Austin Lyric Opera developed a new website and digital strategy that increased online single ticket sales from 28% to 55% of total single ticket sales. They selected Venture Industries Online to build the new website for $6,500 over 3 months. The new site focused on driving conversions, data collection, customization, and easy management. It increased engagement and sales through improved navigation, sales messages, multimedia, and landing pages. Analytics showed the site and related digital campaigns increased total revenue beyond what was captured by the ticketing system alone.

1. Austin Lyric Opera
A new website and digital strategy
By Marc van Bree
April 24, 2012

2. Developed a new website and digital
strategy that increased online single
ticket sales from 28% to 55% of total
single ticket sales while delivering a
greater ability to analyze patron
behaviors, track conversions and
account for advertising spending.

3. Website development
Building a new website for Austin Lyric Opera
Selected vendor: Venture Industries Online
Total spent: $6,500
Time frame: 3 months

4. Four core concepts
 Driving conversions
 All roads should lead to a conversion. The ticket buying process needs to
be straightforward, simple and seamless; from campaign source to order
confirmation.
 Data collection
 How do patrons get to our website? What do they do when they arrive?
We need to track the entirety of the sales funnel.
 Highly customizable
 A responsive website that can handle breaking news, custom landing
pages and continuously revolving sales and institutional messages.
 Easily manageable
 Staff with little technology skills should be able to make basic website
updates and embed multimedia elements.

5. Selected vendor
Venture Industries Online
Key selling points
• A proprietary system on top of today's best
content management solution: WordPress
• Venture’s principal has thorough understanding
of the performing arts and online user experiences
• Making use of in-house resources, proposal is less
than half the cost of agencies
Budget: $10,000
Actual: $6,500 *
Project start to launch: 3 months
* $1,500 custom development; $4,000 annual license fee
(includes hosting, support, updates etc.)

6. Website development process

7. In-House Resources
(Client)
• Planning: entirely redesigned site
architecture and navigation
• Content: content migration, creation
and population; and integration with
third party box office
• Design: custom graphic design
template along with home page and
interior page layouts.
• Development: basic custom CSS
changes.

8. Custom Work
(Venture)
• Adapt client’s graphic design into
custom PHP templates.
• Designed custom admin interface.
• Designed custom search bar that
appears in the top, right hand corner of
every page.
• Removed slider overlay for
unobstructed full width image while
maintaining use of standard action
button.

9. Simple, clear
Focus on navigation
conversions
Revolving sales
messages
Embed
Customization multimedia
and flexibility
Focus on
conversions

10. Event/Product
landing pages
Flexible content and
driving sales
Embed
multimedia
Driving action
in sidebar
widgets

11. Custom landing pages Purpose-built
Easily manageable and page for
customizable custom
messaging
Landing page
for email
marketing
effectiveness

12. Third party
ticketing
integration
Mirror design and
functionality
Straightforward,
simple and
seamless ticket
buying process

13. Tracking conversions
Inside an email marketing campaign with Google Analytics
Ticketing solution: Paciolan
Email marketing: Pacmail (Lyris HQ)
Analytics: Paciolan, Google Analytics

14. Email Details
Date
March 22, 2012
Subject
Save 20% off Turandot in the next 72
hours!
List segment
“No Turandot ticket yet”
Unique open rate
16.4% (1,931 opens)
Unique click through
2.3% (272 clicks)

15. Traditional results
(sales report from Paciolan)
Distribution of Sales
“72HOUR” tickets sold Box Office
104 seats 12%
Revenue
Phone: $1,931.20 (23)
Box Office: $1,017.60 (12) Phone
Internet: $5,822.40 (69) 22%
Internet
Total: $8,771.20 (104) 66%

16. Tag your links in your emails with campaign parameters …
Visit the Google Analytics URL Builder tool

17. and Google Analytics will tell you a bigger story …
Notice how total online revenue is higher than expected
Paciolan
reported
$5,822.40

18. The campaign directly delivered 39 regularly priced tickets
at an additional $1,770.50* in revenue …
* Unlike previous screen, product revenue does not include taxes and fees ($32.00 total).

19. and there is a second direct source and medium in the campaign …
Direct sales from
Facebook post
and ad

20. A supporting role for Facebook …
A quick Page post

21. … amplified by Facebook Ads
Ad from Page post (two-day run)
Increasing CPM = $0.48
reach ROAS = $9.78
CPM = Cost per thousand impressions | ROAS = Return on Advertising Spending | CTR = Click Through Rate

22. But wait, there’s more!
Multi-Channel Funnels and Assisted Conversions
Sometimes the conversion is not directly sourced from a campaign.
This is how Google Analytics tracks a conversion path …
Our “72HOURS” campaign
can be an “Assist Interaction”

23. Indeed, there are three “Assist Interactions”
at an additional $215.00 in revenue
Why not include
“Direct” traffic as
“Assist Interactions”?
In the Multi-Channel
Funnels reports, if a
person converts on your
site during a "direct" visit
(i.e. used a bookmark or
typed your site URL into
his or her browser), the
conversion is attributed
to the "direct" channel.
This differs from other
Google Analytics reports
in which the conversion is
attributed to the previous
non-direct campaign or
source, if there is one.

24. Total revenue
$8,771.20 + (Reported in Paciolan: Internet, phone, and box office sales)
----------
$1,770.50 + (Reported in Google Analytics: additional regular Internet sales)
-- - - - - - - - -
$215.00 + (Reported in Google Analytics: “assist interactions”)
----------
$10,756.70 (Total revenue reported across systems *)
* While close, the Google Analytics data is not completely consistent with Paciolan. Fine tuning and
calibrating is always part of the analytics and measurement process; next steps include eliminating those
points that skew data (for example bit.ly links etc.).

25. Online advertising
A look across various channels
Platforms: Google AdWords (Google Grants),
Microsoft AdChoices (Retargeting),
Facebook Ads, local media

26. Platform
Google AdWords
Google Grants for Nonprofits
Google AdWords campaigns at no cost through Google Grants
Maximum cost-per-click (CPC) is $1.00; Monthly "ad spend" will be capped at $10,000

27. A testing playground …
Which ads perform better? “Turandot at
Long Center”
delivers most
traffic Turandot at Long
Center
Impr.: 1,527
Clicks: 86
CTR: 5.63%
Puccini’s Turandot
Impr.: 1,227
Clicks: 67
CTR: 5.46%
Turandot in Austin,
Texas
Impr.: 353
Clicks: 7
CTR: 1.98%

28. … but look again
Impressions, clicks and CTRs aren’t everything. Google Analytics will tell you.
“Puccini’s
Turandot”
delivers more
revenue

29. Platform
Microsoft AdChoices
Retargeting
… online advertising that is
targeted to consumers based
on their previous Internet
actions, in situations where
these actions did not result in
a sale or conversion …
Spent $109.19
Impr. 21,837
CPM $5.20
CTR 0.33%
Impr. = Total impressions | CPM = Cost per thousand impressions | CTR = Click Through Rate

30. Platform
Facebook Ads
CPM: $2.11
CTR: 0.06%
Better social
reach, better
CTR

31. Platform
Local media
Individual print and online package
agreements with local media
Impr. 198,000 total
CPM ranging from $4.50 to $11.50
CTR ranging from 0.12% to 0.23%

32. CPM
Cost per Thousand Impressions
Google AdWords $9.03
Microsoft AdChoices $5.20
Facebook Ads $2.11
Local media $4.50 – $11.50
ROAS *
Return on Advertising Spending
Google AdWords $68.16
Microsoft AdChoices $1.12
Facebook Ads $0.55
Local media $0.03 - $0.10
* ROAS is calculated by conversion values, including assisted conversions, as reported in Google
Analytics. There are several problems with that calculation and its accuracy, not in the least the lack of
box office or phone sales data, but the numbers can still serve as an indicator for relative effectiveness of
each ad channel, taken with a grain of salt.

33. Social media
Cross-functionality of social media tools
Platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

34. Integrate marketing
channels in custom
tabs: brochure, email
Platform
and YouTube Facebook
What patrons want
in social media:
behind the scenes
and personality

35. Messaging for
Messaging for
engagement;
engagement
solicit responses

36. Social media as
customer service:
respond personally
… and follow up
and rapidly …
and follow through

37. Platform
YouTube
YouTube on
ALO website
YouTube in
email campaign
Integrate
Consistent
marketing
branding
channels

38. Platform
Twitter
Consistent branding
Messaging for
engagement
Social media as
customer service:
respond personally
and rapidly

39. Mobile site
ALO on the Go
Selected vendor: Venture Industries Online
(additional WordPress installation)
Total budget: $0 (no additional costs)
Time frame: 3 months

40. Four Core Concepts
• Easily accessible program notes
and pertinent event information
readily available
• Smartphone and touch screen
optimized design
• Complement, not replace,
main website
• Drive mobile sales and box
office sales by phone

41. ALO on the Go
No auto detect for mobile
browsers. Traffic is directed
specifically to mobile site
where deemed appropriate.
If mobile site proves more
effective in delivering mobile
sales, auto detect can be
enabled.
Promote
accessibility in
email marketing

42. Currently, mobile
devices deliver
nearly 20% of total
traffic …
… yet they only
deliver less
than 10% of the
revenue …

43. Mobile ticketing
Third party ticketing
integration includes a
mobile specific box office
site.
Auto detect for mobile
browsers is enabled.
Question: will this mobile
specific site improve
conversion rates?
As the site just launched, it
is too early to tell at this
point.

44. Questions?
Connect with me
twitter.com/mcmvanbree
facebook.com/dutchperspective
marc@mcmvanbree.com
mcmvanbree.com

45. Austin Lyric Opera
A new website and digital strategy
By Marc van Bree
April 24, 2012