Building Blocks for Reopening is our guide to great customer and donor relationships. Each of our Building Blocks helps you lay the foundation for a CRM strategy that’s key to bringing audiences back to live events. As the sector begins to reopen, we want to share some simple, practical steps that you can access and action one by one when the time is right.
We’re publishing a series of Building Blocks looking at the different stages of reopening. Use this time to promote early booking with the flexibility to respond to changed audience priorities. Refine your insights and deepen relationships with your audience through continual testing and improvement.
Arts audiences have shown a deep commitment to the sector, but their behavior and motivations may be altered by their absence. Some regular attenders may be settling back into old habits, while others may build a new relationship with live events.
Preparation and flexibility are vital to creating experiences to delight your new audience members, turning them into champions of your organization and extending your reach among their networks. A customer’s loyalty journey begins as soon as they engage with your organization. Build on successes and learn from failures to keep using resources effectively and to ease new audiences into a second and third visit.
Setting yourself up with Loyalty and Incentives plans, you’re prepared to highlight the benefits you’re offering to credit holders, members, donors and others, demonstrating how much you appreciate their support. Make sure existing supporters know exactly how to access their rewards, and tell others how they can enjoy the same benefits by joining before events go on sale.
Reinforce messaging about your mission, the artistic quality of your work, or the importance of your organization to the local area in terms of economic and/or community value. If you’re a registered charity, remind supporters about your charitable objectives and the work you’re doing to deliver them.
A few steps can smooth the path to booking and donations:
Our data from the Spektrix Insights Report (2019) show that donations and merchandise sales made in person are of consistently higher value than those made online. Take some time to ensure everyone in your sales team has the confidence to advocate for the value of your organization to customers booking on the phone or in person.
Taking time to inform audiences of what to expect when they return will help to guarantee an excellent experience on the day. Create separate pre-event emails for different segments, thinking about their distinct needs.
Make that experience even more personal for supporters who were there for you when times were hard. Flag supporters in your CRM system so you can easily report on when they’re attending and where they’re sitting, leave notes or small gifts on their seats, or welcome them in person.
Once your program’s back underway, create automated email campaigns for each of your relationship-based segments. Treat your loyal segments well, constantly encourage others to join them, and ensure your loyalty programs evolve to cement that loyalty for years to come.
Reports in your CRM system can identify booking patterns and giving histories, so this is a good time to explore common behaviors among your existing donors, and build a membership campaign targeting people who demonstrate similar interests. Consider parallel campaigns on social media to connect with other potential members based on online behaviors and networks.
The Continual Improvement Plan helps you understand what different audience members respond to, and use that insight to refine your messaging. Analyze engagement, communications and sales closely, and adjust your plan as often as required.
Testing can identify new, distinct audience segments and reveal potential barriers to booking, helping you to challenge your assumptions and continually improve your targeting based on what you learn. Involve your whole team, especially sales and front of house staff who are speaking directly to audience members, in capturing the themes and attitudes they hear.
Each Building Block offers a short, practical guide to boost your CRM strategy for reopening.
Aenne Lotze is Marketing & Communications Specialist at Spektrix