Summary: Designing a mentoring programme starts with an idea on how to offer a valuable service that can help others grow and develop on either a professional or personal level while marketing the programme involves thoughtful online and off-line strategies.
In first designing a mentoring programme, it is important to decide on a specific concept, purpose, and objective that the mentoring programme would fulfil in terms of how it will help others. Will it be for a professional purpose in terms of skills enhancement or will it be a more personal programme, such as for younger people to have a role model to gear them towards a successful adulthood? The programme should also determine the role of mentors and those being mentored, the intended outcomes of the programme, training for mentors involved in the programme, and how mentors will be recruited and rewarded.
The best way to design the programme is to spend a considerable amount of time in both researching and benchmarking other mentoring programmes to create the framework and overall concept. This will also help determine what type of mentoring is in the greatest demand across various industries or lifestyles. Also, examine what areas are not receiving assistance from other agencies so that you can fill a gap, which will also help when you start the next step, which is to market your mentoring programme once it has been developed.
Offline strategies include a public relations and media campaign through all traditional mediums as well as presentations at companies, non-profit organisations, networking groups, associations and other agencies that may have an interest in your mentoring programme. Also consider becoming a guest speaker at trade shows, conventions, and seminars to get your message out.
Like all other types of businesses today, more online strategies are the focus for marketing efforts and the same can be said if you intend to market your mentoring programme. Consider these online channels:
- Website and blog, which includes video and audio lessons and online training content.
- Social media sites, including professional social networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo.
- Articles, case studies, and blog entries on other sites that can create links back to your mentoring programme website.
- Online press release distribution.
- Email blasts and email newsletters.
- Videos on YouTube or other related sites.
Be sure to create a strategy that uses both offline and online strategies to reach the greatest audience size and generate the greatest traffic to your website so that you can achieve the highest level of success from your mentoring programme.
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