Markets are down, raise your marketing up!

Difficult economic times call for different ways of thinking about marketing. From arts organizations looking to fill a seat, to restaurant managers trying to sell a dinner, the issue is the same: how to keep patrons coming in and participating with your organization.

In many cases, an organization’s first response to needing to save money in a down economy is to cut costs, and often times the first budget to go is marketing. But when you stop to think about it, marketing is one of the only direct expense-to-income streams you have. Marketing is a revenue generator, not simply an expense, so your organization should be budgeting to market MORE in a down economy, and to market smartly as much as possible. Let’s talk about some easy ways to do this with a goal of not raising expenses or reducing revenues.

Let them know you care

First things first. Your patrons want to know that you understand what’s going on with the economy, and that you realize that it may be harder for them to participate with you. Let them know that you feel their pain, and “sell into the market” by changing your message to reflect your understanding. As an example, theater companies should let their patrons know about existing “pay as you go nights,” opportunities to usher before a show, or even ways to volunteer with the organization in return for access to performances. You may just get a long-term set of helping hands to move you forward. A restaurant can easily mention their regular happy hour specials, with a slant to “fill up on our great appetizers.” It gets them in the door, without a need to discount your product.

Sell them on the benefits

What are the benefits of going to a musical performance or having a nice dinner out? How do those things change when society is stressed by the economy? Focus on relaxation, peace of mind, fun with friends, and “escape” to your patrons — all things that “get them away from it all,” even for a short time. Starbucks became successful because people found that they could enjoy a small indulgence for just a couple of dollars. People are looking for excuses to “treat themselves,” especially when they have already decided to curtail their big vacations and new tv purchases, and savvy marketers should jump to fill in the gap.

Offer helpful information that allows people to participate more easily

Are there factors around participation with your organization that you can help streamline for your patrons? Is your venue near public transportation? Let your customers know they can save money on parking by taking the train to your stop. Are there other things to do nearby that could save time for them? Remember the coffeeshop/laundry combination, where people drop off their clothes and then go next door for a cup a joe? Examine the process that someone needs to go through to participate with you, from calling to make a reservation or buying a ticket, to getting back home again, and look for ways to turn lemons into marketing lemonade.

Make partnerships and market together

Who nearby has a business or service that is complimentary to your own? Arts groups and restaurants make wonderful partners. As an example, let’s say an arts group and a restaurant both have an email list of 1000 people, respectively. Both can, of course, create a special offer that gives their customers 25% off their product. Unfortunately, this creates discounted revenue from people that are knowledgeable about your organization and are already ok with paying the full regular price. While promotions based on price can be effective in getting new customers, you should avoid using price to try to influence existing customers.

If the arts group partners with the restaurant however, its easy to send a 25% food discount offer to the arts patrons, without discounting their arts event ticket price. The restaurant gets exposed to 1000 new people vs. their same old list. In reverse, the restaurant would send a discount arts ticket offer to its restaurant patrons, as a benefit to an experience to be had after dinner. Both groups double their exposure, and provide a benefit without cannibalizing their existing customers with a discount offer of their own. Powerful and effective collaborative marketing at its best.

Add value instead of discounting

It can be difficult to resist the powerful urge to use price as a way to market to your existing customers. But tough times do call for a little more “bang for your buck” to get people in the door. Instead of offering a discount, what can you add of value to the experience? Can you create a value that does not cost you money where one did not exist before? It could be as simple as getting your email list to respond to an offer for priority seating in your general admission theater — let folks who respond to the offer into the theater first as a benefit to being on your email list, and then open it up to everybody else. Doesn’t cost your organization anything, but creates a value idea of “getting the best seats.” Talkback sessions with your show’s director or cast members are another free and easy value, that also helps people to understand the work to a greater degree. Or tell your restaurant patrons that on Thursday nights, the executive chef will come to each table and explain the history and the influences of the dishes he or she has created. Again, that knowledge exists, the chef exists, and you can create an interesting, valuable benefit for free, where one didn’t exist before.

When times are tough, organizations that market smartly can create revenue in new and interesting ways, that get the attention of the public. While people may quickly get used to discounts, you stand a great chance at getting and keeping their attention by creating promotions that bring value to their lives in other ways. Get your marketing team together and brainstorm on some of these no-cost ways to drive participation, and odds are you’ll enjoy no-risk rewards!

Like this post? Please share it with a friend or your favorite social network by using the “Share this” link below.

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.

Like this post? Please share it with people who might find it useful, or post it online via the “share this” link below:

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