Social Marketing Works: Results from Ten Years of Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively Trainings

Abstract

Engaging family forest owners in best practices for land management is essential for maintaining and improving the health of our forests. Yet few natural resource professionals have formal training in how to reach and persuade landowners. The Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively (TELE) program sought to address this via a program of workshops, which train natural resource professionals to engage and influence landowners by using social marketing principles and techniques. TELE evaluation surveys found that (1) TELE workshop participants understood social marketing concepts and appreciated their relevance and value, (2) they were able to apply these concepts in their work, and (3) those who applied these concepts saw improved project outcomes. Based on these results, we argue that more natural resource professionals should be trained and empowered to use social marketing techniques for engaging landowners and other audiences. Study Implications: Forestry and conservation professionals are often tasked with engaging landowners to help solve conservation challenges, but they rarely have the training to do so effectively. Surveys of professionals trained in social marketing (using commercial marketing principles to reach a public good) showed that the workshops were considered useful, and projects implemented using the learned techniques showed a substantial improvement over standard outreach methods. Based on these data, we call for more widespread and comprehensive adoption of social marketing techniques for engaging landowners and describe what that would entail.