Good marketing requires a plan. It’s rare that you’ll get audiences organically or from not much marketing at all, so cover all angles you are capable of covering. Here are a few tips to get you heading in the right direction.
1.
Market Research
Where does your event or product fit in the current market? Who are your competitors and what are they doing? What do and don’t you like about what they do? Are there competing factors that may need to be addressed? E.g. Clash of dates with another festival or launch.
What about trends or products that you can take advantage of? For example, if video is booming on social media, consider using video footage in your plan.
Also consider any opportunities that neither you nor your competitors (fellow artists or companies) are exploring. This could be your chance to take a unique approach.
Case Example:
In 2022, Swan Hill Rural City Council received marketing funding to hire a bus from Robinvale to collect residents along the way to attend the Swan Hill Harmony Day celebrations. This unique yet simple idea literally brought more people to the event!
2.
Audience Research
Write down who your audience is, consider the following:
- Where are they? This will help determine where you can do your marketing.
E.g. If they are local, posters may be good. If they are city, social media or radio might be better. - What do they like? This will help determine the content of your marketing.
E.g. If your artwork is for sophisticated, design loving people, you would tailor the look of your marketing material to this audience. - What demographics are they? This will help determine the content and also where you do your marketing.
E.g. If it’s an event aimed at kids, then bright colourful marketing sent to schools may appeal. - Where are they getting information from? This will help determine what marketing channels to use. Whether that be social media, local papers, radio, posters or any other form of marketing, you don’t have to do it all if your audience is only in a few of these places.
E.g. if your audience is local, they are kids and parents, they like comedy – a few entertaining local radio ads or colourful posters around town will get to your target audience more so than social media.
You may even like to think if a persona to keep in mind when making your marketing material to help you keep you on the right track.
E.g. Margaret is 65, she lives locally, she likes crafts, listens to the radio, attends the library and is on Facebook. What would Margaret like? Where can you market to Margaret?
3.
Goals
What are you ultimately trying to achieve, and what do you need to do to get there? Set out each of your goals and lay out the steps required to achieve them.
Your objectives should be measurable and ambitious but achievable.
E.g. Your goal is to increase your social media followers and sell more tickets, set targets to post frequently with links to tickets, then you can measure the effectiveness of your strategy.
4.
Identify Marketing Channels
Not every marketing channel is going to work for your goals and audience, but also you may not have the resources to market on every channel. Knowing your audience will help determine your main channels. It’s better to manage a few really well, than manage all badly.
It’s good to have a mix of both Broad and Direct Channels. Broad Channels go to estimated audience and Direct Channels go to a known audience. You will likely have a more engaged audience through Direct, but you have more chance of reaching new audiences though Broad. That’s why it’s great to do both!
Broad Channels
- Traditional media: newspaper, radio, TV, magazines
- Physical media: flyers, posters, merchandise
- Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn etc.
- Web presence: website, Google listing, What’s on listings
Direct Channels
- Networking: attending events, workshops, talking to people in person, talking on the phone, word of mouth/referral
- Direct mail: email, mailout using an opt-in list
5.
Resources Available
Resources to consider are time, budget and the capabilities of you, your employees or volunteers.
Often artists and small arts organisations work with little to non-existent marketing budgets, but it’s just as important to know how much time will be required to complete an activity. Planning for this will rule out any activities that require more time or effort than you are able to spend.
E.g. If you do not have budget for a website, which can be a huge expense, put more effort into your social media or utilise services like RAV’s Membership Profiles to showcase your work online instead.
6.
Tracking Your Progress
Once you set off on delivering a marketing plan, don’t forget to check in and monitor its progress. Scheduling reviews will allow you to keep on track and account for any adjustments that need to be made. Be prepared to make changes – if you notice that something isn’t working very well, change the plan or your offering and observe its progress again. Always keep the original plan and date and note all changes that are made to compare your results.
Case Example
In 2021, Bronwyn Ward, a RAV Project Manager in Kinglake, was struggling to get anyone from her stakeholder groups to RSVP for a community arts discussion at the Community House after trying all usual marketing channels. She had to rethink the offering instead.
Switching it to a more informal event with the simple request of ‘Come to the pub, have dinner and engage with a guest speaker’. She ran this event multiple times and it was well attended!
7.
Results
Once your project is completed, review the marketing plan. What worked well? what didn’t? How did your results stack up to the targets you set? Reflecting on the strategy will help you to develop increasingly effective marketing.