California Baptist University offered a wide range of campus clubs, but many struggled to draw students to meetings and events. Club leaders said stronger promotion and marketing could boost attendance.
Laci Harpenau, junior mechanical engineering major and secretary of the Society of Women in Engineering, said her club prioritized marketing.
“We work very hard on our marketing. We have one girl in charge of social media, and she creates all of our posters and other things like that,” Harpenau said. “We have TVs in the engineering building that cycle through ads, so we make sure that we make a poster that fits that and get that cycling through so people can see it when they’re walking in the halls. And then just also word of mouth.”
Clubs used a range of strategies to reach students, including social media, posters and word of mouth.
Dr. Christina Gonzalez, associate professor of marketing and faculty adviser to the Marketing Club, said clubs should expand beyond social media.
“Social media is very important, especially for undergraduate students. I would just encourage clubs to use additional mechanisms to promote an increased awareness of their clubs outside of and beyond social media, like through events or experiential marketing,” Gonzalez said. “Perhaps even leveraging other clubs. Just because someone’s in one club doesn’t mean that they may not have an interest in another club and be equally as loyal and appreciative of both.”
Club leaders said they aimed to increase attendance by using multiple ways to promote events.
Nicole Marston, senior business administration and political science double major, served as president of the Disney Club and vice president of the Pre-Law Society. She said students sometimes missed events simply because they did not know about them.
“I think I would just encourage people to take advantage of the events that clubs put on. I mean, we put a lot of time into planning the events,” Marston said. “I think a lot of people don’t know the events [are happening] or just don’t hear about them and aren’t aware of all of the options or opportunities that clubs have. So just encouraging people to get involved on campus.”
Clubs at CBU continued to refine their marketing to reach more students and increase attendance. Club leaders encouraged students to join at any point in the year and said campus involvement helped students build community.
