Summer “vacation” ideas for arts marketers
For anyone on a fall through spring production schedule, we’re entering the long-awaited, much-beloved down time between seasons. Though this time never ends up being as quiet or as long as we tell ourselves it is going to be, at least everything is a little less rushed for a few beautiful months.
Ideally, you will get some time away for an actual vacation, but even when you’re in the office, hopefully your day-to-day work this summer can feel like a bit of a vacation from the rigor of your in-season routine.
It may the perfect time to tackle some projects that you typically don’t have time for. This is also a good opportunity to look back at everything you just accomplished, do some housekeeping, and plan for the future. And to take a breath and recharge.
Here are some suggestions for how to get the most out of your downtime. Depending on your and your team’s workload and schedule, you may only get to a few, but keep the others on your list for next summer or any moment of calm between now and then.
HOUSEKEEPING
Go through the pages on your website and look for outdated information that needs to be updated or deleted.
Organize photo libraries in your website CMS or email marketing platform.
Do a little “summer cleaning” of your lists and reports that have been piling up in your email platform or CRM. Positive you’re never going to use them again? Get rid of ‘em. Still on the fence? See what you can do to tuck them out of the way – put them in a folder or rename them, perhaps.
Make sure you have as many copies of printed collateral as you need, file those, and get rid of the rest.
Do the same with digital files: organize them and get rid of drafts and other unnecessary files.
Update your editorial style guide.
STRATEGY
Encourage collaboration and communication by spending some time with your colleagues in other departments to learn about their plans.
Set your strategic goals for the upcoming season.
Determine if there are areas where your staff needs more training and get that scheduled.
Review your branding and think about whether you are embracing it to the fullest or whether it needs a refresh or overhaul.
Think about the big projects that may be coming up in the fall or winter (such as an audience survey, pricing decisions, and seat map zone changes) and create a plan for how you will approach them when the time comes.
REPORTING
Look back at how last year went and get creative about the metrics you want to track, it’s not all about total sales.
Plan ahead for new data points you want to collect next year and create a plan for capturing this new information. (Spoiler alert – next month’s blog post will list some of my favorite metrics.)
Set up templates to make reporting, budgeting, and projections easier in the coming year.
Whether any of the items in this post make it into your workflow this summer, I hope you find time to take a break and set yourself up for a successful year ahead. You’re doing great!
Need some help with any of your summer projects? Let me know. Or contact me in the fall if you realize there is still more that you need to do and you don’t have the time to get to it on your own.