A few random thoughts for your summer of marketing

It’s the first day of June, the first day of Pride month, and, for some, your seasons may be over. For others, you may be jumping into marketing a new project (our jobs don’t REALLY end, do they?) or pondering over how to market a particularly difficult task, or betting that something will be a surefire winner.

In what will likely be one of my shortest blog posts, I’ll catch you up on some of my broken record advice and some new thoughts. Watch this space for more tips coming up. I’m excited that I’ve been invited to speak again at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, where the topic will be “marketing new works in small cities.” (So I’ve leveled up from marketing new works and now we’re talking about trying to do it in places that aren’t necessarily used to new works.) So I’m gonna get back to the blog. I’ll spare you my feelings on the American medical system after a particularly difficult year. That’s for another blog.

A random smattering of thoughts

• Don’t offer stuff for free. I am begging you. “Pay What You Can” is one thing. Don’t give your tickets away for free to anyone who didn’t do something to help your theatre (e.g. volunteer ushers.) You send the message that your work is not worth paying for. You reinforce the prevalent notion that artists should work “for exposure.” If your original tickets were a lot more than free, you illustrate that you don’t know how to price. This all adds to your theatre’s image and thus is a marketing issue.
• When you’re tempted to offer for free, ask yourself why. Is your pricing too high? Or are people just not interested in your work? This requires surveying your audience and studying the results. You won’t have an answer for everyone, but if you have an online buying option, this should be there, and give you enough of an overview that you can make some solid predictions. Furthermore, word the question as “what made you want to see the show?” rather than “How did you hear?” They are two different things.
• Don’t use “Come support the arts” as your main marketing point. Our job as marketers is to meet our customers where they are, not where we are. We love our show but that’s not a good enough reason for people to come see it. If people aren’t buying tickets, telling them they have some sort of a responsibility to support local art is not likely to work. We may use this tactic to get people to vote, put folks are likely to have a much bigger stake and a whole lot more opinions about voting.
• Bigger isn’t always better. Know your audience. What are they looking for? Is it flash and excess? Or is it good solid work? I’ll tell you a secret…the new generation of theatergoers doesn’t care about the excesses. They want to see a production about something that matters to them. So when you’re picking your shows, remember that.
• What is familiar in your piece? A love story? The source material? The songs? Even if it's an unknown show, there’s something familiar in it. Find that. Get it in your tag line. Get it on video. Get it in photographs. And get it out there, consistently, professionally, and to the audience that is likely to care the most.
• No advertising money? It’s okay. Guess what? Social media is free or extremely cost-effective for advertising. Websites aren’t free but they give you free rein to put information about your show in an easily accessible place. Photos. Videos. Info about the artists. Historical context. Does this mean someone will have to do more work? Yes. Does this mean you will get bigger audiences? YES. I did the research. Websites were a major motivator, both in getting people to buy and in reassuring people’s purchase after they go through with it. There’s no reason not to pack your website with information.
• “Woke” comes in many forms. Yes, we are all looking to be very inclusive, diverse, and tell Very Important Stories. There are a lot of ways you can do that though. It can start with hiring practices. It’s also possible to do a production that’s not “woke” in any obvious way but is just done with people of color in roles traditionally played by white people. Or a show where the race just doesn’t matter (not color-blind casting, which brings up a host of issues). Change your mindset. And, I am begging you, don’t tokenize your people of color to sell tickets.
• Start early. Your marketing plan should be committed to paper at least six months before you start using it. Count on your press leads to fall through. Maybe they won’t. But you’d better not be counting on them as your sole tactic.
• Marketing and programming should be very closely related. If you are big enough that you have committees that decide these things, or separate teams, they need to both be working together. Want to do a new play? Outstanding! What’s our marketing angle. Have a great idea for a marketing angle? The director and/or programming people may be able to tell you that you’re way off. Do it together. And listen.
• Stop forgetting about marketing. Along with smart budgeting, it’s the most important component of your planning for a show. But I have seen soooo many theatres just toss it aside and wait for word of mouth. Please stop.
• Criticize your work. Every time. What worked well? Will it always work? What can I do better? Then do it.

Bottom Line:

Take stock of what you do well and what you can improve on, and think from a marketing angle at all times. Remember, Netflix, Hulu, and jammies are waiting for your audience. You have to make what you’re doing enticing enough to skip those things.