My theatre is putting on a show this weekend and tickets haven’t sold well at all. What should I do?

Thank you,
Chad

My gut reaction…

Based on this question I’m not sure if the show is this weekend only, or if this is opening weekend of several. There are some activities that don’t make sense if you won’t be running past this weekend, but let’s focus on what you can do in either case.

A post that I wrote many years ago on using social media at the last minute is worth checking out. Among the things mentioned in that post are providing a discount to a select group – not to the general public. If you drop prices for everyone, that tends to create the impression that the show isn’t very good. I think the blanket price drop often does as much harm as good.

The more I think about it…

I wrestled with this exact issue in the Open Book Project, where I blogged “real time” about the process of promoting a challenging show. Specifically I talked about marketing triage after the disappointing ticket sales of opening weekend.

The best marketing is intimately connected to the show, the venue, and the people involved. I’m not sure there is a good broad answer to goosing stagnant sales that works in every case.

What I will point out, though, is that you might need to consider breaking out one of most people’s least favorite marketing tactics: pick up the phone. In an effort to find efficient marketing tactics that scale; you, I, and everyone else gravitate toward marketing tactics like social media, email, and direct mail because it doesn’t require nearly as much effort.

That is, of course, when those tactics are working. If they aren’t working, it doesn’t matter how big you could hypothetically scale. Calling people on the phone and talking to them personally about your show can have a pretty decent success rate. The problems are 1.) it can take some time and 2.) you get to feel each rejection personally.

But it works. I know someone who has great success with the phone. Listen to the podcast episode with Bob Harbin for a taste of that.

You don’t need to necessarily be cold calling strangers, by the way. There’s something to be said for reaching out to friends and associates that live in your area and extending a personal invitation to the show.

Note that this isn’t the same as sending them an email. That’s better than nothing, but if getting people in the seats just a few days from now is really what’s important to you, call them. Have a conversation (it can be brief) where you tell them about the show and how you really want to find an audience for it.

Some won’t be able to come. Some won’t want to come. Some will come.

Thanks for the question, Chad. And if you’ve got a question you want my take on, just ask.

The post How Do I Sell Tickets For This Weekend? appeared first on Sold Out Run.

What are some good features that any production’s poster should include? Title, dates, venue, and how to get tickets I assume, but is this all? And is there a best way to format for biggest impact on those looking at it? Thanks

Scott

My gut reaction…

My first thought is to make sure that your poster conveys what is compelling about your show. Of course the dates and ticket information are critical, but none of that matters if your poster joins the glut of forgettable marketing material in local store windows and on community bulletin boards.

There’s an assumption that creating a poster is something you just have to check off your marketing to do list. To a point I understand this. It speaks to credibility. If someone is trying to figure out whether or not to take your show seriously, learning you don’t even have a poster might cause them to assume that no one is putting much effort into the show. I understand why any poster – even a mediocre one – is better than no poster at all.

BUT you’re putting in the effort of creating a poster anyway. You’re paying to have the posters printed, which is usually a significant chunk of your marketing budget. Why not put in the extra brain power to figure out what’s noteworthy about your show? Amazing costumes, brilliant dancers, well known source material, an award winning script? Whatever is amazing about your show, put that on the poster.

The more I think about it…

Okay, so, given that your poster needs to be compelling in someway, I think(?) the intent behind this question was understanding all the little details that should go on the poster. With that in mind…

What DOES belong on the poster

• title of the show
• venue
• open and closing dates
• how to get ticket information (probably a phone number and/or a website)
• some kind of imagery (if you think you’re poster should just be text, you better get a rock star graphic designer to make that text look amazing)

What DOES NOT belong on the poster

• NOT every individual performance date and time
• NOT information about where to park
• NOT ticket prices (unless that’s one of the compelling things about your show – and I doubt it is)

Beyond that you’ve got some leeway. Depending on your show and crowd, there may be things you want to include. The litmus test should always be does this make someone interested in either seeing the show or talking about the show.

If the proceeds of your show are benefiting a local soup kitchen, should that be on the poster? It depends. Is the best audience for your show people that want to help out a soup kitchen and seeing a little entertainment is an interesting bonus? Or is the ideal audience people who will see the show for the amazing entertainment value, and just feel that much better telling friends about the show later when they learn in the curtain speech about the soup kitchen?

Formatting the poster

I won’t insult you by claiming that I have all of the skill and education to be a graphic designer. At the end of the day, getting a professional involved is probably your best bet, however there are certain things that you can tell your designer you want (or if push really comes to shove that even an amateur with no experience can keep in mind while flirting with poster design).

The poster needs to be interesting from a distance. It doesn’t (necessarily) have to be legible from across the street, but it should be eye catching. That’s where having amazing imagery comes in. That’s also why you want to limit the amount of text that appears on the poster. Check above the very short list of what belongs on your poster. If you’re adding words that aren’t on that list, please have a good reason.

It also needs to grab people’s attention at a glance. Wherever your poster ends up, people are probably only going to scan it for a moment as their eyes move on to the next things. What is going to grab their attention and cause them to come back and look for longer?

As far as formatting rules such as, “the title should always be in the top left corner and the dates should always be on the right side,” I don’t have any insight to offer there. In fact, most rules in that vein would probably keep your poster from sticking out and capturing attention.

My best advice…

Walk through a theatre district and notice what posters jump out at you. I do not recommend just copying the ideas on the posters – especially the ones in your home town – but hopefully it can spur ideas as you develop your own poster concepts.

Thanks for the question, Scott. And if you’ve got a question you want my take on, just ask.

The post What Features Should Appear On Any Production’s Poster? appeared first on Sold Out Run.

My gut reaction…

The knee-jerk response here is that the producers are fools for not taking advantage of your obvious willingness to roll up your sleeves and promote the show. Of course, it’s more complicated than that. A lot of their marketing practices might live in their heads, and if that’s the case they don’t have an operations manual they can hand a self-starter such as yourself.

You’re likely already doing a lot of the things that you can do from outside the theatre: talking about the show in your own online (and offline!) circles and encouraging people to get tickets in advance. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but you might want to scan the big list of tactics to see if there’s any low hanging fruit there for you.

If the producing company doesn’t have the capacity to bring you into their marketing fold, you can still move forward. The challenge is making sure you aren’t duplicating efforts (or most importantly not contradicting any of the messaging they are doing).

I would suggest running any ideas you have by the theatre. If they really aren’t communicative, you can always include a timeline in your communications with them. (i.e. Hey, there might be an opportunity to do an interview on this local radio show on the arts. They’re interested in talking to me, and if the director and leads are available that would be great, too! I need to give them a yay or nay by 8am Thursday. If you see any problems with that let me know by then, otherwise I’ll move forward with the planning.)

The more I think about it…

If you’ve ever worked in a job where you’ve suddenly got an assistant or an intern, you know that they create a lot more work for you at first. Later as they start learning the ropes they’ll take work off your plate, but until then it’s a burden. And if you had enough work to justify bringing someone else in, you’re probably already shouldering as much burden as you possibly can.

If you’re training someone who’s going to be with you for (hopefully) a few years, all this effort up front is worth it. But we have to look at this from the company’s perspective. You want to help with this current production, but you’re (I think) not offering to act in this capacity for all their future productions.

So, on the one hand you are offering to volunteer your time in the next few weeks to promote their show for them. On the other hand you’re asking them to carve out some big chunks of time in the limited days before this show opens to:

• organize their thoughts around what needs to happen with the marketing in a way that someone else can understand
• decide which pieces make sense for you to do
• train you on implementing those pieces
• follow up with you to see how things went
• and if we’re being completely honest: fix whatever pieces you didn’t get quite right because, hey, this is your first time doing things exactly this way

So how can you make this work?!?!

Your offer of help will become appealing if it really doesn’t require much more of the company than saying yes or no. It’s going to be more work on your end, but if you really want to help this is what it’s going to take.

Start by making sure you understand what they’ve done to market past shows. It will just help you get your arms around what they’re already doing.

Don’t just ask if there’s anything you can do to help. Offer an outline of what you can do, and be specific (and brief) about what each idea you have entails. Here are two blog posts that include examples of the type of “proposal” you might want to create.

1. The Email That Eventually Became Sold Out Run
2. The Open Book Project: Brainstorming Marketing Tactics

Note that the format in these blog posts make it relatively easy for the company to run down the lists and either give you the go ahead or point out any problem with each item individually.

Good luck, Elizabeth! And, of course, if anyone else reading has a question about theatre marketing that you’d like my take on, just ask.

The post How Can I Help Market When the Producer Doesn’t Seem To Want Help? appeared first on Sold Out Run.

My gut reaction…

First off I touch on it a little bit in the podcast episode I have with Catherine Cardwell. She’s involved with the group sales for Indiana Repertory Theatre. That might be worth a listen.

The other thing I’ll mention is that every theatre I can think of that has success with group sales has someone spending a lot of time networking with people and just getting on the phone and calling places. Like almost any other type of sales, a big part of it is just a numbers game. At the end of the day you have to ask a lot of people, and you’ll hear a lot of nos on your way to those yeses.

The more I think about it…

It’s hard to answer what the best way is. It’s not going to be the same answer for every theatre. What type of shows do you put on, what do your existing contacts looks like, and what are other local theatres doing to court group sales are just a few questions that will help determine how you want to move forward.

In very broad strokes, two obvious places to look for group sales are schools (courting whatever age your material is appropriate for) and local businesses who want either or both the prestige of supporting the arts and a means of treating their clients, partners, or employees to a night of theatre.

In either case, it’s going to take personal connections to make these happen. Whoever is handling your group sales needs to be networking in your community and building relationships that will connect them with schools, businesses, or whatever other groups you want to attract. That means going to events and meeting people – and not just theatre events.

If I was in charge of developing group sales for a theatre, I would start by identifying the organizations I wanted to go after, then identifying the best people to know in each organization, and then start networking to meet them. When I do have a first interaction with them, I would probably ask if they had seen any of our shows. If not I would personally invite them to attend a performance (it seems silly to ask someone to buy a block of tickets if they don’t know what type of product you’re putting on stage) and give them the VIP treatment when they did come.

Only then would I talk to them about group sales.

The post What’s the Best Way To Get Groups To Purchase Tickets To Your Show? appeared first on Sold Out Run.

If you don’t have the resources and pedigree of someone like that at your disposal, do you just give up? Of course not. You experiment and just keep moving forward. If you’re tenacious and curious, you are going to find some things that work. That’s what Janice Hibbard is doing, and we can all (from beginners to gurus) learn something from her approach.

In this episode:

• be an observer of marketing – there’s marketing going on all around us, and if you pay attention you can get a lot of insights
• what to put on social media – saying you want to be active on a social platform to promote your show is one thing, but what are you actually uploading with each status?
• Instagram and Vine – are these younger platforms worth investing time in or should you stick to old standbys like Facebook and Twitter
• managing multiple accounts – Janice didn’t use expensive software to maintain and schedule her updates
• what if social isn’t an option – if you social media isn’t the right fit your production or your audience, there are other ways to reach out to them

Items mentioned:

• VistaPrint – a quick, inexpensive online printer (used in this production for postcards)
• CustomInk – a site to design and print custom t-shirts at a competitive price
• Tagboard for #mrboniface – a collection of Instagram and Vine posts using the hashtag (in the past Tagboard has also pulled Facebook and Twitter posts with a particular hashtag, but seems to have lost this functionality)
• IndyFringe Festival – the week-and-a-half theatre festival where Mr. Boniface premiered

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to Janice for joining me and sharing her experience, and also thanks to you for listening.

The post SOR 73: Janice Hibbard Discovers What Works To Market Her Show From the Ground Up appeared first on Sold Out Run.

The kicker here for someone in Tim’s position, though, is: all of the shows I’ve been hearing so much about are local. The IndyFringe is roughly 50% local shows and 50% acts from out of town. (In fact I saw on the Fringe line up that Tim is going to be here, so I know exactly what kind of hurdle he’s facing to promote his show.)

My circle of friends here in Indianapolis have been building word-of-mouth around the shows they are in. All the chatter I’ve been exposed to has been for local shows. How does an out of town act compete with that?

In this episode:

• first impression in the festival catalog – the three key elements and the mistake that most out-of-town shows seem to make
• connecting with local shows – don’t wait until you get to town to start engaging with them

Items mentioned:

• SOR 007: Marketing at a Fringe Festival (Part 1 of 2) – the first in a two part series on what I learned from a very successful stint promoting a Fringe show
• IndyFringe – home of the Indianapolis Fringe Festival

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thank you for listening!

The post SOR 72: Promoting In a Fringe Festival As an Out-Of-Towner appeared first on Sold Out Run.

This is the same show I did back in 2010 after not having set foot on stage in about a dozen years. I ended up involved in both performing and marketing that show, and… it looks like I’m going to be wearing those two hats again in 2015. Once again I get to attack both the material and the promotion.

I want to table the significance for me as a performer for a moment to talk about the marketing. I don’t know what kind of attendance I was expecting when I signed on to promote Enter Love back in 2010, but it wasn’t a sold out (extended) run. And in spite of having another half decade of experience under my belt, I admit I’m not sure I know any better what to expect this time around.

In spite of doing the same show with the same director, this production is a very different beast to market. Here’s why.

A larger market

Almost everything about the first production was smaller. In Lafayette there is a much smaller audience for live theatre. There’s very little competition. The theatre there isn’t tiny, but it seems that way compared to the 120-seat theatre waiting for us in September.

In Lafayette I think we could have done very well working to fill 120 seats, but Indianapolis has a lot more live theatre going on. I regularly miss high quality shows here that I want to see just because there isn’t enough time to get to them all. There are certainly more people here who come out to see theatre (which is exciting), but less of those people are a “built-in” audience that will come to the show regardless of how good the marketing is (which is a mixture of exciting and intimidating).

Less friends and family

Speaking of “built-in” audiences, the show in Lafayette had a bigger footprint in that community. There was a large cast made up of performers who were very talented, but didn’t get up on stage as their main gig. Since this wasn’t something they do every few months, more of their friends and families came out for a rare chance to see them under the lights.

At the time I hadn’t performed in a dozen years, and my coworkers drove 90 minutes to come see me. Today I do a lot more work, and my friends have many chances to see me throughout the year. Year after year. And the whole cast of our new production is made up of professionals who work. A lot. We can count on a significant other or a couple close friends of each cast member to show up, but no one’s office pool or entire book club is coming to the show.

Better photography and graphics

It’s hard to overstate how much photography and graphics can help or hinder your marketing efforts. We lucked into having a great logo for the show in Lafayette because the music director’s partner just happened to have some talent there, but we didn’t really have much imagery beyond that.

This time around our venue has an existing agreement with local digital media savant (and former Sold Out Run podcast guest) Zach Rosing. The concept for the poster is great, and I’m definitely excited to see how Zach pulls the different pieces together in the next few weeks. Plus the production stills he’ll take for us right before the show opens are always very high quality.

Proximity to an airport

The story of Enter Love takes place entirely in an airport. Lafayette was too far away for us to have many opportunities, but I’ve been talking to someone at the Indianapolis International Airport about what kind of promotional opportunities might make sense. I don’t know what if anything will come of that conversation, but it is something new to explore.

Less video

Five years ago we were able to hitch the video portion of our marketing to rising star Jack Klink. At the time we got great rates because Jack was still building his portfolio with pieces like this:

We do not have Jack’s services this time around. There are some great video ideas on the drawing board, but I don’t know yet what we’ll actually get produced.

So in summary: in spite of the similarities, I feel like I’m marketing a completely different production this time around. In future posts, I’ll be sharing new promotions that I’m trying here and what kind of results I see.

For now, though, I have to go get ready for rehearsal.

The post Going Back To the Show That Started Sold Out Run appeared first on Sold Out Run.

Upon reading this my immediate thought was that the challenge is getting in front of the decision makers who curate a theatre’s season. Where do they find out about new shows? Play readings and new play distribution services put scripts out there (and for many people that’s a good place to start), but in Edwin’s case I assume the script doesn’t really convey what’s cool about a multimedia juggling show.

Festivals

So my next thought was Fringe festivals. I know zero about what the festival scene in Austria is like, but in the U.S. we’re practically crawling with them. (Some performers make a point of touring their show around the various cities with a fringe festival.)

But with a little research online, the only festival I turned up in Austria was Bregenzer Festspiele, which appears to be focused on opera. There was a fringe festival in Berlin in 2012, but it looks as though it might have petered out.

Direct networking

So my next thought would be to target theatres directly. It is very common for theatres to have weekends between their regular season productions that they’d like to fill. Since you have a well produced video (see below) that demonstrates what your show looks like, I suggest networking.

This type of networking can feel pretty grueling, especially when you’re starting out, but it can be very effective. You just start inviting people you know to check out your video and asking who they know that works at a theatre, volunteers on on a board with someone who’s involved with a theatre, or any other connection you can imagine. It’s a numbers game.

You may not make the jump directly to the scale of theatre that you’re looking for right away, but taking a gig with a smaller theatre or non-traditional venue gives you the chance to extend your circle. Some of those smaller shows aren’t so much about the audience you reach as entertainers, but as an opportunity to be introduced to people who know the theatre decision makers you want to get in front of.

To get the most out of those opportunities, I’d also suggest contacting the local press in these areas directly, humbly, and honestly with an invitation to come see what you’re doing even if the venue says they are reaching out, as well.

Depending on where you want to take it, you might be able to take this process online. A professional networking site like LinkedIn could let you look for some of these connections that people in your circles might know. As of 2014, it looks like LinkedIn has a strong presence in Denmark, the Netherlands, and the U.K. – but not much in the rest of Europe.

Thanks for the question, Edwin, and here’s his crew in action:

The post How Does a Portable Show Find Connections With Theatres? appeared first on Sold Out Run.

If her voice sounds familiar, you might recognize her from her online radio show The Shara Ashley Show or from some her commercial voice over work. In this episode of the podcast I’m talking to her mostly in her capacity as the artistic director of The Platform Group. Their mission is to create work that challenges, inspires and provides a place to stand on.

In this episode:

• the effect of social silence – when theatre folks are suspiciously quiet about their current project on social media, it can come across as them being ashamed of it
• using your networks – the key to getting influencers in to see the show is to use close connections
• spending money on advertising – if you are spending it in the right place, it’s a great idea
• importance of thanking – when people attend your show at your invitation, you should be showing them a lot of appreciation
• the backs of postcards – the feature that Shara insisted on having on the back of her show’s promotional postcards

Items mentioned:

• The Email Marketing Primer for Theatres – as you build a growing list of email addresses from your online ticket buyers, here’s a guide to using those emails to keep selling more tickets
• The Platform Group – the website for Shara’s theatre company (or you can hit them up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube)
• Kickstarter campaign for Roughly Speaking – includes the video explaining the project and the rewards you’ll receive for different levels of financial contribution Update: the campaign was successfully funded. Congratulations, Shara!
• GotPrint.com – Shara’s tip for very cost effective printing

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to Shara for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening.

The post SOR 71: Shara Ashley Zeiger Shares the Secrets to Selling Out Her Extended Off-Broadway Run appeared first on Sold Out Run.

I’m guessing many of you listening recognize that name, but in case you don’t he’s a Tony award winning Broadway producer whose credits include Kinky Boots, The Bridges of Madison County, Macbeth starring Alan Cumming, Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury. He’s one of the co-founders of TEDxBroadway. Combined, Ken’s productions have grossed more than $100 million worldwide and are being produced internationally in over 25 countries including Germany, Mexico, France, and Korea. Online, he’s the man behind the blog The Producers Perspective and the podcast of the same name.

Here’s what I saw when I clicked through my Twitter notifications:

@claymabbitt Clay, been reading your stuff. It’s great. Email me and maybe we can do something together. ken@theproducersperspective.com.

— kendavenport (@kendavenport) April 11, 2015

When I reached out over email I learned that one of Ken’s consulting clients had mentioned Sold Out Run, so thank you to you, whoever you are, for connecting us. Since Ken has walked a path that I suspect many of you guys listening would like to follow, I asked Ken if he would be game to come on the podcast and share a few insights.

In this episode:

• how to market big productions – Ken looks for ways to approach the marketing of big productions as if they were small
• why direct response pieces are great – they stand out as more and more theatres move to the less expensive digital marketing and they’re measurable
• reluctance to pick a top marketing tactic – don’t get locked into thinking about a favorite marketing tactic, instead start with thinking about who the audience is and where they are
• importance of testing – know as much as you can as early as you can
• why he’s jealous of smaller theatres – while Broadway productions are often stuck courting one-time visitors, smaller theatres have an easier time forging relationships with long term patrons
• stunt promotions that work – they need to make sense with and connect to the theme of your show
• timing your promos matters – with some shows it might make sense to spend a huge chunk of your advertising budget before opening night, while others are going to give you better results if you wait until word of mouth starts getting out

Items mentioned:

• The Producer’s Perspective – home of Ken’s blog and podcast where he provides an insane amount of free insight from somebody currently walking the walk
• Raise It! How To Raise Millions of Dollars For Your Show and Fast – Ken’s most successful product, a custom course to help you raise money from someone who does this very well

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to Ken for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening.

The post SOR 70: How Ken Davenport Tests and Why This Broadway Producer Is Jealous of Regional Theatres appeared first on Sold Out Run.

I delete these emails automatically without even pausing to scan the content because I have learned over time that these emails are not going to contain any new information that’s important to me.

Think about your emails. Are you training your subscribers to expect a tired retread of the same information they’ve already seen somewhere else, or are your email messages something for them to get excited about cracking open?

Hopefully you work hard to provide content that pulls your subscribers in, and leaves them looking forward to your next email.

Here’s where it gets tricky

Not everyone likes the same kind of email. There is no perfect formula for what your emails should look like in order to please your audience. I talk about this in The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres, but the bottom line is you’re going to have to do some work to figure out what your subscribers are interested in.

You can and should try to come up with educated guesses about what they want out of your emails, but you’re going to be doing more than just shouting into the darkness and hoping for the best.

Your email campaign service provides information about how many people are opening your emails, and what links (if any) they click on once they do. That’s powerful information you can use to understand what your audience wants, but don’t stop there.

Just ask

Just ask people what they like or don’t link in your emails. Do it conversationally. Start talking to patrons in the lobby and ask if they receive your emails. If they say no, then obviously try to sell them on subscribing, but if they say yes ask them what they think of the messages.

It doesn’t have to be an extravagant survey. Don’t get me wrong: there’s a place for hard data, but anecdotal evidence can give you incredible insights that you won’t learn any other way.

Finding the best format

If you’re really at a loss where to begin, one of the most useful things you can try to figure out is what content format works best for your audience. Here are three common types.

1. Digest – in this format you’re curating all of the events and promotions you have going on in one place. This format is ideal for subscribers who want to know everything you’re doing, but don’t like to hunt around across your web page, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The benefit you’re providing your subscribers is convenience.
2. Original – the idea here is to reward your subscribers with unique content and promotions that are not available anywhere but your email list. The incentive to open and read every email is that it contains exclusive content they won’t find anywhere else.
3. Highlight – in this format you would pick the biggest thing you have going on this month or week (depending on how often you send emails) and focus the whole message on that. Some elements of the email may be things that are talked about on social media and other outlets, while other elements may (should?) be unique to your email.

In my mind it makes sense to generally stick with one of these formats, but don’t take my word for it. If you like all of these, maybe you should change it up. Just pay attention to the metrics because your audience will tell you which format they want to read.

The post How To Get Your Emails Read Instead of Just Deleted appeared first on Sold Out Run.

WellAttended is the name of his service, and he’s going to tell you more about it in this episode. My intent in bringing William on to have this conversation is not to tell you you have to use WellAttended.

What I do hope you’ll walk away from this episode with is an idea of the possibilities that are available. How would you want the ticket buying experience to be for your patrons? What do you want them to experience when they want to buy season tickets, for example?

Please note I’m not being paid anything for this. There’s no affiliate link, this isn’t a sponsored podcast episode, I don’t get a commission if you end up using the service we talk about in this episode.

In this episode:

• partnering to grow your audience – if you can capture the new faces that see your show, then partnering with someone that brings in their audience can be a great growth catalyst
• what’s missing from many ticket services – distraction-free ticket sales, online product sales, lag time in payment
• online vs. phone sales – convenience is king
• ticket sales as feedback – you can’t wait until opening night to figure out if your marketing strategies are working, so easy advanced sales let you know what’s moving the needle (or if you need to pull out bigger guns)
• fees – how much and where does it go
• season tickets – William’s current initiative is integrating season ticket packages and individual ticket sales into one system
• customer refunds – one click refunds

Items mentioned:

• WellAttended – the online ticketing system discussed in this episode
• Science Has Finally Figured Out How To Win Rock-Paper-Scissors – the article William mentioned about understanding the behavior behind the game
• 7 Reasons Why You Should Sell Tickets Online – from the WellAttended blog
• The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – as you build a growing list of email addresses from your online ticket buyers, here’s a guide to using those emails to keep selling more tickets

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to William Rader for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening.

The post SOR 69: Why William Rader Got Into the Online Ticket Space and What You Can Get Out Of It appeared first on Sold Out Run.

Well, after many years of dedication Thom and his cohorts at Danger Circus have the opposite problem: more people wanting to see the show than they can accommodate. So Thom graciously agreed to come on to talk about what sort of problems they’re dealing with today, and because I just couldn’t let him off the hook: what promotional tactics they’ve been using over the years that got them to this point today.

In this episode:

• the power of the phrase “please come see my show”
• audience responsibility – do the people in a small audience of a great show feel more responsibility to spread the word?
• personal connection – the importance of making a personal connection in your marketing
• marketing and performing – you know how to be charming as an entertainer, so use it in both areas
• busking – there’s a right mindset and a wrong mindset when you are busking your show in public

Items mentioned:

• The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – guide to using email to grow your theatre audience
• Danger Circus – Thom’s current show

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to Thom for sharing his accumulated wisdom, and thank you for listening!

The post SOR 68: Thom Britton Talks About Failing To Plan For Success appeared first on Sold Out Run.

Almost immediately after I hit publish on that post, I started wondering how actual arts journalists would grade this approach. I know a few here in Indianapolis, so I sent out a few emails asking these people who are on the receiving end of all these press releases if they would be game to leave a comment with their take. And several of them did.

I got some things right, and there were a few surprises – in fact I learned one particular way I’ve been shooting myself in the foot that makes the arts journalists’ lives more difficult – the good news is fixing this problem requires but the tiniest little change on my end. More on that in a second.

I feel like the information that was so freely and generously shared in the comments is so valuable and so universally applicable to the Sold Out Run audience whether you’re a traditional theatre, a touring cabaret performer, a stage magician, or something else entirely, that I kind of wanted to shine a spotlight on it.

So in this episode I talk about some of the biggest aha moments I got reading those comments.

In this episode:

• 8 notes I got from real world professionals who we are sending our press releases to everyday

Items mentioned:

• The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – guide to using email to grow your theatre audience (available 4/9/15)
• Example Scripts of the 3 Emails You Should Send a Press Contact – the blog post with all the comments that prompted this episode

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thank you for listening!

The post SOR 67: Arts Journalists Tell You How To Send Them Press Releases appeared first on Sold Out Run.

Those are things I touch on in the marketing calendar that I make freely available through Sold Out Run. The calendar just touches this idea lightly, though, so Wes has a few questions:

First of all, thank you, Wes, for asking this. I think this is a great question, and I’m confident other Sold Out Run readers are wondering the same thing.

Note: I’m asking a couple of professionals that I know get invitations and press releases all the time to share their thoughts to in the comments, so don’t miss those. Update: I’ve already got the first comment in, and it’s full of useful stuff.

I’ll start by sharing this idea is something I coaxed out of Jessica Redden of Bohlsen PR on episode 38 of the podcast. The approach here is not to actually send your press release three times, but to make contact three times.

The schedule

The idea is to reach out to your media contacts 6 weeks, 4 weeks, and 2 weeks out from opening night – or whatever night you’d like them to attend. This timeline is a starting point, by the way. Each media outlet might want more or less lead time.

There’s a local public television show in Indianapolis called The Art of the Matter that books their stories months in advance. Obviously 6 weeks is far too late to be making first contact with them.

How do you find out when a media outlet wants to receive information about upcoming events? Ask them.

The format

For the best chance of success you want these contacts to be as intimate as possible. If you can be talking to the person who makes these decisions face-to-face, that’s great. A phone call might be second best, and sometimes an email makes the most sense when you just don’t have that close of a relationship.

I present email scripts below, but you could take the gist of these and adapt them to a real-time conversation. Always use the communication channel that your contact likes best. (That might mean someone you have a close relationship with prefers that you send them email because it makes their life easier. If that’s the case, then absolutely use email.)

The real moral here is tailor this approach to each source where you are looking for coverage. Now on to the three contacts.

Contact #1: save the date

The purpose of this message is just to get your show on the radar of your media contacts. You’re not even sending a press release right now. There’s a lot of demands on these people’s time and attention, so planting a seed early is important.

You may have a few contacts respond right away that they want to attend. As your reputation and relationships in the community grow, this might happen more frequently, but many people will just scan the message and delete it at this point. That’s perfectly fine for now.

Contact #2: invitation

This is when you’re sending the actual press release. I format it as a PDF and attach it to the email message. Update: Check the comments below – apparently I make life a lot easier for my contacts if I include the content of the press release in the email body! If you’ve got a digital media kit, this is also the right time to include the link.

Contact #3: reminder

This is one more attempt to connect with anyone you haven’t heard from yet.

Tracking

As your list of media contacts grows, you’ll find it’s hard to keep all of the activity straight in your head. It’s a good idea to track when you sent different emails to each contact and what their response was.

If someone responds that they want tickets, I make a note of the date they’ll be coming and mark an ‘o’ to show that they don’t need to receive the third email. (Even if they tell you they want tickets after the first email you still need to send the second one because it has the press release and media kit, but you might want to add a sentence to that second message confirming the date they’ll be attending.)

If they tell me they’re out for this production (because they’re out of town, they have a conflict of interest with the show, etc.) then I mark an ‘x’ so I don’t keep sending them emails.

One final note: I’m doing the last bits of work to pull together The Email Marketing Primer for Theatres, a short ebook that will be available here at Sold Out Run starting April 9th. Topics include how to grow your email list, the email campaign software to use, and the secret weapon to help you build a relationship with your subscribers: autoresponders.

Learn a bit more about the ebook and sign up to be notified when it’s available for sale.

The post Example Scripts of the 3 Emails You Should Send a Press Contact appeared first on Sold Out Run.

She is the theatre manager of the Lilly Theatre, and in no small part due to her involvement, it was one of the most professional, tightest run productions I’ve ever been a part of. Because the Lilly Theatre is contained within The Children’s Museum, it operates a little differently than most theatres.

So naturally I thought it would be really interesting to corner Krista and ask her how some of the logistics of running that theatre and serving that audience work.

I also want to point out that our conversation was recorded a little differently than previous episodes. I typically record a conversation over the phone, which is great and a very practical way to record a show. But for this episode Krista and I were sitting at a table across from each other, and I had a simple recorder sitting on the table between us. So if you have thoughts good or bad about how the recording itself turned out, I welcome those comments.

In this episode:

• theatre for babies – this is a surreal tangent we hit early on because I had to know what exactly it was when Krista saw this form of experiential theatre
• spreading budgets across shows – with a set budget for the entire season, Krista has discretion about how she allocates that budget across each property
• consistent imagery – the “formula” for creating consistent imagery to promote each show that doesn’t look stale
• double-edged sword of not controlling marketing – since The Children’s Museum handles all of the marketing for the theatre, the Lilly Theatre gets the good and bad of not promoting their shows
• the mix of school groups and public visitors – attendance to shows is seasonal and school group cancelling because of weather or other conflicts can empty the house quickly

Items mentioned:

• Facebook Group for The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – your chance to get a free preview of the upcoming ebook and steer what it covers
• The Lilly Theatre – the three-quarter theatre contained within The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis where Krista is theatre manager

You can help more people discover this podcast

If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run.

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to Krista for sharing her insights, and thanks to you for listening!

The post SOR 66: Krista Layfield Manages a Theatre That Exists Exclusively Inside a Parent Organization appeared first on Sold Out Run.

Perfect example here. It never would have occurred to me to write about whether or not you should pay to use a well-known logo from a show or create your own version. Thankfully, Becky was not shy about asking:

My gut reaction…

It’s certainly a trade off. You save a little money, but it means the marketing pieces using the show art will likely be a little less effective than they might have been with the “official” art. That means you’ll need to spend more marketing money elsewhere to recapture those lost sales, so you could make a case that it doesn’t really save you any money.

There may be cases where that’s the right call, but my gut reaction is: if you’re selecting popular shows like the ones you listed, you want to get the benefits of the familiarity the general public has with those shows. The owners of those shows have spent impressive amounts of time and money branding those shows, and I would want to piggyback on that branding by using the official art.

The more I think about it…

… the more certain I am. When people see your poster, you want them to think about how awesome the source material is… which is what the original art will do. You don’t want to create the impression that this is any way a sad imitation of the original work… which is what creating your own version of the art can oh so easily do.

The possible exception here is if you are creating show art for your entire season that carries consistent visual themes across all of your marketing pieces. Even that will be more effective, though, if you find ways to marry your visual elements and the original artwork together.

Creating your own version of the imagery for a well established show in an effort to save money seems to me like it will end up costing your more in the end.

The post Is It Important to Use the Original Show Art For Familiar Shows? appeared first on Sold Out Run.

In this episode:

I hit on several ideas in this episode for things you can offer a sponsor in exchange for their financial investment in the show. I even include a few specific scripts of things you can say to a potential sponsor and how you can integrate them into your marketing tactics.

• across any method for giving exposure for a party, you need to maintain the artistic integrity of the show
• you can use product placement when it doesn’t detract from the story, or ideally helps you tell the story
• package your sponsorship opportunities – it makes your job easier and helps your investing business get exposure across a diverse spread of channels
• if you have sponsors for specific marketing tactics, then they are getting exposure to everyone who sees that marketing tactic – even the ones who don’t come to the show
• make sure you keep creative control
• when setting a price for your sponsorship opportunities, focus on the exposure that a sponsor is getting (as opposed to the number of tickets you’ll be selling)

Items mentioned:

• The Big List of Theatre Marketing Tactics – this is the blog post with 70+ marketing tactics you can use
• Buyology – a book that includes (among other things) some discussion of how traditional advertising can hurt your brand (Amazon affiliate link)

Sharing your opinion helps me out a lot

If you found value in this podcast, you can help even more people discover it by leaving a rating and review in iTunes. It couldn’t be easier:

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.
3. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast.

Thanks to Jaco for the question, and thanks to you for listening!

The post SOR 65: What Show Sponsors Get and How Much Money That’s Worth appeared first on Sold Out Run.

But there are a few things that you can control to give you the best shot of getting press coverage. Two such steps are so important that I wouldn’t expect to get any kind of coverage without them.

Step 1. Be newsworthy

There’s no way around this. If you just want your town to know that you have a show going on at a particular date and time, then what you’re really looking for is an events calendar. Getting press coverage requires that there be an actual story.

The fact that you are putting on a production is not a story. That happens everyday.

You need to understand why someone would care that you are doing this production. What elements of the story, the cast, the production values are noteworthy? Specifically you need to understand why the people who consume the news would care about this production, because that’s what you need to emphasize when you reach out to the press.

If you are reaching out to different news outlets that have different audiences, each group might have a different angle of the story that’s interesting to them. (And before you ask, yes, that might mean writing different versions of your press release.)

Step 2. Build relationships before you need them

If you’re a bit of a recluse, this probably sounds hard, but I promise it isn’t. Most arts journalists are not hermits. They go out to many local events, and you have the opportunity to meet them if you care to make the effort. You can also cut to the chase and just invite them to lunch.

The point is to have conversations with them, though, that do not revolve around (or even touch on in the beginning) asking them for anything. If your first contact with them is inviting them to cover your show, they’ll probably politely turn you down.

You can create a dramatically different dynamic when you go out of your way to get to know them. Instead of asking them to cover your show, ask them how they see the local arts landscape. What’s changed in the last 5 years, and what will be different 5 years from now? What do they think the role of arts criticism is?

Not only will you be more familiar to them in the future when it comes time to invite them to your show, but you’ll also understand how they approach their work a little better. That means instead of a generic press release, you can approach them with a specific angle about your show that fits in with their take on the local arts scene.

The post The Two Critical Steps To Getting Press Coverage That You Cannot Skip appeared first on Sold Out Run.

The next step is to customize that calendar. Some of the basic tactics shown there won’t apply, and there’s other tactics you’ll want to add.

I created a big list with over 70 marketing tactics you can use to promote a show. There are ideas in there about how you can use video, inexpensive offline advertising, ways to collaborate with other local theatres. There are ways you can leverage things like Kickstarter, Google Hangouts, and Meetup to promote your show. There’s a lot of stuff in there, and it’s going to help you brainstorm what fresh, new marketing ideas your going to bring to your next production.

So in this episode I want to pull out just a couple of the items on the list and elaborate on how that item on the list would translate into an actual marketing tactic that you use.

In this episode:

Here are a few specific tactics I talk about in more detail in this episode:

• strap a GoPro camera to an actor during rehearsal for an intricate dance, fight, or flying scene and share on social media
• specialty printers online will create professional style trading cards for little league baseball teams – use these services to instead print trading cards of your cast
• create a ticket package with another theatre or arts organization where someone can buy tickets to an event at both places at a discount
• give people a free drink when they tweet a picture of themselves from the lobby during the show

Items mentioned:

• The Big List of Theatre Marketing Tactics – this is the blog post with 70+ marketing tactics you can use
• Download My Marketing Calendar Template – the simple spreadsheet that will let you organize all your various marketing activities into a cohesive, easy-to-manage attack plan

Sharing your opinion helps me out a lot

If you found value in this podcast, you can help even more people discover it by rating it on iTunes. It couldn’t be easier:

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.

Thank you for listening!

The post SOR 64: Excerpts From the Big List of Theatre Marketing Tactics appeared first on Sold Out Run.