Let’s face it; the subscription has been uncool for years. While disruptive technologies and changing arts consumer behavior have transformed the way arts managers see their business model, the subscription has declined and stagnated. “Subscriptions are dead” is now conventional wisdom in our industry.
But, if subscriptions were truly dead, wouldn’t they have just disappeared by now? Inconveniently, subscriptions incentivize loyalty and provide sustainable revenue that's difficult to find elsewhere in any audience-centered business model. Many organizations that have tried to innovate in this area have found themselves in a state of subscription emergency.
The fact is, subscriptions are still viable, but selling them today requires a different mindset than it did 5, 10, or 20 years ago. While it takes work to rescue and resuscitate your subscription program, it's achievable and you already have many of the tools you need to do it. In this webinar, CEO & President Jill Robinson presented:
- Evidence that subscription survives and, yes, even thrives at arts organizations today
- How subscription can build loyalty among audiences
- What it takes in 2015 to rescue your subscription program
The Art of the Upgrade: A TRG Master Class for BlackbaudBlackbaud
This document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and donations through targeted "upgrades." It defines upgrades as asking patrons to take the next step, such as renewing a membership at a higher level, adding an additional donation, or attending more events. The document outlines how upgrades can be identified through data analysis to recognize patterns. It provides examples of increasing yields from single ticket buyers to renewing subscriber-donors. The key is engaging patrons at multiple touchpoints and across organizational assets. Effective upgrading requires having a plan for every patron type and focusing first on the biggest opportunities to cultivate meaningful relationships and growth.
Would you like season tickets with that? The Art of the UpgradeTRG Arts
For cultural institutions, the box office is not just the place where ticket orders are passively taken. It plays an active role in growing revenue by developing loyalty. Every time a patron logs in, calls, or visits to buy a ticket, the opportunity exists for them to upgrade and deepen their relationship with the organization. With the right training, the box office can become experts on how to cultivate patron relationships and keep audiences coming back for more.
TRG President & CEO Jill Robinson presented this session at the 2015 InTix conference in Denver with Jeremy Scott of Seattle Repertory Theatre and Molly Riddle Wink of Denver Art Museum.
While some debate the feasibility of the current arts business model and look to new audiences to fill the gap, the fact remains: only 1 out of 5 new patrons come back a second time. Our problem is not new audiences; it’s keeping the patrons we have--and increasing their loyalty to our organizations.
Loyalty can be achieved when a patrons’ passion for the arts is activated. Strategies that promote loyalty involve common-sense measures to draw in "newbies" and deepen relationships among first- and long-time patrons. Best practices focus on increasing patron satisfaction and, in turn, ongoing revenue. The 5th Avenue Theatre, in collaboration with TRG Arts, is building a wholly new model of audience engagement, centered on this view of patron loyalty.
5th Avenue Theatre’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sean Kelly and TRG’s Senior Consultant Laura Willumsen lead this webinar, which focuses on the benefits of viewing patron interactions through the lens of their lifetime loyalty to your organizations. You’ll learn:
● why loyalty is the only sustainable model for revenue growth
● what makes a targeted, purposeful loyalty strategy different from more general audience engagement programs
● about the specific techniques Kelly and Willumsen used to drive retention, as well as increase engagement and revenue at 5th Avenue Theatre
This presentation was given by Anita Hansen of TRG Arts and Charlie Wade, consultant and former director of marketing, Atlanta Symphony at the 2013 Association of California Symphony Orchestras Conference.
Description:
Talk about a changing universe! What does the future hold if subscriptions are truly a thing of the past? Current thinking postulates that a long-term decline in audience commitment is inevitable. A meteoric shower of “one-time” promotions and discounts – crowdsourcing, Goldstar, Fill-A-Seat, Living Social – has captivated the general public and given us options for filling our venues. But is this solution sustainable? Let’s assess the situation and determine if belief in accepted prevailing societal trends will lead to an ever-downward spiral to obscurity. Identify the “hidden” and unique performance assets you already possess to cultivate patron loyalty and grow participation. Perhaps there’s a way to re-create a winning game with new awareness of how to play.
Thriving on Loyalty: Love the Ones You’re With!TRG Arts
The document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and revenue at the Guthrie Theater. It analyzes patron data and trends over time, finding that most revenue comes from existing patrons rather than new patrons. The Guthrie Theater has implemented several initiatives focused on existing patrons, such as improved renewal campaigns and acquisition of add-on purchases from current subscribers. Early results include increased renewal rates, subscription add-ons, and subscriber-donor rates. The key recommendation is to "love the ones you're with" by cultivating loyalty among current patrons through targeted campaigns and personalized engagement.
The Future of Online Giving - Are You Awake?Blackbaud
Although author/columnist Malcolm Gladwell discredits social media for facilitating the revolutions we are currently seeing around the world, we disagree. Come find out how the future of social media is being played out across our nonprofit landscape. Learn from advanced case studies and groundbreaking research, and take a glimpse into where fundraising in social media is heading in the future.
Blackbaud NetCommunity Grow: Integrated Strategy, Technology, and Impact Blackbaud
Blackbaud NetCommunity Grow is a one-stop shop solution you can’t find anywhere else. Benefit from our web design expertise, targeted content, strategic eMarketing program, and advanced email features that create a truly interactive and impactful online experience. You won’t believe the results customers are seeing. Join us to find out what it can do for you!
Patron Development: Preparing a path from first ticket to planned giftTRG Arts
A patron’s loyalty is built step-by-step with each interaction with your organization. TRG is a data-driven consulting firm that teaches arts and cultural professionals a patron-based approach to sustainable revenue and discussed patron segmentation strategies and proven practices for closing the gap between subscribers and donors.
The Art of the Upgrade: A TRG Master Class for BlackbaudBlackbaud
This document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and donations through targeted "upgrades." It defines upgrades as asking patrons to take the next step, such as renewing a membership at a higher level, adding an additional donation, or attending more events. The document outlines how upgrades can be identified through data analysis to recognize patterns. It provides examples of increasing yields from single ticket buyers to renewing subscriber-donors. The key is engaging patrons at multiple touchpoints and across organizational assets. Effective upgrading requires having a plan for every patron type and focusing first on the biggest opportunities to cultivate meaningful relationships and growth.
Would you like season tickets with that? The Art of the UpgradeTRG Arts
For cultural institutions, the box office is not just the place where ticket orders are passively taken. It plays an active role in growing revenue by developing loyalty. Every time a patron logs in, calls, or visits to buy a ticket, the opportunity exists for them to upgrade and deepen their relationship with the organization. With the right training, the box office can become experts on how to cultivate patron relationships and keep audiences coming back for more.
TRG President & CEO Jill Robinson presented this session at the 2015 InTix conference in Denver with Jeremy Scott of Seattle Repertory Theatre and Molly Riddle Wink of Denver Art Museum.
While some debate the feasibility of the current arts business model and look to new audiences to fill the gap, the fact remains: only 1 out of 5 new patrons come back a second time. Our problem is not new audiences; it’s keeping the patrons we have--and increasing their loyalty to our organizations.
Loyalty can be achieved when a patrons’ passion for the arts is activated. Strategies that promote loyalty involve common-sense measures to draw in "newbies" and deepen relationships among first- and long-time patrons. Best practices focus on increasing patron satisfaction and, in turn, ongoing revenue. The 5th Avenue Theatre, in collaboration with TRG Arts, is building a wholly new model of audience engagement, centered on this view of patron loyalty.
5th Avenue Theatre’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sean Kelly and TRG’s Senior Consultant Laura Willumsen lead this webinar, which focuses on the benefits of viewing patron interactions through the lens of their lifetime loyalty to your organizations. You’ll learn:
● why loyalty is the only sustainable model for revenue growth
● what makes a targeted, purposeful loyalty strategy different from more general audience engagement programs
● about the specific techniques Kelly and Willumsen used to drive retention, as well as increase engagement and revenue at 5th Avenue Theatre
This presentation was given by Anita Hansen of TRG Arts and Charlie Wade, consultant and former director of marketing, Atlanta Symphony at the 2013 Association of California Symphony Orchestras Conference.
Description:
Talk about a changing universe! What does the future hold if subscriptions are truly a thing of the past? Current thinking postulates that a long-term decline in audience commitment is inevitable. A meteoric shower of “one-time” promotions and discounts – crowdsourcing, Goldstar, Fill-A-Seat, Living Social – has captivated the general public and given us options for filling our venues. But is this solution sustainable? Let’s assess the situation and determine if belief in accepted prevailing societal trends will lead to an ever-downward spiral to obscurity. Identify the “hidden” and unique performance assets you already possess to cultivate patron loyalty and grow participation. Perhaps there’s a way to re-create a winning game with new awareness of how to play.
Thriving on Loyalty: Love the Ones You’re With!TRG Arts
The document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and revenue at the Guthrie Theater. It analyzes patron data and trends over time, finding that most revenue comes from existing patrons rather than new patrons. The Guthrie Theater has implemented several initiatives focused on existing patrons, such as improved renewal campaigns and acquisition of add-on purchases from current subscribers. Early results include increased renewal rates, subscription add-ons, and subscriber-donor rates. The key recommendation is to "love the ones you're with" by cultivating loyalty among current patrons through targeted campaigns and personalized engagement.
The Future of Online Giving - Are You Awake?Blackbaud
Although author/columnist Malcolm Gladwell discredits social media for facilitating the revolutions we are currently seeing around the world, we disagree. Come find out how the future of social media is being played out across our nonprofit landscape. Learn from advanced case studies and groundbreaking research, and take a glimpse into where fundraising in social media is heading in the future.
Blackbaud NetCommunity Grow: Integrated Strategy, Technology, and Impact Blackbaud
Blackbaud NetCommunity Grow is a one-stop shop solution you can’t find anywhere else. Benefit from our web design expertise, targeted content, strategic eMarketing program, and advanced email features that create a truly interactive and impactful online experience. You won’t believe the results customers are seeing. Join us to find out what it can do for you!
Patron Development: Preparing a path from first ticket to planned giftTRG Arts
A patron’s loyalty is built step-by-step with each interaction with your organization. TRG is a data-driven consulting firm that teaches arts and cultural professionals a patron-based approach to sustainable revenue and discussed patron segmentation strategies and proven practices for closing the gap between subscribers and donors.
All in: Building patron loyalty through teamworkTRG Arts
Think audience development is marketing’s job? Think again. All departments play a critical role in retaining and cultivating patron relationships. In order to make a patron-centered business model work, all departments—including ticketing and patron services, artistic staff, development, and executive leaders—must align their objectives with that of patron loyalty.
In this session, presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America conference in New York City, both executives and staff members will reexamine how they lead and collaborate on initiatives that create lasting patron relationships. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson looked at how cross-departmental campaigns build loyalty, how a sales orientation in the patron services department can bolster marketing-development collaboration, and how artistic programming can also factor into loyalty-building.
Patron relationships matter more in 2013 because the arts landscape is “ more like shifting sand than fertile soil,” said Jill Robinson, President, at the TRG Arts May 7 webinar, Plant Loyalty Now. The higher the portion of patron-centric revenue is, “the more organizations need to focus on, invest in, and partner with patrons to sustain income. The webinar offered strategic tactics around starting campaigns early, building on blockbusters, and patron upgrades at every level engagement.
This document discusses how non-profit organizations can take control of the donor journey through more effective multi-channel communication, marketing automation, and data integration. It highlights common challenges such as siloed data and the need to engage donors across channels. The presentation provides tips for acquiring, engaging, and retaining donors at different stages of the lifecycle through personalized automated communications on multiple platforms including email, mobile, and social media.
The document discusses donor centricity at Starlight, focusing on the regular giving donor journey. It highlights how Starlight speaks to donors, listens to their feedback, respects communication preferences, shows impact, and thanks donors always with positivity. Tracking donor journeys led to a 2% reduction in attrition over 12 months, saving $200k. Next steps include tailoring regular giving journeys and creating a single giving journey.
Building an audience strategy from the ground up. Audience strategy conferenc...CharityComms
Al Scott, head of marketing, Anthony Nolan
Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk
This document provides tips for non-profits to create a pipeline of donor support. It recommends developing a diversified fundraising plan with multiple streams of income. It also stresses optimizing websites for conversion and creating customized donor journeys through segmentation. Additional tips include focusing on recognition and stewardship of donors, developing engaging content, asking for donations multiple times a year with a thank you in between, and establishing do-it-yourself fundraising events. Data shows non-profits that implement these tactics see increased donations over time. The presentation aims to help non-profits strengthen online fundraising as an important pipeline for growth.
Inspired by Jim Collin’s ‘Good to Great’ methodology, learn the process for evolving your online fundraising program into one that produces lasting change and results. It starts with 10 steps that any organization can implement with the right planning and technology. This session doesn’t just focus on tactics, but ways your organization can create long term success by changing the fundraising culture. You will also learn about the latest trends in US giving and how it impacts efforts today.
This document provides tips for non-profits to create a pipeline of donor support through diversified fundraising strategies. It recommends segmenting donors and targeting communications based on their interests. Non-profits should focus on recognition, stewardship and engaging donors through impactful storytelling. The tips suggest optimizing websites for conversion, asking donors for gifts multiple times a year with a thank you in between, and establishing do-it-yourself fundraising events where donors can participate. Implementing these tactics through an integrated multi-channel plan can help non-profits raise more funds over time from their donor base.
Play it Again, Sam: Monthly Giving Programs for Sustaining Donations "As Time...hjc
Speakers: SPEAKERS: Wendy Marinaccio Husman, Donordigital, Drew Seman, Senior Manager of Fundraising and Outreach, Ocean Conservancy
This session will highlight efforts you can take to grow your organization's monthly donor program. We’ll feature examples from The Ocean Conservancy, No Kid Hungry, and other nonprofits representing a variety of organization and sustainer program sizes. Learn strategies for monthly donor recruitment, upgrades, retention, and reinstatement; gather ideas for sustainer campaigns and conversion tactics; and come away with some information you can put to use right away.
Parachute Digital benchmarked 100 Australian website donation pages against 59 points of criteria and got donor insights from a survey and in dept interviews with donors.
This document summarizes a social enterprise called A Better Tomorrow that connects customers to local charities through apparel sales. The organization donates 51% of profits to featured charities. While initial traction was low, sales increased after consulting marketing students and partnering with a Notre Dame football player. To date, the organization has generated $3,425 in revenue and donated $900 to charities. It is seeking $14,000 in funding to support marketing, inventory, legal fees and website costs as it aims to support more local charities.
Building advocacy through social media - from Fundraising Ireland 2016JustGiving
Social media can play a BIG role in fundraising – beyond simply asking for donations. This presentation explored how charities of all shapes and sizes can use social media to reach more people, inspire more action and raise more money. It explained how social media can play a key role in each stage of the fundraising process, from the identification and cultivation of new supporters to solicitation and acknowledgment.
Speaker: Stephen Mills, Director, BDRC Continental - Sharing insights from our recent study among small and medium level donors within the culture, heritage and leisure arena. How can we more effectively engage this important group? How can we increase the ROI on our fundraising investments? How can we best segment these donors?
A funder’s perspective on how charities can effectively communicate impact | ...CharityComms
Hanif Leylabi, communications officer, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk
This document provides tips for non-profit organizations to effectively engage constituents through digital communication channels like websites, email, and social media. It recommends having a strategic engagement plan that utilizes multiple communication channels and embraces automation. Specific tips include highlighting donor impact on websites, using action centers for constituents, sending mobile-friendly emails, empowering supporters to share content, and implementing welcome and trigger email campaigns that are personalized based on constituent type. The goal is to engage constituents across channels while efficiently managing communications through automation.
The document discusses the importance of social media impressions and likes for a frozen yogurt shop called The Fuzzy Peach. It notes that with 3,379 likes on social media, The Fuzzy Peach was able to potentially reach 3,379 friends of 130 friends each, or 5,238 people. It then shares that after gaining more likes and reaching 5,238 likes on social media, the store saw a 30% increase in the number of users/customers per month compared to when they had 3,379 likes. The owner of The Fuzzy Peach is quoted as saying that social media allows them to connect with more fans and have a closer relationship with customers, leading to an increase in return on investment.
There is a lot of cool stuff being done by charities in the digital space. We focus on the 5 key digital channels - Search, Email, Mobile, Social Media and Display.
This presentation is designed to inspire non-profit organisations to do more in the digital space. This is cool stuff that is possible to implement, rather than out of reach cool stuff that requires massive budgets and resources.
Even the most creative and strategic fundraisers can become mindless zombies when it comes to managing their Monthly Giving programs -- forgetting everything they've learned about stewardship, relationship building and targeting asks to individual constituents. As a result, organizations are leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
Join Dolores McDonagh, Principal Consultant at Charity Dynamics, for a session that will challenge attendees to re-imagine their acquisition, cultivation and solicitation of sustaining donors to build true relationships with this critical group of supporters. On this webinar, you will learn how to:
- Balance acquisition with one-time gifts solicitation and create an annual benefits and cultivation plan for sustainers
- Utilize online platforms to upgrade monthly donors to higher levels of giving
- Calculate ROI for sustainer acquisition through a client case study
Event fundraising is growing, with an 8% increase in participation. There are challenges with recruitment and effective fundraising. The speaker recommends focusing on events where people can emulate heroes through unique experiences. To maximize events, organizations should leverage supporter networks by making it easy to connect and share on social media. As mobile usage rises, registration and donations also need to be mobile-friendly.
Social Media Masters : Buzz, Evangelism and Word of Mouth (Sean Moffitt)Sean Moffitt
Word of Mouth Presentation as part of the Social Media Masters 2011 series ( www.socialmediaclub.org ) as presented by Sean Moffitt, President - Agent Wildfire and Author/Managing Director - Wikibrands ( www.wiki-brands.com )
Discussion around how to improve the way you engage with your customers to increase wallet share and reduce churn. The twist is to take advantage of the window of opportunity that 2 seconds when the customer is on your website, on a call, chatting with a teller.
All in: Building patron loyalty through teamworkTRG Arts
Think audience development is marketing’s job? Think again. All departments play a critical role in retaining and cultivating patron relationships. In order to make a patron-centered business model work, all departments—including ticketing and patron services, artistic staff, development, and executive leaders—must align their objectives with that of patron loyalty.
In this session, presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America conference in New York City, both executives and staff members will reexamine how they lead and collaborate on initiatives that create lasting patron relationships. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson looked at how cross-departmental campaigns build loyalty, how a sales orientation in the patron services department can bolster marketing-development collaboration, and how artistic programming can also factor into loyalty-building.
Patron relationships matter more in 2013 because the arts landscape is “ more like shifting sand than fertile soil,” said Jill Robinson, President, at the TRG Arts May 7 webinar, Plant Loyalty Now. The higher the portion of patron-centric revenue is, “the more organizations need to focus on, invest in, and partner with patrons to sustain income. The webinar offered strategic tactics around starting campaigns early, building on blockbusters, and patron upgrades at every level engagement.
This document discusses how non-profit organizations can take control of the donor journey through more effective multi-channel communication, marketing automation, and data integration. It highlights common challenges such as siloed data and the need to engage donors across channels. The presentation provides tips for acquiring, engaging, and retaining donors at different stages of the lifecycle through personalized automated communications on multiple platforms including email, mobile, and social media.
The document discusses donor centricity at Starlight, focusing on the regular giving donor journey. It highlights how Starlight speaks to donors, listens to their feedback, respects communication preferences, shows impact, and thanks donors always with positivity. Tracking donor journeys led to a 2% reduction in attrition over 12 months, saving $200k. Next steps include tailoring regular giving journeys and creating a single giving journey.
Building an audience strategy from the ground up. Audience strategy conferenc...CharityComms
Al Scott, head of marketing, Anthony Nolan
Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk
This document provides tips for non-profits to create a pipeline of donor support. It recommends developing a diversified fundraising plan with multiple streams of income. It also stresses optimizing websites for conversion and creating customized donor journeys through segmentation. Additional tips include focusing on recognition and stewardship of donors, developing engaging content, asking for donations multiple times a year with a thank you in between, and establishing do-it-yourself fundraising events. Data shows non-profits that implement these tactics see increased donations over time. The presentation aims to help non-profits strengthen online fundraising as an important pipeline for growth.
Inspired by Jim Collin’s ‘Good to Great’ methodology, learn the process for evolving your online fundraising program into one that produces lasting change and results. It starts with 10 steps that any organization can implement with the right planning and technology. This session doesn’t just focus on tactics, but ways your organization can create long term success by changing the fundraising culture. You will also learn about the latest trends in US giving and how it impacts efforts today.
This document provides tips for non-profits to create a pipeline of donor support through diversified fundraising strategies. It recommends segmenting donors and targeting communications based on their interests. Non-profits should focus on recognition, stewardship and engaging donors through impactful storytelling. The tips suggest optimizing websites for conversion, asking donors for gifts multiple times a year with a thank you in between, and establishing do-it-yourself fundraising events where donors can participate. Implementing these tactics through an integrated multi-channel plan can help non-profits raise more funds over time from their donor base.
Play it Again, Sam: Monthly Giving Programs for Sustaining Donations "As Time...hjc
Speakers: SPEAKERS: Wendy Marinaccio Husman, Donordigital, Drew Seman, Senior Manager of Fundraising and Outreach, Ocean Conservancy
This session will highlight efforts you can take to grow your organization's monthly donor program. We’ll feature examples from The Ocean Conservancy, No Kid Hungry, and other nonprofits representing a variety of organization and sustainer program sizes. Learn strategies for monthly donor recruitment, upgrades, retention, and reinstatement; gather ideas for sustainer campaigns and conversion tactics; and come away with some information you can put to use right away.
Parachute Digital benchmarked 100 Australian website donation pages against 59 points of criteria and got donor insights from a survey and in dept interviews with donors.
This document summarizes a social enterprise called A Better Tomorrow that connects customers to local charities through apparel sales. The organization donates 51% of profits to featured charities. While initial traction was low, sales increased after consulting marketing students and partnering with a Notre Dame football player. To date, the organization has generated $3,425 in revenue and donated $900 to charities. It is seeking $14,000 in funding to support marketing, inventory, legal fees and website costs as it aims to support more local charities.
Building advocacy through social media - from Fundraising Ireland 2016JustGiving
Social media can play a BIG role in fundraising – beyond simply asking for donations. This presentation explored how charities of all shapes and sizes can use social media to reach more people, inspire more action and raise more money. It explained how social media can play a key role in each stage of the fundraising process, from the identification and cultivation of new supporters to solicitation and acknowledgment.
Speaker: Stephen Mills, Director, BDRC Continental - Sharing insights from our recent study among small and medium level donors within the culture, heritage and leisure arena. How can we more effectively engage this important group? How can we increase the ROI on our fundraising investments? How can we best segment these donors?
A funder’s perspective on how charities can effectively communicate impact | ...CharityComms
Hanif Leylabi, communications officer, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk
This document provides tips for non-profit organizations to effectively engage constituents through digital communication channels like websites, email, and social media. It recommends having a strategic engagement plan that utilizes multiple communication channels and embraces automation. Specific tips include highlighting donor impact on websites, using action centers for constituents, sending mobile-friendly emails, empowering supporters to share content, and implementing welcome and trigger email campaigns that are personalized based on constituent type. The goal is to engage constituents across channels while efficiently managing communications through automation.
The document discusses the importance of social media impressions and likes for a frozen yogurt shop called The Fuzzy Peach. It notes that with 3,379 likes on social media, The Fuzzy Peach was able to potentially reach 3,379 friends of 130 friends each, or 5,238 people. It then shares that after gaining more likes and reaching 5,238 likes on social media, the store saw a 30% increase in the number of users/customers per month compared to when they had 3,379 likes. The owner of The Fuzzy Peach is quoted as saying that social media allows them to connect with more fans and have a closer relationship with customers, leading to an increase in return on investment.
There is a lot of cool stuff being done by charities in the digital space. We focus on the 5 key digital channels - Search, Email, Mobile, Social Media and Display.
This presentation is designed to inspire non-profit organisations to do more in the digital space. This is cool stuff that is possible to implement, rather than out of reach cool stuff that requires massive budgets and resources.
Even the most creative and strategic fundraisers can become mindless zombies when it comes to managing their Monthly Giving programs -- forgetting everything they've learned about stewardship, relationship building and targeting asks to individual constituents. As a result, organizations are leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
Join Dolores McDonagh, Principal Consultant at Charity Dynamics, for a session that will challenge attendees to re-imagine their acquisition, cultivation and solicitation of sustaining donors to build true relationships with this critical group of supporters. On this webinar, you will learn how to:
- Balance acquisition with one-time gifts solicitation and create an annual benefits and cultivation plan for sustainers
- Utilize online platforms to upgrade monthly donors to higher levels of giving
- Calculate ROI for sustainer acquisition through a client case study
Event fundraising is growing, with an 8% increase in participation. There are challenges with recruitment and effective fundraising. The speaker recommends focusing on events where people can emulate heroes through unique experiences. To maximize events, organizations should leverage supporter networks by making it easy to connect and share on social media. As mobile usage rises, registration and donations also need to be mobile-friendly.
Social Media Masters : Buzz, Evangelism and Word of Mouth (Sean Moffitt)Sean Moffitt
Word of Mouth Presentation as part of the Social Media Masters 2011 series ( www.socialmediaclub.org ) as presented by Sean Moffitt, President - Agent Wildfire and Author/Managing Director - Wikibrands ( www.wiki-brands.com )
Discussion around how to improve the way you engage with your customers to increase wallet share and reduce churn. The twist is to take advantage of the window of opportunity that 2 seconds when the customer is on your website, on a call, chatting with a teller.
This document discusses strategies for using social media, blogs, podcasts and other online media for music promotion. It recommends segmenting target audiences based on psychographics like shared values and interests rather than just demographics. It provides examples of targeting fans of specific artists or genres. The document also outlines tools for finding relevant blogs and podcasts to engage with, and emphasizes using analytics to understand audience behavior on social networks.
Turbocharging Your Digital Campaigns with Online InfluencersCheryl Contee
Learn how to use smart segmentation and engagement techniques to find 3 different types of influencers online. Tips, tricks and the latest data to help your campaigns become more successful. Presented at Netroots Nation, July 2015
A strategic case study of an internationally-renowned brand who have taken the initiative to use Relationship Marketing as the tool to remedy a diminishing value proposition.
10 ways to Convert Prospects to Partners (CAMP Presentation)Suresh Parmachand
This document provides guidance on building an authentic personal brand through consistently demonstrating ten behaviors: being truthful, a leader, therapeutic, noticeable, relevant, transparent, valuable, consistent, integrated, and genuine. It emphasizes listening to customers, adding value at each touchpoint, treating customers as partners, and integrating brand messaging across channels to create positive experiences. Overall, the document advocates developing trust within one's social network by living one's values in all interactions.
How To Use Social Media For Business Part 1 of 2Jeff Schneider
The document discusses how to effectively use social media for business. It introduces Jeff Schneider, founder of Marketing Ninjas, and discusses the importance of becoming a trusted authority. It outlines the current social media landscape, focusing on the top 5 platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+. It emphasizes that social media is a communication tool to build relationships, not directly for sales.
LoyaltyGames 2014 - Finals Game Plan - Brian VenutiLoyaltyGames
This Social Innovation Game Plan was produced by Brian Venuti as part of the 4-hour World Vision Case Study completed by the 12 World Finalists of LoyaltyGames 2014, the Loyalty and Gamification World Championships (http://www.theloyaltygames.com). All rights reserved.
The document provides observations on trends in Silicon Valley from Chris Burry, a consultant with experience founding multiple companies. Some key trends discussed include:
- Activity and investment levels rebounding after the dot-com crash
- Mobile technologies, social media, healthcare, and big data among the hottest areas
- Companies scaling very quickly, within a few years or less, to achieve global impact
- Startups founded or led by individuals not born in the US are increasingly common
- The Lean Startup methodology is gaining prominence, emphasizing customer validation
The buzz about the social media buzz - Deckbrand-e
This document summarizes a social media campaign conducted by luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo. The campaign, called "CatchAChoo", involved 4,000 individuals participating on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook. It was widely mentioned on social media and blogs. Store sales increased 33% after media coverage in publications like the Evening Standard. The CEO of Jimmy Choo said the campaign received great feedback. A representative from Foursquare called it one of the best social media campaigns. One member of the public was mistaken for being part of the CatchAChoo team during the campaign.
Local Newspapers: trends and developments in the USADamian Radcliffe
Slides of keynote on US local newspapers given at the 6th International Conference of proximity media, Barcelona, 21st November 2017. http://jornades.amic.media/default.php?id=3065
YouthNet and 1000Heads showcase how they used WOM to put sex and drink on the...WOMMA UK
The document summarizes a word-of-mouth marketing campaign by TheSite.org to raise awareness of their online resources for youth. The campaign focused on influencing students through offline immersion and events to drive online conversation. It involved creating branded drinks and partnering with student unions to integrate messaging and start peer-to-peer discussion of issues like excessive drinking. The campaign was successful in getting TheSite.org's message to new audiences and establishing word-of-mouth and student advocates, which will be a continued part of their strategy going forward. Measurement of word-of-mouth impact and continued momentum were noted as areas for future improvement.
Cision PR Edition: Uncover Your Audience's Influencers! Cision
Media contacts are increasingly present on social media. Does your brand know how to reach them? Cision PR Edition can help. Learn how Cision PR Edition allows users to listen to niche conversations in real time, discover top influencers and engage on social platforms.
This is Not a Facebook Session #hewebSYRAshley Budd
This document discusses strategies for building an effective social media ambassador program for student recruitment. It recommends selecting currently active student leaders, defining the program structure, motivating the team through impact on institutional and student goals as well as incentives, and analyzing return on investment. The key aspects are selecting the right student rock stars, determining reporting lines and resources, and keeping the ambassadors motivated through professional growth opportunities while also benefiting the institution.
Understand the fundamentals of the use of social media for retail sales, marketing and customer service in this briefing on the different functions, features and benefits of digital communications for business.
Attendees will learn:
• How other grocery chains are using social media
• Formulas for improving existing business processes
• Crisis prevention and risk management strategies
• Role of keyword and search engine optimization
Join us for this fast-paced session and learn why social media has become a mainstream communications channel for Millennials and Boomers.
This document discusses the shift towards customer-focused marketing and provides examples. It notes that 81% of executives are shifting budgets to be more customer-centric and personalized data is available through social media. Customer experience marketing puts the customer at the center by understanding their needs and values. Case studies of brands like Dove and Chipotle show how cause marketing can drive engagement if authentic. Southwest Airlines exemplifies excellent customer service through its culture and digital dominance on social media. Taylor Swift's album marketing is also highlighted for its personalized fan interactions across social platforms.
Prepared for Abderdeen's Revenue-Driven Marketign Leadership summit (#RDM2012) - October 2012. A primer on understanding and starting to identify the new influencer landscape.
You can find the Social Media Proposal for Real Estate . We are leading digital marketing agency and provides you best Digital services at very affordable price.
With the past decade of decentralization in the music industry, there are plenty of opportunities for musicians to find and connect with fans on their own, provide products at varying price points to these fans, and pull off creative marketing campaigns to help existing fans tell your story to their friends.
In many cases, established artists have had years of label support to help create a dedicated fanbase, which these artists can then continue to tap into directly, even if they are no longer affiliated with the label. For developing, unsigned artists, there can certainly be a bit of a "Catch 22" when it comes to funding the activities they need to engage in to find their core fanbase, engage with this fanbase, and ultimately monetize this fanbase. How does a developing artist fund the marketing initiatives necessary to generate a core fanbase, without having a fanbase to tap into?
In this presentation, we'll discuss the various methods that musicians and music business entrepreneurs can use to fund their activities, from traditional opportunities to more cutting-edge options for generating funding.
Similar to The death of the subscription has been greatly exaggerated (20)
TRG Arts on the Impact of Loyalty: Success stories of growth through retentio...TRG Arts
1) TRG Arts is a consulting firm that has worked with over 1,000 arts and cultural organizations over 22 years to help them grow sustainable patron bases through data-driven strategies.
2) Building patron loyalty is important as loyal patrons have higher lifetime value and renewal rates. TRG advocates treating patrons differently based on their loyalty level through a "loyalty pyramid" with advocates, buyers, and tryers.
3) Case studies show how organizations saw increases in retention rates, revenue, and numbers of loyal patrons by implementing loyalty strategies like membership programs, dynamic pricing, and focusing on reducing churn of first-time patrons.
Rekindling Subscriptions: A Loyalty Love AffairTRG Arts
This document discusses strategies for rekindling subscription programs and loyalty through targeted retention efforts. It shows that focusing on retaining existing patrons through subscriptions generates significantly more revenue than acquiring new single ticket buyers. Specific strategies that helped increase subscriptions by 470% and revenue by over 500% at one organization are outlined, including flexible package options, value messaging, and a new membership program. The document advocates treating patrons differently based on their loyalty level and investing more in retaining renewing subscribers.
Dynamic Pricing is Not Enough: Webinar (April 2018) TRG Arts
Aimed at those in marketing, box office and senior leadership working in arts organisations, hear from TRG Arts’ Christina Hill and Stephen Skrypec, plus special guest Claire Murray, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Sheffield Theatres, and learn about our three-pronged strategy for pricing and demand management.
Copyright TRG Arts, April 2018
2018 Holiday Season Postmortem with Keri Mesropov TRG Arts
In this virtual discussion group, VP of Client Services, Keri Mesropov guides a panel of TRG Arts experts through Holiday Season sales trends across the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Holiday programming can make up 60% or more of ticket revenue annually, how are you optimizing this annual cash-cow? Keri and her team answer all of your questions so you can maximize your holiday sales this year.
This document discusses data sharing across cultural organizations through community networks and consulting services. It provides examples of campaign successes from the Museum of History & Industry and Jazz at Lincoln Center that utilized data from community networks. These campaigns achieved increased membership acquisition and ticket sales. The document also discusses insights from a patron loyalty study, including that deeper patron loyalty correlates with engagement across more organizations and that many "inactive" patrons are active with other organizations.
Originally presented at the 2017 NAMP Conference.
Have arts leaders increased the loyalty of their patrons in recent years? TRG Arts is the longest-standing aggregator of loyalty metrics in the arts industry and has recently refreshed its aggregated Patron Loyalty Index. In this presentation, we’ll describe the ways patrons are behaving in terms of their recency, frequency, monetary investment and growth over time, across transactions in single tickets, membership, subscription and donation.
Artistic Programming by the Numbers: A KC Rep Case StudyTRG Arts
One of the biggest challenges for theatre leaders lies in perfecting the balance between commercially popular and artistically ambitious plays. In 2014, Kansas City Repertory Theatre was at a crossroads with programming choices, finding it difficult to grow new audiences and cultivate their current loyal supporters. The artistic and executive director decided to do something quite radical: quantify the impact of programming on audience development. Some of the questions they asked were: Which genres grow new audiences? Which deepen current loyalty? Which plays encourage and discourage repeat attendance? Does venue impact audience behavior? How are factors like per-ticket spend impacted?
Learn what the data said about different artistic genres and the types of audiences it attracted, how KC Rep used the data as inspiration for their new Creative Future Fund, and the results they’ve seen in the following three years in audience and revenue numbers. This presentation was made at the 2017 Theatre Communications Group Conference.
Data Skills: What you and your staff need to know in 2017TRG Arts
You’ve got a CRM system. You’ve got reports galore. But how can you use data to affect change at your theatre? DataArts has partnered with field experts to create a new series of free online courses teaching essential data skills for arts leaders. In this session, TRG Arts will present a brief preview from Connecting the Dots: Audience Data Essentials, a course they co-created with DataArts. Attendees will leave the session with 4 basic metrics to track at their own theatre, plus ideas about how these courses can serve as a valuable resource for their own learning, or as a professional development tool for their staff.
This session was presented at the 2017 Theatre Communications Group Conference by TRG Arts and DataArts.
What changes do you need to make for optimum organizational health? No FitBit required! In this session, presented at the 2017 AAM Annual Meeting and Convention, experts from the National Center for Arts Research and TRG Arts to examine ways to measure and improve organizational health. Using a new free tool, participants will have the opportunity to get individual organizational health scores, discuss what they mean and how they compare to their peers, determine which metrics are most applicable to their organization, and how to change their work to get results. Walk through a process of identifying marketing, attendance, virtual participation, expenses and earned revenue strategies and challenges, as well as examples of data-guided, sustainable change.
TRG's David Brownlee presented new data on touring productions at the 2017 UK Theatre Touring Symposium. David's research (based on 2016 data) illuminates trends in ticket income from touring and non-touring productions over several years.
One major takeaway of the study was that touring accounts for the majority of tickets sold and income at UK Theatre venues, driven by musicals at big venues.
1) There was 13% growth in theatre-going households in DC over the past decade, with increases in new households, returning households, and attriting households.
2) Younger demographic clusters like singles and families saw the fastest growth at 32% and 22%, while older boomer clusters grew 14%.
3) Most patrons (82%) are "Single Ticket Experimenters" who visit only one theatre occasionally, though visiting multiple theatres correlates with more loyal behavior.
Christmas in July: Turn up the heat on the holidaysTRG Arts
Forget about Independence Day. Start thinking about Black Friday.
If not, you could be missing out on your biggest opportunity of next season.
The holiday season starts NOW for arts managers. Don’t let the heat of summer lull you into thinking holiday shows sell themselves—there’s a lot to do. It’s time to dust off and refresh your marketing plan for The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, your holiday concert, or whatever hot ticket event you have this December.
In this free one-hour webinar you’ll hear from arts marketers like you who have maximized their holiday programming and gone on to break revenue records. Just when these arts administrators thought their perennial programming couldn’t garner any more, new highs were reached. These experts as well as the consultants from TRG will share the newest best practices for turning up the heat on the holidays.
You’ll learn:
- What, when, and how often: how to optimize campaign timing and frequency, and content strategies for an event that’s repeated annually
- Why a good marketing campaign is nothing without a pricing strategy that allows revenue goals to be met--or exceeded. We’ll explore how the two work together for high-demand programming.
- The importance of realistic budgeting and revenue projections as well as the basics of matching revenue expectations to historical data
My audiences, your audiences: Developing theatre patrons as a communityTRG Arts
Seven theatres. 10 seasons of data. One community. Learn what this study, completed in January 2015, reveals about theatre patrons in one community and their buying and giving habits. The importance of audience development and retention shines through, in light of data analysis on how Washington, D.C. theatres are attracting and holding on to patrons. Zoom in on trends in patronage in this community, including new theatre-goers and patrons who attend multiple theatres. Learn about the clusters of patrons in this community who look demographically or transactionally similar. Unlock the secrets of audience behavior that may point to trends in your own community.
In this session, you’ll learn:
• The benefits of a community wide market research campaign.
• The actions this community is taking as a result of the research findings.
• The role of audience development initiatives in strengthening loyalty and attendance patterns.
TRG Webinar: All in: Developing patron loyalty across departmentsTRG Arts
It’s easy to think of audience development or patron loyalty cultivation as a job for the marketing department. The fact is, all the departments in an organization must align around patrons in order to make a patron-centered business model work.
Seat o-nomics: demand-based pricing strategies for chamber music organizationsTRG Arts
What motivates someone to attend a concert? And, more, importantly, what drives them to attend again and again? Arts managers (and patrons themselves) often cite price as the main and biggest incentive for arts attendance. Certainly price plays a major role in a customer’s decision-making process.
But pricing doesn’t mean anything unless it’s attached to value. It’s a two-sided equation, with price on one side and demand—how much a patron wants the experience—on the other.
Luckily, you have tools that can sweeten the value proposition for your audiences. Ticketing inventory, historical data, discounting, and the choice and timing of programming can help you incentivize audiences to engage with you again and again.
This session was presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America Conference in New York City. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson discussed:
- Strategies to attract audiences to low, middle, and high-demand concerts
- How to incentivize loyalty based on demand for programming
- When and how to approach discounting and dynamic pricing
Developing audiences through data (Desarrollar audiencias a partir de los datos)TRG Arts
As public subsidies for the arts change, organizations must rely on people—their audiences and patrons—to provide the revenue to sustain them long-term. How can organizations build a new business model that both serves audiences and relies on them for revenue? The first step is to see what the data says about building these patron relationships.
In this keynote, presented at the 2015 Conferencia de Marketing de las Artes in Madrid and Barcelona, Jill Robinson of the arts consulting firm TRG Arts offered data-inspired lessons on how organizations can monetize patron relationships. These relationships drive the revenue that allows the entire organization to thrive, instead of merely surviving. Jill also discussed data collection and privacy concerns, and how to create incentives for genuine connection between patrons and organization. You’ll learn how pricing and demand, patron loyalty, database management, and artistic programming each impact patron-generated revenue, and how they can be integrated into an organization-wide culture to drive revenue. When marketers leverage this integrated model, they can make the most of their marketing budget, and start cultivating audiences for a sustainable future. This presentation discussed these specific questions:
1. Why does loyalty matter? How can higher ROI on each patron build sustainable arts organizations?
2. Not all patrons are created equal. How can we right-size our marketing investments in different groups of patrons?
3. Does the type of programming that a patron attends determine future ROI?
Pricing Drives Revenue at New Wolsey TheatreTRG Arts
“Our patrons won’t pay that…”
“Everyone wants to sit in this section…”
Our assumptions about what our audiences will and won’t want or do can stop us from pricing to optimize revenue for our organizations. But we don’t really know until we look at the data. Ignoring what patron data tells us about pricing can lead arts organizations to leave money on the table—money that could be sustaining their mission.
At The New Wolsey Theatre in the U.K., small changes to pricing strategy resulted in big revenue increases. In just nine months, the company reported a 31% increase in box office gross—without selling more tickets. In this webinar, New Wolsey’s Head of Sales and Marketing Stephen Skrypec and TRG’s VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson shared how the theatre updated daily practices and challenged prior assumptions about audiences, leading to their success. We examined how arts organizations, whether in the U.S., U.K., or elsewhere, can use pricing to drive patron behavior and revenue.
Better Together: Loyalty, Collaboration, and Community in PhiladelphiaTRG Arts
You may know the buying and donating patterns of your own audience. But do you know how they engage with the other arts organizations in your community? And does that mean you’re in competition with them or have opportunities to collaborate?
Seventeen arts and cultural institutions in the Philadelphia area set out to find the answers to those very questions. The study they commissioned investigated the buying and donating behavior of nearly 1 million arts audience and visitor households over seven years, with interesting findings about community engagement and audience loyalty. Researchers profiled how loyal patrons were to each individual organization and tracked patterns of loyalty across the community.
Join the research team from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and TRG Arts in this hour-long, free webinar. You’ll learn:
- The most relevant findings from this ground-breaking study
- How patrons at different levels of loyalty invested in the Philadelphia arts community at large
Why data shows that collaboration and cooperation between organizations strengthens community-wide arts audiences
- How your own audience may be behaving based on the behavior patterns found in this study
- What your organization can do to create and keep loyal supporters
"Loyalty takes time." That was the key point that Jill Robinson, President & CEO of TRG Arts, put forth in a discussion of young donors at the 2015 Opera America Conference in Washington, DC. The panel's premise was that, with opera audiences growing older, companies must focus their attention on new generations of support. While development departments may have mastered the appeal to traditionalists and baby boomers, Gen Xers and millennials are looking for something else. Attendees at this standing-room only session learned what the data says about these patrons, what matters to next gen donors, and how opera companies can engage them.
The panel was moderated by Erin Sammis, Director of Major Gifts at Opera Philadelphia. Jill was joined on the panel by Yuming Chiu, associate brand manager, Johnson & Johnson; Mary Galeti, executive director and vice-chair, Tecovas Foundation; and Kim Parker, director of social trends research, Pew Research Center.
Satta matka fixx jodi panna all market dpboss matka guessing fixx panna jodi kalyan and all market game liss cover now 420 matka office mumbai maharashtra india fixx jodi panna
Call me 9040963354
WhatsApp 9040963354
Cover Story - China's Investment Leader - Dr. Alyce SUmsthrill
In World Expo 2010 Shanghai – the most visited Expo in the World History
https://www.britannica.com/event/Expo-Shanghai-2010
China’s official organizer of the Expo, CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade https://en.ccpit.org/) has chosen Dr. Alyce Su as the Cover Person with Cover Story, in the Expo’s official magazine distributed throughout the Expo, showcasing China’s New Generation of Leaders to the World.
NIMA2024 | De toegevoegde waarde van DEI en ESG in campagnes | Nathalie Lam |...BBPMedia1
Nathalie zal delen hoe DEI en ESG een fundamentele rol kunnen spelen in je merkstrategie en je de juiste aansluiting kan creëren met je doelgroep. Door middel van voorbeelden en simpele handvatten toont ze hoe dit in jouw organisatie toegepast kan worden.
The Steadfast and Reliable Bull: Taurus Zodiac Signmy Pandit
Explore the steadfast and reliable nature of the Taurus Zodiac Sign. Discover the personality traits, key dates, and horoscope insights that define the determined and practical Taurus, and learn how their grounded nature makes them the anchor of the zodiac.
𝐔𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄’𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬
Explore the details in our newly released product manual, which showcases NEWNTIDE's advanced heat pump technologies. Delve into our energy-efficient and eco-friendly solutions tailored for diverse global markets.
Discover timeless style with the 2022 Vintage Roman Numerals Men's Ring. Crafted from premium stainless steel, this 6mm wide ring embodies elegance and durability. Perfect as a gift, it seamlessly blends classic Roman numeral detailing with modern sophistication, making it an ideal accessory for any occasion.
https://rb.gy/usj1a2
SATTA MATKA DPBOSS KALYAN MATKA RESULTS KALYAN CHART KALYAN MATKA MATKA RESULT KALYAN MATKA TIPS SATTA MATKA MATKA COM MATKA PANA JODI TODAY BATTA SATKA MATKA PATTI JODI NUMBER MATKA RESULTS MATKA CHART MATKA JODI SATTA COM INDIA SATTA MATKA MATKA TIPS MATKA WAPKA ALL MATKA RESULT LIVE ONLINE MATKA RESULT KALYAN MATKA RESULT DPBOSS MATKA 143 MAIN MATKA KALYAN MATKA RESULTS KALYAN CHART
Starting a business is like embarking on an unpredictable adventure. It’s a journey filled with highs and lows, victories and defeats. But what if I told you that those setbacks and failures could be the very stepping stones that lead you to fortune? Let’s explore how resilience, adaptability, and strategic thinking can transform adversity into opportunity.
AI Transformation Playbook: Thinking AI-First for Your BusinessArijit Dutta
I dive into how businesses can stay competitive by integrating AI into their core processes. From identifying the right approach to building collaborative teams and recognizing common pitfalls, this guide has got you covered. AI transformation is a journey, and this playbook is here to help you navigate it successfully.
Unlocking WhatsApp Marketing with HubSpot: Integrating Messaging into Your Ma...Niswey
50 million companies worldwide leverage WhatsApp as a key marketing channel. You may have considered adding it to your marketing mix, or probably already driving impressive conversions with WhatsApp.
But wait. What happens when you fully integrate your WhatsApp campaigns with HubSpot?
That's exactly what we explored in this session.
We take a look at everything that you need to know in order to deploy effective WhatsApp marketing strategies, and integrate it with your buyer journey in HubSpot. From technical requirements to innovative campaign strategies, to advanced campaign reporting - we discuss all that and more, to leverage WhatsApp for maximum impact. Check out more details about the event here https://events.hubspot.com/events/details/hubspot-new-delhi-presents-unlocking-whatsapp-marketing-with-hubspot-integrating-messaging-into-your-marketing-strategy/
The Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs to Follow in 2024.pdfthesiliconleaders
In a world where the potential of youth innovation remains vastly untouched, there emerges a guiding light in the form of Norm Goldstein, the Founder and CEO of EduNetwork Partners. His dedication to this cause has earned him recognition as a Congressional Leadership Award recipient.
Ellen Burstyn: From Detroit Dreamer to Hollywood Legend | CIO Women MagazineCIOWomenMagazine
In this article, we will dive into the extraordinary life of Ellen Burstyn, where the curtains rise on a story that's far more attractive than any script.
6. But, “subscription”…
In the arts?
• “There seems little doubt that the [subscription] model itself is
going bust.” --Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal, 2013
• “ ‘Subscribe Now!’ was the title of a 1977 book by Danny Newman
that became the marketing bible for performing-arts institutions in
the United States. “No!” comes the answer from audiences a
generation later.” --Washington Post, 2012
• “Subscriptions are a dying model. I doubt that there is any
managing director or artistic director who would start a theatre
today with subscription as the primary model.” --Rob Orchard,
Subscribe to This! www.tcg.org
18. Donors and
consummate
loyalists
The magic
of “and”
From 1st time to
second or last time
to NOW
VIP access
& pricing
Better access,
Incentives for
upgrades, adds
Least attractive
access, incentives
to upgrade
Sustainable Income: Integration of
Loyalty & Demand Management
21. Philadelphia Study
Two Key Findings
1. Subscriber and donors had the highest
volume of cross-over
• 40% of subscribers donated
2. Demographic trends
• Millennials
31. Marketing
Segmentation
1. Prior Relationship
• Lapsed subscribers
• Donors non-subscribers
• Multi-ticket buyers, recent and lapsed
2. One-time Ticket Buyers? NO!
• Seattle Repertory Theatre case
3. Trades
32. Retention & Upgrade
Single TicketSub
1. Single Ticket Buyers!!
2. Retention Begins: Point of Sale
3. Continues All Season Long
• Ensure ticket use
• Thank you, benefits
• Ask for the UPGRADE!
33. Inventory
Management
1. Hold best inventory for subscribers
2. Care for loyalty during renewal process
3. Single ticket buyers—manage well for loyalty!
Good afternoon. My name is Jill Robinson, President and CEO of TRG Arts, and you’ve joined me today for a presentation and discussion about the subscription.
Or perhaps more specifically, the DEATH of the subscription. In some arts quarters, this is still a debated issue, and we’re continuing that debate today. In others, though, it’s an accepted fact and reality in 2015.
Original photo link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amrja/460646099/in/photolist-GGW38-iwPbs-4W9NBS-6Nd1o-sg7Sd-4Mmyi-qJR5vg-obLzpe-bK9ihV-4NJsjc-q175B-ig6FJt-km36Vg-onGTRT-5hntXR-i6Zio-q17ee-joRatb-kqDFSR-faZHYk-a6WEqv-5vsWQp-3tjuHq-b3ZsxV-oBLCoy-nL9HTK-p4AfWH-iAzvYq-7fn4Kr-3iXZ2u-5Zpq2m-dKaQgp-5YEYAQ-pwKXaM-8kCGRr-8kFTK3-deRvFw-81iVzD-9imsk-8kCGGV-4qPiQz-5gE3Dm-jt4BrL-dh4HPa-oUQdGa-5hyLmH-8yjAjE-e1XrQB-dHK5qx-p5v8jS
Well, someone needs to tell the Green Bay Packers about this reality.
Original photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfagerdotcom/11802647853
Season tickets to the Packers have been sold out at Lambeau field since 1960, and they’ve been accumulating names on their legendary season ticket waiting list ever since.
Original photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tabor-roeder/15266873342
The subscription, or “season ticket” in professional and collegiate sports continues to be a successful model according to our friends at Turnkey Intelligence, who are the leading research firm in professional sports & entertainment. While demand plays a huge role in specific teams or markets (trends for the Packers or for the New England Patriots are different than for the Carolina Panthers, for example) the trend in professional and collegiate sports has been household (account) growth and investment in benefits directed at season ticket holders.
And, like we’ve seen in the arts, sports teams have successfully experimented with smaller packages, premium packages, and more (memberships) that have fueled that growth. Turnkey research has revealed motivations CLICK for subscribing that sounds very familiar to our “arts” ears at TRG: season ticket holders want to hold and improve on the same seats for each game, and get access to the post-season. Sounds like renewable seats and blockbuster programming to me.
As for subscription or season tickets in the arts? Whether it’s individuals telling the sad story about the dying model, or formal research projects like La Placa Cohen’s Culture Track and the NEA reporting on changes in average attendance over the past decade, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of good news to tell.
As for subscription or season tickets in the arts? Whether it’s individuals telling the sad story about the dying model, or formal research projects like La Placa Cohen’s Culture Track and the NEA reporting on changes in average attendance over the past decade, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of good news to tell.
As for subscription or season tickets in the arts? Whether it’s individuals telling the sad story about the dying model, or formal research projects like La Placa Cohen’s Culture Track and the NEA reporting on changes in average attendance over the past decade, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of good news to tell.
Our friends at Turnkey said something really interesting as they we were talking on this subject, however. They said, “Jill, there are differences between results for the NFL (professional football) and the IHL (professional hockey) CLICK. There are differences between markets CLICK, honestly based on the number of Ws and Ls in their records. And not every team is able to invest equally CLICK. And then my friend Haines told me a funny story about how, in an attempt to combat couch-sitting and in-home viewing because games are broadcast everywhere on TV and the Internet, the Miami Dolphins are actually installing living rooms boxes, at $2k per game, with TVs right in front of recliners! That fans can sit in. To watch games. In the stadium.
I found myself grateful in that moment that I wasn’t working in professional sports.
But demand is an issue. In TRG’s 20 years of consulting experience, we have seen and still see in 2015, that organizations who enjoy overall demand have a stronger subscription message and associated results. Sometimes the path to demand is to act as IF you have demand. Remember: the perception of success can create irrational behavior on the part of the consumer. And often, the purchase of a subscription is compltely irrational.
Our friends at Turnkey said something really interesting as they we were talking on this subject, however. They said, “Jill, there are differences between results for the NFL (professional football) and the IHL (professional hockey) CLICK. There are differences between markets CLICK, honestly based on the number of Ws and Ls in their records. And not every team is able to invest equally CLICK. And then my friend Haines told me a funny story about how, in an attempt to combat couch-sitting and in-home viewing because games are broadcast everywhere on TV and the Internet, the Miami Dolphins are actually installing living rooms boxes, at $2k per game, with TVs right in front of recliners! That fans can sit in. To watch games. In the stadium.
I found myself grateful in that moment that I wasn’t working in professional sports.
But demand is an issue. In TRG’s 20 years of consulting experience, we have seen and still see in 2015, that organizations who enjoy overall demand have a stronger subscription message and associated results. Sometimes the path to demand is to act as IF you have demand. Remember: the perception of success can create irrational behavior on the part of the consumer. And often, the purchase of a subscription is compltely irrational.
#1 reason: demand
Just ask our friends at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis who, in the past two years, have been working aggressively to (1) manage their every-performance perception of success through inventive scale plans & inventory management, (2) investing heartily in blockbuster and appealing productions to ensure they reach sell-out, and then (3) investing organizationally in their subscription program and associated benefit messaging.
After years of subscription decline, they’ve experienced 10% growth in the past two seasons.
Or the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, who this year had 22,000 subscribers and has seen growth in their subscription program over the past four seasons.
Original pic
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjornwatland/6071995106/in/photolist-afyyAN-3AGBd-fKpyE-pQeTuG-HHEJB-oVwp1i-oVwwSF-pzVKkE-pzVF4J-pzSBcE-pSoM1L-5dTNi8-2ZFedz-48un2k-qDFyVc-4RB5vb-4dLvBv-fKpqX-oVwyjP-pS5UU6-pSjH9i-pzVwpE-5dTMKP-5dY83f-5dTMeP-5dY7MN-5dY7H5-5dY7BU-5dY7v7-5dY7ao-5dTLpv-5dY8QQ-5dTN7g-5dTN24-5dY8m3-5dTMCZ-5dY895-5dY85U-5dTMmH-5dTMik-5dTLKP-5dTLF6-5dTLzz-fKpfC-3AGAH-3rAKBq-8f2iUa-vjwBB-949CYA-946ArT
Or Performing Arts Fort Worth/Bass Hall, whose NEW subscription program, this year, grew by 44%.
Original pic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/branditressler/5315090118/in/photolist-96Fe7N
Or my favorite, Houston Ballet—who working over the past decade to integrate the strategies we’re going to outline today, has experienced 25% growth in subscriptions sold. Over a decade.
Original pic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanhoustonian/15787308939/in/photolist-8Esc8R-2aKP3w-2aKP4y-88bsbV-q455VH-pnogsU-qjctyr-qjctyM-qh6tqQ-qjcty6-qh6t2d-qhGWSY-qhQW3H-qhGW3m-qz69QX-qzfXEe-pCuLzi-pCgjAS-qhGVXS-qhGXP7-pCuNeF-qhGYTS-qhPfVD-qhGfQS-qhQWNF-qzcaNs-pCuLWR-qhQU1X-pCgjDh-qzfYMV-qzfYEk-qhQVsz-qwYLzJ-fFAPNg-fFTpqW-8wxRwq-8wxRps-7eL994-2U3W8k-2U3VrP-2U8kUG-qzc9VL-qhGimy-qhGWVy-hRTx5-8wuRgK-8J2NQH-8wuRkk-8wuRqZ-7fHggn
But we’re not naïve here at TRG. We KNOW—like you do—that some parts of the subscription model have long since gone the way of the dinosaur. We no longer see 20-concert subscriptions sold at large orchestras. Or subscription revenues delivered ONLY through traditional, fixed-seat packaging.
No. It IS 2015, and our environment has changed radically since the late 80s when I began my career in the arts. But—and I’m a little strident on this point, to the consternation of some--I believe that we, as administrators, started some of this change BEFORE it was required, in RESPONSE to what we believed our patrons wanted. And then we didn’t totally like what we’d created or what happened.
I think that like many human narrative, we’ve created reasons—excuses—about why that which WE undermined no longer works. No longer holds true.
Original picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/10159247@N04/4335602802/in/photolist-2zBjXu-eFN5d-6mRtRS-GXN85-7p3ern-w629-9kWmqX-4yv8Nb-KWKG5-bEHjfd-r2zrKY-w62f-2FRrJ-6Z9oL-7Q6knA-8QpJ5F-dtgGAE-6ugkiF-9et7Ys-dEAyQw-7cgAgq-dApQnY-7B86Es-d94sfA-daogZf-6VviBx-dqhXNU-dcTWhA-5JWrin-4Jutdo-uPW5n-q1vTKs-7jyNpF-bBqasy-dhp5G-pMUVxY-pB2NYh-7ccGSx-9ESWM1-44SCp-7hJ5VF-7nYvjJ-7TB5U3-fndc3B-aGWM2-9KTYyi-ngCKKJ-fr8XQk-6ukvqE-ondda1
I’ve been talking a long time here about TRG without actually introduce our firm! Let me take a minute now to do that. We know that many of you on this call know us through one lens or another, one type of work or project, but allow me to give you an overall introduction.
TRG Arts is a Colorado-based consulting firm that is driven by data and OBSESSED with results. We’re also true believers. We believe that communities are stronger when arts and culture THRIVES. And we believe that the traditional arts organization plays a critical role in the curation and delivery of experiences that make communities great.
We’re celebrating our 20th year in 2015, and were founded by my late and GREAT business partner, Rick Lester.
Our firm includes 30 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), and we view patrons through the lens of a dozen years of loyalty study that has created a schematic that many of you are familiar with that we call our Advocate-Buyer-Tryer pyramid.
Advocates in any database are patrons who are our most loyal. Every year, they are major donors, subscribers, members, event attendees. They are actively engaged in what you do, all the time.
Buyers are where we see the magic of “and”. These patrons do combinations of things—like buy a small subscription AND a ticket to the gala. Or they purchase multiple single tickets AND make a small donation. This segment of your database is where the loyalty traction is beginning to take hold, and our data demonstrates the power of the subscription in this loyalty continuum.
Tryers are the largest proportion of every database we study, and these are folks whom we’re trying to move from first time to next OR from last time to NOW. On the main, these patrons are single ticket buyers or visitors who churn out at business-model risking rates.
In a seated event business (which is what you run and what we have in COMMON with collegiate and professional sports) the INTEGRATION of loyalty management and DEMAND management create the winning scenario that supports, fosters and sustains patron loyalty.
Using Demand Management as an overlay to loyalty management, 20 years of TRG experience suggests that how we manage access to inventory in different demand scenarios enables us to flip switches and pull levers that motivate irrational behavior.
When we have demand: Advocates MUST get… And when we don’t, they’re still in the best seats or close to them, even when they buy late.
Buyers should receive constant invitation and incentives to improve their lot in life with your institution. This enables them access to better inventory and experiences all year long, but especially when you have demand.
Tryers MUST be managed carefully. When you have demand, they must not get the same experience or access as Advocates and Buyers. If they do, why on earth should they subscribe? But when demand is lower, all bets are off and Tryer get access easily.
This integration between demand and loyalty management, prioritized and invested in, creates sustainable patron income.
At TRG, we use the word “patron” for any PERSON engaged with an organization—visitors, ticket buyers, members, donors, event attendee), and we view patrons through the lens of a dozen years of loyalty study that has created a schematic that many of you are familiar with that we call our Advocate-Buyer-Tryer pyramid.
Advocates in any database are patrons who are our most loyal. Every year, they are major donors, subscribers, members, event attendees. They are actively engaged in what you do, all the time.
Buyers are where we see the magic of “and”. These patrons do combinations of things—like buy a small subscription AND a ticket to the gala. Or they purchase multiple single tickets AND make a small donation. This segment of your database is where the loyalty traction is beginning to take hold, and our data demonstrates the power of the subscription in this loyalty continuum.
Tryers are the largest proportion of every database we study, and these are folks whom we’re trying to move from first time to next OR from last time to NOW. On the main, these patrons are single ticket buyers or visitors who churn out at business-model risking rates.
In a seated event business (which is what you run and what we have in COMMON with collegiate and professional sports) the INTEGRATION of loyalty management and DEMAND management create the winning scenario that supports, fosters and sustains patron loyalty.
Using Demand Management as an overlay to loyalty management, 20 years of TRG experience suggests that how we manage access to inventory in different demand scenarios enables us to flip switches and pull levers that motivate irrational behavior.
When we have demand: Advocates MUST get… And when we don’t, they’re still in the best seats or close to them, even when they buy late.
Buyers should receive constant invitation and incentives to improve their lot in life with your institution. This enables them access to better inventory and experiences all year long, but especially when you have demand.
Tryers MUST be managed carefully. When you have demand, they must not get the same experience or access as Advocates and Buyers. If they do, why on earth should they subscribe? But when demand is lower, all bets are off and Tryer get access easily.
This integration between demand and loyalty management, prioritized and invested in, creates sustainable patron income.
We’ve implemented hundreds of Advocate-Buyer-Tryer analyses over the years, but the first large-scale project came our way in 2014 when the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance retained TRG to implement ABT for 17 individual organizations ranging from the Zoo to the Ballet to small museums, and THEN create one arts-wide loyalty review. We learned a lot, and you can download this report on our website, but there are two findings that are particularly relevant to our conversation today:
Subscribers and donors had the highest volume of cross-over between “buyer types”, so to speak. Other buyer types included in the study were members, single ticket buyers/visitors. A full 40% of subscribers also had donations as part of their behavior.
So, reason #1 to invest in subscription: An investment in subscription is ALSO an investment in philanthropy. The data coming out of Philly is consistent with virtually every study we’ve done.
Finding #2 is related to demographics and the much-discussed Millennial cohort. For context, Buyers and Advocates—the segments where almost ALL of the subscription behavior were found—were older, wealthier…they were demographically what we think of when we think of a “traditional” arts demo. Arts Tryers, who were 96% single ticket buyers/visitors were, you guessed it: younger, less educated…it’s where all those Millennials were hiding in the database. Those Millennials whom none of us believe will EVER subscribe.
This demographic point isn’t the point of this discussion, but there’s increasing evidence that Millennials are behaving differently from their elder Gen X cohorts related to philanthropy and brand loyalty AND: I’d remind us all—this is the first time we’ve had the abilty to study arts behavior amongst four/five distinct demographic groups.
While our Millennials are different, operating within the context of a different time, life stage absolutely plays a role here, too. I mean, c’mon: How many 20-somethings in 1950 or 1975 were buying subscriptions to their local orchestras? Not MANY, I’m guessing. So let’s stop panicking about them, PLEASE, and focus on how to engender loyalty among them.
Reasons # 2 & 3?
The benefit to investing in subscription is higher retention. Subscribers renew at a much higher rate than single ticket buyers, and larger the subscription, the larger the retention rate.
The larger the retention rate, the higher the ROI on the campaign directed at these patrons. Subscribers renew at pennies on the dollar compared to the cost of acquiring new patrons.
And yes, there is increased philanthropy.
You have to LOVE THE ONES YOU’RE WITH. Focus on retention in your organization and make it a prioirty.
The point ISN’T that the subscription is the only model. LOYALTY is the model. As I said in my recent blog, the sustainability and viability of the arts is not necessarily dependent on subscription. But it IS dependent on loyalty.
At TRG, we’re quick to say that we care much less about being right than following the data. Subscription doesn’t have to be THE way, but we’ve yet to find a model that provides so much benefit.
We’ve walked along clients as they’ve tried a variety of models like membership (where we have to sell TWICE—first the membership, then again the events we want them to use the membership to enjoy), and rewards- or points-based systems that are still relatively new in the arts, but show some promise especially in multi-disciplinary presenting environments…
But so far these programs have limited success compared to the models that actually get fannies in a seat in a predictable, regular way. And THAT, my friends, is what we’re all aiming for.
So. What does it TAKE to make a subscription model—in its various shapes and sizes—work?
Three things:
You must recognize and CELEBRATE that you’re running a seated event business. Loyalty rules and incentives in your type of business are different than loyalty rules for a Netflix subscription or even for United Airlines, where the consumer determines the travel dates.
Your organization must DECIDE that you will prioritize loyalty and the subscription offerings you have.
And finally, you must get ALIGNMENT around this decision throughout your organization.
What do I mean when I say alignment? Typically it means work, change, and investment in these areas:
Artistic planning and integration
Financial investment and infrastructure
Developing a sales-oriented culture at point of sale and in your venue
Segmenting your market in a way that ensures that the right offer to the right person at the right time
Managing your seating inventory in such a way that REWARDS loyalty
Investing in the necessary retention strategies that not only increase subscriber retention, but perhaps more importantly grows single ticket buyer retention so that the pool of potential subscribers can grow.
Let‘s put all this together, and review each of these alignment issues, one at a time. But before we head this direction, I want to share with you what we found about YOUR subscription campaigns, based on the survey we asked you to participate in when you registered for this webinar.
Artistic planning and its impact on patrons…still a sensitive subject in some arts sectors and organizations. When we started consulting 20 years ago, Rick and I would say, “you program it, we’ll make it work…” Not that THAT could automatically happen, but you get the drift. The orientation tended to be that programming decisions were singularly made based on artistic vision and could not be distracted by “marketing” or audiences. Sure, the two desires collided, sometimes often. But the PURPOSE of artistic planning did not have the audience overtly in mind.
NOW, things are changing, they’re different. And today data analysis is available that tells the complex story of programming decisions. Yes, Blockbuster programming delivers the annual revenues that organizations need to meet budgets, create audience growth and more. But “core” programming attracts audiences that stick longer. It’s a fact that we see every time we study programmatic data. It’s always been intuitive, but now we can tell a story about how to use programming to grow AND SUSTAIN patronage through data analysis. In the words of the artistic director of one of our theatre clients, “we BOTH win—the art and the business!”
So, what does alignment around artistic planning have to do with subscription growth?
Does your organization KNOW which programs attract new audiences, create attrition/church, or create repeat buying? If subscriber acquisition AND retention is the goal, might that knowledge be helpful context for your artistic staff?
Does your organization have an integrated process for programming decisions? Are all angles considered—all of the artistic ones for starters, but also: ability to attract new audiences or re-engage lapsed; subscriber/donor impact; corporate sponsorship opportunity? Operational impact, cost. Today, EVERYONE’s insight is required to run a successful seated event business.
Do you ASK subscribers for their feedback? This scares a lot of organizations, but remember: not all subscribers are created equal. New subscribers will respond differently about programming than long-term subscribers. And they WON’T all want just your blockbusters—we promise.
The financial implications of a subscription program are enormous. The investment required to create and develop long-term relationships with audiences is huge. There’s investment in campaign activity, benefits, staff, incentives… And in the long-RUN it’s completely worth it. Completely. Here’s a few things to consider when benchmarking your subscription investment:
Retention. This subject is so big, it has it’s own category we’ll address here in a few minutes. But suffice it to say right now: you must budget for single ticket and subscription retention activities—and the staff to implement them—to enable the activities to happen.
Campaign Investment. In short, the longer and more targeted your subscription campaign, the more subscriptions you’ll sell. Plan on launching your campaign three or four months before your current season is completed, and continuing it well into the next. Consider how your campaign plan can have the necessary frequency during that time—every six to eight weeks—to at LEAST your best prospects. And finally, don’t assume that your renewal campaign is over when your subscribers have missed their deadline and you’ve released their seats. This is an incredibly important prospect pool for a different or smaller type of subscription—don’t give up on them, and budget for it.
Finally, we know that subscribers who donate renew at higher rates. They’re “stickier”. But what are the incentives in your organization for marketing and development to work together to make this happen? You may be among the lucky whose marketing and development departments work well together, AND EVEN IF YOU ARE—challenge your finance department to begin creating a budget line (revenue and expense) for the loyalty behavior you desire. This is a simple way to start. Budget for SUBSCRIBER DONORS. It benefits marketing in higher renewal rates, and development in increased philanthropy. Everybody wins, and you have a new data-driven metric to describe loyalty in your organization!
Selling. Even in 2015 this little word, SALES, is inconsistently thought about, and as a result, implemented on. We’ll meet organizations who say, “of COURSE, we sell! We sell on-line, we sell in the box office, we sell at the hall, we sell groups…” And upon further investigation what we learn is that they TAKE, or RECEIVE orders. But they’re not SELLING. They’re describing their channels of distribution.
Developing an entrepreneurial culture is one of the most important things that can happen to an organization, and it relates to subscriptions because the development of this culture can begin VERY effectively in the context of a subscription campaign. So, three questions here:
Is your box office trained and provided incentives to sell subscriptions to patrons calling to purchase single tickets? They should be, and its easy to start a program during the subscription selling season. You must have goals—make them monthly for easier tracking—and incentives—cash is king—and make it a TEAM goal that everyone can contribute to.
Does your website encourage single ticket buyers to consider a subscription? At the point of sale? Like, “wait, stop! Consider buying a subscription before you purchase that single ticket!”
And do you sell subscription overtly and with enthusiasm while you’re in performance? Think about how retailers use in-store promotions. How do the best ones do this work? What can you mimic?
At TRG we think about Marketing Segmentation in this way: are we getting the right offer to the right person at the right time? A dozen years of in-depth patron behavior study has regularly told the story: loyalty development is about getting the sequence of offers right over the term of the relationship. We use the dating analogy and it really works. When thinking about subscription, it can be really helpful think about that offer as a marriage proposal. With that in mind, keep these things in mind:
While some people will go to Vegas and run off and get married to someone they just met there, MOST people don’t. Now, some of you in this room will need to keep your own personal story and biases out this equation…but trust us. This is true. So the best subscription offer will ALWAYS be made to patrons who have had a prior relationship with you. Who is that?
Lapsed subscribers
Donors non-subscribers
Multi- ticket buyers, recent and lapsed
What about recent single ticket buyers who’ve bought only once? Our experience is that the next most important step for them is to purchase again, ideally in the same season (which has the nifty affect of cutting their churn rate measurably). We’ve got a terrific case study with the Seattle Repertory Theatre on the benefits of taking this strategy on our website, but really: as hard as it feels, it IS the best thing to wait. While it takes time, providing time for the relationship to build creates an enormous flywheel for your subscription and fundraising efforts.
What about trading with other organizations in my community? TRG has played a role in community data warehousing and analysis for a decade, and we know that trades, as they’re called, can play a productive role in a subscription campaign. Two things you’ll want to think about: 1) cost—these patrons are less exposed to your organization, your art form. It will cost more to acquire them than patrons already in your database. And 2) segmentation applies here, too. Borrowing the dating analogy again, why would we ask single ticket buyers (DATES) to another organization to purchase a subscription (THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL) to yours? Either ask for subscriber or lapsed subscriber segments when making your trade request, or use traded lists for your single ticket prospecting efforts.
Your subscription campaign has been underway, you have a subscriber base that you’re continuing to build on, and the season is about to open. When does your subscriber retention program begin? For some organizations we meet, subscriber retention thinking doesn’t begin until the next seasons’ renewal campaign planning begins. You won’t be surprised, I don’t think, if I tell you that THAT kind of thinking misses the boat entirely. Here are some things to consider related to subscriber retention.
First, remember that the entirety of your subscription campaign is built on a strong, multi-buying single ticket base. We can’t say this enough at TRG: if you’re not obsessed with single ticket buyer retention, you will forever be frustrated with the cost and effort required to build a subscriber base.
Your SUBSCRIBER retention program begins when the patron purchases the subscription and immediately after with the THANK YOU and customer care you deliver from that point until ticket delivery. Again: think of the best retailers you know. Immediately after purchase, they are keeping you posted, staying in touch, until you’ve received your items. You know you could reach them easily, ask them questions, and…you know you won’t forget that you bought something if it doesn’t show up. Retention BEGINS AT POINT OF SALE AND IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING.
Finally, the remainder of your retention program continues all season long and ENDs with your renewal campaign. Three rules here, too:
Ensure subscribers USE their tickets. Whether it’s a fixed-seat sub who regularly exchanges (good! They’re USING their subscription) or a flex buyer whom you need to remind to actually USE the vouchers, make sure they use what they purchased.
Say thank you regularly. Provide them access and benefits that are meaningfully different than your single ticket buyers receive.
And at renewal time: ask for the upgrade! Whatever that right upgrade step is, ensure that you’re asking them to take it. Remember: if you don’t ask, they likely won’t volunteer to upgrade their seating location, grow the size of their series, or add on that donation. But every additional step is a loyalty step that translates into higher retention rates and investment in your organization.
How you manage inventory related to your loyalists has a huge impact on patron behavior. I hope by now that you’ve seen the benefit of the subscription model to the arts, and the possibilities in your institution for strengthening your relationship with audiences through strengthening your approach to subscription. Now we need to “close the loop” in the prioritization of these patrons by managing access to inventory in such a way that reflects this prioritization. What do I mean?
Hold the best seats for subscribers—even after single tickets go on sale. Manage your inventory like crazy so that subscribers actually DO get the best seats.
Think about your organizational behavior during renewal time. Prioritize seat change requests for larger package subscribers. Be transparent about this. SAY it, on renewal and acquisition collateral. If you prioritize loyalty, SAY IT. And ask your organization: when large package subscribers release their seats, do we RESERVE this location for other large package subscribers? Or do we sell and seat smaller package subscribers into that inventory? It may convenient for US to do this, but what message does it send to the consumer?
And finally: we MUST manage the single ticket buyer’s access to inventory, especially when we have demand. Consider this scenario: Mrs. Got Rocks, returns seats for blockbuster last minute, STB calls last minute, gets seats. What message are we sending that last-minute single ticket buyer? What requirement does that ticket buyer fell he has?
Example of ticket buyer at last minute
Seating access by size of package—renewal campaign, acquisition
What else?
To recap
Three things:
You must recognize and CELEBRATE that you’re running a seated event business. Loyalty rules and incentives in your type of business are different than loyalty rules for a Netflix subscription or even for United Airlines, where the consumer determines the travel dates.
Your organization must DECIDE that you will prioritize loyalty and the subscription offerings you have.
And finally, you must get ALIGNMENT around this decision throughout your organization.
Remember: what we mustn’t believe is THIS.
Original photo link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amrja/460646099/in/photolist-GGW38-iwPbs-4W9NBS-6Nd1o-sg7Sd-4Mmyi-qJR5vg-obLzpe-bK9ihV-4NJsjc-q175B-ig6FJt-km36Vg-onGTRT-5hntXR-i6Zio-q17ee-joRatb-kqDFSR-faZHYk-a6WEqv-5vsWQp-3tjuHq-b3ZsxV-oBLCoy-nL9HTK-p4AfWH-iAzvYq-7fn4Kr-3iXZ2u-5Zpq2m-dKaQgp-5YEYAQ-pwKXaM-8kCGRr-8kFTK3-deRvFw-81iVzD-9imsk-8kCGGV-4qPiQz-5gE3Dm-jt4BrL-dh4HPa-oUQdGa-5hyLmH-8yjAjE-e1XrQB-dHK5qx-p5v8jS
What we’re going for is our Green Bay Packer equivalent of this…
Original pic:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcmonaghan/8064633878/in/photolist-8gSW2N-esDzTf-4Ya8Q2-a5P5cq-5Aki6f-a5P2LW-dhDmFG-dhDmog-a5P1LN-a5P2mb-di7eRZ-7j1M5h-XqUe3-e1HBss-dhDD69-dhDBKi-dhDzNP-dhDBdL-dhDnH6-dhDHuu-4oP4Gh-5oxAti-9kuPk-9S1Ggr-a4bFt2-moGa8-6HEE7b-7j1Me5-9XXyup-9YmiBY-oibFks-ojZ3LB-oibG53-oie2HR-moJZo-dDweN8-4Ya9yX-4RL6gw-8sN9uq-8sN9p5-55xcn9-6Q9dW-5Y3Tia-58AGvy-8KWhNw-5a1vdq-55t1j8-9WiZjn-dhDriy-dhEx5n
And this…
Original:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcmonaghan/8064703872/in/photolist-8gSW2N-esDzTf-4Ya8Q2-a5P5cq-5Aki6f-a5P2LW-dhDmFG-dhDmog-a5P1LN-a5P2mb-di7eRZ-7j1M5h-XqUe3-e1HBss-dhDD69-dhDBKi-dhDzNP-dhDBdL-dhDnH6-dhDHuu-4oP4Gh-5oxAti-9kuPk-9S1Ggr-a4bFt2-moGa8-6HEE7b-7j1Me5-9XXyup-9YmiBY-oibFks-ojZ3LB-oibG53-oie2HR-moJZo-dDweN8-4Ya9yX-4RL6gw-8sN9uq-8sN9p5-55xcn9-6Q9dW-5Y3Tia-58AGvy-8KWhNw-5a1vdq-55t1j8-9WiZjn-dhDriy-dhEx5n
And this!
Original:
https://https://www.flickr.com/photos/stijnbokhove/2682021398/in/photolist-3jcUvd-aZRfox-6stty7-fPcJNE-dmBkRf-9tjTWt-7hWcvm-hdVE8J-8FYcQn-akbYL6-hah9pN-4tgef9-dzSDjs-diEQTi-qn4WFD-kkP5XR-6PMauj-7V1z4F-dUjdv1-op6ASb-3cvc76-brp1BG-ctsMvY-5Dd42b-5614wf-8bybYV-48vY6Z-aWPVdR-b2pV3M-d9bYtm-kgrscn-fmzdor-pwJxWE-fiEnLk-m66wke-a5RxuF-pvFiC-94M526-6G32cM-akxSiC-KuCaf-hvS6BT-nsKuKD-oj3DXg-bp4XDJ-nTfAZK-narfgy-5X2r5r-dWccAY-7yZwQu
Other models? Yes—membership (have to get them back, TWICE marketing. To sell membership and then re-selling each event)