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Volume Two
Issue Eight
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Welcome to our August issue. This month we feature Kelly Bagley, Marketing Assistant for the UK's National Portrait Gallery. In the article that follows, Kelly shares some of the success that the Gallery has seen since they began their e-mail marketing efforts in 2003. Read on...
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Featured Arts Marketer: Kelly Bagley
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Kelly Bagley,
Marketing Assistant at the NPG
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The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856 and today, almost 150 years later, houses one of the most impressive and comprehensive collections of its kind in the world.
The Gallery's original mandate was to showcase only "historical statesmen" - the original exhibitions housed portraits exclusively of those who had been dead for more than 10 years. Since then much has changed and the gallery now displays portraits of the famous and the not-so-famous (including those alive!) in a variety of mediums including sculpture, photography and multi-media.
With its main galleries in the center of London, and several smaller collections displayed around the country, NPG's visitors exceeded 1,300,000 last year.
In the Q & A that follows, Marketing Assistant Kelly Bagley discusses marketing the NPG and shares some of their e-mail successes.
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Q & A with Kelly Bagley
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Regency Galleries, 2004.
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TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND? WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY?
I have been working at the National Portrait Gallery for 12 months now. I work as part of a small marketing team of two. In my position as Marketing Assistant I am responsible for a variety of activities: these include overseeing the production and distribution of the Gallery's promotional print, developing databases for direct mail, co-ordinating market research projects and producing the Gallery's e-communications.
Prior to working at the Gallery in London, I worked at Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales, a historic property displaying a significant collection of portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's Victorian collections. At Bodelwyddan I was involved in the launch of refurbished galleries, featuring displays that interpret portraiture in new and exciting ways.
CAN YOU GIVE US AN IDEA OF THE SCOPE AND SCALE OF THE NPG?
The National Portrait Gallery holds the largest and most distinguished collection of portraits in the world. British men and women who have shaped history from the Middle Ages to the present day are represented in works that range from panel paintings to video portraits, from miniatures to larger-than-life sculptures. Portraits are displayed in innovative ways with the Gallery utilising IT, architecture and temporary exhibitions to enable visitors to get the most from the collections.
HOW HAS E-MAIL FEATURED AS A MARKETING TOOL FOR THE GALLERY?
The Gallery launched its e-newsletter in December 2003. From September 2003 we began collecting email addresses from various sources; internal departments, ticket sales, requests for competition information, and of course the website. By the launch of the first e-newsletter the e-list stood at just over 13,000 subscribers. This has now risen to almost 20,000.
A key aim of the Gallery's e-marketing strategy is to drive people to the website, and to the Gallery's online resources, increasing awareness of the Gallery's activities and ultimately driving visits and sales. The major benefit of the e-newsletter is that it enables the Gallery to communicate directly with a wide range of audiences, more frequently and cheaply than traditional means.
The Gallery's primary e-communication is a monthly e-newsletter. Sent to the entire list, the e-newsletter gives details of exhibitions, talks and events in the coming month, plus special offers and news items. This has proved to be a popular communication, recording an average open rate of 35%.
We have also sent a number of e-postcards, both to the entire list and targeted to specific preference groups.
HAVE YOUR CAMPAIGNS BEEN SUCCESSFUL?
We recently sent an e-postcard promotion to the entire e-list offering 25% off Gallery Membership. The promotion used the same branding as the major exhibition Cecil Beaton: Portraits, and also gave the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw to win a Cecil Beaton gift pack. The campaign had an open rate of 45% and netted 100 new Members - several thousand pounds in revenue.
We see the e-list as a useful means of developing a relationship with individuals who have expressed some degree of interest in the Gallery. On one level, e-communications provide individuals with useful information: this can then be used as a stepping-stone to a more involved relationship with the Gallery - as a regular attendee at events, an e-commerce customer or even as a Member.
WHAT OTHER INITIATIVES HAVE REGISTERED POSITIVE RESULTS?
We have found that the e-list can be used in combination with other marketing promotional materials to good effect. The Gallery holds an annual open entry photographic portraiture competition, the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize. In 2004, alongside the traditional promotional methods of placing media advertisements and inserts and mailing leaflets and posters to schools, libraries, art centres and the like, we generated a direct mail list via the Gallery website. Leaflets were sent directly to those who had registered an interest in the competition and their e-mail addresses were also uploaded to the e-list. Articles were then featured on two e-newsletters encouraging people to enter, with a link to the competition micro-site containing full entry details. We were able to directly target individuals with three communications. Submissions to the competition increased by 4,591 images on the previous year, with 7,906 prints submitted in total. There is a fee of £11 per print submitted, giving rise to a considerable increase in revenue generated as well as a wider range of images from which to select the exhibition.
THE NPG IS DOING VERY WELL. WHAT IS THE KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS? WHAT ROLE WILL E-MAIL PLAY IN THE FUTURE?
Patronmail's benchmark statistics indicate that the Gallery is performing exceptionally well. The Gallery's average unique click-through rate for the last three months has been 10.2%, with the total click-through rate averaging 12.0% over the same period. We believe that the key to the Gallery's success with e-marketing has been to limit the number of communications that we send, keeping the text short but informative and really thinking about what appeals to the audience.
In the future, we plan to further develop e-marketing within the organisation. Our key goals are to increase the number of subscribers - we are currently investigating new and more effective means of achieving this, to work closely with other departments to develop targeted promotions and to ultimately reduce the quantities of printed material produced. There is certainly a huge potential to do even more.
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Visit the National Portrait Gallery's Web Site
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Thinking about E-mail Marketing for Next Season? Request a PatronMail Demo
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If you're planning next season's marketing now, we'd welcome the chance to show you how effectively e-mail marketing could improve your results.
Today, over 200 arts organizations use PatronMail --and if you'll give us 15 minutes, we'll allow you to "test-drive" a PatronMail account to see how it works.
During the demonstration, we'll talk about how to comply with the new anti-spam law, and show you how PatronMail helps you stay in compliance.
We're happy to schedule a demonstration at your convenience -- let us know by clicking below.
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Click here to request a demonstration
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"Sign-Up for Culture" Published - Second Book by Patron Technology President
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We're pleased to announce the publication of "Sign-Up for Culture," the second book on e-mail marketing written by Patron Technology's president, Eugene Carr. This book is ideal for arts marketers who are looking to build their e-lists and maximize the list's effectiveness. It is a succinct how-to guide and covers:
- 20 top ideas to build your e-mail lists
- how to create an e-mail acquisition plan
- understanding the CAN-SPAM law
"Sign-Up for Culture: The Arts Marketer's Guide to Building an Effective E-mail List" is available at Amazon.com for $14.95 by clicking below.
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Click here to buy "Sign-Up for Culture" from Amazon.com
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If you have interesting and creative initiatives that you would like to have featured or know of an arts marketer that you would like to recommend for one of our upcoming editions, please contact info@patrontechnology.com.
Please watch for the next edition of our Arts Marketer of the Month, coming September 8, 2004.
Note: The CAN-SPAM act mandates that all commercial e-mail contains a physical mailing address, and ours is: 850 Seventh Avenue, Suite 704, New York, NY 10019
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