Making an Impact in Public Sector Marketing

As a marketer, you must be agile, and pivot as needed since things change at a breakneck pace. - Caroline A. Berryman .?

In the digital world, this notion holds true. I am a firm believer in pivoting when it is required. Caroline A. Berryman, a recent guest lecturer, stressed the necessity of pivoting, among other things, while sharing her 25 years of expertise leading strategic development, management, and implementation of efficient integrated marketing and communications.???

I've always been curious about how marketing in the public sector works, so when Caroline from the York Region ?came in for a seminar, I was excited to learn from someone who has worked on both sides of the table—she has developed and led campaigns in both the private and public sectors that are aligned with organizational business goals.??

This prompted me to prepare a few questions for her, to which she responded with some excellent answers, as follows:???

1. How do you ensure that your marketing resonates with the target audience, given that the audience is multicultural???

Here are a few strategies she uses to address this problem.???

• Simple language???
• Avoid using jargon??
• Using technologies such as Google Translate???
• Utilizing ethnic advertising from time to time??

2. What research tools do you employ to learn more about your target audience???

Caroline noted that there are several tools accessible to make research quick and straightforward. The following are some of the tools she mentioned.??

• Prizm ?segment under Environics Analytics??
• Statistics Canada??
• Quality of life survey??

Let's delve into some of the topics that piqued my interest in this seminar.??

Public and private sector??

The fundamental difference between the public and private sectors in terms of marketing is that the private sector's marketing objectives are more explicit and well-defined. On the other hand, the public sector has a diverse set of objectives. In addition, social marketing is widely employed in the public sector.???

Caroline discussed many public-sector social marketing projects, including distracted driving, anti-social campaigns, and seat belt promotions, among others, which caught my curiosity. Public sector marketing is something that I have recently gained interest in due to its strong emphasis on community bonds and ideals, promoting ideas vs. things, and so on.??

The evolving market??

The audience's attitudes and behaviors have shifted, and they continue to do so. Some various problems and possibilities arise while seeking to alter the audience's beliefs and behaviors.???

Caroline emphasized the need of working harder to earn loyalty; one technique might be as simple as gathering people's email information and being able to contact them in a smart manner with a value-added. She went on to say that being relevant and engaging with your audience is crucial. For example, for the current Pride Month, it is critical to be an inclusive and relevant company. We frequently overlook how crucial it is to monitor perception when focused on these. As a marketer, Caroline provided an instance of how we can utilize social media to measure sentiment.??

Networking??

Caroline discussed her own experience and how networking helped her get to where she is now. She stated that she took a 5-year break after working in the retail industry for 13 years. Starting again after five years might be difficult, but it did not deter Caroline. While speaking with an HR representative, she learned about a junior post opening in the York region. She was hesitant to accept the job because of the position and the fact that it was a temporary contract, but she did. After 16 years, she is now the Program Manager, Department Communications at York Region.??

It's apparent from her experience how crucial it is to remain adaptable and flexible. Although you may not always get the job you desire, you can always work your way to the top. I'm searching for coop options as the next step in my career, and this is a crucial lesson I learned from this seminar??

Case study??

The session came to a close with a case study. The case study was based on a community planting event that took place along Bayview Avenue in the City of Richmond Hill to establish a bee and butterfly meadow to keep unoccupied property from becoming a dumping ground. Our objective was to come up with creative ways to publicize the contest to name the meadow. Here's what we came up with:

• Establishing a Facebook event that would motivate people to invite their friends and spread the word online???
• Creating an internet hashtag for the campaign???
• To educate people about meadows, create an educational reel for Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.???
• Giving away Brochures containing a QR code that directs visitors to a poll??

This workshop was instructive, and I came away with several useful takeaways. I'm confident I'll use these lessons in the real world when I progress into the next phase of my career. Thank you, Wendy Greenwood , for putting together informative seminars with outstanding market leaders.?