posted on April 07, 2011 21:09
A plan to play up the profile of the South Texas Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has led to a weekly e-campaign about that organization’s new digs.
Last week, ABC rolled out a new e-mail campaign designed to keep its members in the loop about the organization’s upcoming move.
ABC is moving from its current office at 10408 Gulfdale — a space of some 3,500 square feet — to a new 17,000-square-foot office at at 814 Arion Parkway. Both sites are located in North Central San Antonio.
Each week, ABC will be sending out e-mailers to member firms — updating them on how work to finish out the space is coming along, complete with pictures.
“We are so excited (about the move),” explains Steven Schultz, president of the South Texas region of ABC. “(We decided), let’s get the membership excited (about the move).”
The e-campaign has its roots in a two-year effort to find new ways to garner more exposure for the organization, Schultz continues.
The challenge was finding cost-effective ways to garner some PR for ABC.
The solution: Start small.
“We figured we could start spreading the word about small projects ABC is involved in; if that found success, we would go to the next project,” says Schultz, adding that an e-mail campaign seemed to be an effective and efficient means of spreading the word.
The organization’s move, he adds, seemed just the thing to kick start this PR campaign.
A dry-run that saw status reports sent to a portion of ABC members was met with a lot of excitement — thus prompting ABC to move full-speed with the campaign.
The newsletter for week two went out this past Monday.
Overseeing the project are members of the ABC Marketing Task Force. Each week, a different person from that group will be responsible for creating the newsletter. Besides updating members on the progress of the new office finish-out, the newsletter will also recognize member firms that are volunteering their time to the project, Schultz says.
The game plan is to have the work on the finish-out completed by early April, for a mid-April move in.
The Arion Parkway offices will provide ABC with some much-needed elbow room, says Schultz, who points out that his organization is “busting at the seams” at the Gulfdale site.
“We’ve got two big guys sharing one itty-bitty office,” Schultz adds. In fact, one of those guys has taken to carrying his work around on a cart — so that he can create a make-shift office in the conference room whenever it is not in use.
The Arion Parkway space will have room for both a classroom and an auditorium-style conference room
The new space, Schultz adds, is also about projecting a more professional image for ABC.
“Now members will want to come to the ABC office,” he says. “We’ve been at (the Gulfdale) space for 14 years, and we’ve done a very good job of making due with what we have. Now it’s time to take the organization to the next level.”
3/16/11, San Antonio Business Journal, Tricia Lyn Silva