State Financing Community of Practice (CoP)



State Financing Community of Practice (CoP)Marketing & Outreach Call Summary - April 12, 2017Facilitated by Jack Brummel & Marty ExlineJack Brummel – Northwest Access FundPurpose of marketing & outreach – let people know about programs so that individuals in states can utilize them. It’s important to note that outreach and marketing is a necessary but only one of several factors in increasing usage of programs and improving access to AT. States also need to look at other aspects of their programs, such as favorable interest rates, providing assistance with applications, relevant/helpful loan policies etc.# 1: Who should we be marketing to? Jill Pleasant - Arizona Assistive Technology Access Program ConsumersVendors within the state - e.g., modified vehicle and hearing aid vendors – these have turned out to be a great source of referrals. Staff person reaches out regularly to vendors. Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists. Always includes their financial loan program when they do outreach to these groups.Leo Tonevski – MassMATCH (Massachusetts Maximizing Assistive Technology)A great network of providers that they work with and all have access to information via websites. Relationships with vendors in the state are also important. Sometimes MassMATCH has dual expo events with vendors.Linda Jaco - Oklahoma ABLE TechIn addition to strategies named above, ABLE Tech decided to create a targeted marketing effort. After every advisory committee meeting, we determine if we are meeting goals. By looking at data, we determine where there are fewer loan applications and use targeted marketing in those areas of state. Send out press releases, social media, “mail chimp” (email marketing), to our memorandum of agreement partners.Distribute our annual report widely, including to legislators.#2. Do any states have specific outreach for certain cultural or ethnic populations?Arizona – No set target numbers but make sure that we appear at Native American, African American, and Hispanic conferences in the state.Massachusetts – we have relationships with multicultural centers throughout the states and aging centers as well. Oklahoma – No set target numbers but do diversity outreach, including having brochures in Spanish. Sometimes in areas where do not have a lot of loans where there might be heavily Hispanic or Native America populations, we work with newspapers and other outreach mechanisms. Washington tracks loans by ethnicity and noticed a lower number of Hispanic borrowers, so have created some brochures and done some specific outreach to this population.#3. What kinds of materials and activities have you found to be effective?Arizona Hired a marketing firm early on in program, it really didn’t work for us; we also did some promotion on TV. What has really worked is personal contact with in-state vendors – e.g., hearing health care providers.We put items in a lot of print and email newsletters. Website – our financial loan program is part of our other state assistive technology program, and so is integrated with other activities. To drive queries to website we use newsletters and events. Have utilized some promotional items like small piggy banks and change purses. Massachusetts Use Facebook, website, and special events (e.g. walks, an evening of empowerment where we present on AT). Mass Rehab also promotes on their website and in other ways. MA Rehab does lots of Expo’s and we usually table with examples of AT and state financing info. We also do various events with vendors. Do a lot of joint promotional events with vehicle vendors. They include our materials on their websites. We have promotional items like pens, post-its, magnets, low vision magnifiers, other types of marketing materials. We do trainings on quarterly basis and invite vendors to all of the expos that we have. State agency websites have links to our agency as well, e.g. the Commission for the Blind, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Health and Human Services. We drive queries to website through mass mailings, listservs, etc. We also have a public relations department that sends out our marketing materials to various organizations all over the state. We send out marketing materials as well, apps, fact sheets, quarterly.OklahomaWe hired a full time marketing person to be able to focus more marketing efforts on all statewide activities and to implement strategic plan. Quarterly newsletter which always includes financing articles, success stories, and program updates. We send to disability service orgs, past borrowers etc. We also post the above on our website. Plus we do financial e-news like tips, updates etc. We have a dedicated page for financial e-news on website. Factsheets for consumers, vendors, stakeholders, and distribute these widely. Outreach to community civic groups and collaborate with our demo and loan partners. A lot of our info depends upon who we are marketing to. The biggest percentage of loans are for hearing aids. Audiologist and hearing aid vendors have done a lot of marketing for them. Send mail chimp email messages which includes all of the loans we offer. Send out 5-6 mail chimps per month. On the bottom of that is a twitter tweet on our loan programs. We have a poster which we mailed out to service providers with a cover letter. We also have a Talking Points document addresses all of the programs we have.Open Discussion (Marty Exline)Utah Assistive Technology Program & Utah Assistive Technology Foundation - Facebook and Social Media - Storee PowellUtah Assistive Technology Program utilizes a lot of social media. It is especially important because Utah is so rural! The more social media that a program does, the more likely people will find you when they search. Digital marketing has been a real asset for our program. Important to digitize and post brochures on your website. Good success with senior citizen centers, aging centers, university centers, and vendors. It’s always a good tool to explain newer technologies and how they function as AT. Important to utilize multiple platforms because reach out to different audiences – e.g., Twitter (vendors) Facebook (consumers) Linked In (professionals & students). Utilize YouTube to host short videos of folks using AT purchased with loans. Utilize short little blurbs, stories of successful loans. Plus send targeted messages and marketing to vendors who are not engaged. Do lots of training webinars on varied aspects of AT and always talk about financing as one of the activities. We post these on YouTube.AT for Kansans -Sarah Sack Wanted to locate active, well-connected members of a mid-sized community to help with ATK’s outreach efforts for reuse program, but could be adapted to a loan program or other activities as well. Connected with a community theater in Lawrence, KS to be a sponsor for the 2016-17 season. We received multiple cost-effective promotion – playbills, social media, flat screen promotion across community, captive audience, etc. Had one matinee and one evening performance of Peter Pan where had technology expos set up. The result was we had more equipment donated in that one day than more than paid for $2500 sponsorship! We plan to do another one next year and then will expand to another community after that.Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Loan Foundation – Tracy BeckWe do a lot of what the other states do but also use some activities and materials for fundraising.We publish an annual report every year. Also have some one page Infographics. Have short videos with financial tips and our Cents and Sensibility publication.A lot of both Google analytics on our website. We know who is going to our website, how much time they spend, where are they going on the website etc. Also send out surveys after loans are made. Get lots of feedback and helpful information from that.Jack Brummel: Do some of your programs work with the AgrAbility programs?Minnesota Equipalife – Carol Fury We are working with the Department of Labor and local farmers to hire people with disabilities to work on their farms. Our website is very important; we do monthly success stories; have job ads on website; Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Loan Foundation – Tracy BeckWe work a lot with AgrAbility and share lots of stories on our website. We ask partners to take pictures of the assistive tech being used so we can show the relevance. The PA program went to the national OT conference held in PA and talked about AgrAbility, AT and financing.Assistive Technology for DC – Sheena Jaffer: Is there a way to identify and reach national vendors so that they can contact them locally?The next State Financing CoP call is planned for Wednesday, May 10th.### ................
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