Gene Carr's Patron Technology Blog

Is it really about the money?

This morning I participated on a panel sponsored by Americans for the Arts/NAMP here in New York City, on the topic of (guess what?) technology and marketing. I did my thing about e-mail marketing and there were other presentations covering blogs, video and other online marketing tools now becoming popular.

At the end of the session someone commented about how concerned she was about finding the money to do all of these new things. I found this very interesting considering nearly everything we discussed was either free or very inexpensive, compared to any other kind of marketing technique out there. 

Yet, we in the arts seem to quickly hide under the "we don't have the money for it" rock. But from my perspective, if more people would focus on the pure ROI of online marketing-- they would clearly see how cost effective online marketing really is.

In the end, it's not about the money. It's about having the will to try something new, and the guts to compare what you're doing now to Web marketing.

I think we all know which one always wins.

Can you help me spread the word?

Our Oscar client - Pilobolus

Last night our client Pilobolus, the acclaimed modern dance company, had a tour-de-force on the Oscars. Perhaps you saw it?

Congratulations to them for two reasons. First, it was spectacular. Second, they realized that they were going to get zillions of new visitors to their Web site, and they prepared - by making sure their e-mail sign-up form was prominent.

Check out the prime placement of the "join our e-mail list" link on their site.

Nice job!

Upcoming Seminars & speaking engagements

In a week's time I'll be speaking at the Marketing Sherpa's annual Email Marketing Summit which will take place in Miami. I'm moderating a panel that includes Robert Sweibel, who runs all the marketing for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Then, I'm off to give week of e-mail marketing seminars. At these seminars I'll present the results of our latest Arts Patron Online Research, just completed a few weeks ago. If you want to go, click on the links below, and I'll look forward to meeting many of you.

Ft. Lauderdale - March 6th
Atlanta - March 7th
Boston - March 8th
Cincinnati - March 9th

The Measurable World of Corporate Philanthropy

Last week there was a significant and important article in The New York Times which most will see as bad news. I don't. It describes how big corporations are cutting back their corporate philanthropy, and at the same time demanding more demonstrable "return on their investment" for their support of the arts. They are asking for arts groups to document how much impact their "philanthropic" gifts are having.

First, let's be clear. This ain't philanthropy any more. It's marketing - in philanthropy clothing.

And, nothing could be better news for e-mail marketing. If you put Altria's logo at the top of your e-mail newsletter - you can tell them exactly how many people saw their logo, or clicked on it.  You can tell them a "cost-per impression" and measure that against the open market for this kind of targeted audience. You can't get more measurable than that.

That's why the bigger your e-mail list, the better of you will be in leveraging your online marketing for "philanthrophic" purposes.

Can you say "philanthropy 2.0?"

E-mailing at sea?

This post comes under the category of "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it." Can you guess where I was?

Well, yes, it was in London,

But, I was at sea, sort of.

I was at the "office" of our latest UK client, aboard The HMS Belfast, which is part of the Imperial War Museums.

 

 

Here we are after the meeting, with the marketing staff. As you might imagine, their opportunity to stay in touch with their audiences with e-mail (often children with their parents) are much the same as any musuem. In this case, we talked a lot about how important it was to get people signed up for their e-mail list, and how they might create multiple opportunities to collect e-mail addresses onboard. 

Now, back on terra-fima, I shall resume terrestrial e-marketing!

Are Patrons in Britain more open than in the US?

For the past two days I've been visiting with some of our UK clients, and have been thinking more about a phenomenon that we've been watching for the past few years - and for which I don't have a rock solid understanding.

That is -- the average open rates in the UK for all our clients is 32% which compares to the US average of 26%.  Why is that? Could it be that this occurs because here in the UK opt-in laws are much strict than in the US?  (Do you know that in order to send e-mails in the UK, you have to register with the goverment?)

Could it be that people here just care about the arts more?  Could it be a combination of both?  All I know for sure is that when e-mail marketing is done properly over here, open rates of 35% and click rates of 7% are not uncommon.

Anyone have any other theories on this?

Lots of Fast Internet Connections

I read an article this week that said that more than 50% of the US population now has some kind of broadband Internet connection. WIth the advent of YouTube, this seems to make sense.

You'll hear more about this during the next few weeks, but we're now in the midst of analyzing the 2007 Patron Technology National Arts Patron survey. This year we collaborated with 15 or so of our clients, and did a survey that went out to 70,000 or so people and got a better than 10% return. But, I digress.

The point I wanted to make was that upon initial review, it seems that the arts audience we researched is 80% online. Also makes sense - given the high income levels.

This should have some impact on how arts marketers think about using streaming media. Our audience is more than ready!

Cultural Tourism is real on the Web

For many years, I've attended seminars and conferences talking about how to encourage arts participation when people travel. Clearly culturally oriented folks who take in theater in their home towns, would potentially do the same when they travel.

Today, Burst Media put put out a report that has some compelling data for arts marketers who are interested in motivating cultural tourism.  Check this out:

"Among respondents who will utilize the Internet to plan their upcoming travel, nearly half (47.2%) say the Internet will be their primary travel resource. Among age segments, respondents 25-34 years are most likely to say the Internet will be their primary travel resource (53.2%); and respondents 55 years and older are least likely (41.4%).

Additionally, half (51.8%) of respondents reporting household income (HHI) of $75,000-$99,999, and nearly two-thirds (63.1%) of respondents reporting HHI of $100,000 or more say the Internet will be their primary travel resource.   

Yet again, more research that validates that the audience going to arts events IS online, and IS using the Web to plan their leisure travel.   

Indeed, just this morning, in my planning my own London visit next week, I first turned to this terrific site (www.whatsonstage.com) to look at what theater is on in London.

Is "unsubscribe" really my only choice?

More and more these days, I'm finding myself trying out e-mail newsletters. I subscribe to them, read them for a while and ask myself if they are really of any value to me. Some of them I get off of right away. Others are clear winners and become part of my regular reading.

It's the ones in the middle that I want to focus on. I tend to want to keep those middle ones coming - but not in my main e-mail in-box. I have secondary addresses, and I often want to switch those there.

BUT -- here' s the rub. Many e-mail service providers (ESPs) won't let you change your e-mail address. Their only option is to opt-out.  My guess is that in their effort to comply with CAN-SPAM, they only give you the "opt-out" option.

I think these ESPs are doing their clients a disservice. Once I've unsubscribed, the chances of me going back to that site and resubscribing are very slim. It's just too much work. That's why we've keep the "change preferences" link at the bottom of every e-mail.

I really wish everyone else would do the same. Have you found this to be an annoyance?

Printing 2.0 - Saving money on print marketing

Today, I have a way for those of you that are still doing traditional marketing (ie: all of us!) to save money on printing stuff as well.

Of course, you could print in the office, or go to your local Kinko's. But another clever company which has been around for a while is worth knowing about. It's called Mimeo.com, and what's interesting about this company is you can think of it as Kinko's from your desktop + mailing service. Let's say you're doing a fundraiser and you need 5,000 programs shipped across town. Rather than printing them in-house, print to Mimeo.com and they will send them over the next day. Their prices are very competitive.

If you're still doing a lot of printing, this is worth looking into.