Gene Carr's Patron Technology Blog

"Talkies" and the Web

I saw the film "The Artist" yesterday, an excellent retro-silent film that traces the clash of culture in Hollywood around the time of the stock market crash at the end of the era of silent film and the beginning of "talkies." It's amazing that they made a distinction between movies that had sound and those that did not by giving them different names. But not for long: Almost as soon the technology arrived, the silent film era was history.

It occurs to me that the same think is happening now on the web now. The first round of content sites on the web were silent - writers published, and people read. But then came Facebook and the era of social media. (That's not entirely true, as in the 1990's there was geocities and hometown AOL, and AOL message boards and chatrooms but with Facebook suddenly it caught on.) This year even the venerable The New York Times has relented and is about to allow its readers to comment much more freely.

Today, almost all new sites are "social," in some way, which means they enable a free-flowing two-way dialog. The notion of "social web" is transforming what it is to be a publisher. And in business the "social enterprise" is transforming what it means to enable your customers to talk back, and your staff to communicate with each other.

Looking back at the similarities, we've had our own stock market crash, and now I wonder how much longer the notion of "the social web" will be a distinction.

Free Webtool Friday - E.gg Timer

Since the holiday weekend is upon us, I figured I offer you a free webtool that might help with your holiday cooking. It's a free web service called E.gg Timer - and it is just that. When you go to the website, you type in an amount of time in seconds, minutes or hours, and it counts down and rings a loud bell when time runs out. That's it. No muss no fuss. 

The thing is that, notwithstanding the usefulness in the kitchen, I have found this to be very productive in business too. Often I'll allot myself 20 minutes to work on a particular task, and E.gg Timer keeps me from multi-tasking. Or, a staff member will come to me and say "can I have five minutes to talk with you" and I simply turn on E.gg Timer. You'd be amazed how effective it can be in keeping meetings short!

And, finally, for all you tea lovers, there's a variant called Steep.it which helps you make a perfect cup of tea. 

Happy holidays everyone!  

Is CRM a Time Machine?

This week's staff post is by Justin Gallo, Client Services Representative here at Patron Technology.

I’ve been in your shoes. I know what it's like to wake up Monday morning to a day full of attending
meetings, writing grants, soliciting donations, and doing all the other tasks necessary to keep your organization up and running. For five years I worked for a small non-profit theater and found myself spending more time on administrative work and less on what I really wanted to do – creating art. There just weren’t enough hours in the day. Then when I started working at Patron Technology, I discovered the organization had a time machine!

Staff members in my old office had their own methods of tracking their data. The development department had their donor database, but that was hardware that was only available on their computers and wasn't accessible by anyone else. Our general manager kept a series of very complex Excel spreadsheets. My files were kept in the contact software that came with my computer and various spreadsheets and Word documents. Others in the office still relied on their trusty Rolodex. It was difficult to make sure all of these different sources of information matched each other, and updating was a fairly tedious process.

I remember sitting at my desk and watching our general manager and development associate sit down every week and compare their numbers – donations and board giving. One had a database, the other had spreadsheets... it took a while. If their numbers were different, it took even longer. It was an effective method of making sure everyone's information matched up, but it was really time consuming.

Here at Patron we use a customer relationship management system – it might as well be a time machine. What I’ve found is that tasks that were once a chore have become much more streamlined because all of the information I need is in one place, in our shared CRM system. A CRM system improves efficiency with administrative tasks to such a degree that you are actually able to save hours... hours that you can then devote to your art. 

Back at the theater, I would also spend hours trying to coordinate the schedules of everyone on my committee so we could meet. It irked me that I was never able to find a good way to keep track of the schedules – I used spreadsheets, calendars... I tried it all. It didn't make the process any easier. I knew there had to be a better way. 

Here at Patron we use Gmail and Google Calendar. We’re all on the same platform, and we can see each other’s schedules at a glance, even on our iPhones. Again, what a timesaver!

As you can see, I’ve been in your shoes. I understand what it takes to keep a non-profit arts organization able to create art – and it takes time. But I’ve come to learn how much time I could have saved over the years if I only had a time machine. 

I just never thought I’d find one in a CRM system. If all you want this holiday season is some extra time to focus on your craft –you might want to think about asking for a time machine.

Fifth Wall Fridays: Your Envelope Is a Subject Line

 

Twice a month I offer expansions on the themes and topics that Michelle Paul and I wrote about in our book, Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century. If you like these, you can buy the book from us here, or on Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes & Nobles' Nook. 

This week's post is from Michelle.

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I came home to a full mailbox tonight, and I mean "real" mail, print mail, not my e-mail inbox. It's that time of year: I got five catalogs, a christmas card from my aunt, and three "year-end giving" asks from non-profits I'm somehow affiliated with.

But out of those three fundraising requests, two of them arrived in envelopes without a return address and with no indication of who the sender was. 

Why would I even open that letter?

I can tell from the postmark that it was sent by SOME nonprofit, because it has the non-profit postage rate on it, but there is nothing on this envelope that motivates me to bother ripping it open.

In Breaking the Fifth Wall, we talk about how the subject line is the most important part of your e-mail. It's a marketing message! And even though roughly 70 percent of people on your list may not open that e-mail, they will still see the subject line in their inbox. You should make sure you're using it to communicate a message of value. 

So if you think about it, isn't your envelope actually the subject line of your direct mail? Don't waste that space with snowflakes or "Season's Greetings" if you don't also at least make sure I know who you are. You might even consider printing your main "ask" right there on the envelope itself. That way, even though I still might not open the letter, you've at least made a brief impression on me between my mailbox and recycling bin. And when I sit down this weekend to make my year-end online donations to various organizations, I'm that much more likely to include your organization on my list because you've caught my attention for a moment and asked, even though I didn't open your mail.

It turns out that the lessons we've learned from e-mail can be applied back to direct mail: just as your subject line is a marketing message, your envelope is, too!

The Case of the “Phantom Subscriber”

This post is by Allison Klein, Client Services Manager here at Patron Technology.

If you asked a handful of New York City’s non-profit theatre companies, “Is Allison Klein an active theatre patron?” their answer would probably be “not really.” 

They might say, "Sure, she’s on our e-mail list, and we send her postcards and brochures because she gave us her address, but she doesn't always open the e-mails, rarely clicks our links, and she never seems to buy single tickets, either. I guess she’s just not that into us!” 

But they would be mistaken. I’ve actually been a subscriber of at least one or two theatre companies for the past five seasons. I attend every show -- but they don’t know that! 

They’ve developed this inaccurate picture of me because I’ve always subscribed with a couple of friends, and someone else has always made the actual purchase... leaving me as a phantom subscriber.  

(To many theatres, this is me)  

I became a museum member for the first time this year, and I think performing arts organizations can learn something from the museum I joined in this regard. Just like with my theater subscriptions, I signed up as part of a group -- my friend purchased a dual membership on behalf of both of us. But the museum did something very simple that many theatres do not: they asked my friend to also provide my contact information!

So, back to the performing arts world. If someone is buying more than one subscription package (and we know that most people buy two), why not ask who else is coming?  Even if your ticketing system only lets you associate one name with the order, simply send a follow-up e-mail to the purchaser that includes a brief survey to find out more information. Not only can you ask for the name and e-mail address of the otherwise phantom patrons, you can also find out a lot in a few short questions: the age group, the relationship of the subscribers to each other, and maybe even why they subscribed in the first place!

Why is it so valuable to have this information? Well, having phantom subscribers can easily backfire.  Here’s an example: the week of Thanksgiving I received two e-mails, one from the theatre I subscribe to and one from the museum.

The theatre’s e-mail had a clear call to action: become a subscriber today at a pro-rated, mid-season price, and we’ll also give you a free ticket to the current production. Awesome! However, there’s a problem. I’m already a subscriber, and I’m already going to the current production in a couple of weeks. And I paid more for the tickets during renewal time than the price of this current offer.

The e-mail from the museum was quite different. It took the form of a signed letter from the Director of Membership, who thanked me for being a member, informed me that the museum is closed on Thanksgiving, and also wished me a happy holiday season. It was clear to me that the people of that organization know who I am and that they appreciate my involvement.

The stark contrast in the e-mails was not a one-time thing. The e-mails and print communications I receive from the theatres I've subscribed to always seem to be directed at potential ticket buyers who are not yet committed to that theater. Theatres typically offer discounts that I can’t take advantage of anymore.

The obvious lack of knowledge about who I am turns me off. I usually don’t open these e-mails at all, potentially missing out on some other interesting information that they might contain. I think I deserve better, and I bet my fellow, loyal (albeit phantom) patrons would feel the same way! That simple note from the museum about its holiday hours showed me that its organization knows me and cares about making each visit and potential visit a good one, which is the kind of communication I should be getting from the theatre as well.

You can’t target people and communicate with them on a personal level if you don’t know who they are. If you have phantom subscribers, chances are they’ve had an experience like mine, and I would bet that these patrons would happily give you their contact information. I know I would. 

All you need to do is ask!

 

Free Webtool Friday - LastPass

Do you have any idea how many passwords you have for various sites you visit periodically?

I do. It's 382. How do I know that?  

LastPass.com stores all of them for me. Years ago I gave up trying to manage these passords in my head, writing them in a notebook, or keeping them on a hidden spreadsheet. And, since we know it's not a good idea to use the same password for everything, keeping all of these straight was getting impossible.  

LastPass is a password management tool that creates one secure "master" password for all of your online accounts. LastPass works on any computer operating system and on mobile devices. It's a hosted service and the encryption aspect of this service is the whole banana. Read here and you'll see why I trust it over any other method including my own home-grown approach.

Using LastPass is simple. When you go to a site that requires a log in, you can set it to automatically log in, or simply have it fill in your user-name and password. And at new sites, it can generate a strong password for you.  I use it to automatically fill in my credit card information and address when I'm shopping online as well.  

And, it’s FREE. (There's a premium version for $1/month which has additional features.)

 

Mensaje desde España

This week Michelle Paul and I have had an incredible experience in Spain presenting seminars based on our book Breaking the Fifth Wall:  Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21^st Century which has just been published by Fundacion Autor in Spanish as Rompiendo La Quinta Pared: Marketing par las Artes en la Era Digital.  Our sessions have been long by U.S. standards, starting at 9 AM and ending at 5 PM with just an hour break.  So we’ve had a lot of contact with arts marketing professionals in the past few days!   

Although many of the questions we’ve gotten about online marketing have been similar to those we get in the U.S., the overall situation in Spain could not be more different. Here, most arts organizations get most, if not all, of their funding from the government. In addition, arts tickets are most often sold through banks, which in many cases also provide financial support to these organizations. It’s as if Ticketmaster had locations at each Citibank branch, but here the bank itself is in fact the ticketing company.  

Unlike in the U.S., there hasn’t been much of a connection between earning revenue from tickets and the sustainability of the organization. The funding has come from the government no matter what, and it hasn’t been influenced much by the number of tickets actually sold. In some ways this makes things very interesting, as artistic choices are less influenced by commercial potential than they are in the U.S. The bigger outside factor is the political system. Key arts jobs are political appointments, so when the government changes, many arts organizations find themselves with a management change as well.

Since most of these organizations have not been focused on earning revenue, the notion of building and sustaining a relationship with the audience through marketing and audience development activities hasn’t been a big concern.  And, since there is no tax incentive for people to donate, private philanthropy simply doesn’t exist.

This is how things have operated until now. 

But now there’s a 20 percent unemployment rate – in some places it’s as high as 30 percent. The economic crisis is on everyone’s lips. People are scared of what’s to come. The Spanish government changed hands last week in a major election and most people we’ve talked with are waiting to see what will happen when the new government is seated next month. Most expect that there will be draconian cuts to all kinds of government services, and the arts are squarely in the cross hairs. 

The arts managers that came to our seminars expect big changes in the near future.  And the most optimistic of them see this crisis as an opportunity to change the way they have operated in the past, and to chart a new future for the arts, one that will likely look a lot more like what we have in the U.S.

As an arts organization you have two things. You have your brand and your mission, which is what you stand for and art you put on the stage or the walls that supports it. And then you have your relationship with your audience, which is the thing that is most enduring and is the thing that you as managers can influence through the way you communicate with them and how you treat them.  

What we emphasized in our sessions was that which we believe sustains the best arts organizations -- the relationships with their audiences, which trumps ticket sales for any individual performance.  If your patrons feel they have a personal relationship with your organization, then whether or not they like what they saw yesterday isn’t as important.  What we spent time talking about was how as an arts manager you can help create that relationship.

Though the future of the arts Spain may be uncertain, we hope that the managers we presented to this week take this idea to heart and begin a new approach to audience development to ensure that their organizations have the best chance of success in this tumultuous time.