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So I help run a club in London, specifically in Uxbridge, called BattleUx.

We got kicked out from our home and forced to move, but that meant a hiatus of a few months. Numbers have dropped from around 20 regulars to 8-10.

We have a new location, the facebook page is updated (location, games, a few pictures, its a cheap cash bar and member rates - £1 to attend, £1 to use one of the now reduced 12 48l boxes of terrain), I have stuck a few ads up in facebook trading sites and put the club details up on the Orcs nest page.

So, any ideas on further advertising? We have a small budget generated by the sale of the club terrain we couldn't take with us (pretty much another dozen crates with the infinity, cities of death, tablescapes fortifications and 12x8 tyranid board still to go) which will have to last awhile so no big social media campaign.

Stuff that requires monitoring like a discord channel would rely on members using and checking it, and currently most don't. I certainly wouldn't have the inclination to.

There is a board game cafe about 10 minutes away, they do their best to ensure people don't come (we actually have similar numbers of magic players, our location food and drink is far cheaper, attendance is far cheaper, we are open until 2300, but they are trying to stop their Mondays lose their most profitable people). The Games Workshop in town has a deputy who had a falling out with people at the club and so anytime we have gone in to chat to the new manager about club attendance on the day GW is closed (Monday) we have had enough people tell us the moment we leave that person then proceeds to say all he can and does the same anytime the club is mentioned by a customer at the shop.

A few random thoughts

1) Whatever you do aim to make it sustainable for months/long term. A lot of advertising works not by being that one message that hits everyone but being a sustained campaign so that people get repeat exposure and you've more chance of snaring people.

2) Things like not doing a discord because it would get ignored is 100% the correct pathway. Similarly any social media site you setup - if you end up not using it close it down fully or leave a redirect on it as the only message leading to your active sites. Nothing is worse than someone researching a new group and finding dead websites/social media pages. Makes the club seem dead.

3) Get at least 1 social media site with active photos and posting each week. Even if no one at the club uses it it displays activity. Showing that there are events running; people attending; fun games happening and so on is a BIG help to anyone doing casual group research (and its the modern day - most people who find your club are going to google it).

4) Local toyshops? The GW store sadly sounds like a no-go, but don't forget toy stores might well stock GW products. Waterstones also tend to have some geeky spots to them for cardgames and the like and could be another good spot to ask if you can leave cards/an ad display etc....

Basically don't just think directly of GW stores; think of any place geeky people are likely to hang out. Toy stores; book stores; video game stores etc... It won't hurt to ask around and if you've some semi-professional looking ad you can display that gives key info and (even better) has tear-aways or cards with the details on that people can take away (a QR code to scan is also great these days!).

5) Demo-Days - This is probably for a little later when you've got some marketing leads established - but running a demo day can be a good time to actually spend money on some advertising and setup. Something that lets you run a big all day weekend day event designed to hopefully draw in interested people for demo games and to get a taste of the club.
Get some local club members interested in running demo games and if the worst happens and no one turns up you just have a fun club day with some casual gaming and all.

6) Depending on your age breakdown you might also consider approaching local educational facilities to see if there's any option to advertise your club. This might be limited to uni/college if your club isn't setup for kids and might have some restrictions. It's another "you won't find out if you don't ask politely" kind of deal.



After that the other side of the coin is keeping what you've got. You might already have this setup but its good to make sure you cover some basic bases for group retention, esp of new people

a) Make sure someone each evening is the welcomer/organiser. On hand to make sure new people are welcomed, orientated, get games (if possible of course) and are checked in on through the evening. It can be as simple as shaking their hand at the start and end of the session and just making sure they know where the toilets are.
This kind of thing can be a big impact on new people feeling positive about a new group and having someone designated with the task helps it happen and not slip through the cracks.

b) Get details - email/phone number/whatsapp/facebook. Whatever works so that you can reach out to them with whatever methods they are comfortable with. Not everyone will use the "insert website you use for group organising/communicating" and having a contact outside of that helps for sending a quick "Hey we've not seen you in ages how are you; what's up; you coming" kind of message.
Of course do NOT spam them; but keep an eye on if anyone isn't turning up and a quick single message can sometimes work. It might help them reconnect; ot might make them open up about a problem etc...

c) Try to avoid the trash talk. It sounds like you've some issues with other local groups. Best thing you can do is avoid any talk at the club about those groups. It's not about banning talk just avoiding the whole "they talk trash about us; we talk trash about them" because there's every chance more htan a few (esp new) people might happily game at those other places.

If all they do is hear your group groan about the other group they might get put off. If your group is just friendly; fun; polite and isn't getting into the mud-slinging and the other group does - well that's on them.

Thanks for the suggestions. On the trash talk I think its possibly the other side of the coin - people simply don't mention the other places unless prompted (beyond the compulsory anti GW chap who delights in saying 40k is rubbish or similar in each discussion. At this point he is background noise...). So I think it would make us appear somewhat insular as the world outside the club isn't coming up in conversation. The GW one is unfortunate but linked to something apparently almost a decade ago. The cafe guys used to come, when they opened they ceased coming and I guess see us a competitor.

The cafe likely does see you as a competitor - if you're only running the club on club nights and not running a cafe you could always try and make peace perhaps by seeing if they'd be open to arranging events as their cafe or or even hosting inter-club-competitive events and such.


And yeah the anti-GW-Guy would be one to just keep an eye on. Trash talk is casually fine but someone who's always talking down about X thing can appear off putting to new people. At the very least I'd not have them as a newbies first opponent or such - in an ideal world of course.