I’ve been keeping my eye out to the way some of my favorite brands have been changing their messaging recently. Things of course are getting more filtered and specific to me, which is great, but a few companies are really standing out with messaging that is designed to make me feel good or take action. Take this screenshot from a recent email I received after flying with Southwest Airlines:

Nice Southwest! You didn't ask me for $!

Nice! They didn’t try to sell me another ticket right away. They are inviting me to write about my experience, but that doesn’t cost me anything but my time, and at the moment, I’m feeling pretty good about Southwest Airlines (and they just thanked me, so that might add to my decision to

write something good about them). Even though I may not choose to write anything in their travel guide, the thank you is nice and stands on its own.

Can the arts learn messaging tactics from Ebay?

Next up: Ebay. I recently purchased a piece of artwork on Ebay, and Ebay sent me this email message in an effort to get me to leave feedback for the seller of the item:

A powerful message from Ebay!

Whoa! “You have feedback you need to leave” is not kidding around. They are tapping into a lot of things there. I need to leave feedback. It is my responsibility as a good “ebayer.” If I don’t, I’ll be a bad person. It is something I NEED to do. Then they soften it up by saying “Be an Ebay Star — Leave Feedback!” Ok. All I have to do to have Ebay like me is to write feedback. I’ll redeem my irresponsible, dark-side-leaning self, and come back into the light!

This is powerful stuff. This message went through a bunch of research to be created, I have no doubt. It’s a great message for action. Minus one point for using the word “click” as a command to go somewhere. Personally, I really hate “click” and especially “click here” — that’s why we have underlined links, so you’ll know where to click. But I digress. Ebay wins major messaging points for avoiding a wishy-washy message, and for tapping into some primal emotions for right and wrong.

You’ve just experienced it, are you ready for more?

Finally, I recently did an arts marketing webinar with a friend who was using a piece of webinar software from Glance.net. Like most webinar software, it allows you to share your screen to take your participants on a tour, run a powerpoint session, etc. What struck me was the message I saw when I ended the conference:

At a glance, Glance's messaging looks great!

The software was smart enough to know that I was not the person running the webinar software (and was therefore a participant who might be interested in paying for an account) and the messaging is designed to have me realize that “Wow, that WAS really easy to do. This Glance.net thing might be a good choice for webinars.” I liked this, because it was a surprise to see, and the software WAS really easy to use. They are tooting their own horn, but in a way that is real, with a real experience to back it up.

So how does this play out for the arts?

Many times, I see arts marketing messages that don’t take a stand that sells the benefits and defends the value. We should be telling people WHY they should attend our performance, not just sending an ad with dates/times/prices. If the performance is spectacular, we should be parading that fact proudly to all — “Aren’t you glad you were a part of THAT!” — why not? Let’s ask people for action and tap into who they are as people. “How long has it been since you gave support to the arts and saw a good play?” We are all creating wonderful work that we are proud of. Let’s not be afraid to celebrate and champion it in our messaging.

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Freedom from annoying audience members looks like this in France.

The French are known for many things… their appreciation of great food and wine, their love of art and culture, and now, by me, for their valiant belief that concert halls, movie theaters, and other public performance spaces should be free of that person next to you jabbering into his/her cell phone. Thanks to mobile phone jamming devices, you can actually hear the music without patron accompaniment.

Cell-phone jammers

We’ve all be sitting in the audience in the middle of a brilliant monologue, deeply in the moment, when someone’s ring tone starts chirping. It gets louder as the person digs it out of their pocket/bag, and hopefully shuts off. (Even worse, I saw an audience person answer it and carry on a conversation until the people in front of him got up, turned around, and shhhhhed him). Enter the cell-phone jammer.

A cell phone jammer is a (usually) small, hand-held device that transmits white noise on the same radio frequencies that cell phones use, thus scrambling their signal to the cell tower and rendering them useless. Usually they have a range of about 30 feet, and all cellular communications are interrupted within that radius with a simple flip of a switch. It sounds like the perfect form of revenge. Somebody being annoying on their phone? Hit the switch in your pocket and their line is dead. A larger version could blanket a concert hall with blissful silence during performances. Which is why the French jumped on the idea and in December of 2004, legalized cell-phone jammers in movie theaters, concert halls, and other performing-arts spaces. Brilliant!

But not in the U.S.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case in the U.S., as being in possession of a cell-phone jammer can land you in hot water with the FCC, and possibly stick you with an $11,000 fine or imprison you for 1 year. The ban is based on wording in the Communications Act of 1934, which prevents people from interfering with radio communications. And it is seen as property theft, because telecommunications companies such as AT&T have paid the government billions to be able to use those frequencies, and blocking those frequencies disallows access to what they have paid for. So kids, don’t try this at home.

The other argument against is the issue of emergency calls. Having a heart attack? Your jammed phone would be useless to call 911 — all signals are blocked, not just the “bad” ones. French technology firms are reportedly working on solutions to this that would have the devices jam all calls except the ones going to police, fire, etc. Makes sense… people have gotten by just fine watching arts events without cell phones for the last couple of thousand years — most things are not THAT urgent. At a time where we are seeing people interacting with their phones more, I’d love to see this technology linked with the house lights. House lights up? Take pictures, text, call your folks, whatever. Lights go down? Signals jammed until intermission. This would allow you to more fully enter the world of the art, with quick access back to the “real” world when the art wasn’t being performed. What about people who like to tweet during performances? Perhaps data access is allowed but calls are blocked. But I’d ask folks who want access during the show to sit in a different section so that the visual noise pollution of their screens doesn’t bother other patrons.

Since jammers are out of bounds in the U.S. at the moment (drop a note to your congressperson if you’re for them) so what can an arts group do to control calls? One way is to build a theater space that passively blocks cellular signals by putting the patron inside thick walls of concrete or a steel cage around the space. I’ve even read about certain wallpapers that have tiny metal fragments in the paper to block cellular signals. Stick a wifi access point inside the space for people to be able to tweet or text (if that’s your thing) and you’re good to go.

Many audience development tactics are based on new technologies being introduced to increase interaction and participation — not nearly as many are designed to reduce distraction and take away obstacles to engagement. Let’s hear it for the French government, and their belief that performing arts spaces should be free of the wrong type of stage chatter!

-Ron Evans

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Only accept credit cards in a secure way, to protect your patron's information

I’d be hard pressed to find a member of an arts organization who doesn’t believe in the power of providing the option to sell tickets online. It gives many people a way to serve themselves (thus reducing your manpower needed at the box office to answer the phone), offers the patron the peace of mind of knowing that the ticket has been purchased, and usually offers additional benefits such as seeing your seat location, and being able to buy a ticket any night or day.

Some groups I know have chaffed at the additional credit card processing fees, merchant account fees, or ticketing vendor fees of using a real ticketing system, and opted instead to collect credit card information online via a form, through an email, or into an unsecure database. Yes, you avoid additional fees that way, but is the cost of potentially exposing your patron’s credit card and identity information to hackers and thieves worth it? I don’t think so — and one lawsuit from an angry patron would seal the deal.

Typically, groups get in trouble when they set up their own form to “reserve your tickets online” via their website, and that form asks for credit card information. Once a patron fills out the form and enters his/her credit card information, the form sends the patron’s info in an email to the box office staff. The email is usually passed through many computers on the internet, before it gets to the box office staff: imagine an old-fashioned fire brigade, where townsfolk are passing bucket after bucket of water down the line:

In this case, each “bucket” is an email. And for a moment, each email is available to be read by each computer that passes it on. It just takes one random computer in the system to be set up to snoop into your email looking for credit card numbers as they pass through, and poof — card number stolen.

“But we’ve got a security certificate for our form page… there’s a lock and it says “https://” some have said. While this is a good step, you’re not necessarily out of the woods — if you are still getting credit card numbers delivered to your box office via email, it doesn’t matter if the form used to submit the email is secure, the security breach happens when the email is passed from internet computer to computer and finally to your inbox. The golden rule is: no credit card numbers should be sent or received via email, ever.

The benefits of using a “real” ticketing system

The benefits of using an actual ticket system, such as tix.com, vendini.com, brownpapertickets.com, etc., is that each of those vendors actually processes the card for you — the card is submitted via an encrypted, secure https:// form, “run” (card is charged) and then the card number is deleted as soon as the transaction is complete. Everything stays secure from start to finish, as nothing goes over email, and the card number is not stored, so it can’t be hacked into or stolen at some other time. The processor only stores the credit card number long enough to run the transaction, and that’s it. The card is either accepted (ticket sold) or rejected due to it being expired, limit exceeded, etc.

In addition to the card processing security, by going with a “real” ticketing vendor, you’ll receive updates to the system that will make it easier and safer for patrons to purchase tickets as time goes on.

Credit card processing fees are a cost of doing business, and should just be factored into your planning. Some groups make the consumer pay for the convenience of helping themselves online, which, if you’re trying to make your life easier, isn’t the way to go. Cut it out! Decrease phone calls into your box office by people that could be helping themselves online, and thus staying out of your hair — it’s simple. Make your ticketing fees less expensive when purchased online, and more expensive when people call the box office. The airlines have been doing this for years — book online, no fee. Call an agent, pay $15. It works — it helps automate the system, and that saves you time and money.

But to do all of this in a way that protects the security of your patrons, you need a real ticketing system like those mentioned above. There are thousands of ticketing software vendors — too many to research yourself, so contact us, or ask a fellow arts group who they use. Depending on your needs, different vendors offer different advantages and disadvantages. By going with a mainstream vendor, you’ll help ensure safe ticket sales for your arts patrons.

-Ron Evans, groupofminds.com

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On stage now: 9 tips must-have arts marketing techniques

There are many ways to spend your time marketing or developing your arts organization. But which are the most effective? We’ve narrowed it down to 9.

A recent survey of arts organizations compiled by the Wallace Foundation tells us that most groups feel that the use of next-generation technology is vital to audience development. On the next question, when asked how organizations feel they are doing with implementation of next-generation technology, the vast number of groups surveyed said “not as well as we’d like to be.” One issue seems to be that many groups have yet to master what we like to call “previous-generation technology.” Let’s examine what is known to work, in an effort to build an arts marketing foundation for you, the arts group. We feel that groups should focus on having all 9 of these techniques in place before putting a lot of effort into other technologies. So, play around with the “new” stuff, but remember your marketing roots first. In no particular order…

1. Get a CMS-based website (Content Management System)

We’ve expounded on the benefits of having a CMS-based website in another post already, but in a nutshell, a content management system allows you to make updates on your site using a regular web browser (no web-authoring software like Dreamweaver required). Suffice to say, it’s important to be able to update your own website, whenever you want, without relying on outside help. If a show gets canceled, if you post an online video, or if you just want to update your patrons with timely information, just update the site. Add to that the variety of easy to install website themes, and a simple interface with web-tracking software like Google Analytics, and it’s easy to see that a CMS-based site is the way to go.

2. Online arts grants research

The net has great resources to find grant money for your arts organization. Grants are available from local, regional, and national foundations, along with grants from arts agencies and arts service organizations, and even local corporations and businesses. We like foundationcenter.org, and afpnet.org. Research deadlines, requirements, and submission guidelines, mark your calendar to apply, and get those applications in process.

3. High-resolution online photos for publicity, marketing, and more

There are a variety of Web 2.0 photo-sharing sites out there, that will host your high-resolution photos for free. We like Flickr.com and photobucket.com These are a requirement if you’re hoping to get a write up in your local newspaper, and don’t forget the captions — feature writers need to know who is in the photo! Photos should be 300 DPI to be used for print. Make them visually interesting by not lining people up and having them look into the camera (newspaper writers often call this type of photo “execution at dawn,” and it’s something you should avoid). Get close to people’s faces as they are taking part in the art, singing, acting, dancing, etc. A good photo can make the difference between interest in your event…or not.

4. Online video

A short video placed up on YouTube and embedded on your site is a fantastic way to provide a sample preview of your event. People are wary with their time, and a sample can make a big difference in their decision to attend. A good, short video (30 seconds to 1 minute) is a great piece of content to provide the press, online calendars, blogs, etc. Does your local arts and entertainment editor at the newspaper have an A&E blog? Try pitching him/her on your video clip — they are always looking for content. For an easy video, try using your regular digital still camera, set to the video setting. Most cameras have this now, and it allows you to shoot a clip onto the camera card, which you can later easily upload to youtube.com. We also like dropshots.com and photobucket.com. Check with any rights-holder for your event, but they will usually allow a short video clip to be shot and posted for promotional purposes.

5. Email marketing to your arts patrons: an arts audience’s best friend

There are few better ways to keep your arts audience in-the-know than email marketing. It allows you to send out announcements of event information, surveys, behind-the-scenes interviews, ticket links, and much more, while allowing you to track user response (who clicked on your email, forwarded it to friends, etc. We like inexpensive and comprehensive email marketing services such as Constant Contact (who we partner with) and PatronMail.com. You’ll have access to easy, pre-designed graphical templates to add your logo, propel your brand, and go. And patrons can subscribe/unsubscribe themselves via your newsletter and your site. Simply a must have!

6. Postcard marketing

Postcard marketing? You mean on paper? What’s the online connection? Yes, it’s true. The postcard still has a big place in your marketing arsenal. It has great pass-along value, and can stick around on the fridge for a long time. You can purchase lists of U.S. Mail addresses in your area and reach new potential audiences, at companies such as infousa.com (something you shouldn’t do with email lists), and Web 2.0 has really brought the cost down and the options up. We like online printers such as vistaprint.com and psprint.com. They both offer fast service, high-quality product, and ease of use. Both of them even offer mailing services, so for a bit more money, you can stop licking stamps.

7. Online ticketing/event registration

If your cultural organization sells tickets to your events, we think that offering an online ticketing solution to your patrons is a must. It will allow you to divert a load off of your box-office staff, so they can be used to shoot an online video or put together an email newsletter (see above). Studies have shown that patrons are ok with paying online ticketing fees, as long as they are small, and online ticketing is one of the best ways to gather contact information from your audience members. It’s automatic when they buy from you: you’ll get name, address, email, phone, etc. Follow up with them for your next event, and turn them into repeat customers. There are many ticketing systems out there, and we don’t have a favorite, but we do like brownpapertickets.com, and vendini.com. But ask around and see which system groups in your area like, and go from there.

8. Online donations for the arts

There are several easy ways to add online donations to your site and your marketing material. Donations are tax-deductible for patrons if you are a 501c3 non-profit company, and they are popular to use around the holidays and the end of the year during tax planning time. It’s another great way to gather contact info of a strong supporter of your organization, and is “always on” via a button on your site. We like Google Checkout, and Network For Good.

9. Utilize online web calendars and media sites

There are several online event calendars that cover national, regional, and local events. This is easily one of the biggest and easiest ways to spread the word about your event, and search engines love it. Media sources need information and arts content about events from arts groups, and if you can align your offering up with their requirements, you have a good chance of getting coverage. Sites like zvents.com, upcoming.org, and eventful.com all list thousands of events, and many smaller sites pull event information from these larger sites. make sure you provide all of the regular information (who, what, when, where, how much) along with complete dates, times, and your contact info. Your captioned publicity photos and online video clip also plug in well here. We’ve mentioned a couple of big sites, but also check with your local newspaper, TV, and radio stations, as they often have online calendars as well. Do research their requirements though; if your event is happening outside of your newspaper’s coverage area, not only will it not be useful to send, but you may lose points for when you DO have something that is relevant to them.

Many of these arts marketing techniques play well together. For example, a theatre company could inform its audiences by interviewing the director of your theatre show, and putting it in an email newsletter that also includes an online video clip of the show, links to photos, and a button to donate. Make an arts marketing technology plan, carry it out for the season, and measure the results. You’ll be surprised how effective these arts marketing tips are for bringing in new and engaged audience members that are more informed and more appreciative of your arts offerings.

Looking for help in getting some of these arts marketing techniques up and running? Have them running, but lack the manpower to maintain them? Contact us for a free, no-obligation discussion of your arts-marketing needs.

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So many content management systems, so little time!

As arts marketers, we know that having an up-to-date website is one of the primary ways our patrons find out about our activities. But after serving on the board of a small community theatre group, I know the pain that cultural groups feel when they have to wait for that one board member to update the website. Or perhaps it’s waiting for your friend’s cousin to respond to your email that it’s time to put up the cast list. The great news is it doesn’t have to be like that.

Imagine a scenario where any company member who knows how to use Microsoft Word can login and make changes to their section of the website? That updating the content could be shared by multiple people without getting in each other’s way? It’s called a Content Management System (CMS) and it should be a part of every marketing plan for arts organizations.

What is a content management system?

Here’s a great definition:

A CMS is used to edit your website by giving the user an interface where they can log in and make text, graphic or structural amends to then publish the new pages on the live website.

So the important thing to know is that arts groups can make changes to their websites by just logging into a webpage using an ordinary browser. No dreamweaver, frontpage, or other web-editing software needed. Let’s look at an example.

Here’s a website for a breeder of Australian Shepherds who has graciously allowed me to use her site as a demo.

A sample wordpress-based website content management system

Looks like a pretty normal site, right? This site used a software called WordPress. If you’re a blogger, you know that WordPress is usually used for blogs, but it also works very well as a website content management system. If you could see the bottom of the page above, you’d see a link to login to the site. Let’s see what it looks like when you login.

The inside of a wordpress website

As you can see, once you’re logged in, you find a menu system that allows you to create, update, or delete posts and pages on the site. Let’s edit the post “Show Ring update.” Simply click on the name of the post, and you’ll see:

Editing a post in wordpress

If you noticed that it looks a lot like Microsoft Word, you’re right! Once we’ve made our changes, we just save the post, and it is automatically updated on the actual site. Then we breathe a sigh of relief, for our editing is done.

Imagine the possibilities. You can easily have multiple people be responsible for updating different parts of the site, because they are empowered with the ease of doing so. Response times for website updates that rely on an outside person disappear.

Look and feel via “themes”

One of the other nice aspects of using a content management system like WordPress is the availability of themes to change your site’s look and feel. A theme is simply a way to change the look and feel of your site, without changing the content underneath. So an actor can change costumes, but the actor doesn’t change. There are thousands of developers who have already built free theme “costumes” for your site, and they are available for the download. If we go back to our example above, let’s change the theme of the Australian Shepherds site. WordPress comes with a bunch of built-in themes.

choosing a theme in wordpress

We’ll just choose a theme, click on it, and it automatically changes the site to reflect the new theme. Let’s choose the first one here, which has sort of a cowboy look to it. When we go back to the front-end site, we see:

The new site, after we changed the theme

As you can see, this is a totally different look and feel for the site. While probably not the best choice for someone who shows championship dogs, you get the picture.

In short, this ability makes it ridiculously simple to update the look and feel of your arts website, without a lot of effort or expense. There are many free themes for wordpress available, have a look. While you’re doing that, I’ll change the site back to the regular theme before the owner discovers her dogs showing up in the wild West.

Ok, so how do I get WordPress?

You can download it for free at www.wordpress.org. Or better yet, check with your hosting provider that hosts your website now — many of them offer a “1-click install” of WordPress, which will allow you to get started and play around easily. Or tell your current webmaster you’d like to host the site on a content management system like WordPress, and he/she will be able to make it happen. There are many content management systems to choose from, but WordPress is a good choice for simple websites.

You may not choose to run out and convert your arts website to use a web-based content management system today. But if you’re empowered with the knowledge of the benefits of running your site on a platform like this, you’ll be better prepared as an arts marketer to make good choices the next time you revise your website.

For more information on website content management systems, we recommend:

http://www.wordpress.org

http://joomla.com

http://drupal.org

Where are you @ with email marketing for your group?

The invention of email was a gift to arts marketers. Zero cost and instant up-to-the-minute communication with plain text. Nice. Then came email marketing with graphic newsletters. Even better! Your copy and your brand’s “look and feel.”

When used correctly, graphic email marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep up a conversation with your patrons. Make sure they are saying more than “unsubscribe”!

1. Don’t treat your messages like ads, even if they really are.

Write each message as if you were writing a sweet note to Mom (Hi, Mom). Create engaging and intelligent content that people at least have the potential to enjoy reading. Some background on the performers or the show. A backstage interview of the director. A short note on something that make this arts experience especially relevant. In the way you would talk to Mom. You wouldn’t send Mom an ad, would you?

2. Don’t send the same content more than once to the same group of people.

People don’t like getting what they’ve already read. Make sure that each email you send is unique — something must be different, and it must be right at the top. You’re not only trying to sell attendance to your event, your selling your own words in your message. There are a lot of things happening with your event — update your patrons with unique content each time. Even rewording things helps in a pinch.

3. Don’t just send one big image of your ad (and a reminder of #1 above).

A couple of years ago, major email clients began to hide images by default, in an effort to protect kids from questionable content. But it also often blocks out good content. Many of your patrons will look at your beautiful graphic, and see a smart little red x instead of your image. At that point, the next steps for many folks is “delete.” The most effective arts email marketing campaigns use both text and email. Have a graphic at the top that looks great, and then the offer in text underneath the graphic. If your patron doesn’t see the image, he/she can still see the offer in text. I have seen click-thru rates soar just from using this technique.

4. Don’t send too often.

Ask yourself: how often do you like to receive email updates from your favorite arts organization? Daily is out. Weekly — yes, if there is a major event coming up and I’m getting a lot of neat things each week like artist interviews. And monthly or even quarterly is just fine the rest of the time. You need to keep in contact to make a “touch” on the relationship, but make sure you tailor it to the circumstances of your organization.

5. Don’t wait too long to send.

On average, 33% of all people with email addresses change them during the year. Without a recent note, you risk your arts patrons forgetting who you are, and getting them to sign up with their new email address is a lot more difficult. You don’t want them getting your email and saying “Who is this?” Make sure you keep your list alive by sending out at least a short but interesting note once a quarter.

As arts marketers, we have the benefit of being able to champion the products of a field that lends itself well to communication technology. With a few safety checks before we hit the send button, you’ll strengthen your relationship with your patrons, and make it easier for them to engage in the good works of your organization.