Setting Marketing Priorities
Every year at an arts organization is like a road trip to a new destination. We may be experienced enough after taking many of these trips to know how to prepare and what to pack. But since the journey changes every year with new performances, exhibits, and programs, there are still plenty of adventures (and challenges) to be had.
Extending the metaphor: for those of us in arts marketing, the destination may be our sales goal or another key metric. Our detailed marketing plans tell us when to mail the brochures and launch the advertising like a GPS tells us when to turn and where to find gas. But before we embark on the journey, there are some important decisions to be made. If it is important to reach the destination as quickly as possible, the driver will need to take the fastest route and may need to drive through the night. But if the journey is more important, they will take the scenic route allowing plenty of time to explore along the way. As arts marketers we also need to know what we are prioritizing.
This prioritizing phase often gets skipped—and that can lead to a rough journey, confused and unhappy travelers, and perhaps even missing the destination entirely. This travel plan becomes the foundation for the trip. And now, I’m going end the road trip metaphor, so this doesn’t become a post for a travel blog instead of a useful tool for arts marketers.
So, before you think about who is going to get your postcards and how often you’re going to send emails, start by defining those priorities. If you’re lucky, the organization as a whole has some, maybe even a whole strategic plan, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. General, organization-wide values and goals are a great place to start, but you still need to translate those into specifics for your department. Approaching this work in a thoughtful, deliberate way makes other decisions easier, builds stronger teams, and makes goals more achievable.
As you get started with the process, keep these guidelines in mind.
Think big picture. You’re starting with overall priorities, they will help inform the tactics and plans that come later.
Write them down. You’re less likely to forget or change on a whim if it’s on paper.
Keep it brief. If you have two dozen priorities, then they aren’t all your priorities. What are the four to six values that are the most important for you to follow? I have listed more than a dozen questions below to use for inspiration. Though answering all of them could be a useful exercise, do not simply jot down each response and call it a day.
Look for conflicts. Two things might seem very important to you, but are fundamentally in conflict with each other. For example, maximizing attendance and maximizing average price paid both seem like great goals, but if the demand isn’t there to sell out at full price, you might want to discount or offer free tickets which would drive down the average price paid. Think carefully about these. Chances are, you’re going to have to choose only one. The process of forcing yourself to decide which is truly more important to you will bring clarity to your strategy and make you a better marketer.
Put them in order. Sometimes, even seemingly unrelated priorities may come into conflict with each other from time to time, particularly because of limited time and resources. You can probably keep them both on the list, but if a specific situation demands choosing only one, which priority is…well…the priority?
So, what should your priorities be? There’s no single answer that will be right for everyone. Each organization’s unique situation, mission, and values must guide the process. Before jumping in, it is important to accept that we can’t do it all. It can be hard to accept that prioritizing one thing means letting something else fall to the wayside, but making these decisions at the outset is imperative and will make future decisions much easier.
As a starting point, consider the following questions, which are listed here in no particular order. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all things to review, simply a place to start. Don’t be limited by my imagination. The answers to the questions are not the priorities themselves, but this exercise can set you on the right path to determining what yours should be.
Patron demographics
How important is it to diversify your patron base in terms of age, geography, race, gender, or other qualities?
Which under-represented demographic is the most important for you to grow first?
Loyalty
What type of buying behavior are you most interested in encouraging: memberships/subscriptions, repeat attendance, first-timers?
How does this impact fundraising efforts?
Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility
Should you invest the time to make your marketing materials more accessible? (Ensuring that digital assets like website, email, social media use robust alt-text to describe images; translating marketing materials into other languages; ensuring material is readable by those with vision impairments or color blindness.)
Is it more important to not offend anyone by steering clear of controversial topics or to lead with your values on divisive topics which may result in alienating some patrons?
How important is it to have people with diverse perspectives and cultures contribute to marketing strategies and language?
Relationships and customer service
Is the customer always right? What about when their request conflicts with your policies?
Which is preferable - polite and helpful, but efficient, primarily transactional interactions or more meaningful ones that take longer? Whether this is in the ticket office or on social media, how does this priority align with your staffing levels?
Staff development
Do you need your team to get a lot done every day or is there time for moments of professional development? These moments could be significant like attending an out-of-town conference or smaller blocks of time that can be used for reading articles, watching webinars, or visiting one of your rehearsals, classes, or exhibits.
How do you support your staff when they are faced with a difficult encounter with a patron or the public?
PR
Which press relationships do you spend more time cultivating: well-known national media or small, local outlets?
Would you choose getting stories and reviews that could generate increased awareness if it meant that your staff or artists felt harmed by language in those articles?
Key Metrics
If you could maximize only one thing, would you choose the number of people attending/participating, the average price paid, or the total amount of revenue? Each one requires a different strategy.
Would you prefer to maximize patron count with comps or increase the perceived value by limiting discounts and free access?
Would you rather focus on attracting new to file patrons or getting existing patrons to return more frequently? (I know, I know. You want both, but if you had to choose one to focus on, which would it be?)
What’s is the most important thing to measure: quantitative-based metrics like the ones listed above or qualitative ones related to the patron experience and positive word of mouth?
Once you have your priorities drafted, take care to pay attention to the follow through.
Get approval. Buy-in from leadership is critical to ensure that your department is in-step with the rest of the organization and that you will be properly supported.
Share. Smart, hard-working, and well-intentioned staff members can actually be working against you if you have opposing priorities. Once these are set, everyone on your team will be rowing in the same direction. (Wait, I thought we were on a road trip?!) Also share with other departments so they know what you’re up to and so efforts can be coordinated when appropriate.
Extrapolate. Your priorities will affect every other aspect of your work. Make sure they are reflected in your budget, staffing, pricing and discounting, policies and procedures, and of course, in your marketing plans and tactics.
Use them. Until they become second nature, it is probably a good idea to read through your priorities from time to time and ask yourself if you are truly using them as a guide when making decisions. Even after they are second nature, this is still a good practice! Hold staff who you supervise accountable for implementing them in their work and ask others to hold you accountable.
Update. Your priorities may change. Take time once a year to reevaluate and adjust. You may need to make changes in between annual reviews, but try to keep those changes to a minimum to avoid frequent direction changes. Resist the urge to change a priority for convenience, it might make things easier in the short term, but really defeats the purpose of setting this list.
Think about what priorities could guide your team and what changes it could inspire in your marketing efforts. I’d love to know how your journey goes. Drop me a note and let me know.
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