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2.22.2005
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Volume Three
Issue Two
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Client Feature: The Music Center
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Dorothy Chandler Pavillion and Plaza
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PatronMail Client Since: October 2004
Starting e-list size: 5,000
Current e-list size: 10,000
Marketing budget: $700,000
Percentage of marketing budget spent on web site and e-mail marketing: 15%
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, it is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Yearly attendance exceeds 1.3 million people to performances by its four internationally renowned performing arts companies: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Master Chorale.
The Music Center also offers Dance @ the Music Center (a series that represents traditional and contemporary techniques and styles from around the world) and this season they proudly launched the new Speaker Series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
In addition, the Music Center Education Division, recognized for its school programs, teacher training, and development of arts curriculum, provides arts education to more than 350,000 students and teachers annually through nearly 14,000 programs presented in 20 languages.
In the Q & A that follows, Maggie Pourabedi, Web Site Coordinator for this massive organization discusses one of their recent web site initiatives that has seen very successful results.
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Q & A with Maggie Pourabedi,
Web Site Coordinator
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Maggie Pourabedi,
Web Site Coordinator
for the Music Center
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To begin, Maggie, tell us a bit about your responsibilities as Web Site Coordinator for the Music Center.
Working within the Marketing & Communications department (which covers the web site, PR, Publications, Tourism and Archives), I am responsible for the management and production of the Center's web site. I maintain the site by leading the technical developments, working closely with web developers, graphic designers, Music Center management staff and resident companies, coordinating production plans and schedules to make sure the site is always up-to-date.
In addition to overseeing the administration responsibilities of revising, proofing and updating site content, I provide support to the Marketing and Communications department by analyzing the feasibility of implementing new functions, testing, evaluating and monitoring server activity and coordinating web site maintenance tasks such as file backup, security updates and traffic log reports.
You have been using PatronMail for almost 6 months now. Tell us about your approach and strategy for e-mail marketing.
The web site department used the Center's branding mostly seen in print materials, in our venues and garages and branded the Center's e-mail campaigns in a unique colored mosaic style using a specific easy to read e-newsletter format.
The Center aims to provide as much information as possible and to entice our patrons into reading the e-newsletters.
Our first goal is to be branded. Our e-newsletters have the same template so our patrons are familiar with its layout. All e-newsletters have the same header with our company name and the name of the e-newsletter: Music Center E-Newsletter, Dance at the Music Center, Music Center Education Division etc... our patrons should immediately recognize e-messages from the Center regardless of subject matter. Our e-newsletters also include a link to our privacy policy as well as contact information for direct communication in order to build trust.
Our second goal is to use interesting article titles, concise articles and colorful images. The Center's e-newsletter consists of a ten article e-newsletter format with each article no more than two or three paragraphs.
Our third goal is to always include links that direct the patron back to various sections of the web site as well as the Center's main Calendar of Events page for further information, to purchase tickets, or to consider a donation, a tour, or other programs offered at the Center not mentioned in the e-newsletter.
You recently launched a new web site ticket initiative. Can you describe it?
Recognizing the crucial need for a forum in Los Angeles for discussion and debate, the Music Center launched a groundbreaking new series featuring a roster of distinguished experts in the fields of politics, media and culture called the Music Center Speaker Series. Speakers in this initial 2005 series include: Her Majesty Queen Noor, Gwen Ifill, Charlie Rose, Bill Clinton, Tom Brokaw, Daniel Libeskind and David Gergen.
The web site department created a new online section to present the Speaker Series on its web site, where patrons could get more information about the program and each speaker as well as purchase series tickets.
With this new program, the Marketing & Communications department decided on the creation of an online ticketing system - an internal e-commerce system set up in-house for ticket orders where patrons could purchase tickets directly from the Music Center box office instead of through third-party vendors (which is how other tickets to Music Center performances are sold).
This ticket initiative made the ticket purchase fees cheaper for our patrons and provided immediate access to tickets without a visit to another web site and ticket outlets, improving the Center's customer service. We had seen dance tickets sell in the 90% range via the web site and wanted to tap into that success for the Speaker Series.
What role did e-mail play in the Speaker Series ticket drive?
Music Center's Speaker Series was launched in mid-November when we sent an initial introductory e-mail campaign dedicated to the Series only. This was distributed to our e-subscribers who had signed-up to our various listings via the web site.
In December 2004, the Speaker Series was featured in the Center's monthly e-newsletter amid other programs happening at the Center. It was again featured in our January 2005 e-newsletter.
Each time (so far three times) the e-newsletters were distributed to about 10,000 online subscribers and print brochures were mailed to 70K+ subscribers.
What kind of results have you seen?
37% of the Speaker Series reservations came in via the web site (print applications were also available in the Center's magazines and brochures). By mid-January, the subscriptions series had sold-out and the online ticketing system had to be blocked. Currently, the Center only sells limited single tickets via ticketmaster.
The success of this project was partly due to the cast of speakers. However, distributing the e-newsletters three times in a row over a three months period was instrumental in communicating the Series to our online e-subscribers. During this period, the Music Center experienced an average net growth increase of its subscription lists of 11 percent.
The Music Center is fortunate to have a solid subscriber foundation who want to receive announcements on upcoming events on a regular basis. Currently we have an average open rate of 36.9% and a click-thru rate of 9.3%.
How have these results affected your overall marketing strategy?
We have been extremely pleased with the results of our e-mail campaigns. The successful Speaker Series campaigns drove visitors directly from the e-newsletters to our web site and patrons responded immediately. The series sold much faster than we anticipated.
E-mail campaigns, in general, allow us to get the word out immediately and cut expenses. They are a great way to communicate the variety of programs and activities happening at the Center on a very modest budget and we can select target audiences from our database or introduce cross marketing to the varied constituencies.
The web site has also become an important focus in marketing the Center. E-mail is integral to this. It is essential to plan the updates to the web site in conjunction with the delivery of the e-mail campaigns, so that recipients can click on the e-mail and see the most recent information on the web site.
Our future goal is to make the collection of e-mail names part of every interactive process and we are currently creating opt-in sections to all online ticket buying forms so that patrons can always be added to our mailing lists. As part of this, we plan to be more involved with our third-party vendors to arrange ways to regularly receive e-mail names of patrons who have purchased tickets, adding them to our mailing lists.
Our main goal is to make the web site central, both in our e-mail acquisition campaign and as a relevant and up-to-date information source for patrons - many of whom will visit because of e-mails they receive!
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Click here to visit The Music Center's website
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Announcing: Full-day E-marketing Seminar - March 18
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Smart Web-Based Marketing for the Arts
This full-day session, led by Patron Technology's President Eugene Carr, is an investment in the future of your online marketing effort. The seminar is designed for those who would like to improve their e-mail and web marketing, whether or not they are currently doing it. If you're just getting started, you'll come away with a solid sense for what works and why. If you're currently actively using the Internet, these sessions will include "best practices" of the arts industry. It will not be a technical session, but will focus on the marketing and communications strategies that drive good results.
Who should attend?
It is designed for anyone who is in charge of building relationships with a group of patrons or customers -- in most organizations this is the marketing director, head of communications or development director.
When: New York City - March 18, from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM
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Click here for more information and to register
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How Does Your E-Mail Look?
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It's tough to handle e-marketing in-house. If you're using Outlook, your mail probably looks like the first image - not exactly the kind of professional image you'd like to project.
In addition, you're probably having to handle opt-out requests and bounced e-mail in your inbox.
If you're feeling that you'd like to move up from your in-house method, but don't want to spend a fortune, we'd welcome the opportunity to demonstrate PatronMail to you.
With PatronMail you can:
* Create and Send professional looking e-mails without knowing HTML
* Track & Compare your results with other arts organizations
* Build your list automatically on your web site
* Comply with the CAN-SPAM law, and "remove" requests automatically
We invite you to schedule a free 15-minute phone demonstration to learn more about how cost-effective PatronMail could be for your organization.
And, if your list is under 1,000 names, ask us about our special "starter" pricing plan.
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Click here to request a PatronMail demonstration
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming March 22, 2005.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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