Howard mentions in another post that RMNE prints 80,000+ brochures. I presume these are general brochures and not specifically DOWT. My question, how do you go about distribution? How effective are brochures now that so many people employ the web for planning trips and activities? Do other museums and tourist railroads have similar press runs? What percentage of brochures go on bulk racks and what percentage go out as direct mail promotion?

I think all of us involved in railroad preservation have an interest in finding the most cost effective way to promote our organizations. Is the traditional brochure still the best way to go?

Alan Maples

...still the best(emphasis added) way to go?

I think that there is still a very important function served by the in-the-hand, easy-to-navigate/understand, take it home as a constant reminder brochure.

Mr Lacey will have to fill in a bit here (number of brochures, costs, etc.) but some of the ways that Heber Valley Historic Railroad Authority distributes their brochures are:

On the trains and in the depot in order to keep current patrons abreast of the upcoming events through the year at the railroad.

Local (Salt Lake City, Park City, etc.) "tourist interest" brochure racks at hotels, motels, and restaurants. I believe there is a contractor that provides this service.

At the outlets of their ticketing service (Smithtix) located in local grocery stores.

As a conductor, I know of numerous times that on the end of a week of skiing, families come to ride the train on Friday or Saturday before they head back home -- not because they planned it as part of the vacation, but because the kid pulled the brochure at a rack in the resort hotel.

sc 'doc' lewis

At National Capital Trolley Museum we have gone to a single rack card instead of a folded brochure. A press run of 10,000 lasts a few years. We distribute the rack cards to the Maryland State Visitors Centers, other regional rail museums on an exchange basis, and in our rack at the Museum. Other distribution points are hit and miss. We do not use any paid distribution services for the rack cards.

Our special events are publicized with 8.5x11 flyers copied in-house and distributed to our patrons. We also do press releases to the local media.

Wesley

How about putting a "Flyer/Brochure" on your website? Folks could print out what they need and pass those around.

In some areas there are private companies that own brochure racks in motels, restaurants, and tourist attractions. To get placement in the rack, an organization pays a fee.

Some hotels & restaurants will allow propaganda without charge for placement next to a cash register or on a nearby table.

Museums with strong volunteer corps can usually find someone who has a cordial demeanor (May I please leave some steam train folders here?) to distribute material and replenish it throughout the season.

State government tourism bureaus often publish their own folders, maps, and brochures which OUGHT to include steam, diesel, and trolley museum info. Museums should contact state and local bureaus early on to assure inclusion. Government also has a budget for distribution.

Rail museums should take advantage of such free distribution. A sad example of missed opportunity was apparent to me when I was staying for three days at a bed & breakfast which had a tourist attraction rack. There are four rail museums and one trolley museum within a forty minute drive from this establishment, yet none had representation in the brochure rack. In addition, the state tourism bureau's comprehensive folder listed nearby attractions but nary a word on the rail museums.

Just as rail museums need operating crews and shop personnel, they also need volunteers dedicated to promotion.

Sloan

We went to full-color, slick stock, about 7 years ago. It was to do "something different" over the b&w, single-fold. Usually have about 40,000 printed. Utilize a specific distributor who contacted us after we "invaded" one of his brochure racks. We can pick what routes and pay per item placed, usually a cent or 2 each. We also hit the local AAA branches and are members of the local visitors/tourist organization. Each request a certain amount per year, sometimes needing a replenishment once or twice a season. We trade brochures with other tourist operations. We also print 2-color special event flyers that we mass-mail and also have available at the ticket booth.

Several years ago, we tried to bolster our mailing lists by placing half-page ads in a coupon give-away booklet. It wasn't cheap but the lists more than doubled, and the special event riderships soared. Of course, now the internet has helped with growth. A basic website that is attractive and anticipates most questions is popular with riders. Simple tear-off sheets for special events can work in grocery stores with community bulletin boards.

As for effectiveness, we place a discount coupon in the brochure. We can track how many we get back. We run about 5%-8% coupons returning. Some reasons may be they lost the actual paper, they forgot it in the car and don't want to miss the train, they missed it entirely,......the list is endless.

There are many ways to get a printed "word" out on the street. The traditional brochure is one of many ways to advertise your place. Experiment and see what works in your market. That all costs money and takes time, like everything worthwhile in the preservation field.

Rob

Dear Alan:
The Essex Steam Train & Riverboat has done numerous customer surveys. One of the questions is always: "How did you hear about us?"
The breakdown of the answers from year to year are: brochure 30%, internet 30%, word of mouth 30%, other 10%.
We print 330K brouchures each year and distribute them via a distribution service and hired "brochure hoppers" as well as at our station, etc.
Last year we began posting a downloadable version on our website: essexsteamtrain.com (don't go looking for the 2008 brochure, it hasn't been printed yet).
J.David

The Heber Valley Railroad prints over 100,000 brochures each year. 35,000+ are mailed directly (by the printer, using their bulk permit, as part of the order contract) to guests on our mailing list. This mailing list is compiled from data acquired by our ticketing system. Brochures are 8-panel 4-color, on slick paper. One panel is kept blank (except for return address/contact information, logo, etc.), so that the recipient addresses can be ink-jetted directly onto the paper without the need for labels. We learned that our local printing companies can print, prepare and mail brochures cheaper than we can do it in-house. Competitive bidding really helps.

Although we continually experiment with content and presentation, we have learned the importance of simplicity, clarity, color-coding, maps (to find us) and a useful calendar (gleaned from some British brochures). An eye-catching cover (with the name/attention grabber located in the top third) is essential, since the brochure competes in the rack with hundreds of others, and is partially covered by brochures on the row(s) below it.

We distribute the balance (approx. 65,000), utilizing rack distribution services, convention & visitor bureaus, state-owned visitor information centers and any other means we can come up with. Although Internet presence is becoming more important, our feedback is similar to that described by J. David. Brochures continue to be the hook that brings in the fish! Other reminders such as a billboard, newspaper and magazine ads (with "call to action" discount coupons) work to "set the hook". Radio ads also help. A single exposure never seems to be enough.

One of the toughest parts of using a new brochure each year is the required advance planning and scheduling. With new products offered each year, it's tough to commit to a second year of a given train, especially if that train operates late in the year. Even so, we try to have brochures out by late January so that people can formulate their summer vacation plans.

This year, we are contemplating "bounce-back" coupons, similar to those used by amusement parks. Each full-price ticket would be accompanied by a discount coupon, good for a purchase within 30 days. The coupon will print automatically on regular ticket stock, and could be redeemed for one discounted ticket on a later train. This will require that all our events be loaded into the ticketing system early and available for purchase. We are hoping that people will redeem their coupons and purchase late-season tickets (e.g. Christmas Train) when purchasing early-season tickets (e.g. Thomas, held in late May). It would be great for the cash flow to pre-sell in this manner.

Craig Lacey
Executive Director
Heber Valley Railroad

I think IRM typically prints 150,000 annually in part with some state tourism subsidy. Do not overlook that source of funding. Most go out via rack distribution services. All have a dollar off coupon so the returns on that give some indiaction of whether they are effective. The goal is to have most of them out on the street by May 1 to mid to late July to take advantage of the summer season.

To be sure, there are places that will display or slot your brochure for free, but then you are expected to visit and re stock yourself, perhaps every two weeks. And maybe at over 200 locations. It is not cheap but you need help if you want to get good coverage in a variety of venues. Such as hotels, restaurants, rest stops on the highway, etc.

Also do not forget to 'refresh' the copy to be ever more attractive and current with schedules and prices.


Bob Kutella

For many years TVRM purchased three panel brochures in huge press runs (over 1.5 million one time) that were designed to last multiple years. The brochures are distibuted through public visitor centers and paid brochure distribution companies.

We supplemented these brochures with an annual two color "flyer". Each year we used a different color stock (last year was periwinkle, this year tangerine). These flyers have current pricing and reflect any schedule changes that might occur between major brochure printings. The brochure was mailed out to our mailing list and to any requests for information. All of this was supplimented with web updates.

Last year we dropped to a two panel brochure for Chattanooga events and a rack card for the Hiwassee trips. We distributed all of the Hiwasee rack cards and about 2/3 (I'm guessing) of the brochures. We will do the same this year.

Last year we also stepped up our print advertising, targeting travel publications as well as special publications geared to children. This ads were placed in markets that the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau has identified as "top" markets for Chattanooga. For us, Atlanta is a huge draw. We also returned to billboard advertising in both the Chattanooga and Interstate Highway markets for teh first time in many years.

We will be stepping up our attempts to get feed back from our customers this year. We will use that to determine effectiveness of our ad campaign.

I don't know that there is a magic answer, you just have to swing away at it, and make some gut calls about what works and what doesn't. I still remember a billboard down the street from TVRM a couple of years ago, while its main purpose was to sell more it billboards, its message was still pretty clear. "A funny thing happens when you don't advertise...nothing".

Tim Andrews
TVRM

We use three items to promote our property, the traditional brochure, our newsletter, and table tents.

The traditional brochure needs to have a crisp, clean look. I’ve spent years in publishing and design and I farm our brochure out. It also needs an action word at the top of the brochure and frankly I mimicked TVRR. At the top of our brochure it says – RIDE.
The brochure is distributed by a professional company – Certified Folder. I can choose the routes. We print 60,000 a year. I do it in two printings. I lose a little in economy of scale, but if there are changes they can be incorporated in the second press run.
We also distribute the brochure locally at restaurants, gas stations and hotels. To do this we purchase brochure holders and customize the front using mailing labels. So when we walk in, we present the merchant with a professional looking package. And as someone else mentioned, you need a volunteer to stay on top of the distribution.

Our newsletter is printed on a newspaper press. The advantage to this is we can print thousands inexpensively with four-color on every page. We put these in welcome centers, the chamber of commerce and motel rooms.

Finally, we print up table tents. These mimic our brochure, but are three sided and get taped together with double sided tape. These go on restaurant tables and motel rooms.

Finally for Polar Express we did direct mail. We rented a mailing list that went to households with an income $70,000+ and had children 3-12. We sent this out to Las Vegas (240 miles south) and Elko County (200 miles north) We had a 50% increase in our Polar Express ridership after having decreases from July through October. We’ll be experimenting with more direct mail in the future.

As someone else mentioned earlier there is money out there for promotion. Some of our promotion money comes from the Nevada Commission on Tourism, the Bristlecone Convention and Visitors Bureau and the White Pine Chamber of Commerce. We also partner with hotels and the Heber Valley Railroad to get the word out.

Also, while yes the internet is great; our prime demo still likes paper. Also, as Craig mentioned, the brochure is only one hook that we set to reel them in.

Look around and collect brochures, target different aspects that you like from a brochure and incorporate it into yours. Finally, once you have a proof, give it to a stranger and ask them what it says. Have you used a buzz word that the general public doesn’t understand? And from the proof, have the stranger dial the phone number. Is it correct? You’d be surprised how many phone numbers get printed wrong and the job needs to be thrown out and redone.

And then you can take this one step further, how is you phone answered?