A Good PR Strategy Pays Off

Today, more and more things vie for people’s attention. Getting the word out about Toastmasters and its benefits can be a challenge. To be successful, clubs must execute a public relations (PR) strategy.

Public relations fosters positive perceptions of, and connections between, an organization and different audiences. For clubs, these audiences could be prospective and current members, businesses, media, the public, and others. PR helps you increase your club’s visibility and tell the story of your club and Toastmasters. It drives membership growth by attracting new members and helping you retain current ones.

Develop a Plan

A PR plan will help your club define its goals, determine how to achieve them, track progress, and evaluate success. Toastmasters offers many resources for clubs, including a PR manual, brand guidelines, social media content, and promotional templates. The Brand Manual, templates, branded images, and more are available on the Toastmasters Brand Portal.

Clementine Flack, the 2025-2026 VPPR for The Speakers of Croydon Club in Croydon, England

Clementine Flack, recent Vice President Public Relations (VPPR) of The Speakers of Croydon Club in Croydon, England, suggests not overthinking it. “Start somewhere, take action, and improve as you go,” she says. “PR shouldn’t be a one-off activity. It needs to be consistent, well thought out, and continually improved over time.”

A plan can start with a singular focus, such as holding an open house or conducting social media outreach to engage with people and groups online, and grow incrementally. Or you can establish goals for the year using a club PR calendar—mapping out events, activities, and special dates, and creating PR strategies for each.

Consider building an editorial calendar. It can help you organize promotional activities ahead of time for all the items on your club calendar. You can plan what content you’ll focus on for each item, how and when you’ll promote them, and who will lead each effort. This fosters a strategic approach and removes last-minute pressure for ideas.

At the same time, it’s important to be flexible. The Public Relations and Marketing Club, a virtual club based in Hawaii, plans some social media posts in advance and creates others during events. Rose Kirland, DTM, a member, emphasizes the club’s focus on intentional visibility. “The priority has always been to stay active and maintain a visible presence rather than wait for perfection,” she says.

Amadi Karunathilake recently served as Vice President Public Relations for the Central Link Toastmasters Club in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Photo by Chamith Jayasundara

Know Your Audience

Like public speaking, a successful PR plan identifies and understands audiences. People join Toastmasters for different reasons, so it’s essential to tailor your prospective-member outreach messaging and methods. You will likely need different communications for partner organizations, media, and other audiences.

Past club VPPR Sharookh Daroowala, DTM, of Quay Speakers Toastmasters Club in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recommends highlighting what prospective members will gain from joining. “Sell the outcome,” he says. “Instead of persuading people to attend a club meeting by pushing program features and benefits, elevate the pitch higher by inspiring and motivating them with purpose-driven stories.” This is an opportunity to highlight member journeys and successes.

Recent club VPPR Amadie Karunathilake from Central Link Toastmasters Club in Kandy, Sri Lanka, agrees. The majority of Central Link’s membership are new and undergraduate college students, as well as recent graduates aiming to enter the professional world. The club offers support and helps members develop poise and communication skills.

An Instagram post from the Quay Speakers, a club in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

“Our [PR] strategy succeeds because we constantly speak directly to our audience,” she says, “explaining exactly how this specific club benefits them as young people trying to step into society as confident new graduates and interns.”

The focus on outcomes is not limited to prospective members. Think of the WIIFM mantra—What’s In It For Me—for all potential audiences. You could offer increased business for local companies or news content for media.

Customize Your Communications Methods

It’s also important to tailor your communications channels. While most clubs have a website or social media presence, some also use analog approaches. In addition to digital marketing, the Quay Speakers Toastmasters Club posts fliers at neighborhood hubs.

Recently, the club moved from a corporate setting to a busy street-level site. Quay Speakers is coordinating with another Toastmasters club, which meets at the same venue on another day, to order a sandwich board—a double-sided sign for outdoor advertising—to place on the sidewalk.

The club also maintains a relationship with a past member who owns a real estate office nearby. She employs many agents who recently moved to Canada and encourages them to join the Quay Speakers Toastmasters Club. “That initiative has worked remarkably well for them and for us,” says Daroowala.

As an online group, the Public Relations and Marketing Club has found success with a different approach to promotion. To engage members and prospective members, the Hawaii-based club creates meeting announcements with graphic elements and copy that match the upcoming meeting theme and reflect the club’s personality.

The online Public Relations and Marketing Club tries to create imaginative meeting announcements that reflect the group’s fun personality.

The Central Link Toastmasters Club tries to make its promotional content accessible to young people—its main audience—by using social media, especially Instagram. When the club’s communication channels are active with regular updates about meetings, member achievements, and educational content, there’s higher engagement, says recent VPPR Karunathilake. The club also tries to make fun social media posts that resonate with young people. For example, the club’s recent Facebook post announcing an awards event showed wavy musical notes above the words “Melody Feels Like Home.” A post announcing the last club meeting of the program year had the words “One Last Take: The Final Cut of a Year Worth Remembering” and a picture of a young woman taking a photograph.

Central Link tries to do the same thing with its marketing campaigns. “By injecting elements of curiosity and humor into our campaigns, we create a distinct buzz that inspires new people to come and see what we are all about,” says Karunathilake.

Use All Your Tools

The Public Relations and Marketing Club uses the same engaging content as on its meeting invitations to communicate a welcoming environment for its open houses—another important PR tool and one that is often under-utilized. “With open houses, our philosophy has always been experience first,” says Kirland. “From the very beginning of planning, we focus on the experience we want guests to have. Then we build the theme, promotion, visuals, and meeting flow around that intention.”

Another PR tactic not used as often is media relations. Clubs can gain greater visibility by reaching out to media outlets, such as local newspapers or television stations. Two effective outreach tools are media advisories and news releases. Media advisories are brief and tend to focus on event or activity announcements, including open houses or speaking contests. News releases tend to provide more details about activities or people, such as a member’s accomplishment or election to leadership, or a contest winner’s journey.

When Daroowala, of Quay Speakers, was a finalist in the 2014 World Championship of Public Speaking, a local Vancouver newspaper sent a photojournalist to interview him after receiving a news release. Some publications where he grew up in India also ran stories about him.

Integrate Your Approach

Integrating multiple PR tools can pay off. In late 2025, The Speakers of Croydon Club decided to conduct Speechcraft^®, a Toastmasters recruitment program that teaches nonmembers public speaking skills. Flack, VPPR at the time, ran an eight-week PR campaign that spanned the holidays. With a focus on the following three content pillars, the plan raised awareness about the club and the program:

• Testimonials featuring members’ Toastmasters journeys
• Educational content about the skills Speechcraft teaches
• Direct promotion about what Speechcraft is and how to register

Flack posted on social media two to three times weekly and repurposed content for a club blog. She also engaged club officers. The Club President recorded a video introduction. The Vice President Membership contacted previous guests with promotional messaging.

Eight people in the community registered for the January 2026 Speechcraft—close to the goal of 10. “The campaign had a wider impact,” says Flack. “The [club’s] Executive Committee became more involved in PR activities, members collaborated across roles, and the club built momentum and confidence around delivering Speechcraft.”

Public relations can also help clubs retain members by keeping them informed, highlighting their achievements, and building a club’s identity. When promoting members’ journeys and accomplishments, you can foster pride and build excitement about the club.

Kirland, the Hawaii member and a 2024–2025 Region Advisor, emphasizes that strong clubs are able to define who they are, who they serve, what experience they create, and why it matters to the people they hope to reach. “Once a club understands that, PR becomes much more natural and authentic,” she says. “Messaging becomes clearer. Engagement becomes easier. And members feel more connected to the purpose of the club.”

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