Killer communication

Heather Maitland looks at using design to make your marketing communications more effective

Our potential customers need to understand our marketing communications and remember them positively when they make a decision about how to spend their leisure time. So how can we increase understanding and positive recall?

Both depend on how much attention our potential customer focuses on the communication, subconscious as well as conscious Everyone subconsciously scans their environment all the time. When they do focus conscious attention on something, the subconscious analysis can give it a feeling of familiarity. Their brains interpret this familiarity as approval which leads them to behave in a favourable way towards it. Marketers love this because subconsciously based preferences are easily formed, can’t be argued with and are relatively long lasting…

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Let’s walk before we run

Heather Maitland investigates how we are getting on with our e-mailing campaigns

Last autumn, my colleague, Beth Aplin, joined 13 venues’ email lists to see what happened. Although she was playing the role of a dance enthusiast, just five venues sent her relevant emails at an appropriate frequency. She got nothing at all from five venues and one venue sent her an average of two emails a week about everything from kids’ shows to musicals.
We hear a lot about the excellent results achieved by some of our colleagues but many of us aren’t getting the basics of email marketing right.

The research is clear and consistent. Email marketing works because it is low cost, easy to do and is customisable. Unfortunately, much of what we send out is ineffective because we ignore that third essential factor. Like any form of permission marketing, email must be ‘anticipated, personal and relevant’…

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Media coverage: why bother

Heather Maitland delves into some research about the effects of media coverage

You may not have to pay for media coverage but it still costs because getting it is so time consuming. So why invest all that time and energy?

Politicians are understandably interested in whether media coverage works. Pippa Norris explored how the media affects the way people vote in her analysis of the 2005 General Election. She looked at the direct effects of communications on the priority voters placed on particular campaign issues, the way they altered people’s attitudes regarding the performance of the government and the competence of party leaders, their influence on voting choice and on whether people turned out to vote at all.

Of course, there’s no point in asking people straight out what media most influenced their vote. People are unlikely to be aware of the complex range of influences shaping their political beliefs and perceptions. The project researched the political beliefs and attitudes of nearly 3,000 people both before and after the election. It then looked at whether changes were consistently associated with people who had used particular communication channels…

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Something for Everyone?

Niche marketing may be commonplace in the arts but most arts venues offer a range of events. Heather Maitland explores the marketing of choice.

One consequence of arts organisations’ work to broaden their audiences, visitors or participants is that many end up trying to offer ‘something for everyone’. There are very few venues in particular that single-mindedly pursue a single audience. Contact Theatre in Manchester is one that does, focusing on young adults aged 13 to 30. But even here director, John E McGrath, points out that ‘by breaking down barriers for young people, we also became a popular venue for a range of communities who felt unwelcome in stiff, traditional environments’.

Brands need a single, strong idea and most of these organisations focus on variety.

I’m not sure this works. What if the customer’s response is ‘I don’t want something for everyone, I want something for me!’? Marketing materials, such as season brochures, that present the broad sweep of the organisation’s work become a challenge. How do we guide potential customers through the packed menu to the event or activity aimed at them?

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