Gene Carr's Patron Technology Blog

Is E-mail Dying? Digital Preferences of Arts Patrons Revealed

There is something that's been nagging me for years, and it has to do with marketing research, and the urge to compare what we’re doing against other such studies.

For the last seven years, in an attempt to advise our clients and inform our presentations and seminars, we've fielded a national survey of arts patrons' online behavior by working with a selection of our clients and sending a survey to their e-mail lists. I've used this as a proxy for arts patron behavior in general and quote from it extensively in our publications. In fact, the whole first section of our new book, Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century, reports on our 2010 survey.

Each time I present this data, inevitably someone will challenge the results by pointing out that since the survey is fielded solely via e-mail, the data is skewed -- the results don't really give an accurate assessment of the arts-going public, because the survey over-represents online interest and participation.

That it is a purely online survey is true, and we’ve always taken great pains to point this out when we present the data. However, my assertion is that the sample is actually a very close approximation of the entire arts-going public because such a large proportion of the audience is in fact online.

That's why I was so interested to find out that the most recent study released by The Broadway League, focusing on the nearly 16 million attendees of Broadway touring shows across North America, was conducted entirely online. They too have gone to a 100% e-mail-based survey approach.

Since both pieces of research were done in the same way, and ask many of the same questions and examine a similar audience, I thought that comparing our survey results with the Broadway League’s might shed some additional light on the nature of the online arts community.

Here's what we found. (For purposes of simplicity I'll refer to the Broadway study as "BL" and ours as “PT.”)

●  72% of BL's attendees were female. In PT’s, women comprise 66%. 

●  The average age of the Touring Broadway theatregoer is 53.8 years old, and PT's is 58.6. 

●  74% of BL’s audience held a college degree; 38% of PT’s audience had a college degree.

●   BL’s survey showed 31% held a graduate degree and in the PT study 50% had a graduate degree. 

●  46% of BL’s national theatregoers reported an annual household income of more than $100,000, and in the PT study it was 45%. (This compares to only 20% of Americans overall.)

 

As you can see, the demographics are relatively consistent across both studies. My explanation for why the BL audience is more heavily weighted to women is that our study included all performing art types, including classical music and opera, which tend to have a higher percentage of men as attendees.

Going on, let’s look at online behavior.

● In the BL survey, 36% of respondents were subscribers to the "Broadway Series" at their local venue. In the PT survey it was 33%. 

● Nearly two-thirds of BL audiences looked to the theatre’s website to find information about the show. The PT survey results were similar: 68% said the same. 

● 35% of BL’s Touring Broadway theatregoers used the Internet to purchase their tickets. This was much higher in the PT survey: 73% of our respondents said they bought tickets online in the past year.

Most of the participatory aspects of the two audiences’ responses are similar -- what surprised me here was what’s different. 

The online ticket-buying ratio for BL’s survey is much lower than the average from our survey. My theory is that this may have something to do with the way these series are marketed, or the degree to which these series are sold online versus in a more traditional direct-mail and print-oriented marketing approach.

As for communication preferences, 69% of respondents to the BL survey said they would prefer to receive theatre information electronically, rather than via postal mail. In the PT survey we offered an additional option: while just 48% prefer e-mail alone, another 37% prefer receiving both e-mail and postal mail (for a total of 85% of responders being “e-mail friendly”).

Out of everything examined in both surveys, it’s this e-mail preference that shouts out at me. Over two-thirds of the touring Broadway audience says that e-mail is the preferred method of hearing about shows. This is a staggeringly high number and speaks to the continuing power of e-mail marketing, particularly for those who are already online. As I wrote in a blog post earlier this year, the persistent rumors that e-mail marketing is less relevant in a Facebook-dominated world can be put to rest. Among the older audiences in the arts sector demographic, e-mail use is actually increasing.

So what’s a big takeaway here? I think it’s that when you survey an audience online, you find that those who respond to it overwhelmingly demonstrate a preference for online communication. So even if traditional methods are still at work, you ought to exploit online marketing to these folks as much as you can because they prefer it, it’s less expensive, it’s faster and you’ll get a better response rate from them.

It may now be a good idea to simply ask your patrons how they prefer to hear from you. You can do this through surveys, during subscription renewals, and even when they are buying single tickets. Once you now have information about each customer, you can segment your marketing and reach those who tell you they are interested in online marketing in the way they prefer. They will be happier -- your response rates will be higher.

We’re living in a world in which there are two audiences out there -- those that have adopted online marketing and those that haven’t. Why treat everyone the same?

 

 

A Springtime of Discontent: Two Paradigms for Thriving Arts Organizations

I spent last week at the League of American Orchestras annual conference in Minneapolis, and came away confused, concerned, and frankly somewhat depressed. My reaction didn’t stem so much from the problems the orchestra field is facing as from what people are talking about – or NOT talking about – in terms of solutions.

The conference last week emphasized the fact that things are pretty tough in orchestra-land. For the last two decades, there’s been no disagreement among thought leaders that the aging of the audience for classical music and the difficulty in recruiting large numbers of younger people is a central challenge. Pair this with the reliance on significant individual philanthropy from an existing but diminishing older audience, and you’ve got a combination that spells trouble.

The trouble now abounds, particularly for some of the country’s larger orchestras, and the recent economic collapse has weakened the financial footing of orchestras across the board. Government funding (both federal and local) is being slashed in the double digits as we speak. Corporate leaders who care about the arts are having more and more trouble convincing their companies to go out on a limb and support them. Foundation support has dwindled because the argument that orchestral music is a vital part of society is now relevant to only a very few major foundations. Costs to run orchestras have risen faster than inflation, and individual giving is not making up the difference. None of these facts should surprise anyone.

The main message of the orchestra conference, eloquently articulated by League president and CEO Jesse Rosen, was that artistic excellence is no longer enough. The industry must face its business issues head-on.

There were plenty of thought-provoking sessions by some of the leading thinkers in the field, all searching for solutions. We heard about “right-sizing,” economic planning, board development, and financial planning. All of these are relevant and appropriate. But sadly, none of these are easy, they all require a LOT of time, and all require that arts boards be willing to embrace change – which is by no means a given. I came away thinking that not only are there no easy answers, there is simply no consensus about what can be done right away that will make a difference in the next six months to a year.

In the days since the conference, I’ve done some thinking about solutions and have come up with some ideas of my own – ideas not only for the orchestra field, but for all art forms and institutions both large and small. These are changes that you can implement today that will make an impact nearly immediately, and don’t require raising funds. One is a purely an artistic paradigm, the other purely business:

1. Organizations will thrive if they make art that attracts a growing (not a diminishing) audience.

2. Organizations will thrive if they run themselves in a more and more efficient, effective, and professional way, and new technology ought to play a central role.

The first idea comes directly from a short speech at the conference by Larry Wendling, Ph.D., vice president, Corporate Research Laboratory, for 3M. He clearly and matter-of-factly described 3M’s alarmingly simple business approach: “Innovate and then add value.” He said it over and over: if you truly add value, people will beat down the door to your company (or concert hall).

And indeed, in the hallways of the Hilton Minneapolis, I heard stories from small and mid-sized orchestra managers that backed this up. A handful of managers told me that despite the economy, they were holding their own, or even improving in some key ways. Ticket sales were up, or subscriptions holding steady, largely owing to refinements in programming, pricing, or overall strategy.

A more dramatic example came from our client, the Stockton Symphony, which I mentioned more obliquely in last month’s article. Jane Kenworthy, the executive director/CEO, told me that Stockton, California, has a 17.3% unemployment rate and the seventh-highest foreclosure rate in the country. She said that “by all rights, our orchestra should have folded by now.”  

But she went on to describe how they had recently sold 3,000 tickets for a pops concert – the most they had ever sold for a single evening in the history of the orchestra. She was brimming with pride in having sold out the house and added that it had taken “years” for the board and music director to agree to initiate a pops series.

Was she bringing Mozart and Beethoven, as (some might argue) was the mission of a symphony orchestra? No. It was a pops concert, plain and simple. But she sold tickets – and lots of them.

Here is a plucky orchestra manager pulling out all the stops when the chips are down. She added value to her community. And how did she do it? By taking risks and trying something new. Jane said, “We are still innovating in the midst of this economic crisis!”

This is my first point. Organizations will thrive if they make art that attracts a growing (not a diminishing) audience. If you find ways to continually fill your house, your economic engine will grow. You’ll identify new donors, board members, and you’ll look much better to prospective funders. Nothing breeds success like success.

My colleague Diane Ragsdale took me to task last month when I suggested that in this economy, filling the house must be job number one, and bending the mission of your organization might be part of that equation. For a few days others chimed in, and it was a spirited debate. You can read the whole comment thread here.

Perhaps because I straddle the fence between the for-profit and non-profit world, I have developed a particular point of view. In the end, I’d rather my local orchestra stay in business and do two pops concerts a year along with their two classical concerts, and have a growing budget, bigger audience, and a positive story to tell, than doggedly stick to what it’s been doing for decades and face extinction.

And lest you think I’m merely suggesting that everyone do more pops concerts, or more productions of Beauty and the Beast, I’m not. Witness the fact that the recent “Spring for Music” festival at Carnegie Hall sold out nearly all of its events, and presented not a single piece of standard repertoire – it was all modern music. Witness the fact that that Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival presents nearly all new work each summer from both established and cutting-edge dance companies. They don’t do The Nutcracker. I’m not passing judgment on what the art is. I don’t have an agenda. I am simply arguing for the creation of something for which tickets are hard to come by as a prime objective in tough times.

Now, let’s turn to the business paradigm: Organizations must run themselves in a more and more efficient, effective, and professional way, and new technology ought to play a central role.

I spend a good deal of my business life immersed in the technology world. Every day my inbox is overflowing with announcements about new technology innovations to make businesses more productive. In corporate America, companies are constantly seeking new technology to streamline their operations, do better marketing, provide better customer service, and save time for their employees to focus on their jobs. 

What struck me at the League conference was this: If technology is seen as a central and critical solution for American corporations, why is it not a more central topic for discussion in the arts? For instance, if I told you that new technology could reduce the time your staff takes to do their jobs by 20 or 30 percent, isn’t that a worthy goal? If time is money – then the right new technology can literally manufacture time!

In an industry in distress, why isn’t technology front and center as part of the discussion? And if technology is driving innovation at every level of the corporate world, why aren’t arts leaders embracing it?

What I know for sure is that new technology is nearly always present when industries in crisis manage to wriggle out of their troubles. The much-maligned newspaper industry, which was teetering toward irrelevance a few years ago, has made valiant strides in this regard, and now some of the very best iPad apps are those created by The New York Times and more recently the New Yorker. So why isn’t this happening in the arts?

I’m now heading out to California this week for the Americans for the Arts Conference and TCG, where I suspect I’ll be hearing stories similar to the ones I heard at the Symphony League. As I do, I’ll be thinking about these two paradigms for the direction the arts field needs to head: making art that adds value and attracts a growing audience, and embracing technology that helps it cut costs, market better, and run more efficiently.

These may not be the only things the arts world needs. But I would bet that if these are nailed, a lot of other challenges will be a lot easier to manage.

 

Pre-empting the Death of E-mail Marketing

Comscore just published an omnibus study about e-mail usage, and the study shows that it's declining by something like 6% and fairly substantially among the very young. You can read the results here.  I'm writing to head off the inevitable e-mails and blog posts about the "death of e-mail," a conclusion that would necessarily be bad for our own PatronMail business, and bad for arts marketing overall.

The article actually has some of the most staggering good news for the arts I've read in years -- buried later in the report. Referring to e-mail usage: 

In contrast, usage increased among those 55 and over. The number of 55-64 year olds accessing web-based email increased 15 percent with similar gains in engagement, while those age 65+ experienced gains across all three metrics as well. 

So what we're seeing is that now, decades after e-mail hit the scene, the bulk of the traditional arts patron audience is finally catching on!  From a marketer's perspective, these patrons are exhibiting all the traits of "late adopters."  So don't give up on e-mail so quickly -- it may only now be moving into its heyday.

"But what about the audience of the future?" I hear you say.  Yes, e-mail usage seems to be declining among those in their 20s and 30s, which is why you need a good social media strategy and great execution. You're not going to win the media-day with 25-year olds with e-mail.  The good news is that with a little bit of work and completely free tools, you can do an awesome job connecting to patrons using social media. (And, in less than a month, the book I've just written with Michelle Paul will be published, in which she provides a roadmap for how to succeed with social media.)

So between e-mail usage increasing among the core arts audience, and social media coming on strong for the younger crowd, there's never been a better time to double-down on your digital marketing. 

We’re In the Business of Tomorrow

Along with 15,000 others in a packed convention center in San Francisco last week, I witnessed an amazingly inspiring event. President Bill Clinton took the stage (introduced by Stevie Wonder), and held court for more than an hour, talking about what’s on his mind. From physics to green energy to the earthquake in Haiti, he outlined his take on what’s wrong with the world, what’s wrong with America, and how to fix it.

He said a lot that resonated, much of it relevant to the arts. My ears continue to ring with this phrase from his speech: “We live in a world where the way people get information is filtered through yesterday's categories." Put another way: We’re constantly making decisions about the future based on the lens of the past.

Clinton explained that in highly evolved societies like the United States (as opposed to developing countries), entrenched processes and economic interests make profound change much harder than in other societies. People cling to the ways they did things in the past out of fear, and out of self-interest. This stops innovation and leads to stagnation.

He used as an example the fact that while the U.S. once held the lead in solar energy panel production, we bungled the opportunity, and the Chinese and the Germans are now the ones who will likely own the industry. Clinton said that unless things change, we are on a path to becoming a country in decline, rather than one on the move. A sobering perspective.

His antidote? America ought to be in the “tomorrow business.” We need to recognize and accept how the world has changed, and adapt to the future. We need to make our plans for the way the world will be five years from now, not the way it was five years ago.

All of this resonated personally, because his thinking is very much in line with our company’s philosophy. In 2001, we were first to introduce e-mail marketing to the arts industry, recognizing that e-mail would quickly become a “must” marketing technique. We built PatronMail, and nine years later, e-mail marketing has indeed become mainstream. (As a small bit of evidence of e-mail’s prominence, our 1,800 clients sent out over 30 million e-mails in the last month alone.)

And, as you may know, we made our second big bet this year, launching PatronManager CRM to introduce CRM to the arts industry. If you’ve not yet heard about it, here’s quick video:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who don’t want to watch the video, here’s the skinny: PatronManager CRM is a cloud-based CRM system built for small and mid-sized arts organizations. It offers 21st century technology for next to no cost. It’s not a ticketing system, and it’s not a fundraising system. It’s an all-in-one system built from the ground up that instantly provides collaboration and efficiency for your staff, because it combines ticketing and subscriptions, e-mail marketing, day-to-day tasks, calendar, and fundraising in one web-based system. There’s no hardware to purchase and maintain, no software to install, and no IT person needed to operate it.

In the past, arts organizations operated stand-alone systems for ticketing, fundraising, and e-mail. But the world is changing, arts patrons are changing, and the technology options that are available to arts organizations are changing, too. The lens of the future shows that as our society becomes more and more web-connected, and social media and mobile devices take off, what’s required is an entirely new way of thinking – and thus a new approach to arts management and technology. That approach is CRM (customer relationship management) and cloud computing - in which all of your patron data, and all of your transactions and operations, are on the same system, accessible over the web.

That’s why, when we decided to build a CRM system, we partnered with one of the most dynamic and successful CRM technology companies in Silicon Valley, the $20B salesforce.com. Salesforce.com pioneered cloud-based CRM for the corporate market, and today has over 85,000 corporate clients and over 2 million users. Mark Benioff, Salesforce’s CEO, is also a non-profit visionary who, starting on day one, mandated a corporate commitment to philanthropy by creating the Salesforce Foundation. The Foundation has already donated technology to 9,500 non-profits worldwide, and our partnership takes advantage of this philanthropic program. (It was at the annual salesforce.com conference that I heard Bill Clinton speak.)

Indeed, we are in the business of tomorrow. CRM and cloud computing are the future of business technology; that’s why we’re introducing and evangelizing CRM for the arts. Our mission is to revolutionize the industry by providing world-class cutting-edge technology to arts and non-profits, at a price they can afford, and CRM fits our mission.

I hope in the year to come, you’ll join me in looking at the world with your own lens of the future. The economic climate is challenging, and your jobs are not getting any easier. New technology is a proven way forward to building better, more robust relationships with your patrons, and maximizing every moment of every staff member’s precious time. And just as e-mail went from unknown to commonplace in five years, I predict that CRM will quickly become a “must-have” technology for the arts.

In 2011, as you wear that lens of the future, we’ll help guide the way. I’m pleased to announce that early in the year, we’ll publish (in print and for Kindle/iPad) a new book I’ve written with my colleague Michelle Paul, outlining our vision of arts marketing for the 21st century with a focus on CRM, e-mail, websites, and social media.

I hope as we travel around the country in this coming year, you’ll attend one of our seminars or presentations. Despite the efficiency of e-mail and webinars, there’s nothing like meeting you face-to-face, and we look forward to it.

On behalf of our entire staff, thank you for your support. We wish you a wonderful holiday season.

 

If you'd like to learn more about PatronManager CRM, click here.

Facebook’s New “Deals” Feature: A Geography Lesson

Did you happen to notice the latest news from Facebook last week? It was perhaps the quietest, least controversial announcement they’ve made in years, but it may very well have the most impact for anyone selling anything to the public.

Here’s the opening of the article in The New York Times:

Facebook introduced a feature on Wednesday that will allow retailers and other merchants to offer coupons and special deals through its mobile application, intensifying competition in the market for mobile searches and advertising.

People who use Places, Facebook’s location feature, will see a yellow icon indicating that a redeemable deal or coupon is available
nearby.     

Before we discuss the specifics of this announcement, let’s talk about the technological innovation behind it: geolocation. Quite simply, geolocation technology embedded within a smartphone or other mobile device enables you to find relevant and timely information based on where you are at a given moment. The same technology also enables you to broadcast your whereabouts, should you choose to. Geolocation has been around for a while, but it’s starting to go mainstream -- if you’ve ever been out with a friend who has an iPhone or Android phone, you’ve probably seen them check their phones to find nearby restaurants, banks, or bars (and reviews) within two blocks of where you are.

There are many location-based social platforms like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Loopt, and Gowalla, and they’re gaining a lot of traction today. The reach of most of these services is still small, with some sources saying that fewer than 5 percent of smartphone owners participate now, but their existence foretells the future.

The idea behind these services is that you sign up for an account and download an app to your geolocation-enabled smartphone. Then, when you’re out on the town -- whether “on the town” means bar hopping on a Saturday night, going to dinner and the theatre with friends, or going away on a business trip, you take a moment to “check in” at each location when you arrive by opening the app on your phone, letting the geolocation technology figure out where you are, and then touching the "check in" button. Your friends who also use the app can see that you’ve checked in, and you can see which other app users are currently at the bar with you! People can also leave “tips” for other users, like “Heather the barista makes the best frappuccinos,” or “Don’t order the sweet potato fries.”

 

The technology gets interesting for marketers because businesses can offer specials and discounts on some of these platforms, and this is where the Facebook announcement comes in. 

The "check in and get a deal" model has already been around other platforms -- things like “Visit this bar three times in a month and get a free glass of wine!” are common on Foursquare, but Facebook’s 200 million mobile users mean that this new feature is the first truly mainstream location-based “deals” app.

With 200 million people accessing Facebook through mobile devices, how many of them are your patrons or people who could potentially be your patrons? Imagine a woman sitting down at a restaurant at 6:30 in the evening and checking in on Facebook. She finds out that the theatre across the street is offering discounted tickets for anyone who checks in there during the next hour. Geolocation gives you another way to reach out beyond your venue walls and catch someone's attention.

These deals are not hard to set up (here’s Facebook’s video showing you how), and cost nothing to try out -- and best of all, your results are completely trackable. You couldn’t ask for a more compelling new marketing idea to test.

Anyone up for it? (Let us know how it goes and we’ll write about you in a follow-up article.)

Is the Recession Affecting Arts Patrons? It Depends on Who You Ask.

Last March, we surveyed over 10,000 patrons of 23 different arts organizations about their online habits and arts attendance. We found that the ongoing recession is affecting a large segment of the arts-going community, and that the segment that is being most affected is the audience of the future.

Overall, 62 percent of respondents said that because of the recession they have changed their arts-going behavior. For the purposes of this article, let’s call them the “recession-affecteds” (RAs). These RAs are slightly younger than the "unaffected" group - 53 percent are under 55 years old. 71 percent of them are women, compared to 60 percent of those who said they are not affected by the recession. The average income of RAs is about $101,000; those who say they are not affected have an average income of about $136,000.

Let's look at what the RAs are saying about their arts-going habits. 62 percent say they are attending fewer performances. On average, they say they're going to about six performances per year, compared to eight for the audience that is not affected by the recession. That’s a drop of 25 percent.

Unsurprisingly, the RAs are focused on affordability. 53 percent say that ticket prices are too high. 52 percent are seeking discount tickets, and 38 percent say they are buying less expensive seats when they do go.  Price shopping isn’t the only way that they are changing their habits. 16 percent said that they are now more open to “trying new things” because of the recession, which seems like good news for arts organizations seeking a new audience.  

So in summary, the people most affected by the recession are generally younger and less affluent, and are seeking discounts and buying less expensive tickets.  What this data suggests is that if your ticket sales are not diminishing despite this, it is likely because the slack is being made up by your older, wealthier traditional audience.   

That said, the research also suggests new ways of reaching those RAs. Consider this: Over 57 percent of RAs said that they use the Internet more than they did in the year before, and 63 percent said that when they're on your e-mail list they feel more connected to your organization. If there ever was a time to build your e-mail marketing program, now is it!

About 45 percent said that they visited a social networking site within the last week, and 18 percent said they follow an arts organization on Facebook or Twitter. What's fascinating is that 53 percent of those that follow organizations on a social media site claimed that they participated with that organization more often. Arts managers that still need to convince upper management or board members of the value of social media -- here’s your ammunition.

About 74 percent of the RAs said that it makes a difference to them when an arts organization seems to know them personally. We’re in a whole new world of arts marketing and audience development, and in next month's article I’ll explore this further.    

Overall, it seems that those organizations that can harness technology and techniques to build personal relationships with younger arts patrons have a better chance of engaging with them and motivating them to attend, even in this volatile and difficult economic climate.

Back to the E-Future: What a Difference (Nearly) a Decade Makes!

We started Patron Technology exactly nine years ago this week, and as I thought about how to mark this anniversary, I was reminded of an article I wrote that was posted on our website in 2002.

Here’s how it started:

Arts marketers, mark this moment. We're witnessing the dawn of a new and astonishingly powerful age - the age of e-mail marketing. The promise of the web to transform our lives is only partially correct. It's e-mail marketing that will make the real difference.

The prevailing wisdom at the time was that most e-mail would never been seen as anything more than spam, and that nothing good could come by creating more of it. However, smart marketers got on board and began using professional approaches to editorial and design, and many arts patrons now find e-mail their preferred means of staying in touch with arts organizations.

Later in the article, I noted:

...a recent survey of 20 New York area arts organizations reveals that arts marketing hasn't really changed much in the last few decades. Marketing budgets are still a mix of print ads, flyers and brochures, direct mail, telemarketing and radio spots.

Well, we certainly can’t say the same for change in the last decade! There have been profound changes to the arts marketing landscape, and the rate of change is continuing today, if not increasing.

In these nine years, I’ve given hundreds of seminars around the country. I've recently noticed an undercurrent in the community of arts managers, which I felt mostly strongly at a meeting at the Houston Arts Alliance last Friday. The energy in the room was palpable; there now seems to be a real sense of urgency for innovation and improvement.

It’s time for new approaches to arts management, and these approaches will be supported by new technology. Nine years ago we put a stake in the ground and bet that the key factor in moving the field ahead would be e-mail marketing. Likewise, we’re now putting our money on Customer Relationship Management, the most important new technology for arts managers to come along in the last 50 years.

The Future Is CRM

We launched our newest product, PatronManager CRM just a few weeks ago. If you missed the article I wrote last month introducing it, you can read it here.

This time around we’ve taken a new approach to product development by partnering with a $1 billion Silicon Valley company, Salesforce.com, and its Salesforce Foundation. This partnership enables us to bring Fortune 500-grade technology that combines ticketing, subscriptions, day-to-day task, fundraising, and e-mail marketing in one web-based system. We designed it specifically to meet the needs and budgets of small and mid-sized arts organizations. Because most clients don't pay an annual fee, we’ve created quite a stir.

I was thrilled last week when Fox Business News picked up on what we’re doing. They invited me to come talk about CRM and why I think it will revolutionize the arts.

You can watch that interview here:

Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century

It has always been our philosophy that our role in the arts community is not only to bring innovative products to market but also to help introduce and educate arts managers about how new technology and techniques can dramatically improve audience development.

Toward that end, I’m pleased to announce our fourth annual full-day “E-marketing E-mersion E-vent,” taking place on September 16th in New York and subtitled "Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century."

This year we’ve assembled a stellar group of invited speakers to join our staff in presenting an overview of the most important trends in arts marketing and technology.

I’m going to start the conference by revealing the results of our most recent national arts patron survey. Each year we survey tens of thousands of arts patrons, to understand why they go online and what they expect from arts organizations on the web. I think you’ll find the results eye-opening.

You’ll also hear from Damian Bazadona, the president and founder of Situation Interactive, the marketing and advertising agency that was responsible for 2009’s “Next to Normal” Twitter performance. Damian’s company is on the forefront of using social media on Broadway, and what they are doing is inspirational.

Ken Davenport is one of the most innovative of the next generation of Broadway producers. His blog, “The Producer’s Perspective,”has become a must-read for me on a daily basis. He always has smart and thought- provoking posts. Ken runs interactive workshops for aspiring producers every year, which are a hot ticket. He’s going to recreate his magic for us.

If you follow my blog you know I believe the next big online media shift will be the proliferation of live streaming video. The implications of this for the arts are profound. The fact is, Europe is way ahead of us in this area, which is why I invited Chris Hunt, co-founder of Classical TV, to speak about what his company is doing. ClassicalTV.com is the largest destination for performing arts videos online. If you want a glimpse of the future, this is where you’ll find it.

Way back in December, I wrote an article about dynamic pricing which got a strong reaction. So, we’ll have a session by Rick Lester, of TRG fame, devoted to that subject. You'll learn the basic principles for using pricing to maximize revenues and create fuller-looking houses.

And, of course, the day wouldn't be complete without beginner and advanced sessions on social media, CRM, and e-mail marketing. The conference will end with a panel discussion, with our guest speakers looking at what lies ahead for the next decade.

I think this is our best conference line-up yet, and I hope you’ll find an excuse to spend a day with us in New York this September. We have a limit of 175 seats, and there are only 75 left. You can register for $99 here.

Even if you’re on the west coast, there are plenty of upcoming opportunities to connect with us . We’ll be doing our annual technology pre-conference day at the ArtsReach conference on October 21 in Los Angeles. And looking ahead to mid-November, I hope you’ll plan to come to the NAMP conference in San Jose, CA, where I’ll be leading a panel discussion about CRM, featuring some great speakers: Steven Roth, who co-authored three studies on CRM published by the Direct Marketing Association, Brian Sayre from the Cleveland Playhouse, and Ruth Davidson from Emerson University.

Looking Ahead

Our mission as a company has always been to bring innovative technology at an affordable price to the arts industry. Today we have over 1,750 PatronMail clients, and we’re soon to reach our first 100 PatronManager CRM clients.

I’m gratified that we’ve developed a fantastic and spirited staff that works hard every day to help us achieve our mission, and you to achieve yours. Thank you for your support, your ideas and your commitment to changing the arts.

We look forward to the next nine years!

Last Gasp Indeed!

This is a quick follow-up from my recent post about the "last" analog Olympics. I wrote last week that I was sure that the Twitterverse would be up in arms over the tape-delay nature of NBC's coverage. And, well, here's some evidence that I was right:

The People of Twitter Think NBC's Olympics Coverage Sucks

I don't know about you, but I'm failing at avoiding online spoilers during these Olympics. Several good competitions have already been ruined for me by Twitter, Google News and Facebook. (Even the official Olympics page on Facebook has taken to posting results before NBC airs them.) So I'm with the angry mob on this one.

Increasing Your E-mail Budget? Corporates Are, Big-time

If you like to look over the shoulder of the corporate market to get a sense of how to allocate scarce marketing dollars (as I do), today's E-marketer provides a pretty good window into what business executives are planning in the coming year.

Needless to say, I agree with it!

The Key to Lower Opt-out Rates

This week, my favorite site eMarketer seems to be doing nothing but delivering holiday gifts. The most recent one below says in a simple chart what we all know to be the truth about e-mail marketing: Relevance is king.

If you mail a message with content that's relevant to your recipient, they will open and read it, and some percentage will take action. But if you mail an irrelevant or boring message, you're doing damage to your e-mail list by wearing it out.

E-mail marketing turns out to be mostly a creative editorial endeavor. In the end, it's not about the date you send it, or the time of day, or how many images you include, or the font size. It's simply about what you say and to whom.

That's why my mantra for 2010 is going to be audience segmentation. If you "blast" out the same message to everyone and assume it will be relevant to all, your message is probably too generic.

(I'll repeat a comment I made in a blog post a few weeks ago. The Obama campaign e-mail list had over 300 segments based on all sort of things like state, city, and job titles.)

The chart tells the story better than words.