Five Tips For Marketing Your Art to Groups

I'm well over 600 posts into this blogging thing, which means I have covered a lot of stuff.

But one thing I haven't covered enough is how to bring in groups to see your work.

Having a group sales strategy is key for arts organizations, particularly ones that perform in smaller venues.

Not only do groups feel up those seats, they also bring in a very nice energy to the event.  So let's talk about how to get them in:

1.  Start early.  Most organizations that bring groups to events starting planning those group outings months in advance.  For example, the show my day job is running now starting contacting groups in late May.

So if you want to start bringing in groups for your late winter, early spring events, the time to get moving on that is now.

2.  Be nice.  Put your nicest, most patient person in charge of group sales.  I don't care if it's an intern, artist or whoever . . . the key is that they need to be both kind and patient.

We have had a lot of success with groups recently at my day job, one of the biggest reasons is because of the person we have talking to groups.

So choose the person you are going to have handle this task very carefully.

3.  Match the show to the group.  Don't overthink things.  Do you have a show that members of a certain community may enjoy?  They make that community a target for your group sales.

Think a show's content would be too controversial for a certain group?  Then you are probably right.  See if you can get them interested in something else.

4.  Toss in the perks.  Can you arrange for the group to meet performers after the show?  Do it.  Can you put a sign in your lobby recognizing a particular group?  Do it.  Little touches like those can go a long way toward getting groups to come to your work over and over again.

5.  Do your homework.  Have somebody get a list of every church, civic organization, community group, etc. in five to ten mile radius of your performance venue.  In this, as with most things, Google is your friend.

Then have that extremely nice person you have doing your groups call a few of those organizations and ask to speak to their group event coordinator.  When you get to that person, if they have one, introduce yourself and ask if you can send them a fax/email/letter telling them about your work.

Most of them will be fine with that request and that's how you get the process going.  Oh, and remember Step 1 . . . start this contact process as early as possible.

That should get your started.  Good luck.

 

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