SOR 50: Raquel Richardson Brings Her Professional Marketing Expertise to the World of Theatre and Talks About Connecting With Individuals

It was an absolute delight to once again share the mic with my long-time podcasting compatriot. Way back in 2012 Raquel Richardson and I were the regular hosts of the now retired Marketing Brainpower podcast. Raquel is one of the sharpest marketing minds I’ve ever met, and in this episode I convince her to apply her broad marketing wisdom to the very specific field of theatre.
In this episode:
- what’s working in marketing – content is still your best bet, and advanced media forms like video and podcasting are making a splash
- actually be social with social media – communicate with people as individuals instead of the faceless mass of all your social followers
- is a lack of budget holding theatres back – the scale changes, but your marketing approach should be the same whether you have a lot of money or no money at all
- reach beyond your friends and family using your friends and family – give the small invested audience you already have a clear, easy assignment on how they can spread the word
- look for the next milestone – you eat an elephant one bite at a time, and you don’t have to jump from where you are today to packed houses
- look beyond arts bloggers – the bloggers in your area have a local audience, whether they post about theatre or not
- what’s going to keep working in marketing in the coming years – the channels may change, but continuing to share content about who you are and what you do will be key
Items mentioned:
- Appartus Tech Center – this is where we recorded my conversation with Raquel – she calls it the best place to showcase new technology in Indianapolis, and I couldn’t argue
- Marketing Brain Power – can we call something from 2012 classic? Well, this is the classic marketing podcast that Raquel and I hosted back in 2012
- Raquel’s Twitter machine – she will respond if you engage her here
How do you say roof?
We uncovered in this episode that Raquel and I have very different pronunciations of the word “roof.” (I say it like a normal person, and she says it in some weird dialect I’ve never heard before. Jump to 30:07 to hear for yourself.) But we want to know how all of you pronounce it. So press the big red button below and leave a recording of yourself saying, “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Record Yourself Saying “Fiddler on the Roof”
I’ll edit the responses together so that we can all listen to them together, and see just how right I am and just how weird Raquel is. If I get enough responses maybe I can even get a video of Raquel’s reaction the first time she hears all of your pronunciations.
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Huge thanks to Raquel (and producer Matt) for joining me on this episode, and of course, thanks to all of you for downloading and listening. You made episode #50 possible, and for that I am extremely grateful.