Arts Marketing 101 - The Two Goal Approach

One of the biggest challenges in arts marketing, and to life in the arts in general, is getting past the day to day.

There is always another something, another play to put up, another song to record, another painting to create.

In that rush of constant motion it's very easy to lose sight of why you do it all in the first place.

This is particularly true for arts marketing.  We spend so much trying to sell this thing, then the next thing, that we forget the real purpose of marketing.

Marketing is most effective when it's used to build relationships.  To make sure that you don't lose sight of this, I recommend having two goals everytime you set out to market your art.

1.  A short term goal, which is more then likely based on generating revenue.

2.  A long term goal, which is focused on building relationships.

Let me give you an example of how this works in practice.

For the next theatre performance my day job is doing, there is an obvious short term goal.  Sell X amount of tickets by the end of the run.  Hitting this goal is important.  It helps to keep the place stable and able to produce great art.

But the point of the marketing I implement is to build relationships, which is different from selling tickets.

So there is a second goal, to increase traffic to our website during the run of the show. 

Now I need to be clear, I don't care if the extra people who come to the website buy a ticket right then and there.  I just want them to come and check out the content we are creating.

Why is this important?  Because if we want to build a long term relationship with people we have to give them things, information, context, etc.

The web is an excellent tool for giving away those types of gifts.

But if they don't come to the website on a regular basis, then that hurts our ability to engage with them over the long haul.

At the end of the run, I'll be checking to see if both goals were hit.  If we didn't hit both, then the run wasn't successful.  In fact, I could make an argument that given where the organization is right now, hitting the long term goal is more important then the amount of tickets sold.

Every time you market your work, please try to accomplish something more meaningful then just a monetary transaction.  Good marketing builds relationships, but that can only happen if you invest in such things.

Give the two goal approach a try with your next artistic event or product. 

 

 

 

Comments

[Nicole]

Great post. Makes perfect sense. As important as filling seats is, I'm particularly excited about #2 with a production I'm currently involved in...not just in terms of cultivating relationships with (potential) audience members but also with others in the industry and chapters of national of social organizations.

[Wildwomanfund]

For short term goals, perhaps getting a number of sponsorships sold for the theater,

Another short term goal, getting theater space donated, cutting costs by 50%

And for the long term goal, how about creating ten new relationships between your donors, sponsors, and development staff?

How can you measure these relationships? Aside from Uniques, Visits and hits, you can measure them by coffee dates, thank you notes, and emails captured for e-newsletters, as well as open rates and clickthrough rates. All are useful to build the relationship.

But if you REALLY want to create efficiency and effectiveness, create positive and responsible relationships between development staff and senior management that will help carry the relationships into the future.

http://wildwomanfundraising.com

[sildenafil citrate]

A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.