Before you tie a bow on your 2011-12 marketing plans, you might want to take a look at blogger Adam Thurman’s (Mission Paradox Blog) 4-part series on marketing plans from July.
His good advice is to create a written plan that includes:
- integrating long term strategic objectives into the plan and sharing them with everyone in your organization. (For example, no matter how urgent your current objective of reaching 70% box office on the season, you should also be pursuing longer term goals such as collecting 1,000 email addresses for future marketing purposes, or cultivating 500 new attenders to build the audience base.)
- setting good, reasonable, financial objectives through honest and transparent analysis and discussions about revenue projections. (He points out that setting box office projections can be surprisingly emotional in an arts organization.)
- being clear about the amount of time you need to execute the plan by estimating the time you think you need, then adding 20%. (According to Adam, time is one of the most vital, but unappreciated, marketing factors and that there is a connection between the time you spend and the money you spend on marketing: the less money you are spending the more time you need.)
- listing the assets which will be the focus of the marketing. These may be personal or organizational – like longevity or being a new voice – or particular to the project – like a particular performer or a strong production aspect. (He strongly suggests writing them down, discussing them with everyone concerned including the board, and being explicit about how you’re going to use them in your marketing campaign.)
Paradox Marketing Plan #1 – Double Goals
Paradox Marketing Plan #2 – Financial Goals
Paradox Marketing Plan #3 – The Time Factor
Paradox Marketing Plan #4 – Getting your assets in order
Jini Stolk
