungle City Clonakilty, the Chamber and the other sponsors.

Here are a few ideas of what you can do:

Opening Hours

Will it benefit you to increase or change your opening hours to be more in line with the times that visitors will be coming to town to view Jungle City?  
Of course we don’t know exactly when people will choose to come for this event, but it is open 24/7. We do expect that a number of families will come on Sunday afternoons and many others may come in the evenings after a day touring around the area. This past Sunday, throughout the day, there was a stream of people coming into the Jungle City Pop Up Shop. Many of them were looking for more things to do, but there was little open in the town.
- You should consider if it will benefit your business if you can be open during these times. Also keep track of the times of any scheduled events. We can publish a list/calendar of all the events coming up to help with this.
- If you know of a large group coming into town, please spread the word so as many members as possible can benefit and we can make the best overall impression.

When the visitors are here in Clonakilty we need there to be so many things to do and see; as well as places to eat, drink and shop; that they want to come back to take it all in -- and tell all of their friends and colleagues about it.

Special Promotions

What products/services do you have that are related to the theme of Jungle City?
- Develop a special promotion around these products/services to attract the Jungle City visitors to your business.  

What products/services do you have that appeal to the kind of visitors that are likely to visit for Jungle City.
We see the following as the main target markets for Jungle City Clonakilty: families with young children, artists and art lovers (with a focus on street art), animal lovers and conservationists. Of course Jungle City has a wider appeal than this, but for PR and marketing it’s best to focus on the main groups that the project will most appeal to.
- Develop special offers/packages for Jungle City visitors.  For example: Richy’s now has the "Gold Croc Monsieur" sandwich highlighted on his menu, noting the relationship with Jungle City and that €0.25 from each sandwich will be donated to the organisation. Other possible tie-ins: Jungle themed toys, gifts, clothing; outdoors equipment, binoculars, books, etc. Consider if it would be worth getting in specific stock to suit the jungle theme (safari related clothing, toys, games, etc.).
- Are there other target markets that may suit your business better?  You’d know best from your experience.  Do you cater for older visitors or surfers or musicians?  How can you use Jungle City Clonakilty to draw more of these people into your business? (Please share your ideas in the comments below.)

Can you decorate your premises -- inside and out (if appropriate) -- to appeal to Jungle City visitors?
If the whole town appears to have ‘Jungle Fever’ it will make a better impact on visitors -- and photographers/cameramen -- over all. It will also attract the visitors to your premises.

Online Marketing

Is your website up to date, including information on Jungle City and other events taking place in the town this summer?
The increased publicity for clonakilty.ie will hopefully mean more visits to the site and all of our own websites.
- Make sure that your website  is up to date and features current information on what’s going on in the town.
- Include information on and images of Jungle City Clonakilty to highlight this great event.


Now also communication if the flood has had any impact on the products or services you offer.

Are you using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter?
Jungle City Clonakilty and the Chamber will be using social media heavily to promote the project and area.  You can gain from this exposure as well.
- Let us know about your social media profiles and we will connect with you and share your posts with the online followers of Jungle City and the Chamber.
- Share the posts of Jungle City Clonakilty and the Chamber (and those of other members) with the people you are connected to.
- Post any relevant photos and videos that you or your customers take related to Jungle City.  These are great additions to your social media channel as people love to share great images and videos with their friends and they can get a real taste of what it’s all about.
- If you are not using social media at present it would be a good time to start as the PR surrounding Jungle City will be a great way to get exposure and gain connections.

It would be helpful if all members’ sites included links to http://www.jungle-city.org and http://www.clonakilty.ie and if you connect with the social media channels with a follow or a like, and share our posts as you see them:
http://www.facebook.com/JungleCityClonakilty
http://www.facebook.com/clonakilty
https://twitter.com/#!/cloncierge
https://twitter.com/#!/clonchamber

Do you have an email marketing sign up form on your website and/or in your premises?
You will be getting a number of additional visitors to your website or in your premises over this time. The best way to benefit from this in the long term is to capture the visitors details in an email marketing list. Mailing lists aren’t just for businesses that send regular newsletters, you can start your list by offering subscribers information when you have news or updates to your products/services and only send occasionally. www.mailchimp.com is an email marketing application that is free to use if you have less than 2,000 subcribers and send less than 12,000 messages per month with the service.  They have helpful tutorials and resources on their website to get you started.  You may need the help of your web developer to get the sign up form on your website.

The level of success we all achieve for Jungle City Clonakilty will depend on the efforts of the members working as a group to highlight what a wonderful project it is and that Clonakilty is the destination of choice for holidays, short breaks and days/evenings out! 

We've seen how working together can help a quicker recovery from the effects of the flood. Let’s continue to work together to make this summer and the rest of the year a great success for us all!

If you have any additional ideas, please note them in the comments below to share with all the Chamber Members.