Whether you’re a theater, dance company, music ensemble, or other performing arts organization, these strategies are designed to engage your audience, increase your organization’s visibility, and ultimately drive ticket sales. We will be exploring five proven marketing strategies that can help your organization boost its performing arts ticket sales. So, let’s dive in!
1. Embrace Social Media Marketing:
In today’s digital age, social media marketing is an essential tool for any organization, and the performing arts are no exception. It is important to create engaging content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter (or, X) to connect with your audience. Sharing exclusive glimpses of what goes on behind-the-scenes, never before seen interviews with performers, and providing special offers that generate excitement are sure ways to get your audience’s attention.
Being immersed in your art, it can be easy to forget that your “every day” is not what most people experience. And by sharing it, you make them feel welcomed into your space. That being said, your content should be relevant to your audience – not just what the organization wants to post about.
Engaging with followers, via messaging and comments on posts, and running targeted ads will further amplify your reach once you get going. A recent study by Meta shows that “70% of respondents said they feel more connected with businesses they can message”. This leads to people having more trust in your brand and therefore being more willing to “take a chance” on what you are trying to sell them!
2. Build An Email Subscriber List:
Email marketing remains a powerful tool for reaching your audience directly. You will want to encourage your website visitors to sign up for your newsletter. A great way to do this is by offering exclusive content or early access to ticket sales.
Then, as your email subscriber list grows, it will be important to regularly send out newsletters with updates on upcoming performances, artist spotlights, and special promotions. And don’t forget to personalize your organization’s emails based on your subscribers’ preferences and purchase history to enhance their experience!
3. Start Your Marketing Early:
We can’t stress this one enough! It takes time for your marketing efforts to sink in, and if you don’t start them soon enough, you won’t see as much of the impact of your time and money. We recommend starting your first wave of ads 6-8 weeks prior to your show or event opening. This is especially important for unknown shows and shows with big revenue goals. It can take time to inform your audience and convince them to buy their tickets. Especially if they need reminders!
This timeline might seem earlier than you are used to, but this is what we recommend to all of our clients and our sales track record speaks for itself! From here, it is just about keeping up your efforts with continuous advertising and great contributive content until that first curtain rises!
4. Optimize Your Website For Search Engines:
To ensure that your website appears in relevant search results, you will need to implement search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. You can do this by researching keywords related to your performances and incorporating them naturally into your website’s content, meta tags, and headings. One of our favorite places to search out content and SEO is Answer The Public. Here you can search for what questions people are asking and write blogs or make videos to answer them! You are the experts in your art, now convince your audience of that!
Additionally, it’s always a good idea to improve your website’s loading speed, mobile responsiveness, and user experience to enhance your search engine rankings (which also enhances your users’ experiences and can lead to more conversions). Make sure to regularly update your content and create landing pages for specific shows to improve their visibility.
5. Run A Digital Ad Campaign:
The world of arts marketing has gone digital, and there is no denying that digital marketing continuously proves to be much more efficient and cost effective than traditional marketing efforts (such as print ads). In fact, the same Meta article linked above also states that “brands diverting marketing funds to digital platforms have reaped rich rewards, including a 14% increase in total media return on ad spend.”
Beyond this, running digital ads provides you with real-time data to help you see how your ads are performing and the ability to make adjustments as you go! By pairing this with an early start to your marketing and great contributive content, we promise you are going to see an increase in ticket sales!
If you need more convincing on why it’s time to go digital with your marketing, check out our blog “5 Real Reasons Why Digital Marketing Is Best For Performing Arts.”
Recap: How To Increase Your Performing Arts Ticket Sales
By embracing social media marketing, building an email subscriber list, starting your marketing early, optimizing your website for search engines, and running a digital ad campaign, you can effectively market your organization and increase your performing arts ticket sales. Remember to engage with your audience, share compelling contributive content, and constantly evaluate and refine your marketing strategies. With these proven tactics in your arsenal, you’ll be on your way to a successful and thriving performing arts organization.