PatronManager

Even though it’s the middle of the summer, I know most of you are hard at work getting ready for next season. As you get into gear, I hope you are thinking about your online marketing, fundraising, and ticket sales strategy. Here are my top tips that I think you should work into your plans and budgets.

If you want to jump directly to each one, here are the headings:

1. Double the size of your e-mail list.
2. Assess your box office management software and fundraising software.
3. Use social media for customer service.
4. Know your metrics.
5. Come to conferences.

Now to the details:

1. Double the size of your e-mail list.

My favorite site for marketing data is eMarketer, which published another gem last month:

Email may be one of the oldest online marketing tactics, but it is also one of the top performing. May 2012 data from the CMO Council showed a significant majority of marketers worldwide (67%) rated email the most successful digital marketing tactic.

Year after year, pundits have predicted e-mail would be killed by RSS, podcasts, Facebook messaging, and so on, but e-mail continues to be a rock solid marketing tactic. By now everyone’s doing e-mail marketing of some kind, but are you doing it as well as you possibly can? Start with the most important task of all — build your e-mail list.

2. Assess your box office management software and fundraising software.

Are your technology tools serving you well or getting in the way? It’s hard enough to run an arts organization, but when your technology is holding you back it’s like running with weights on your legs. Yes, we’re in the business of offering cloud-based low-cost technology systems, so I admit I have an ulterior motive in asking this, but there’s a fundamental truth here.

We talk to thousands of people like you each year, and we know what you’re dealing with. If all arts managers had the proper tools to run their organizations, the entire industry would be better off. Go, take the time now to learn about PatronManager CRM and check out what other options are out there that could help you do your job. Once the season starts it’s going to be that much harder to find the time.

3. Use social media for customer service.

Sure, Facebook and Twitter can be great to get the word out, but many corporations are now using social media as a customer service tool as well. Are you? Again, eMarketer provides supporting data in this fantastic article that documents the degree to which customers expect to have their questions answered through social media:

Customers desired quick responses when communicating on social networks—just over half of Facebook users and more than eight in 10 Twitter users expected to receive responses to questions or concerns posted on the social networks in a day or less.

4. Know your metrics.

Set specific goals and measures for your e-marketing right now, such as the following: “We want to increase our e-mail list size by 20 percent,” “We want to increase our open rate from 15 percent to 20 percent,” “We want 20 percent more page views on our main screen by January,” “We want to generate 2,000 more ‘Likes’ on Facebook.”

Today most marketing is classified as “direct,” which means you can and should measure everything and report on it. With marketing that you can’t measure all you can do is guess as to whether it worked. With so many trackable digital choices out there, I suggest you shift your marketing towards things you can measure.

5. Come to conferences.

Many arts professionals stay away from industry e-marketing conferences, such as the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in November in Charlotte and the Arts Reach Conference in October in LA, saying they are just too busy or don’t have the budget to afford them. I argue that you cannot afford not to go to these events. Could you read articles and glean the same information you’ll get in a session? Maybe.

But I assure you, you can learn more from your colleagues in the hallways and at parties than you’ll get online in a year. Many organizations are solving the same problems they all have, but they just don’t know it. Don’t sit in the dark.

And remember that folks like us and the other vendors and suppliers in the industry have a wealth of knowledge to impart, since each of us works with hundreds if not thousands of arts managers each year. So, don’t just go to the conference sessions, come to our booths and pick our brains!

I hope you’ll take me up on some of these ideas, and let me know which ones work best for you. Here’s to your success next season!

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