Great post Iowabowhunter1983. My comments are in red below.
Banquet(s) are nice and should continue to be tweaked. There are a lot of good suggestions already in the thread and it sounds like the IBA has plans to make them better for 2016-17. That being said, banquets take a commitment of time and money to attend. Many folks don’t have one or the other or both. There is a huge audience that will never be "banquet goers" that needs to be captured.
Moving the banquet to a different location and even further (3 weeks before instead of the week before ) from the Deer Classic will attendance since the banquet and Deer Classic will be on back-to-back weekends.
Spread the word. IBA is not "out there". If IBA is going to continued to be affective it must grow. It must recruit. It must spread the word. If it was in the budget I would hire a marketing/branding firm. Social media is an unbelievable outlet and its FREE. With the right marketing campaign the audience on social media could increase tenfold…. Almost overnight.
We have ramped up our social media presence and have instantly seen positive results. This increased presence will continue. Follow us on Twitter @IAbowhunters or like us on Facebook.
I am the chair of the newly created marketing committee and have been in marketing/sales for two large companies over the past 10 years. We have to eat the elephant one bite at a time and at some point a marketing/branding firm will have to be brought in. I feel with the experience the marketing committee has, we can make an immediate impact at a lower cost and then take the next bite.
Once a larger audience is captured it must offer relevant and interesting content. I think hunters are some of the most passionate people there are. They want to know what is going on and what the issues are. They will listen.
Agree completely. Any ideas from the membership are appreciated and we will work to make them happen.
The IBA website needs a major overhaul. It looks low budget and is not very appealing to the eye. This should be redone in conjunction with a rebranding of IBA. It doesn’t even appear you can sign up on the website (although you can pay via paypal). It appears you have to print something off and send it snailmail. I equate this to not being able to pay at the pump at a gas station. Its archaic! See QDMA website as an example of one that is well put together.
Website is being overhauled as we speak and changes should be made over the next month. I agree that an online form for signup with credit card payment would be much more user friendly than Paypal or printing off a form to mail/scan and email back to the IBA.
This is already being incorporated into the new website!!
The IBA logo is not very easy to read. The logo is actually blurry on the website! The most prominent thing on it is the word "IOWA". If someone glanced at while in passing on say a T-shirt all they would see is "Iowa". Again this could be tweaked as part of a larger rebranding effort. This may seem like a trivial thing, but it is not. People need to know who you are when a logo is used on any marketing material and it needs to be recognizable…instantly.
This is the next bite off the elephant and the next logical step after the website redesign and was discussed at the last board meeting.
Mission Statement: Does the IBA have one? It may be listed on the website….kinda sort of. "Its purpose is to protect, defend, and promote bowhunting in the state of Iowa". This mission statement should be tweaked and it should be at the forefront of what everything IBA does. It should be one of the first things people see when they go to the website so in 5 seconds someone who has no knowledge of IBA can get the idea of what IBA is all about.
In any business this needs to be easy to find on the homepage for everyone to see. This will be changed!
People on here have stated that they have not "felt" the benefit of being a part of IBA. It doesn’t matter if anyone on here agrees with that or not. It is irrelevant. If people perceive no benefit then that is their reality. IBA needs to "trumpet the masses" about what they have done, what they are doing, what they plan to do and explain the benefits of supported IBA. "Wins" by IBA should be celebrated and reported.
Agree and that is why we are more aggressive about posting on Facebook and Twitter.
