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SOR 019: Calls to Action – Beyond the “Buy Tickets Now”

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Recently I got a comment on a previous post from a gentleman by the name of Matt McKee that caught my attention. In the comment he mentioned the line, “What do you want the audience to do after they see the poster / card / image / whatever?” I liked that question so much that I wanted to dedicate an episode of the podcast to it.

Buying tickets to the show is the ideal action, of course, but what if someone isn’t ready to make that level of commitment, yet? What can you do to make a connection with this person so that you can continue to engage with them until they are ready to open their wallet?

Before I get into the main segment of this episode I talk a little bit about a discussion that is going on over on LinkedIn in a group for arts marketers. It’s a great question about changing our PR tactics in response to the changes in how mainstream media like newspapers are covering the arts. Interesting to see the commonalities in the viewpoints of a disparate group of marketers.

In this episode:

• Customer life cycle in theatre marketing – my take: attract, capture, engage, convert, deliver, upsell, referrals
• Calls to action for the capture phase – if someone isn’t ready to buy how can you make sure you are able to keep reaching them with more information about your show and trying to convert them
• Calls to action for the referral phase – once someone is a solid fan of your work how do you prompt them to tell other people
• My calls to action – I end the episode with a breakdown of the CTAs I use with Sold Out Run (and I even forgot one or two)

Items mentioned:

• Matt McKee Photography – Matt left a great comment on a previous blog post, and that prompted me to check out his site where I saw these eye-catching examples of theatre posters.
• Are PR tactics having to change with more art critics going freelance? – a discussion over at the LinkedIn group Arts Marketing Network about how we need to respond to changes in the arts journalism industry
• Jay Harvey’s blog – former arts journalist for the Indy Star now has a blog where he writes reviews

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