Ideas

Your website is one of the first impressions your organization makes. It’s the place where most tickets are sold, it’s a goldmine for user behavior analytics, and it’s a place to share information and build your brand’s voice. Your website is a fundamental piece of a marketing funnel, whether or not a patron buys online.

The work of my team at Tessitura is based on one simple philosophy: revenue follows engagement. This means that deepening a customer’s engagement with your organization leads to more ticket sales, more donations, and more renewed memberships and subscriptions.

What does this mean for your website?

When you’re tasked with creating videos for a non-profit organization, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and start playing the comparison game.

"Opera companies have such beautiful sets to capture!"
"Orchestras have it so easy, they already have the music!"
"Dance companies have bigger budgets!"

Hi, CI! is our monthly series featuring the best team we know - the Capacity Interactive team! You will learn more about the people who help arts organizations market smarter. This month, we’re featuring one of our Digital Marketing Analysts who is a skincare guru, an avid reader, and helps arts organizations showcase the more personal sides of their brands.

It’s no secret that email is still an important channel for arts marketers. 87% of arts buyers regularly hear about upcoming performances through email, and email continues to deliver the highest return on investment (ROI) for marketers across all industries.

Even with these stats in mind, it’s easy to feel like you’re stuck in a cycle. You might get in the habit of only sending emails when a performance or exhibition goes on sale. Or, you’re looking for a solution that will help you automate email processes to get valuable time back in your day.

We’ve outlined several different ways to help you get out of a rut and level up. These are achievable steps that will set your organization apart from the oversaturated inbox crowd.

Whether you’re preparing for a new season, or have year-round programming, video is an incredible medium to showcase what your organization has to offer. But sometimes, the process can seem daunting. How can you continually create stellar videos that inspire audiences to take action?

As the founder of Cinevative, I’ve helped organizations in the performing arts and live entertainment sectors create stunning videos. If you want to capture someone's attention, and keep them interested, it's important to produce videos that are not only visually appealing, but also effective. I've outlined five tips to help you get started. 

Compelling storytelling is the most important aspect of creating deep and engaging connections with audiences in our venues and in the digital world. The National Ballet of Canada’s digital platforms showcase the daily life of a ballet company, giving a window into the lives of our artists and all the elements that go on behind the scenes to create the magic that is seen onstage.

We were thrilled to have the blockbuster hit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland return to the stage during our Winter Season. With its recognizable characters and colorful sets and costumes, we had a unique opportunity to create content that was shareable, relatable and showcased the wonderment of the ballet.

Everyone can provide rock star customer service thanks to chatbot automation.

For most of us, working in a non-profit cultural organization means that your role is guaranteed to be multi-dimensional. Many hats, many browser tabs open at the same time. So when it comes to customer service and visitor engagement, it’s mostly a “get to it when you can” situation if you’re pitching in with frontline staff.

However, with the rise in digital engagement and new avenues for communication, we’re also faced with expectations for shorter wait times when it comes to answering customer outreach.

What does it mean to “market” the brand? Some industries are all about brand marketing. The game we play, working in the performing arts, is most often one of conversions - get butts in those seats! I’ve been thinking a lot about brand marketing since I arrived at Carnegie Hall just over two years ago.

The Goodman Theatre has a long history of innovation on-stage. It’s the recipient of the Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is known at home and abroad as a theater as much for artists as it is for the community. The team at The Goodman puts their patrons at the heart of everything they do, including their digital initiatives, proving that they are innovators off-stage as well. 

This was most evident in The Goodman’s recent website redesign, where, with funding from the Wallace Foundation, they were able to turn to user data at key moments in the process to inform the direction and prioritization of new templates on their site.

An arts organization can have the best digital strategies in the world, but so much of an organization's success comes down to people, culture, and leadership.

Without valuing people, we won’t meet the critical challenges of connecting with our audiences in the 21st century. 

I recently presented a webinar called "Creating a People-First Culture," or if you're a glass half empty person, "The People Crisis in the Arts." I am passionate about this topic and want to share this webinar with you.