Ideas

Accessibility: for those of us who aren’t experts, it can be an intimidating mountain to climb. The marketing team at CI aimed to make our social content more approachable to people with varying access needs like blindness, deafness, and cognitive disabilities.
Still, we struggled with imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and, perhaps most importantly, perfectionism. We knew that taking the time to craft a social media accessibility strategy was crucial, so we decided to take action this year.

We’re sharing our journey with you, imperfections and all, to highlight the questions we asked ourselves, the roadblocks we encountered along the way, and the learnings we’ve discovered. Of course, your organization’s experience with navigating accessibility will be different, and the best practices you find for your organization will differ from ours, but we hope you feel inspired to consider these six important questions.

At CI, we’ve long advocated utilizing YouTube advertising if you have the content to support it. Historically, we saw it as an excellent supplement to other channels, driving strong video views and brand awareness, but not many direct conversions.

But lately, we are seeing a shift, with YouTube also driving some stellar ROIs—sometimes even stronger than what we see reported on display and even Facebook—in addition to remaining a reliable tool for awareness.

Whether you’ve been advertising on YouTube for years or have never taken the plunge, now’s a moment to consider if an increased investment in YouTube could help you achieve your marketing goals.

At CI, we often talk about the importance of creating timely, relevant, and authentic content. It’s created at the intersection of what’s going on at your organization and what is going on in your audience's lives. This is a huge reason we create the Social Content Calendar for Arts Marketers as a resource.

Ask the Industry is a direct line of advice and inspiration from organizations learning and sharing valuable lessons. We hope these insights spark new ideas at your organization.

Your organization has a mission statement, right? How about a values statement?

Values are intrinsic to your organization's day-to-day, and they shape its operations. If you don't have defined values, you're missing out on a key piece of internal culture and external connection with audiences.

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!

The past two years have brought turmoil to us as individuals, digital marketers, and arts supporters. Our industry has faced an incredible amount of uncertainty and financial strain, while the happenings of the world around us have taken an emotional toll on our hearts. And yet, we’ve stuck to it. We’ve persevered. Why? Because we know the power of our industry. We know that the arts have the ability to change the way people see the world and their place in it, and that is undeniably worth it.

The arts help us heal from our history, even beyond the past two years. The arts help us remember the importance of connection and regain inspiration amidst the turmoil. The arts make this world a better place. So, we push—the world needs us to.

As we rebuild and reimagine the possibilities of our extraordinary sector, abundance is ripe to think big and beyond what we’ve been able to before, to disrupt the status quo, and to see new potential in our digital strategies.

As soon as Instagram launched Reels in August 2020, two things came to mind: 1) my “healthy” level of screen time was out the window, and 2) this is a game-changer for arts organizations on social media. For the sake of your time (and interest), I won’t detail the first point—but the second is worth a bit more conversation. 

So, should your organization take the plunge into Reels? First, let’s talk about best practices, tips, and advice to help you decide if Reels are right for your organization’s social content strategy. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, with Google image extensions, a picture is also worth increased clicks and click-through rates for your search engine marketing strategy!

Capacity Interactive (CI) created and published a list of Anti-Racism Commitments in June 2020. This public statement outlined our action plan for becoming an anti-racist organization and served as an accountability mechanism. As a part of this statement, we committed to reporting on our progress.

In 2021, Apple and its CEO Tim Cook have spent a lot of time and energy espousing their dedication to protecting their users’ privacy and giving people more control over the data tracked about them by third parties. Other companies (*ahem* Facebook) attempted to make Apple’s push seem more about hurting other tech companies rather than about protecting users’ privacy. I think both are right.