Just curious how much folks spend on marketing for their tourist railroad and/or museum as a percentage of their total budget. It's budget season in the South! I can smell the kudzu blooming! Jim

Wrinnbo@aol.com

I understand that one of the premier tourist roads in country located up there in Pennsylvania alots about 10 per cent of the total budget toward marketing, but that was told to me by a former administrator who is no longer involved there, and that has bee about five or six years ago. Considering that many operations have budgets hovering in the $1-2million range, that sounds like a good number to get some decent exposure. I wish that everyone felt that marketing was a vital key to success of any operation, especially one that, when you get to the bottom line, is entertainment-based education.

Just my 2 cents....
Mike

> Just curious how much folks spend on
> marketing for their tourist railroad and/or
> museum as a percentage of their total
> budget. It's budget season in the South! I
> can smell the kudzu blooming! Jim


Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
newriver400@cs.com

Here at the East Troy Electric Railroad in Wisconsin, we are in a very competitive tourist market, being located adjacent to a resort area. We spend 10-15% of our annual operations budget for marketing and advertising. This includes, of course, belonging to a number of local Chambers of commerce and tourist bureaus.

We found that press releases and relying on the media to run features about the operation to be too spotty and haphazard to be effective. What worked very well for us last year in addition to our print outlets, was cable TV advertising. Cable TV can hone in on your target audience, and the rates are not that expensive. Also becoming more popular all the time is the internet, which allows potential visitors time to see what you have to offer.

One note: Unless you're really sharp at it, leave the website design and advertising layouts to the experts. That's what you're paying for. You may have the neatest operation around, but that in and of itself is not going to bring the visitors to your museum.

East Troy Electric Railroad
jftrolley@aol.com

> Here at the East Troy Electric Railroad in
> Wisconsin, we are in a very competitive
> tourist market, being located adjacent to a
> resort area. We spend 10-15% of our annual
> operations budget for marketing and
> advertising. This includes, of course,
> belonging to a number of local Chambers of
> commerce and tourist bureaus.

> We found that press releases and relying on
> the media to run features about the
> operation to be too spotty and haphazard to
> be effective. What worked very well for us
> last year in addition to our print outlets,
> was cable TV advertising. Cable TV can hone
> in on your target audience, and the rates
> are not that expensive. Also becoming more
> popular all the time is the internet, which
> allows potential visitors time to see what
> you have to offer.

> One note: Unless you're really sharp at it,
> leave the website design and advertising
> layouts to the experts. That's what you're
> paying for. You may have the neatest
> operation around, but that in and of itself
> is not going to bring the visitors to your
> museum.

I recently completed a study of average railroad museum income and expenditures using IRS 990 Forms. Museum finances aren't secret, in fact, income statements and balance sheets for every 502-c-3 organization are public information. They are posted at guidestar.org for your inspection. Unfortunately, advertising expenditures are difficult to devine from this data. They are often buried in Administrative Expense. Even where identified, different institutions have different ideas on what constitutes advertising and PR expense.

I believe East Troy has the right idea. Don't benchmark yourself against other rail museums. Look at your local market, since your budget will likely be skewed to local media buys. It costs more to advertise in large cities, for example. The bottom line is--if you have something worthwhile for the typical family visitor, then advertise as much as you can afford. If your only appeal is to hard core date nail collectors, save your money.

My study also benchmarked against every museum of comparable size in the state. In Illinois, there were only nine museums other than IRM with revenues between $1 million and $5 million. Two of these only existed on paper but qualified by revenue size because they booked major donations into income during the year. Note that there are literally hundreds of museums in Illinois with revenues under $1 million. While we may bemoan the fact that our "little" museums don't stack up against the major cultural institutions, maybe we should occasionally take a victory lap to celebrate how far we've really come. While you're at it, give your volunteer book keeper and tax-preparer a high-five. To my mind, their activities are far less fun than needle-chiping or cleaning out the cinder pit.

fred_ash@bankone.com

While you're at
> it, give your volunteer book keeper and
> tax-preparer a high-five. To my mind, their
> activities are far less fun than
> needle-chiping or cleaning out the cinder
> pit.

I resemble that remark! Although I must admit I would rather reconcile a bank statement than scrap rust (I do like both.) We have 14 different expense accounts that would qualify as "marketing expenses". We spend 7-8% of our total budget, but in some years we don't spend up to budgeted levels. Our marketing efforts are robust for an all volunteer organization, however, we could garner way better results by a organization-wide approach to marketing our museum. We're in the "under a million" category.


wyld@sbcglobal.net