Actionable Audience Data: 5 Metrics to Thrive On
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Today's database, ticketing, and CRM systems can tell administrators nearly everything they could possibly want to know about patrons. More data isn't necessarily helpful, though. Studying everything can distract administrators from the metrics on which they need to focus to grow audiences and revenue. In this 90-minute intensive, Anita Hansen, Senior Consultant at TRG Arts, will explain how your organization can stop studying every metric and focus on the most critical indicators of growth and sustainability. You’ll learn how to find the five most actionable Thrive Metrics in your own data, what they say about your organization’s health, and how to act on the data to engage and cultivate patrons. This intensive session was presented by Senior Consultant Anita Hansen at the fall 2014 Arts Reach National Arts Marketing, Development & Ticketing Conference in Los Angeles.
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Actionable Audience Data: 5 Metrics to Thrive On
- 1. ACTIONABLE AUDIENCE DATA: 5 METRICS TO THRIVE ON National Arts Marketing, Development & Ticketing Conference Anita Hansen Senior Consultant TRG Arts Copyright © 2014 TRG Arts All Rights Reserved
- 4. What We Do Patron Results 1. Consulting Capacity building for sustainable growth 2. Based on data analysis Data informs loyalty and pricing 3. TRG Data Center Platform for direct response marketing
- 5. DATA People Your Patrons
- 7. Revenue from Patron Relationships
- 8. But… there’s a lot. Donor Donor, subscriber First time ticket buyer New subscriber New donor, Multibuyer Subscriber, Used to donate First time ticket buyer, now subscriber Long-time subscriber Donor, board member Donor, Long-time subscriber
- 10. Patron Revenue How dependent are you on patrons? 1
- 12. % of patron revenue % of Patron $ to Total $ Source: your budget Timespan: most recent season/year revenue from: ticket sales + individual gifts + memberships/subs + events/ galas ( ) total revenue (including foundation, corporate, government)
- 13. % of patron revenue Recent examples 92% 81% 72% 71% 63% 60% 48% 33%
- 14. What does this look like at your organization?
- 15. Ideas for 2015: • New perspective • Focus and galvanize • Prioritize
- 16. Net Revenue Analysis The loyalty business model 2
- 17. Lifetime Value of a Customer Complex metric, simplified… T LTVC = Σ Pt – Acq. t = 1 (St – Ct) (1 + r)t Retention Revenue Cost Discount Rate
- 18. Net Revenue Analysis Monetizing Loyalty Single Ticket Buyers New Subscribers Renewing Subscribers Renewing Subscriber- Donors Per Patron Yield Cost of Sale Renewal Rates
- 19. Net Revenue Analysis A performing arts example Single Ticket Buyers New Subscribers Renewing Subscribers Renewing Subscriber- Donors Per Patron Yield $53.84 $156.05 $341.51 $550.42 Cost of Sale 20% 25% 3% 3% Renewal Rates 23% 46% 69% 88%
- 20. Donors and .5-2% HH consummate 20-40% Revenue loyalists Subscribers, 5-10% HH Members, … 13-38% Revenue “and” Current, recent 90-95% HH lapsed single ticket buyers 38-66% Revenue
- 21. Patron Loyalty Math 5th Avenue Theatre National 5th Avenue 0.5-2% HH 20-40% Revenue 5-10% HH 13-38% Revenue 90-95% HH 38-66% Revenue .1% HH 11% Revenue 8% HH 43% Revenue 92% HH 45% Revenue
- 22. Patron Loyalty Math 5th Avenue Theatre 11% revenue Average Advocate: $4,000 43% revenue 45% revenue Average Buyer: $527 Average Tryer: $48 180 12,000 140,000 10 Advocates = 76 Buyers = 833 Tryers
- 23. Compare to… Hubbard Street Dance Chicago National Hubbard Street 0.5-2% HH 20-40% Revenue 5-10% HH 13-38% Revenue 90-95% HH 38-66% Revenue .8% HH 45% Revenue 3.8% HH 18% Revenue 95% HH 37% Revenue
- 24. Active patrons Fuel your audience development strategy 3
- 25. Photo: University of the Fraser Valley/flickr
- 26. % of Active Patrons % active in last 2 years Source: your database or ticketing system Timespan: 2 most recent seasons or years Count of households that had any interaction this year and last year Total households in your database
- 27. % of Active Patrons Recent examples
- 28. EXPENSES ROI
- 29. % of Active Patrons What it means Donors and consummate loyalists Subscribers, Members, … “and” Current, recent lapsed single ticket buyers
- 30. Is your database growing? Current-year patrons Source: your database or ticketing system Timespan: last completed year or season ( ) Single ticket buyers/admissions # of active this year Subscribers/members Donors Then, compare to last 2-3 years
- 31. ACTIVE PATRONS Declining 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 Number of Household in Database 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 YTD Donor Nutcracker Single Ticket Buyer Subscriber Total HH
- 32. ACTIVE PATRONS Growing 40000 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 Number of Households in Database 2009 2010 2011 Subscribers Single Ticket Buyers Donors Education Net
- 33. Active Patrons What does it mean? 1. Indicator of organizational health Note that “health” doesn’t mean growth 2. Ability to upgrade loyalty How many are “hot prospects” for a next step? 3. Bringing in enough patrons to replace the ones lost? 4. From there: identify opportunities, challenges
- 34. Active patrons What to do about it Make an upgrade plan!
- 35. % of Active Patrons What it means Current, recent lapsed single ticket buyers
- 36. What’s an upgrade? Action Next Step Buy a ticket for the first time Buy a ticket twice in the same season Renew subscription Buy another ticket Buy a subscription Add on donation or events
- 37. When? Active patrons are declining, if you want to increase % of active patrons. Next Step: Reactivate How? Treat them like a first timer and a valued patron. When? ALWAYS, but esp. when single ticket buyers are declining Next Step: 2nd Date How? Good orientation, get contact info, invite back promptly
- 38. 4 year retention study New buyers SRT achieved second date in same season TRIPLED retention rate Revenue kept growing. More on this case at www.trgarts.com
- 39. When? Active patrons are declining, if you want to increase % of active patrons. Next Step: Reactivate How? Treat them like a first timer and a valued patron. When? ALWAYS, but esp. when subscribers/members are declining. Next Step: Add an AND— another show, a small subscription/membership How? Foster further engagement by making the ask When? ALWAYS, but esp. when single ticket buyers are declining Next Step: 2nd Date How? Good orientation, get contact info, invite back promptly
- 40. Ideas for 2015: • Reactivation • First-timer Orientation • Second date +
- 41. What about our buyers? Subscribers, Members, … “and”
- 42. % of subscriber-donors How to calculate Source: your database or ticketing system Timespan: current year or season # of subscribers who donated this year Total # of subscribers # of members who donated this year Total # of members 4
- 43. % of subscriber-donors What’s “normal”? 32% or above: Great job! 24-31%: You’re doing fine. 17-23%: On the low side of normal. 16% or lower: You have an opportunity here.
- 44. % of subscriber-donors What does it mean? 1. How loyal are your most active patrons? 2. Do you ask subscribers to upgrade with a donation? 3. Gauge potential pipeline for major donors And a “super subscriber” program
- 45. 453 Super Subscribers gave $51,100 in four months 70% had no previous giving history. More on this case at www.trgarts.com
- 46. Per capita revenue Average Ticket Revenue Source: ticket revenue reports Timespan: this year or current season Per Capita Revenues = Total Sales Revenues Total Unit Sales 5
- 47. What does it mean? Are my prices right? Per Capita should RISE as sales increase
- 48. What to do about it Revenue management 1. Think about pricing for blockbusters Which events, dates and times are in demand? 2. Monitor per cap regularly Average per capita for each event and subscription/membership per caps 3. Comps & Discounts Papering is not a business strategy
- 49. BONUS! One last metric 6
- 50. Data capture rate How to calculate Source: your database Timespan: this year or current season Total # of patrons with contact info Total # of patrons who attended Your goal: 80% or more 6
- 51. How are you collecting contact information?
- 53. Data collection matters Why? Revenue. # of 1st-time visitor households in 2014: 100,000 Membership mailing to first-time visitors: Average response rate: 2.1% Average revenue per response: $70 Data collection rate # mailed # Responded Total revenue 95% 95,000 2,000 $140,000 15% 15,000 315 $22,050 We mail every first timer who we HAVE DATA ON We mail every first timer who we HAVE DATA ON Difference: 1,685 members and $118,000
- 55. EMP: from 0% in 2010 to 40% in 2014
- 56. Collect contact information • Alvin Ailey School “Ambassadors” collect cards from audience during intermission • Volunteers help patrons fill out cards in ticket line to “speed up the process” • Audience survey in program with raffle • Fill out the card, keep the pen • Hershey’s kiss or $1 off next ticket for contact info What else?
- 57. 5 Actionable Data Points 1. % of Patron Revenue Understand how dependent you are on patrons 2. Net Revenue Analysis Drive informed financial decision making 3. Active Patrons Metrics Fuels audience development strategy
- 58. 5 Actionable Data Points 4. % of Subscriber-Donors Grows your loyalists 5. Per Capita Revenue Report card for pricing strategy BONUS: Data Capture Rate Measure your potential for keeping newbies
- 59. ACTIONABLE AUDIENCE DATA: 5 METRICS TO THRIVE ON Anita Hansen Senior Consultant, TRG Arts ahansen@trgarts.com Copyright © 2014 TRG Arts All Rights Reserved bit.ly/actionableaudience QUESTIONS?
Editor's Notes
- Hello and welcome. Every organization has critical metrics in their organization’s database that act like a barometer for growth and sustainability. Some of these you may know intimately and work with every day. And yet, there are some that do not show up on a balance sheet, ticketing reports, or in analytics. Today we’ll discuss 5 metrics that you may not have looked before that can inform your decision-making and audience development plans. First, let me introduce myself. I’m Anita Hansen and I’m a senior consultant at TRG Arts… ------------------------ Original session description: Actionable Audience Data: 5 Metrics to Thrive On Today's database, ticketing, and CRM systems can tell administrators nearly everything they could possibly want to know about patrons. More data isn't necessarily helpful, though. Studying everything can distract administrators from the metrics on which they need to focus to grow audiences and revenue. In this 90-minute intensive, Anita Hansen, Senior Consultant at TRG Arts, will explain how your organization can stop studying every metric and focus on the most critical indicators of growth and sustainability. You’ll learn how to find the five most actionable Thrive Metrics in your own data, what they say about your organization’s health, and how to act on the data to engage and cultivate patrons.
- TRG Arts is a consulting firm dedicated to the arts and entertainment field. We use data to develop strategies that help clients achieve results. TRG Arts was founded in 1995 by our late founder, Rick Lester. Our firm has grown over two decades on pioneering strategies focused on patrons and ways to develop pricing and loyalty that today have achieved results for our clients. We are based in Colorado Springs, Colorado with 35 team members, each skilled in providing guidance and solutions that are patron-based for sustainable loyalty of patrons and sustainable revenue from those patrons. At TRG, we use the word “patron” for any PERSON engaged with an organization—visitors, ticket buyers, members, donors, event attendee) So know that when you hear us say “patron”, know that I mean any PERSON engaged with any type of arts and entertainment organization—visual or performing arts; seated event or general admission. CLICK
- What we do at TRG falls into 3 areas:
- We’re talking about data today—data that you can act on and make decisions based on [CLICK] The premise is this: Data, at its heart, is about people—the audience members or PATRONS who come through your doors
- People—and their RELATIONSHIP with your organization. Yes, you heard me use the word relationship. [CLICK] It’s courtship, a love story—And in your ticketing and database systems, your audience writes the plot line for their relationship with your organization…
- …through the revenue-based you have with them--transactions like: Which exhibit they attended, which years they subscribed, how much they donated.
- But, that’s a lot of people, relationships, and transactions. They’re all doing different things [CLICK], and you have a ton of data points on each-way more than what’s on my slide here.. The field is catching up with truly dynamic database and CRM systems and the importance of data and its management. CRM systems can capture data and provide 9 million ways, broad and specific, to look at it. So where do you focus? Some of you are in a state of data and reporting paralysis-there’s just too much to address absolutely everything.
- So, STOP… Studying… Everything. We all understand prioritization, but as an industry we don’t do it. We very often expect our teams to treat EVERYTHING as important. Every task and yes, every piece of data. But we know this doesn't work! If we don't have the staff or the finances, we must make choices. But even if we DO have the resources, making choices is the most important strategic weapon we have if we’re interested in changing results. Today we’re going to stop studying everything and look at just 5 metrics that you can act on. Those 5 metrics are all about building loyal patron relationships. Why? Most efficient path to sustainable revenue, and best ROI for your org’s time and money.
- Our first metric illustrates this nicely.
- It concerns the amount of revenue your organization makes from patrons. It doesn’t matter if the patrons who give it are handled by marketing or development; all that matters is that it’s an individual (as opposed to foundation, government or corporate support.) We call these self-dependent revenues because you’re not relying on outside funding, just your audiences and patrons.
- You can make a metric from this that tells you how reliant you are on patrons. Add together the revenue you’ve made from these sources in the most recent year and put it over the total amount of revenue that you made. Many organizations look at revenue by proportion of earned vs. contributed. This tells you more…
- So what does that number typically look like at organizations? We see a wide range, but typically, it’s over 50% of organizational income. 92% = music festival (still a non-profit) Theaters = 60-80% range 33% = symphony orchestra in a mid-sized market
- Interactive with crowd
- So what action to take? (This is your homework slide.) Galvanize up (as manager) or down (as executive leader) Income from patrons is the majority of your revenue. How would you turn that into action? What goes on a stop-doing list? With this new perspective, use this number as your motivation to lead and prioritize differently Activities evaluated by impact on patron Integrated planning maximizes interaction Robust database drives planning Think broadly here with patrons as your priority Understand and follow the money Ask yourself: Where are your resources allocated against that ___% What is the impact of departmental structure on patron service and loyalty? What are you being held accountable for? And, take a look at the following metrics around patrons
- After you understand patron revenue and net revenue, you can start to make financial and audience development decisions.
- This is not the equation we are using for their loyalty measurement, this is the formula from B-school. Some of you might recognize this formula from business school. It’s the lifetime value of a patron, taking into account revenue, costs, and retention.
- Here’s a simplified view that we use to demonstrate how loyalty is the best business model because it pushes DOWN expenses and pushes up ROI. And this is the second piece of actionable data to focus on in 2015. This chart shows the most important metrics to show just how much revenue, after expenses, each buyer type was contributing to the organization’s financial health. Per patron yield—average price a patron in that category paid Cost of sale – ratio of how much it costs to sell a patron at that level renewal rate – what % of patrons renew Do you track net revenue at your organization? How? At this level? Another level?
- This is an overview of our findings for a different theatre client. It has become a platform for the organization’s new patron loyalty initiatives. Looking at their single ticket buyers, the Tryers, we see some pretty typical numbers here. On average, they paid around $53 for their ticket. Cost of sale—how many marketing dollars went into selling that ticket—was around 20%. And it was rather difficult to get them to come back. Only about 1 in 4 single ticket buyers came back the following season. [CLICK] Looking at new subscribers, who are usually Buyers, it’s a different story. Cost of Sale has risen, but it’s paid off. Average order size tripled—this client is making a lot more money on a subscribers than single ticket buyers. As for renewal rates, another good showing. About half are renewing. [CLICK] As you might expect, average order size and renewal rates rise with the more seasoned subscribers, but the real story here is the dip in cost of sale. They are spending a lot less to make a lot more. [CLICK] Finally, this clients’ most loyal patrons, Advocates. Extremely high order size and renewal rate, and low cost of sale. Let’s look at this in aggregate: Look across the top and bottom rows of this chart --- Revenue yield and renewal rates INCREASE significantly with each successive buyer type – the more loyal a patron becomes, the more they spend and the more they continue to engage and invest. Now look at the middle line -- The cost of sale to create subscribers is high – the highest in this analysis. But look what happens to cost-of-sale after that – it does way down. It is indeed cost-effective to get a subscriber renewal or an upgrade to subscriber-donor. And here’s the big pay-off—once a patron becomes a donor….look at the revenue yield for renewing subscriber-donors. This metric supports a research finding that comes up time and time again. The number one reason subscribers subscribe is ….love of the art form. The number two reason: they like the way your organization provides that beloved art form. So, subscribers are engaged at a passionate level – an affinity that can propel contributions. Yet, we find, that many organizations don’t have an active, integrated program to involve their loyalists as donors. Our analysis says: that’s one of the first steps you can take to develop an escalator effect. [click]
- We can sort patron development steps into three more general categories, based on how much they spend with the organization total, how frequently, and how recently. [Your usual ABT spiel) CLICK (Advocates-Donors and consummate loyalists) You likely know the names or faces of many of the folks in the Advocates category. They’re board members, major donors, and long-time subscriber-donors. CLICK (Buyers-the magic of “and”) Buyers contribute less on a per capita basis than Advocates. do multiple activities with an arts org—what we call the magic of “and”. They bought a ticket last season and this season they became a member or subscribed. Or they took a class. Or they made a small donation. CLICK (Tryers-from 1 st time to second or next time to now.) Tryers are the least loyal—they spend the least per capita. These are our coveted new audiences, one-time ticket buyers and occasional attendees. You may be wondering about the proportions of the pyramid. (CLICK for category stats) The tryers portion is the largest because the vast majority of the people in your database are Tryers – lapsed and new single ticket buyers. On average, about 4 out of 5 of those tryers come once and never come back. They never become Buyers or Advocates. And that’s a shame, because look at how much revenue Buyers and Advocates contibute compared to their size. That base of Tryers is unstable and left untended, it’s going to be the source of decline in your organization.
- Here the TRYERS are supplying the majority of the revenue, and are about even with the buyers. This is a real-life example of the ABT pyramid, from Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre.
- Here’s another way to look at it. Knowing that the more invested a patron is the less the cost to renew and retain them. Here’s an example of a higher ROI. There are 180 Advocates (and Super Advocates, our major donors), who contribute 11% of revenue, an average of $4,000 and $40,000 respectively. There are 12,000 Buyers, mostly subscribers, who contribute 43% of revenue, an average of $527 per patron. There are 140,000 Tryers, 92% of the households in the database, who contribute 45% of revenue, an average of $48 per patron. This demonstrates why loyalty is so important. Transactionally: CLICK: equals 10 advocates’ contributions, which in turn CLICK: equals the transactions of 76 buyers, which CLICK equals 833 Tryers. One fervent loyalist supports the organization at the same level at 833 single ticket buyers at 5th Avenue Theatre. Look at it that way and think long and hard about where you’re putting resources between your advocates, buyers, and tryers.
- Here the ADVOCATES are supplying the majority of the revenue. This company is squeezed in the middle…
- The next 2 metrics we’ll discuss have to do with patron activity.
- I want to point your attention to the most important patrons in your audience. They’re not necessarily the ones who have given or attended the most over their lifetime. They’re your “right now” patrons—the audiences that have participated and engaged with most recently and could do any number of things in the future. These currently active patrons allow your organization to operate right now. They’re the ones that your mission serves today. But don’t assume that they’ll be there tomorrow. Research indicates that first-time attendees—a large portion of many organizations’ patrons—tend to come once and then never return.
- That’s why measuring your active patrons matters so much. When cultivating a loyal audience, recency rules. The patrons who have attended in the last two years are much more likely to continue attending—if you cultivate them right. TRG defines "active" as any individual household with any purchase or donation activity in two most recent years. To calculate how many active patrons you have, pull a list of the patron households who have had any interaction in the last two seasons or years. What do you think this number looks like at your org? How good do you think your organization is at retaining patrons?
- Here are some examples from a recent workshop we did. Some high numbers, some low, and around 30%. This number shows how good your organization is at retaining patrons over time. It’s important to think critically about this data. When you calculate it, ask why you’re seeing this number. [CLICK]Is this a good number? (this organization was having database management issues—in this case the number tells them something important about their data management practices.) What about these? [CLICK] (it could be—they might be an older organization with many years of inactive patrons. Or, they have a large pool of patrons to re-activate. It’s an opportunity.) Instead of judging your number, use it to look at the state of loyalty at your org…
- Why is it important to retain patrons? Loyalty is a process, and keeping patrons means that you’re able to continue to cultivate them and upgrade them. This evolution of patron development is a series of largely incremental “next steps” – each involving more active, more frequent, more current transactions that – cumulatively –represent longer, greater patron investments. Almost every patron at your organization begins as a new ticket buyer. [CLICK] If they enjoy their “first date” with you, they’ll come back [CLICK] The plot thickens if and when the patron buys twice in the same season or year. We call that a “multi-buyer” [CLICK] When the romance goes to the Subscriber or Membership level, this is almost akin to getting engaged. [CLICK] Donation: that’s like getting married, because once you have each other, and, if the relationship is well-developed and cared for, you often have them for life. [CLICK] Finally, Advocate/Investor: that’s like celebrating a golden anniversary. Not many get here, but these relationships are worth their weight in gold. Each step in the evolution
- A low % of active patrons COULD mean that you’re losing a lot from your tryers… But, there’s a way to determine that. Alongside % of active patrons, you should also look at…
- …How your database is growing.
- attrition, low number of NTF patrons
- Here are some opportunities you might find
- Remember our ABT pyramid? Let’s talk about upgrades at the bottom Tryers—where we see patrons go inactive most often.
- There is an upgrade for every patron at every phase of their relationship with your organization. Here are just a few examples of upgrading. CLICK If I’ve just bought a ticket or an admission to your exhibit, the next step is to get me back again – to buy another ticket. CLICK If I’ve attended multiple times through several ticket purchases or a flexible subscription or entry level membership, my next step in our relationship may be a full series subscription or a higher level membership package CLICK By the time I’ve been a subscriber or member for a couple of seasons, I’m ready for deeper engagement – we’re going steady now –ask me to add on a donation, or a ticket to a special performance, exhibit or Gala. CLICK
- In this phase, we going to look at Tryers in the way that TRG generally categorizes them – by transaction types that we see in buyer data. I’m going to use terms here that are most usually related to seated-event organizations. Museums and other cultural organizations likely talk about visitors rather than single ticket buyers, and I hope you’ll accept our lexicon for the sake of simplicity. These are the three common transactional types that comprise Tryers. The next step is slightly different for each kind of Tryer patron. I’m going to give you some examples, assigning roles to different departments. At this point, the leading roles are most likely played by your marketing and box office or visitor services team. Let’s start at the very bottom of the pyramid with lapsed ticket buyers. LAPSED When might you want to target this group of patrons? If you see active patrons are declining, or if you simply want to increase % of active patrons. Let’s talk about this group. They haven’t seen you for a while, and from a dating perspective, you’ve got their number but having been in touch. They have probably forgotten how cute you are, so you’re going to have to start all over. What should you do? CLICK Reactivate them! Launch a campaign to invite them to your latest blockbuster. And, when they call, welcome them back. Ticket office staff using most systems can see from patron history that the patron in front of them has lapsed – they haven’t been with you in a while. Treat them like a first timer and give them some orientation to how best to enjoy their experience. That’s an upgrade from inactive to active, and also an example of up-selling or suggestive selling. That’s right – you heard that four-letter word: SELL. Selling in the context of patron loyalty IS relationship building. Remember that! FIRSTIMERS When might you want to target this group of patrons? At TRG, we would argue ALWAYS. Attrition for this group is too high. 4 out of 5 on average. But if you see in your data that single ticket buyers are declining over time, this is your first move. CLICK Once you’ve got a response from a 1st time buyer, your upgrade goal is make sure this first experience with your organization is a good one. Your message is “Welcome—thanks for joining us.” Remember, this is like a first/blind date. You’re building a relationship with this new patron. In advance, give them some orientation to your venue. Let them know where they can find out about parking or where to get a bite to eat. Hear me say this: The whole relationship rises and falls on the success of the first date. So, make sure they know what you look like, how to find you, and what to expect in the venue. This is a worthwhile investment, especially for new patrons who are excited about coming to see your biggest, most popular programs of the year. And, we cannot emphasize this enough: Make sure you have their contact information, because the next step for new patrons is that all-important second date. Your upgrade or upsell is to position this first date for success so newcomers will WANT to come back when you ask them for a second date. Then, of course, you’re going to ask them for that second date. The second or third date in same season is a turning point in your patron relationship. CLICK
- Here’s the case study, which you can read in its entirety, which you can read on our web site: www.trgarts.com The case is a retrospective look at Seattle Rep’s four-year, disciplined effort aimed at retaining new single ticket buyers. The first phase of their effort was to achieve that all-important second date in the same season. By doing that, retention among the specially cultivated group of new buyers was triple that of other new single ticket buyers…..as S-R-T’s cultivation efforts toward this group continued, so did growth. Here’s a quick outline of what they did. CLICK
- Now, you’ve gotten the second date and your patron is now a same season ticket buyer – a patron at the turning point of becoming BUYERS ….if and when you do a little more cultivation. When might you want to cultivate this group? Again, these guys are hot prospects, so you should really think about an ongoing plan here. However, if you need to STOP STUDYING and STOP DOING everything, focus your efforts here when subscribers/members are in decline. [CLICK] Here’s where you pursue more get togethers. Your marketing invitation might be made in advance of your next big event. Or, it might be an offer to get specially priced admission to something similar to the program they saw when they first came. When you’ve got a patron who is responding to an invitation to come back again during the same season….that’s a cause for celebration. Welcome them back AND foster some kind of further engagement. Say “Thanks,” and suggest – while I have you –might you also want to see: a big season event, another show – even a short series or flexible subscription – some other event or activity that’s coming up soon or early in next season. The second or third date in same season is a turning point in your patron relationship. CLICK
- What about our buyers? Those are our subscribers, members, and low-level donors. What do you think the most important loyalty metric is there? [Pause for responses-renewal rate, etc] Although those are all important, today I want to talk about…
- …% of subscriber-donors. [TIMED TO COME IN] Or, for museum folks, the % of members who made an additional contribution of some sort.
- Good opportunity to validate/pull in development staff [Numbers from Keri] 31 or above is on the high end of what we typically see. Keep up the good work and continue to cultivate those subscribers. 24-30 is pretty typical—the higher side of normal. 17-23 is on the low side of normal, so consider making some of the campaigns that I’m going to talk about soon a high priority If you’re below 16%, this issue needs your attention now.
- Remember, buyers are all about the power of “and”. That additional donation is a strong sign of loyalty at your organization. Subscribers and members (and donors who subscriber or are members) are the patrons at your organization the most. Do they see value in donating too? How many of you ask subscribers or members for an additional gift at renewal time? This tactic can affect this number a lot. If you’re not doing this, consider it, especially if your number is on the low end. Lastly, this number says a lot about your potential for major donors. If you were 31% or above, you’ve got a bigger pool to cultivate up your giving levels. And if you were on the lower end of the spectrum, it tells you that you could have a lot of success with a formalized subscriber or member upgrade program.
- This case study…available on our web site…talks specifically of 5th Avenue’s subscriber to donor upgrade program that we call Super Subscriber. The case study describes their very first Super Subscriber effort, and the wonderful results that you see here. [CLICK] In just four months, they developed 453 Super subscribers who gave a total of $51,000. One-fourth of them were brand new, fairly new, or newly-returned subscribers. And nearly three-fourths – 70% -- had never donated before. That’s a great model for developing those donor-ready patrons.
- Our last metric is per capita revenue or average ticket revenue
- This is an important patron-level metric that can be applied to so many things…like average gift per giving level, or average subscription size. Whether or not you’ve updated your strategy regularly, the bigger question is: How do you know if you’ve adopted the right pricing strategy? There’s no one simple answer, but there is one metric that ‘s a good barometer of how well you’re doing. CLICK That metric is per capita revenue… defined as… the average price paid for a ticket. In a successful pricing strategy, per capita rises as sales increase. That means your best selling events yield more revenue per ticket than other, less well-sold events. CLICK Too often, however, this is what we see: ticket sales --- represented by the red bars in this chart– increase while per capita revenues – the black lines --actually go down. CLICK You DON’T want this negative trend to happen because of your strategy. CLICK
- Monitor change in per caps Real annual revenue issues blockbuster
- The next 2 metrics we’ll discuss have to do with patron activity.
- A data capture rate measures how many patrons for whom you have contact information--email address, street address, and phone number. Calculate this for every patron who attended or had a transaction in the last year or season. [CLICK] You’re shooting for a rate of 80% or more. Why? Your organization can’t invite on another date patrons whose contact information it doesn’t have.
- Keri: If you want those first-time visitor to come back and buy a membership, you’ve got to be able to contact them again. Dating analogy
- Collecting tryer contact information isn’t a touchy-feely “just-for-the-heck-of-it” type initiative. It can mean serious revenue gain. Let’s say our museum gets 100,000 first-time visitor households a year. For the sake of this example, we’ll imagine they all live in our metro area. [CLICK] Every year, we send a mailing to those first-timers touting our next blockbuster exhibit and offering them a discount on tickets if they are a member. We get about 2% who respond. Some order an individual membership and some order a dual membership as well as tickets to our exhibit, averaging out to $63.15. [CLICK] Let’s imagine our museum is awesome at data collection. We get everyone’s information who buys online and almost everyone who come through our doors. We mail every first timer who we HAVE DATA ON and we make $300,000. [CLICK] Over and over in the industry, we see a data collection rate more like this. Actually, many times they’re closer to 10%, 5% or even less. In this case if we mail every first timer who we have data on, our pool is much smaller. We make $47,000. [CLICK] Meanwhile, our colleagues in the membership department are talking about renting zip code lists for membership acquisition, full of people who have never been to our museum at all. There’s a disconnect there.
- With any ticket purchase, the visitor saves by buying online. Why? This museum wants to collect patron contact information – they want to use that contact information to develop a future relationship with their visitors. So, they motivate that behavior by offering a discount for buying online.
- EMP example: GROWTH they’ve seen in data collection with focused efforts
- Raffle ideas included roses, tickets to future shows, etc.
- Let’s summarize, then I’ll take your questions. % of Patron Revenue We talked about re-focusing around patrons 2. % of Active Patrons 3. # of Active Patron in each patron category We talked about upgrading Tryers—our lapsed patrons, first-timers, and same season buyers
- % of Subscriber-Donors We talked about buyer upgrade initiative like the super subscriber program. Per Capita Revenue We talked about the basics of revenue management.
- Original session description: Actionable Audience Data: 5 Metrics to Thrive On Today's database, ticketing, and CRM systems can tell administrators nearly everything they could possibly want to know about patrons. More data isn't necessarily helpful, though. Studying everything can distract administrators from the metrics on which they need to focus to grow audiences and revenue. In this 90-minute intensive, Anita Hansen, Senior Consultant at TRG Arts, will explain how your organization can stop studying every metric and focus on the most critical indicators of growth and sustainability. You’ll learn how to find the five most actionable Thrive Metrics in your own data, what they say about your organization’s health, and how to act on the data to engage and cultivate patrons.