Web award for Arts Marketing

There aren't a lot of award contests for arts marketing efforts.  However, if you redesigned or upgraded your website in 2008 and you want to see how it measures up, save this link to the web marketing association. 

The WMA has a specific category for the arts in their annual WebAwards and the 2009 competition opens April first.  

Nearly a dozen museum or theatre groups were honored in 2008, including the Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company, the Hirshorn Museum, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

Can your Grandmother improve your bottom line?

My grandma Hazel was a great cook and a sharp wit.  She'd also set you straight in a hurry if you didn't say "thank you".   

"It's what properly raised people do", she'd tell us.  

Many arts organizations are cutting staff and programs in an attempt to stay afloat in the current economy.  Letting details slip is an inherent danger when there are fewer people and resources.  

While you aren't going to be able to do everything you did before with 30% less budget, there are certain areas that should be preserved at all costs.  I would argue that customer service falls into this category.

Your "customers", whether big donor or one-time ticket holder, are feeling today's pinch as well. But despite more limited budgets, these are the individuals still choosing to come to your performances and support your exhibitions.  They could have selected any number of other options, including leaving those hard-earned dollars in the bank, but they chose you.  That deserves your appreciation and recognition.  

So make sure you're providing a warm greeting at the box office window.  Make sure visitor services are at their best.   And for goodness sake, send your follow-up notes after meetings or when donations are given.  

Remember also, not all your competitors will attend to these details as carefully right now.  So by maintaining your customer service you may truly set yourself apart from other organizations.  It can mean that your budgets don't suffer as greatly in this lean time and you'll be remembered when greater prosperity returns.  

It's possible.  And it starts by doing the simplest of things.  Like saying "Thank you".  Your customers will notice and your grandmother will approve.

MOMA sees opportunity with locals

Last week I wrote about combatting a downturn in tourist attendance by focusing on your local market.  Looks like the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art was a step ahead of me.

The museum has started a campaign to bring New Yorkers into the museum.  The highest profile part of this campaign is their work in a Brooklyn subway station.  The MOMA has plastered the Atlantic/Pacific stop with images of work from their permanent collection, creating an underground gallery complete with audio guides.

The New York Times covered the story this month and you can also get an idea of the experience with this virtual tour.

Keep an eye on travel statistics

Over the last few months there have been conflicting reports on how much Americans will be traveling this year.  That's not really surprising with  so many people unsure about the economy and their own jobs. 

We are entering the time when vacation plans are made for the prime traveling season but this year there seems to be more of a wait-and-see approach.  

One small thought to combat a possible downturn in your out-of-town attendance, look at adjusting your media mix.  If travelers do decide to hold off on vacations this year, you'll probably need to pull out of some of the magazines and mailings targeted to visitors that you've used in past years.  

Then look at moving those dollars to media targeted for local audiences.  They're staying home too, but very few will be satisfied with sitting around the house as a substitute for their normal week at the beach.   

To keep an eye on the trends nationally you can get updates at traveldailynews.com.  And stay in touch with your local tourism and visitor's bureau to get their input as well.

Longer Search Terms

Last week was the Search Marketing Expo in Santa Clara, Ca.  I've been reviewing some of the topics they covered.  One interesting trend is that search terms continue to get longer.  According to Hitwise, the use of search terms containing 4 or 5 words grew over 13% since 2007.  While 1 and 2 word searches dropped 12.3% in the same time period.

As people get more experience with searching, it seems they've started to add the cross references that are important in getting the information they need.  Instead of searching "Legally Blonde", they're searching "Legally Blonde Durham Performing Arts Center".  Thus getting them to more pertinent info, more quickly.

It puts more emphasis on us to make sure each web page has as many searchable terms as possible.  This includes our headers and copy, as well as our metatags.  It's easy to let that slip on interior pages especially.  But it's vital to get these pages right, because that's normally where our richest content about upcoming events is housed.

Instead of settling for "Legally Blonde" in your description.  What about including "Legally Blonde The Musical", "Legally Blonde Tour", "Broadway Legally Blonde", "Legally Blonde Tickets", "Legally Blonde Soundtrack" and "Elle Woods".  And of course venue, location and dates.

Most of us aren't search experts first and foremost.  Luckily you don't have to come up with all the search term possibilities alone.  There are some easy tools to use.  For instance Google's Insights for Search will give you the top related searches when you enter an initial search term.  Taking these little steps can help you catch more of today's cross referenced searches.

Things you might want to know

At our agency, we think that every interaction with a customer is a chance to reinforce the brand.  Even while they're on-hold. 

A little over a year ago, our creative director, Bob Kochuk, wrote a list of slightly unusual facts and mixed them with news about us.  It was named "Things you might want to know".  If you call today you may find out that when hippos get upset, their sweat turns red or that enough beer is poured on Saturdays in the US to fill the Orange Bowl.  You might even hear that the Full Frame documentary film festival is a new Jennings client.

Hopefully callers get the impression that we're fun, a little offbeat and know how to capture attention long enough to deliver a message.   I can tell it's working because of the number of people laughing when I pick up after they've been on hold.  In fact we've had more than one person ask to be put back on hold so they could hear the rest of the facts. 

The on-hold idea is fun but it's also an important reminder to look around your organization for touchpoints.  Whether it's in your email signatures, parking signage or on-hold messaging, there are always more opportunities to make a brand impression with your customer.

If you'd like to hear our message I've loaded a sample.  Or you can always call our office (919) 929-0225 and ask to be put on-hold to get the real life experience.

Setting priorities

Most days I use this space to look at topics that could spark an idea or offer a new perspective on the challenges we face as marketers.

However,  I was raised in North Carolina and tonight is the UNC-Duke game.  As a lifelong Tar Heel fan I'm afraid the only thing I'm focused on this evening is whether coach Williams can get Carolina a fourth win in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  

I promise, tomorrow this space will be back to regularly scheduled programming, for now Go Heels!

Excerpt from Philip Kotler

Last year marked the 10th anniversary for the Philip Kotler book Museum Marketing and Strategy.  For the anniversary a second edition was released.  Kotler is one of the few mainstream marketers that has given extensive time to the question of how to market the arts.

Kotler was interviewed by the Arts Management Network in their July '08 newsletter to promote the re-release of the title.  I found this portion of the interview particularly interesting.

"Perhaps the major revelation is to think of art patrons as consumers (as well as potential givers) with varying needs, wants, and preferences. This leads to managing the arts organization from a "customer perspective." It leads the arts organization to develop multiple programs providing different offerings and satisfactions for different customers. Some people come to the museum to contemplate the great art, others come for a class, others come to meet their friends or to meet new people. As for performing arts organizations, they have to prioritize their market groups. A symphony orchestra must prepare different programs to satisfy the tastes of different audiences that the symphony orchestra values."

Kotler also wrote the forward for another book that may be of particular interest to arts marketers.  Joanne Scheff Bernstein's 2007  Arts Marketing Insights: The Dynamics of Building and Retaining Performing Arts Audiences.

North Carolina Arts Council

Over the last year, Jennings has had the good fortune to work with some great clients in the arts: the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the new Durham Performing Arts Center and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Because the arts community has been so good to Jennings it seemed like the time to give something back.  I recently called Rebecca Moore, senior program director for marketing at the North Carolina Arts Council, to ask how we could help.   The result is a pro-bono consulting program for non-profit arts organizations in the state.

Starting in March, we'll offer members of the NCAC a chance to discuss their marketing efforts and have the chance for feedback from our specialists in areas like strategic planning, copywriting, design, PR and media.  I'm very excited about the project because it's a first for both Jennings and the NCAC.

An official announcement will go out in NCAC's March/April newsletter for arts managers, ArtMatters.  As the program develops I'll share with you some of the interesting things NCAC members are doing.

2009 advertising budgets - Newspaper vs. Online

I was interested in a column that recently ran in the Raleigh News and Observer, the metro daily here in the Triangle.  The columnist, John Drescher, touted their growth in readership. This initially struck me as odd considering the trends for print have been steadily down the past decade.

It didn't take long to realize that the growth included online readers and that the online increases were overcoming declines in print circulation.  That would coincide with the national trend that shows newspaper website readership up an average of 12% or more last year.  For some the growth was even more dramatic.  The LA Times saw their online audience jump an astounding 78% in 2008.

For years the Arts section of local dailies have been mainstays in advertising plans for museums and theatres.  But with every dollar being precious this year, keep this move of readership from print to online in mind.

If the local daily is going to be in your marketing plan, make sure you take advantage of the soft advertising market by negotiating a presence online as well as in print.  While the online readership is up, some surveys show newspaper advertising revenues down to their lowest levels since 1996.  And as I mentioned in an earlier post, the current economy is making most advertising outlets very willing to negotiate deals.

The time is right to get the most out of your budget and take advantage of those increases in web readership to make your ad dollars go further.

Google Grants

If you work for a non-profit, you or your colleagues have likely spent plenty of time filling out grant requests.  Rarely will you see a grant that provides funds specifically for marketing.  This one does.

A Google grant winner receives an in-kind adword account from the search engine.  The accounts are for up to $10,000 per month in donated adword placements to drive traffic to your website.

As you'd expect, there are plenty of rules and regulations, but Google names the Arts as a specific area of interest to be funded.  So I'd encourage you to look through the Google Grants details to learn more.

The application is relatively straight forward, but make sure you think through how you'd use the grant, including which audiences you'd be pursuing and what you'll be asking them to do when they click on the adword link.

The application link is here.