Good marketing is a closed loop. That means that everything you do with your marketing has to make sense. Let me give you an example of what could happen if you don't close the loop.
For the next show my day job has, we made the strategic decision to market the show to college students.
I call it a strategic decision because we thought about it first. I didn't just jump up and say "The kids will love this!".
Instead we looked at all the factors, the play itself, the director, the time of year, etc. and decided that this might be a show that audience would enjoy.
So we started closing the loop and making sure all of our marketing elements made sense in the context of our stated goal . . . reaching students.
Buying print ads in periodicals popular with students: Check.
Expanding our social media by buying ads on places like Facebook and Metromix: Check.
I thought the loop was closed.
But it wasn't. I was forgetting a vital part of the plan because it wasn't immediately obvious.
Price.
Our ticket price for college students was too high.
If I wanted any other part of our plan to work, I had to fix that.
So I spent time fighting the battles I needed to fight in order to give students a reasonable price.
It wasn't until I won that battle that the loop was officially closed and our marketing plan made sense.
When you are marketing you need to check out everything, the price, the promotion, the time of the year . . . everything you can possibly think of.
A closed loop gives you your best shot at marketing success.
A open loop costs you time and money.
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