Why I didn’t buy tickets to shows I wanted to see
Over the last few weeks among the slew of advertising that landed in my inbox and social media feed, I saw at least a half dozen events I was interested in attending. This is much higher than usual when weeks could pass before I see even one thing that I want to attend. Several different marketers did their jobs well - they got the right message to the right person.
But I didn’t buy any of those tickets.
Some I didn’t buy because of my schedule – I’ll either be out of town or have other conflicting obligations. For others, the date worked, and I was interested in the event, but not interested enough to commit the time and money.
This made me reflect on the people who I’m marketing to. The ones who I really thought would buy but didn’t. It prompted me to put myself in their shoes. If these factors impacted my decisions, I’m sure I’m not alone.
Sometimes, no matter how much someone might want to attend, they just can’t. Certain scheduling conflicts just can’t be avoided. This is particularly challenging for one-night or limited run events, but I’ve also looked at the dates for plays with 4-week runs and not been able to find one that I could attend. (I’m not that busy, but my kids are.)
Sometimes the price is too high – which could mean that someone can’t pay the price you’re asking, but more often, they can, but don’t want to because the value of what they feel they’re getting doesn’t match the price of the ticket. (Read more about that in an earlier blog.)
Sometimes the price and their perception of the value do align, but our spending decisions don’t exist in a vacuum. Even if someone would be ordinarily OK with spending money on your tickets, they might have recently had an unexpected car repair or spent a lot of money on a loved one’s birthday and they don’t feel that have as much discretionary income as usual. For me, it was both a vacation and a high-priced ticket splurge that gave me pause about spending more from my “entertainment” budget.
Before we move away from financial factors, you may be thinking that your typical buyer has a higher-than-average income so this doesn’t apply to them. Certainly, the average arts buyer makes more than the average arts worker, but just because someone is wealthy doesn’t mean they aren’t judicious about how they spend their money. A billionaire would not spend $100 on something they feel is worth $5, even if they can easily afford to spend the money.
Of course, money isn’t the only thing people are spending when they buy a ticket. There are times when an event fits someone’s schedule and budget, but they’re dissuaded by the time commitment. Perhaps that’s their only night off that week and nothing could pry them away from a quiet night at home. Perhaps traffic means that a two-hour event becomes a four-hour excursion and that’s just too much.
Also consider scenarios where your patron’s schedule is open, but their companion’s isn’t and they can’t find someone else to go with them to the show; or someone feels comfortable with your ticket price, but when they factor in other expenses like dinner, parking, or babysitting, it suddenly feels less affordable.
The list of why someone might not attend your event is long. I’ve only touched on schedule, price, and time here but of course there are many others – not to mention actual interest in what you’re putting on.
I promise I’m not writing this blog post to discourage you, but rather to remind you to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and think about your own experiences as a patron because here’s the reality:
Even though there are a lot of things out of our control, there’s still a lot we can do.
Don’t take it personally when people don’t buy. Sometimes the reasons have nothing to do with us.
Be realistic in your revenue projections. Not everyone who came to Hamlet will be back for Othello.
Pay attention to your response rate and cost of sale. Some people need reminders and will finally buy after the 8th time they see your marketing, but some aren’t going to attend no matter how many times they see an ad or email. Don’t continue spending your limited time and money if you’re not getting results. Shift to a new strategy or new target where you can have more of an impact.
Stay in touch with those non-buyers. I am still very interested in those organizations who marketed to me in the past few weeks. I want to keep receiving their information so that when the timing and pricing and interest stars align, I will buy a ticket. I hope they don’t drop me from their lists because I haven’t bought in a while.
Look at messaging. Remember those events that interested me, but not enough to commit the time and money? Maybe only a free ticket to a venue down the street from me would have changed my mind, but perhaps different messaging could have convinced me that it would be worth it.
Review your pricing, but don’t jump to conclusions. If some people aren’t willing to pay your prices, but you can fill the hall with people who are, you might be just fine. But if you have goals around building new audiences that aren’t getting met with your current strategy, it could be worth examining.
Empathize with your patrons and look at things from their perspective as often as possible. Listen to the data but remember that there are human beings on the other side of every transaction.
Read other blog posts here and contact me if you need a hand.