arts.ruddle.com

What would you do with $10,000?

Henry Ruddle — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:15:31 +0000

Recently, an a chamber orchestra client asked me what I would suggest they do if they suddenly had $10,000 to spend on new marketing initiatives for next season. As of now, their marketing program consists of one season brochure mailing, e-mail newsletters before each concert, a website and a moderate Facebook presence.

Their renewal rate for existing subscribers is high, so my advice was to add 1) Killer offers to onboard single-ticket buyers and mailing list joiners; 2) Reciprocal advertising with related groups; 3) Printed postcards to the mailing list and as table info.

Any other thoughts? Add them to the comments.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sticky Messages, Part 6: Stories

Henry Ruddle — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:16:43 +0000

The sixth and final part of my series of Arty Face articles (February 2) on the recommendations of Dan and Chip Heath in their book Made to Stick covers story telling, which essentially means using newsletters effectively in the arts marketing context.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sticky Messages, Part 5: Emotion

Henry Ruddle — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:14:50 +0000

The January 17 edition of Arty Face contains the fifth installment in my series on sticky messages based on the advice of Chip and Dan Heath in their book Made to Stick. It gives a brief overview of the advice on using emotion to connect with the audience.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sticky Messages, Part 4: Credibility

Henry Ruddle — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:12:48 +0000

The fourth part of my series of Arty Face articles (January 11) on the recommendations of Dan and Chip Heath in their book Made to Stick covers credibility.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Symphony Success in Southern California

Henry Ruddle — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:17:41 +0000

One of my Team Member clients in Southern California, Music at St. Matthews, recently sent me this nice note:

"Something must be working. We had about the biggest crowd we've ever had last Friday. Granted, it was Handel's Messiah, but the interesting thing was that we had a lot of advance ticket sales and a goodly number of walk-ins." -- Tom Neenan, Artistic Director.

In past years, nearly all of this chamber orchestra's sales had come from subscribers, so we worked on the branding, e-newsletter, website and brochure for the 2011-2012 season to make it easy for potential patrons to find the information they needed to purchase single tickets or subscription add-ons.

It worked.

One of the orchestra's long-time supporters wrote, "... something inspired you and your colleagues to turn the internet into a lively source of information about your programming and musicians who will perform .... And the layouts of your printed brochures has also suddenly improved."

The letter included a nice donation, so I'd say that's one patron who really knows how to give a compliment!

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sticky Messages, Part 3: Concrete and Specific are More Memorable

Henry Ruddle — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:58:44 +0000

Part 3 of my series on crafting sticky marketing messages, based on Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, continues in the December 28 edition of Arty Face with an explanation of why concrete, specific messages are stickier than abstract ones, even though the abstract ones might be technically more accurate.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Sticky Messages, Part 2: Unexpected Twists

Henry Ruddle — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:42:38 +0000

My series on crafting sticky marketing messages, based on Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, continues in the December 20 edition of Arty Face with some ideas about giving your message an unexpected twist.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

The Sticky Message Series, Part 1: Make it Simple

Henry Ruddle — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:03:12 +0000

The December 1 edition of Arty Face covers the first of seven strategies for making your messages sticky -- making them simple by finding the core message. Click on the link to view the newsletter, and if you are not already a subscriber, use the form at the top right of this page to join the list.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.