Hey all!
Much of our visitorship is made up of out-of-towners and we're embarking on a new a campaign focusing on local engagement. We have a strong membership program that offers lots of perks for people in the area who want to engage with the CMHOF, however, half our battle is getting local folks engaged with the Museum in the first place as they often think it's just a place to send their friends/family from out of town. We need to first get them here/interested before we can take the step of interesting them in membership. For national/international museums and attractions, have you developed any "love local" strategies that have worked for you? Is it a discount to local folks? A focus on everything the museum/attraction has to offer? A marketing campaign that focuses on the local non-profit mission? Happy to hear any success stories you've had getting local folks in the door and coming back! Looking forward to hearing your creative solutions and ideas!
-Courtney
We offer a fair bit to our locals. Annually we have 52 Illinois resident free days and a discount for Chicago residents everyday. Illinois Schools and Illinois home school receive free field trips when selecting certain packages. Additionally, we give one free ticket to educators from Illinois.
Aside from our discounts and free offerings, we had a great response to programming that takes place outside of normal operating hours. Our yoga and sleepover programs always sellout and are unlikely to have non-locals attending.