The Need
The Southeastern Railway Museum is Georgia’s Official Transportation History Museum but struggled with any cohesive approach to promoting its offerings.
It offered programming, preserved history and staged events. Because the museum was primarily volunteer-driven and operated on an impossibly small budget, executing a plan required a new level of creativity.
The Approach
While many clients have a starting point that can serve as the foundation of a new plan, the museum’s challenge was that no one owned marketing. When one team member had an idea, they might execute it.
The first order of business was putting in place to guide every action, whether planning an event, creating content or placing an advertisement.
The DeFeo Groupe updated the museum’s website to give it a more professional appearance and make it more user-friendly. The plan also jettisoned previous marketing efforts that resulted in no discernible benefit to the museum in favor of cost-effective initiatives with a measurable impact.
Leveraging its media relationships, The DeFeo Groupe seeded a story with The Associated Press about the museum’s largest expansion project since it moved to its current site northeast of Atlanta about two decades ago. Outlets nationwide picked up the story, broadening the awareness of the museum.
The challenge wasn’t coming up with a better plan. The challenge was building consensus and a groundswell of support among the largely volunteer base.
