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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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. 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 Indy Fringe Festival starts up this week. There are a lot of shows that I’ve been hearing about for weeks now, and some of them really have me chomping at the bit to see them. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thank you for listening!

It feels very appropriate to have Shara Ashley Zeiger as my guest on the Sold Out Run podcast because in this episode we talk about her recent… sold out run. In fact it was an extended run that sold out, and she was kind enough to share a little about how the all the various ingredients – including promotion – came together in that production to generate all that success. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Shara for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening.

A few weeks ago, I got a notice through Twitter that someone mentioned me in a tweet. That’s not at all unusual, that happens fairly regularly. But what was unusual was that I was mentioned by Ken Davenport. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Ken for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening.

You’re probably already familiar with some of the major players in the online ticket space. Vendini. Brown Paper Tickets. My guest today is William Rader, and none of the available ticket services were doing exactly what he wanted them to do. So he got to work creating one that did. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to William Rader for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening.

Thom Britton reached out to me recently to talk about a problem that is usually overlooked here at Sold Out Run. Almost everything I create here is about growing your audience larger and larger. The assumption is that we always want more people. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Thom for sharing his accumulated wisdom, and thank you for listening!

A few weeks back I wrote a post on the blog about exactly when I send press releases to media outlets, and what I say when I’m reaching out to them. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thank you for listening!

I had the pleasure a little over a year ago of appearing in a show at the Lilly Theatre here in Indianapolis, which is a theatre that is contained within The Children’s Museum – a very large, well-respected… children’s museum… here in Indianapolis. It was a great experience for me as an actor, and one of the many pleasures was meeting Krista Layfield. 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. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Krista for sharing her insights, and thanks to you for listening!

This episode I want to talk about a question that was sent in by a listener. (Thanks, Jaco!) He asks about what to offer… he calls them investors, I use the word sponsors a lot… but these people that give you some money for the purposes of putting on a show. What can you offer in exchange for that money, and how do you figure out how much it’s worth? 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: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Jaco for the question, and thanks to you for listening!

If you’re new to Sold Out Run, I make a marketing calendar available to download for free on the website. It’s a spreadsheet that lets you plan out when all the marketing activity for a show needs to be done. You can see how all the pieces fit together in one place, and make sure that you aren’t forgetting anything. 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: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Thank you for listening!

Kelly and I come from the same school of thought in marketing: tell a story. And that’s not the only lesson she brings from her corporate marketing experience into the world of promoting theatre. In this episode: what theatres could be learning from “corporate” marketing – it involves knowing who you’re audience is and how to reach them how to define success on Facebook – anyone can be active on Facebook, but how do you know if the time your spending is getting you anywhere? even your target audience needs to see your message more than once – conventional marketing wisdom says you need to get your marketing message in front of people multiple times when they know nothing about your show, but how many times do you need to remind someone who is interested – but hasn’t taken action how do you figure out the story of your marketing – the content and tone of the show needs to be conveyed in all of the marketing what marketing work is Kelly’s most proud of – this is worth talking about because marketing pieces that you’re proud of will often be some of the most effective the worst time to cut the marketing budget – I’m not sure there’s a best time, but there’s definitely a worst common mistake that Kelly see’s theatres make – some (not all, but some) theatres are over-reliant on print media – which can be effective, but doesn’t reach everywhere you need it to Items mentioned: The Voice Realm – the online “dating” service for voice talent where I found Anne, who voices the intro and outro for the podcast Catch 22 – the Wikipedia entry for Kelly’s favorite book from the rapid fire section – I have to admit after scanning this entry, I’m curious Want to connect with Kelly? If you’re interested in contacting Kelly about marketing your next show, you can reach her at klgualdoni [at] gmail [dot] com.

Season subscriptions are great for you, but are they great for your audience? The key to gaining and keeping subscribers is to make sure you provide them with something they feel is well worth their financial investment. Notice I didn’t say you need to provide them with something you feel is worth their financial investment. In this episode: are traditional subscriptions dead – yes, but who says you have to be traditional? Here are some alternate subscription offerings to consider finding out what your audience values – you know what I’m going to say here, right? Ask them. Here’s how. who are your potential subscribers – there’s a single characteristic that all of your potential subscribers have in common, and there’s no point trying to promote subscriptions to anyone who doesn’t have it reaching out to your future subscribers – there are both direct and indirect ways you can engage with your audience and potentially transition them from a casual visitor to a subscriber Items mentioned: Are Season Subscriptions Going Extinct? – article from 2012 that’s even more relevant today than it was when I wrote it 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: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Thank you for listening!

Joni Lambert is not a marketing expert. She’s an artist who wanted to promote her show. With a little online searching she stumbled upon Sold Out Run, and that led her to completely sell out her show more than a week before she opened. I wanted to know how she approached her marketing, and I’m guessing you might, too. In this episode: why Facebook didn’t work for her – I mention Facebook a lot here on Sold Out Run, but as Joni’s experience shows every audience is different. No single marketing tactic is right for every production what makes a good press release – Joni found a good story angle and wrote a press release that placed that story angle lovingly in the local media’s lap picking up the phone – sometimes the best thing you can do to promote your show is to talk to someone directly advice for someone promoting their first show – get organized like Joni did Items mentioned: Joni’s press release – here’s the actual press release Joni used that got her a story in the local paper My Name is Barbara – Joni’s Barbara Streisand tribute show (that she sold out more than a week ahead of opening) Lambert Entertainment – get info on all of Joni’s projects Let Joni know if you liked this session If you have a few seconds, you can let Joni (and me) know that you liked this session by telling her on Twitter. 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: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Thank you to Joni for sharing her experience applying what she learned here at Sold Out Run. I hope her story inspires you as much as it inspires me.

A mutual friend introduced me to Curtis Shepard, and I’m very glad she did. Fringe festivals area a hectic time, and without that introduction I might not have made it out to see Curtis’s show Unmasked. (That’s marketing lesson #1.) Curtis is a thoughful, articulate guy who doesn’t have a big marketing machine behind him. That makes him a fantastic candidate to bring on the podcast and talk about how he approaches promoting a show in a town where no one knows his name. In this episode: promoting a debut – it’s a good idea to debut a new show somewhere you do have a following so you can establish some early success to build on pick up the phone – if you have a list of specific people and groups you think would love this show, why wouldn’t you reach out to them directly? your focus when you talk to people – there’s a subtle difference between asking people to spend money on your show and asking them to come see your show; people notice what your focus is get by with a little help from your friends – you don’t need to be a marketing rockstar yourself if you have friends who are willing to champion your show Items mentioned: Curtis on Facebook – Curtis takes the unmasked idea very seriously and invites you to interact with him on a personal level – not just as a brand entity Sharing your opinion helps me out a lot An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is ratings and reviews from existing listeners like you. If you have found value in this podcast, it would mean a lot to me if you could bounce over to iTunes and give this podcast a rating (1-5 stars). It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Thanks to Curtis for taking the time to share his experiences with promoting an out-of-town show, and thanks to you guys for downloading and listening.

In just a handful of years Bob has earned a reputation for consistently putting on quality productions, and the crowds that his shows draw are a testament to that. I wanted to bring him on and pick his brain about how he approaches finding the audience for each show. In this episode: casting more than your cast – just as you look for how the actors in a show are going to work together, you also need to look at how the members of your production team (including marketing) are going to work together power of the cold call – having success with cold calls is not complicated, but no one does it how to start in a new city – jumping right in and putting on a production before you’ve learned the environment is not the most effective way to find an audience what a reviewer’s job is – it’s not just to make your show sound appealing most of us have been to more than one restaurant – if your audience goes to another theatre, it doesn’t mean they will never come back to yours again (and vice versa) finding what’s familiar – even an original show has elements that are familiar, and you can reassure people that they’ll enjoy themselves when you emphasize those elements in the marketing Items mentioned: Bobdirex – Bob’s aptly named production company Sold Out Run resources – some of the best and most useful tools that I’ve shared through the blog and podcast are curated here Let Bob know if you liked this session If you have a few seconds, you can let Bob (and me) know that you liked this session by telling him on Twitter. How you can help the podcast An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is to get reviews from your listeners. If you have found value in this podcast, I would very much appreciate you taking just a minute or two to leave a review. It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars for the rating you think this podcast deserves. Big thank you to Bob for sharing his insights. A big thanks to you as well for downloading and listening.

I wanted to bring Katie on the show because a lot of people in the general public have misconceptions about what her productions (burlesque) entail. This presents unique marketing challenges, and we dig into how Katie tackles these. Extra bonus this episode: In the comments below I invite you to share the bravest thing you’ve seen someone do on stage. On 9/3 I’ll be selecting one commenter at random to call and chat with for 30 minutes. You’ll get to pick my brain about theatre marketing in general or whatever production you are currently promoting. In this episode: education as marketing – if there are misconceptions about what type of art you’re creating, your first task in marketing is setting the right expectations about what you are putting up on stage one-on-one marketing – you can learn what type of objections your audience has and hone your message when you have the chance to interact with them face-to-face letting your cast shine – if you allow your talent to do something that makes them proud and excited about what they’re doing, they will reflexively bring in more of their family and friends what comes before differentiation – although each of the burlesque troops in Indianapolis has a different style, until the community understands what burlesque is, those differences won’t matter show day care: the future of theatre – although there are very real logistical challenges to making this happen, having a day care service provided by the venue could help address the common objection about finding a babysitter boiling the frog – if you can peel back the possible objections in a gentle, noninvasive manner you can persuade someone to see your show without them ever throwing their defenses up Items mentioned: Angel Burlesque – the burlesque company Katie founded, we talk extensively in this episode about the unique marketing challenges she has/gets to tackle Let Katie know if you liked this session If you have a few seconds, you can let Katie (and me) know that you liked this session by telling her on Twitter. Here’s a (free) way you can help the podcast An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is to get reviews from your listeners. If you have found value in this podcast, I would very much appreciate you taking just a minute or two to leave a review. It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars for the rating you think this podcast deserves. Thanks to both Katie for sharing what she’s figured out along the way and all of you for downloading and listening.

I have a great listener question in this episode. Joni shares that booking agents she’s worked with swear up and down by using flyers to promote shows. She’s running into legal issues and wants to know what’s the right way to use them. The short answer is I think flyers can be a fantastic promotional tool, although I’m not a fan of how most people use them. I share my thoughts, and of course if you have a theatre marketing question of your own you can ask it here. In this episode: the blanket approach of flyers – it can be wasteful to just try to get a flyer into the hands of everyone negative feelings from poorly targeted promotions – I get (irrationally) upset when people give me promotions that are clearly not appropriate for me the right mindset for promotion – giving someone a flyer when they are looking for something to occupy their eyeballs is far more effective than trying to interrupt them Resources: My Name is Barbra – website for Joni’s Barbra Streisand Tribute show Here’s a (free) way you can help the podcast An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is to get reviews from your listeners. If you have found value in this podcast, I would very much appreciate you taking just a minute or two to leave a review. It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars for the rating you think this podcast deserves. Thanks to Joni for the question, and thank you for downloading and listening.

I was spending some time poking around Twitter on the subject of theatre marketing, and I came across Lollipop Marketing. They are an agency out of London with roots in Sydney, and I convinced founder Dave Levett to talk with me about what he’s figured out so far about marketing theatre. We ended up diving into some great tactics and tools that theatres can use to start collecting demographic and psychographic information about their audience – and put it to use. In this episode: theatre marketing at different sizes of theatres – the volume of theatre in London lets Dave see examples of what organizations of all sizes are doing to promote a common mistake that a lot of theatres make – not gathering and acting on data means that a lot of promotional material doesn’t hit the mark marketing vs. PR – too often lumped together, these two activities are not interchangeable the science of marketing – gathering data allows you to use insights about your audience to guide your marketing communications demographics and psychographics – the information you’re gathering about your audience includes both who they are and how they behave Items mentioned: Lollipop Marketing – the company site for Dave’s marketing agency 9 Nifty Marketing Tools That Won’t Break Your Theatre’s Piggy Bank – blog post we reference in this episode with various online tools to help you improve your marketing PollDaddy – an online service that allows you create surveys (includes a free version) MailChimp – a full email campaign service that can be free if you have less than 2000 subscribers Let Dave know if you liked this session If you have a few seconds, you can let Dave (and me) know that you liked this session by telling him on Twitter. Here’s a (free) way you can help the podcast An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is to get reviews from your listeners. If you have found value in this podcast, I would very much appreciate you taking just a minute or two to leave a review. It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars for the rating you think this podcast deserves. Thanks to Dave for taking the time to share his insights, and of course, thanks to all of you for downloading and listening.

I talk a lot at Sold Out Run about the importance of having a marketing calendar for your theatre productions. (At least if you care about people seeing them.) But what goes on it? You can download the template I use and start making changes, but how far do you need to go with those changes? The 10-second answer is to make it as detailed as you need to. The 15-minute answer is this episode of the podcast. In this episode: do you need a calendar – usually the answer is yes because there is some new variable (audience, tactic, team member) in the mix calendar formats – I use a simple spreadsheet, but you can also use a grid calendar or Gantt chart. It depends what types of details you’re trying to organize when a calendar is too complex – if you avoid looking at the calendar because you don’t want to get confused, your calendar has too much detail Items mentioned: Gantt charts – a way of visually representing the sequence of tasks – great for emphasizing steps A and B need to happen before we can start on step C Marketing calendar template – this is the simple spreadsheet I start with on each show before I start customizing if for each production Here’s a (free) way you can help the podcast An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is to get reviews from your listeners. If you have found value in this podcast, I would very much appreciate you taking just a minute or two to leave a review. It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars for the rating you think this podcast deserves. Thanks to all of you for downloading and listening.

Some very successful discount aggregating services have popped up over the last few years, and they offer an interesting outlet to reach a new audience for your shows. As you might imagine there are both pros and cons to working with them, so when you balance all those out are these services a good solution to selling tickets? In this episode: what’s a discount service – when your own marketing efforts aren’t enough to fill your seats, a discount service can reach a different group of people by distributing discounted versions of your tickets psychology of who uses a discount service – these bargain hunters get a thrill from finding a deal, and that rush is part of the entertainment experience for them cannibalizing your existing audience – if you consistently offer your tickets at a discounted price, your current audience can gravitate towards those deals and stop paying full price your first experiment – your initial test will often be very positive, whether the long term results are going to be positive or not how your audience grows with discount services – even if you keep all of your current audience paying full price, you are only growing your audience with people who are accustomed to paying a fraction of that who has the keys to the kingdom – if your marketing plan is dependent on a third-party (any third-party), you are at risk if anything happens to them Items mentioned: Goldstar – a discount service that focuses specifically on events in the United States SOR 14: Scott Cramton – among other things, Scott shares his insight from having successfully used (and watched people unsuccessfully use) Groupon to sell tickets Here’s a (free) way you can help the podcast An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is to get reviews from your listeners. If you have found value in this podcast, I would very much appreciate you taking just a minute or two to leave a review. It’s incredibly easy: Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars for the rating you think this podcast deserves. Thanks, Lawrence, for the question. And thanks to all of you for downloading and listening.