SOR 73: Janice Hibbard Discovers What Works To Market Her Show From the Ground Up

Guest:
Janice Hibbard (@splanice)

Who is she?
someone who attacked promoting a show in the IndyFringe Festival and shares her triumphs and insights

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If you ever feel like arts marketing is something that only an expert can tackle, this episode is for you. I’ll be the first to admit there are very smart people who have a thorough understanding of how to build an audience. A few of them like Alli Houseworth and Matt Lehrman have been guests on this podcast, but what can regular folks do to move the marketing needle?

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.