Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. We are getting ready to open CROWNS at Virginia Stage Company and things have been a little hectic around here. Today's post is about a program that Virginia Stage Company just launched. We all know that about 80% of your business can be directly traced back to about 20% of your customer base (these individuals being the most influential and enthusiastic customers you have). There have been many names given to these types of customers. At Virginia Stage Company, I refer to them as Initiators. Initiators are the types of people who like to discover new things, and then tell all of their friends about it. They have influence with a large number of people. In short, they are the trendsetters. The key is to get these individuals to adopt your product as the new trend.
At VSC, we have just launched an Initiators' Night at the Wells. We try to locate those Initiators in our community, and then bring them in to sample our product. For example: With Crowns, I researched who I considered to be the most influential people within the African American community of Hampton Roads. These people included pastors of historically black churches, directors of political organizations such as the NAACP, administrators at our two historically black universities, leaders of African American social groups such as LINK, African American media personalities and African American government officials. We even added in owners of African American salons (the thought being they talk to a lot of African American women and could pitch our product for us). We invited over 120 Initiators to the first public performance of CROWNS. We provided them with free tickets, a complimentary catered dinner and an open bar. We made a little pitch to them about the show, asked for their support in getting the word out and then gave them a lot of marketing materials (including flyers for discounted admission). All of them left the performance last night pledging their support. Hopefully we will have 120 advocates in the community to help start a word of mouth campaign.
As they say, the proof will be in the pudding and time will tell. I will let you know how it turns out.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Want more subscribers...
Minimize Attrition + Maximize Exposure = More Subscribers.
I will talk later about minimizing attrition, so today I will talk about maximizing your exposure in front of prime target audiences. If you are in a community with a lot of transient populations (i.e. a large military population), then you will want to focus on new movers. Every time a subscriber moves out of the area, you will lose a subscription (naturally). But every time a person moves into your community, there is an opportunity to gain another subscriber. Are you reaching that new target audience? what are you offering them?
To compensate for the loss of subscription income due to relocations, Virginia Stage Company aggressively targets new movers. We send an information packet about Virginia Stage Company, including a coupon for two free tickets, a season brochure, press clippings and a DVD to each new mover in the area that fits our demographic profile. When looking for new subscribers, I look at individuals who have a certain amount of disposable income primarily. However, I also like to target married couples without children, women (primary purchasers) and individuals who have purchased from direct mail in the past twelve years. I learned at a recent conference that the best determining factor on whether or not someone will purchase theater tickets from a direct mail piece is not income, education or marital status (as once thought), but in fact it is their purchase history from direct mail items such as catalogs. If a person has purchased from a catalog in the past twelve months, they are much more likely to respond to your direct mail campaign. Just food for thought.
Create a welcome to the neighborhood packet and send them to every new neighbor that meets your criteria. This way you can mitigate the damages suffered from losing subscribers to relocation.
I will talk later about minimizing attrition, so today I will talk about maximizing your exposure in front of prime target audiences. If you are in a community with a lot of transient populations (i.e. a large military population), then you will want to focus on new movers. Every time a subscriber moves out of the area, you will lose a subscription (naturally). But every time a person moves into your community, there is an opportunity to gain another subscriber. Are you reaching that new target audience? what are you offering them?
To compensate for the loss of subscription income due to relocations, Virginia Stage Company aggressively targets new movers. We send an information packet about Virginia Stage Company, including a coupon for two free tickets, a season brochure, press clippings and a DVD to each new mover in the area that fits our demographic profile. When looking for new subscribers, I look at individuals who have a certain amount of disposable income primarily. However, I also like to target married couples without children, women (primary purchasers) and individuals who have purchased from direct mail in the past twelve years. I learned at a recent conference that the best determining factor on whether or not someone will purchase theater tickets from a direct mail piece is not income, education or marital status (as once thought), but in fact it is their purchase history from direct mail items such as catalogs. If a person has purchased from a catalog in the past twelve months, they are much more likely to respond to your direct mail campaign. Just food for thought.
Create a welcome to the neighborhood packet and send them to every new neighbor that meets your criteria. This way you can mitigate the damages suffered from losing subscribers to relocation.
So you want to be innovative?
In today's world, it is tough to stay on the leading edge of marketing technology. Things are constantly changing. I am asked on a somewhat regular basis what is the most innovative thing that you do? How do you stand out from your competition? My answer...thank you notes. Kind of strange, I know. However, think of how many marketing messages you are hit with a day? how many e-newsletters? how many telemarketing calls? now think about how many hand written note cards you get in a day.
When someone receives a hand written notecard in the mail, they know that you have invested the time and energy into sitting down to write one. On average, I write probably five notecards a day. It takes me maybe five minutes each, but the returns on each notecard are amazing. Send them out for the little things--an editor gives you great placement on a story, a salesperson gives you a free ad, a subscriber buys ten extra tickets for their friends, etc. I guarantee you that you will be remembered, and your message will come across as thoughtful.
I learned this lesson while working in a development department. Development professionals are great when it comes to stewardship. As marketing professionals, we can learn something from them.
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