Source libeltyseo.com
Arts patrons are deeply engaged social media participants: visiting, reading, clicking, viewing, chatting about and sharing online content at a rate greater than the general population.
But a recent study benchmarking online marketing in New Zealand found knowing what to place, which outlet to use and when to engage in social media can have big payoffs.
Optimiser: Online Marketing Benchmarking for New Zealand Arts Organisations found broad but discriminating usage of online media by arts consumers. The study, funded/supported by Creative New Zealand, the Arts Council of New Zealand, is one of the important marketing concepts that will be discussed at the Ticketing Professionals Conference to be held in Brisbane next week.
Website first
Despite the burgeoning impact of Web 2.0 websites remain the foundation of any patron’s online relationship with an arts organisation. Search engine optimisation is essential with more than half of all visits in the study obtained through searching. The study found 4,970,093 visits to websites made by 2,792,506 unique visitors in a twelve-month period.
But once you have visitors on your site you need to work hard to keep them there. Most visits (54.81%) took in only one page of the site missing an opportunity to retain and refer user to additional services or programs.
On the go
Arts audiences are mobile savvy so your website presence needs to be responsive and mobile friendly.
During the year of data collection, traffic to websites via mobile devices increased by 40.17% with approximately one-fifth – or 724,748 – of website visits made on a smart phone or tablet (overwhelmingly iPad or iPhone).
But keeping users on the site is even harder when they are mobile. Time of engagement lessens in correlation with the compact nature of device used, the trade-off for on-the-go access. The duration of time spent on websites decreases from 2 minutes and 54 seconds on desktop computers to 2 minutes and 48 seconds on a tablet, and 1 minute and 46 seconds on a mobile phone.
Email is most likely to be read on mobile devices and social media use is high on mobile.
Rethinking email marketing
Email campaigns are pervasive aspect of arts marketing efforts, but what is sent and when is key. On average almost a quarter of emails – 24.3% – were opened but the rate varies across mail types and days of the week.
The study found personalised promotional mailings had 29% higher unique open rates and 41% higher unique click rates.
Mail with service (40.69%) or survey (31.58%) content was more likely to be opened than newsletters (25.41%) or promotions (23.20%). Mail was most likely to be opened on Tuesdays and least likely to be opened on weekends.
Social opportunities
Arts patrons like the interactive capacity of social media and are heavy users of the capacity to choose what they ‘like’ on Facebook posts or ‘follow’ on Twitter.
A key take out so social media use is the opportunity it offers to spread the word beyond your known audience. On Facebook, 113,483 ‘likes’ earned a broader audience of 31,422,741 ‘friends of fans’, meaning for every like you have 276 new people who are gaining a recommendation from a friend about your organisation.
In the surveyed period, annual growth on Facebook and Twitter surged by 69% and 81% respectively. Arts organisations are also making valuable use of image sits such as Pinterest.
Most social media posts reached more users when posted in the afternoons, although there is a burst of activity on Goog;e + and Linked In early in the day and Pinterest users seem to stay up late. Each medium has its own opportunites . on Facebook it is important to engage and discuss, on Twitter to mention influential posters and on Pinterst to use colourful images without faces.
Watch it
Video represents an expanding avenue of content generation and sharing, and an increasing method of longer engagement. YouTube remains at the forefront of social video sites, with search, metadata and subscribing functionality designed to grow online communities.
In the pilot, 3,007 videos were uploaded amongst 17 organisations using YouTube, which were then viewed by 818,715 people and 1,224 YouTube channel subscribers.
Video is also a popular medium for mobile viewing, with 19.69% of clips played on mobile devices. YouTube viewers primarily originated from mobile applications and direct links (58.82%); however the site’s referral mechanism is also a lucrative method of attracting audiences, providing 41.18% of traffic.
The implications
Though Optimiser focused on the New Zealand cultural scene with a specifically local remit, a welcome development in a field where global data is the only usual source of comparison, the learnings gleaned from the pilot project traverse the Tasman. The conclusions may support the obvious – engage online, and often – but they also validate the time and resources dedicated to online interactions. Arts organisations should continue to communicate with their patrons through a variety of online means, with social media a mounting area of importance.
Commencing in July 2012 and spanning the period through to June 2013, the Optimiser pilot surveyed the most commonly used platforms in the sector at the time, specifically websites, email, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The inclusion and assessment of Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media channels, each growing in popularity since the start of the initial data collection period, is planned for future phases.
The 38 participating organisations were concentrated in Auckland and Wellington, with centres and bodies in Christchurch, Wanaka, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Nelson, Plymouth and New Plymouth also taking part. From service providers to festivals, venues to performing companies, the size and type of organisations involved was purposely varied, as was the genres of operation.
Outcomes of the initial Optimiser pilot were first presented in December 2013, and will feature among the topics of discussion at the 10th Annual Ticketing Professionals Conference in Brisbane from 17 – 19 February, 2014, hosted and organised by the Northern Australian Regional Performing Arts Centres Association.
Of course, whilst the data supports ongoing online engagement, the real results rely as much upon the content of online marketing channels as their usage. Where one organisation may experience success with their entertaining website and witty and well-timed material, another may struggle to capitalise upon the potential of online interactions. Knowing how to evolve from the former to the latter is an area the project can also assist in, courtesy of its benchmarking data.
Lauren Whitney, Associate Director of the New Zealand Comedy Trust and the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, supports the need for the project, the insights it offers, and its assistance in honing online marketing efforts. ‘In the past we have only been able to compare our numbers to global results, which have often been collected in very different arts markets and the information can be out of date within six months. This gives us very current and highly relevant information, so we can qualify our statistics and look at which areas we are strong and which areas need more focus.’
10th Annual Ticketing Professionals Conference
17 – 19 February, 2014
Brisbane
http://www.ticketingprofessionals.com.au/
Optimiser: Online Marketing Benchmarking for New Zealand Arts Organisations
