Ideas

Backed by Audience Data: Four Marketing Investments Worth Your Time

March 30, 2022

Warm weather is just around the corner, which means it’s time for spring cleaning! Now’s the moment to tidy up your CRM, spruce up your emails, and say goodbye to the marketing efforts that haven’t been “sparking joy.” With limited resources at your disposal, though, which projects should you tackle first?

Earlier this month, we released the 2021 Performing Arts Ticket Buyer Usage Study, based on survey responses from over 17,000 ticket buyers at 48 performing arts organizations. Be sure to read the full report when you’ve got the time—and check out the Key Findings Summary for a quick overview—but here, we’ve distilled the findings down to identify the top four investments worth prioritizing, based on ticket buyer behavior today. With this to-do list in hand, you’re on your way to a squeaky-clean digital foundation!

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Website Navigation: Tips for Smooth Sailing

September 12, 2018

Navigation, whether you’re talking ships or the web, refers to a method of determining one’s current position, distance traveled, and plotting the course to a destination. When it comes to your organization’s website, you want your users to be able to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. This is accomplished by putting an interface into place that clearly plots out the information and actions available and encourages them to move through your site with confidence.

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The Best Google Product You're Probably Not Using

September 6, 2018

The beginning of the fall arts & culture season is a great time to review all the platforms and features in your digital marketing toolkit. Most savvy marketers already know the basics of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Google Adwords. But there’s one product you may have overlooked: Google My Business.

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Connecting with Patrons in Relevant Mobile Moments

August 9, 2017

It’s not easy to sell convertibles in the rain. This was the challenge for Audi Canada as they attempted to increase test drives for their A3 Cabriolet convertible. How could they reach their customers in the most relevant context to sell more cars? They turned to the insights gleaned from their potential customers’ mobile devices. Audi launched a mobile ad campaign where customers could book test drives directly from the ad experience. These ads were targeted to people in close proximity to a dealership, prioritized via CRM data and displayed only on sunny days when they knew test drives would be more likely. By understanding the context of their customers’ lives through the clues they leave behind though their mobile devices, Audi increased test drives by 51% and drove $13M in new A3 Cabriolet sales.

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What Do Your Organization's Before and After Pictures Look Like?

October 31, 2016

So your goal is to get in better shape. Congratulations! You come up with a diet and a workout routine and plan to make significant life changes to get fit. Before you begin, you weigh yourself and take measurements to track your progress. Just like in fitness ads, you need a before and after picture. You can’t have a goal weight or waist size without knowing from where you’re starting.

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So You Want to Launch a New Institutional Website? Read this first!

April 7, 2016

I hear these requests far too often from arts marketers. I don’t blame them for wanting something fast and inexpensive, but these timelines and budgets are incredibly unrealistic and create a domino effect that causes more work, lots of headaches, and ultimately leads to poor websites that keep our industry in the dark ages.

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Iterative Design – Building Effective Websites Over Time

December 17, 2015

In the beginning there was a new website or a redesign… and people were impressed. Compliments were passed. Beer was shared. The website was built according to plan—populated with snappy content and interesting images—and it finally launched with a sigh of relief. Months passed and people were (still) impressed. But analytic data started to tell a different story. 

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Building a Content Marketing Strategy from the Ground Up

September 24, 2015

You wake up with a sense of purpose. This is the year you’re going to shake up your marketing strategy. Years of the same old playbook have and landed you in plateau-land when it comes to lead generation. Things haven’t been bad...they’ve just been “meh.”

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2014 Performing Arts Digital Marketing Benchmark Study

May 19, 2015

For the third year in a row, we've compiled survey data to create industry benchmarks to help you compare your digital marketing efforts with other performing arts organizations. Our report looks at social media, digital advertising, analytics, email, mobile and website maintenance.  
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To Make Good Data-Driven Decisions You Need....Good Data

September 22, 2014

In order to make data driven decisions, you need, among other things, good data. And not just accurate data, but rich data. Capturing this data in digital analytics tools such as Google Analytics, however, has historically been a challenge since customizing the implementation would require tech resources that are often difficult to secure. This post will explain how Google Tag Manager can help you bypass this challenge so you can begin capturing rich user data without requiring tech support.

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Boot Camp 2023 On Demand

In a time of perpetual change, Boot Camp 2023 will help you build a holistic foundation to become a stronger arts marketer, leader, and champion for our industry—all from the comfort of your desk.

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CI to Eye Podcast

From arts leadership to organizational culture, digital marketing deep dives and cutting edge innovation, CI to Eye is your one-stop shop to help you market smarter.

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Social Content Calendar for Arts Marketers

Create content that’s thumb-stopping, relevant, and thoughtful to connect with audiences—all winter long!

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Market Smarter
The Performing Arts Ticket Buyer Media Usage Study

Based on a survey of over 17,000 ticket buyers, this report sheds light on the shifting media consumption and buyer behavior of your core audience, with marketing insights to help you turn data into strategy.

Download the Study