Low cost ideas to promote the name change
for County Boards of DD

Creating public awareness for the name change from Boards of MR/DD to Boards of DD doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. There are low cost and sometimes even free opportunities available. Many, if not most, businesses will tell you that their best advertising is that old-fashioned word-of-mouth message. Today, it takes forms that can be very high-tech, but it’s still word-of-mouth. Most of these tactics can be more effective than a paid campaign because they have greater credibility.

The key is to find what it takes to get word-of-mouth communication going.

Here are some ideas:

1. Write a letter to the editor or an op-ed piece for your local newspaper. Tried and true, and it works!
    
2. Work with independent merchants in your community. If they use personalized bags, would they add something to their bags about your name change? If they use generic bags, would they let you provide flyers that cashiers/baggers will insert? Or would they let you stamp on a message about the name change? Maybe consumers could be enlisted to do the stamping and then you could pitch the story to your local newspaper could cover the project. If stamping isn’t an option, how about labels?
    
3. Most fax cover sheets have a great deal of unused space. Turn yours into a communication vehicle that creates awareness about the name change. Add a block that announces the change and briefly explains why the change is occurring.
    
4. Do you have a postage machine? Many can imprint a brief message when they imprint the postage. Program yours to announce the name change on every piece of mail you send out.
    
5. Have all staff add an automated blurb at the end of their email messages briefly explaining the change. You can use some of the same verbiage as on the fax cover sheet.
    
6. Most libraries welcome displays created by community groups. Ask your library for display space—it may be a bulletin board, a formal display case, a table. Make it an engaging display with photos, some brief explanation about the name change and maybe some products that your consumers produce for other companies or for direct sales.
    
7. Join the social media world. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs—spend some time exploring and figuring out whether your county board or one of your board members or your superintendent or you should become active in this new realm of communication. This is an ongoing commitment of time and energy. Don’t enter this realm if you aren’t ready to keep up with it and regularly add content.
    
8. Collect addresses for an email distribution list. Create an email newsletter that focuses on the name change. If you have Microsoft Publisher, there are tons of email newsletter templates. Adapt one to your needs. You may only need/want to do one or two issues on the name change topic. Then, you may want to develop another newsletter on a new topic—how about DD Awareness Month-March 2010? The key to newsletters, whether they’re electronic or print, is to make them regular. People start to expect them, so don’t let them down!