Friends and family fundraising sales

The Goal

The Times Herald of Norristown, Pa.(16,500; 29,500) created a special promotion to secure quality starts through an avenue other than telemarketers and for the schools to have a safe way for the children to raise money for different school events.

The Story

“We developed a flier for the students to bring home to get mom/dad, aunt/uncle and grandparents to subscribe for home delivery. The children were encouraged not to handle money. The Times Herald would bill the customers directly. The children would get all of the new subscribers’ pertinent information (name, address, phone), hand it in to the administration office, who would in turn fax it to us. We then would credit the school an agreed amount based on the length of the subscription at the time of bill payment,” said Circulation Director James Lindsey.

The biggest problem for the Times Herald was getting a school official with enough authority to listen to the presentation. The Times Herald decided that if the promotion equaled the telemarketing starts it would be considered a success.  The next time the paper does this promotion it will reward the school for securing subscription renewals.

The results are as follows: This program was a great way to secure subscriptions. It also provided higher quality starts than telemarketing.  In a four week period the program produced 11 paid 13 week subscriptions.

The Moral of the Story

School children can be very effective sales representatives due to their inside connections. The fact that the school is benefiting gives the child’s relatives a new reason to purchase the paper.