Lake County Chamber of Commerce Works With Chamber Marketing Partners to Create “Lake Life” Annual Magazine as an In-House Project
The Destination Guide & Business Directory for California’s Clear Lake County
Overview of Lake County Chamber
Membership: about 200 members
Location: North central part of California (north of San Francisco)
Area: Lake County is rural. Large industry employers include healthcare, Native American casinos, grocery stores, school districts, and Calpine electricity.
Special Consideration in the Community: Cell signal can be problematic so both print and online versions of the magazine were critical.
Challenge: Funds. The Chamber envisioned a glossy, attractive magazine-style publication but with a small member base that seemed out of their budget.
From Basic to Buzzworthy
The Lake County Chamber of Commerce published a 122-page business guide/member directory each year with the assistance of the local newspaper, but it lacked the draw to bring visitors to the community. Since most of the ad sales, layout, and printing were done by the paper (and had been for 30 years), little of the proceeds filtered back to the chamber. It was time for a change.
Laura McAndrews-Sammel (former CEO of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce) and Brian Fisher (Executive Director of The Lake County Tourism Improvement District) worked together on the LakeLife Destination Guide & Business Directory, and hired Chamber Marketing Partners to create something that would:
- attract visitors
- encourage residents to enjoy the area, and
- could be used as a recruitment tool for the Chamber
- generate non-dues revenue
Creative Funding
Laura knew that to bring her dream publication to life she would need funding. But as a smaller chamber she understood it wasn’t all going to come from members. So, she reached out to other local entities describing the benefit of encouraging people to visit Lake County.
Through this type of outreach, Laura and Brian were able to get funding contributions from the county as well as the two largest cities within Lake County. That funding became the initial seed money for the visitor’s guide.
Life Is Better at the Lake
With a budget framework provided by Chamber Marketing Partners, Brian headed up ad sales for the publication. Both he and Laura had insights into the project at all points, understanding how each ad dollar could be allocated as well as the impact it had on the shape of their project.
He exceeded the projected ad sales and with the extra revenue, they could branch out with additional marketing avenues. The publication is now at the airport in Santa Rosa, the closest airport to the community. LakeLife is also available from the Visit California Centers in Northern California. Members and ad purchasers are now getting exposure outside of the county, something that didn’t happen in the previous directory.
Exceptional Outcomes
Not only did ad sales and revenue exceed projections, they received a lot of positive feedback on the project and the community is proud of the publication.
What They Learned
Laura and Brian had the following advice for organizations that want to launch a similar publication.
- If you’re a smaller chamber, look for ways to receive seed money for the project either through local governments or grant money.
- Start selling ads early. Businesses may not have funds in their current budget. Brian sold ads for “next year.” Give ad buyers a deadline but be flexible with when you bill them. Some can pay right away, some in the new year.
- Open a separate bank account to receive ad revenue.
- Partner with a company that provides a budget framework and works with you to guide decisions on the project specs (like number of articles/pages), expenses, and marketing.
- Charge a premium on your ads that take up premium space, like the back page.
- Know what businesses you’re targeting for full-page spreads. Make a list.
- Push the ad numbers a little higher than you’re comfortable with at first. Brian said, “We more than doubled the cost of the full page” from their previous directory.
- If you use Chamber Master, bill ads through it for greater efficiency.
- Keep your content fresh, current, and topical. When you create the same publication year in and year out (like a directory) it becomes a repeat in your community’s view, and there’s no enthusiasm around that.
- Partner with other organizations that can help you reach your goals.
“Chamber Marketing Partners (gave us) realistic budget numbers…to work with. And we weren’t making them up or guessing, because we would have been doing both of those things without it.”
“…we felt like a really big enterprise. And you know, there’s just like, five of us. And we all have other jobs!”
“We found the formula that works.”
“We use Chamber Master… and Scott [at Chamber Marketing Partners] was able to help us figure out how to do the billing for this project using Chamber Master. So now, I know a little trick on how to better utilize my own CRM… that was pretty awesome…It’s just this…little back-office thing. But it was important to us and helped us be much more efficient, and to really be able to see at a glance where we were with the regular project.”
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