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Blog Entry 15 of 22 Audience Development Specialists

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Audience Development - The Luck of the Irish?

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Contributed by: Shoshana Fanizza on 3/16/2008

Many of us would love to see sold out houses, but are you simply wishing for one or are you planning for one? If you are wishing, maybe a leprechaun will grant your wish this St. Patrick's Day! Well, maybe not. On the more practical side,this week I challenge all of you to create a visual box office sell out plan for your next event. You will need to put some time and thought into this plan, but usually putting together a plan you can visualize can help make your wish come true.

What you will need to do is to project as close to as possible what your realistic results for the amount of tickets you will sell for each marketing/audience development effort you have planned for your event. You will need to estimate using normal marketing results and the dedication levels of your board, marketing committee, your sponsors and coworkers. Make sure you have at least two to three months before the event so you can put all the pieces into play.

To make this easy to visualize, the following is a sample plan for a 1,000 seat auditorium. Each action in the plan is given a sample result. These results will vary, but you have the power to create a goal and visualize it coming true. The point is to put an actual number to each and every effort so you can visualize an actual outcome. Of course you want to start with "I am going to sell out this event!" You can actually start telling people, "I think we are going to sell out this event!"

1. Write down how many seats are available in your auditorium.
1,000 seats available.
2. You have 300 subscribers coming to this event!
700 tickets left to sell.
3. Start by giving 10-15% of your house away.
105 tickets to charity organizations = 595 tickets left.
4. Give your sponsors their allotted tickets and invite them to a 20-50% discount on additional seats.
This concert has two sponsors. The big sponsor gets 10 tickets, the smaller sponsor gets 6 (16 tickets). The big sponsor purchases 25 more tickets at 50% off and the smaller one gets 10 additional at 20% off (35 tickets) = 51 tickets or 544 tickets left.
5. Place a buy one get one free email through your local newspaper e-saver program.
36 people reply = 72 tickets = 472 tickets left.
6. Invite your e-newsletter audience to 15% off.
You have a list of 1500 on your mailing list and 2% reply = 30 people at 2 tickets each = 60 tickets or 412 tickets left.
7. Start a board/marketing committee effort. 20% off tickets by mentioning their name at the box office.
You have 15 members total, they each average2 people at 2 tickets each = 60 tickets or352 tickets left.
8. E-mail all of your contacts and ask them to forward the concert information to 10 of their friends. Everyone in your organization should do this with their contact list.
This results in the selling of 100 more tickets. Only 252 tickets left to go!
9. Make sure your concert is on all your online community calendars, in the local papers and publicized on local radio stations.
Usually your marketing (if you have a good program in place) results in at least 23% of your available seats. Which in this case is 230 seats = 22 seats left.
10. Invite other cultural organizations to a 20% discount.
5 people respond = 10 tickets = 12 seats left.
11. You need to give tickets to your volunteer and staff = 12 tickets!
You are sold out!

This plan can also include group sale tickets, tickets sold due to a collaboration, radio giveaway contests, etc.

Now you may be thinking that this example will only happen in a perfect world, why bother making the effort. In response, what do you have to lose in doing this? Your event can be a perfect opportunity to build audience relationships and relationships with your organization's sponsors and volunteers. Everyone can be involved in helping to sell out the event and to help visualize the sell out. Once you have a believable plan you can sell to all the counterparts of your organization (including telling your patrons, "I think we are on our way to a sell out!"), you will be on your way to your sell out!

If you still have doubts, well, all I can say is it worked for me with an over 2,000 seat auditorium - sold out! And, I accomplished this during the month of April, without the help of my leprechaun friends.

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The next issue of the E-Mazing Audience Development News is scheduled to go out Friday, March 21st. Sign up today so you won't miss this jam packed issue!
E-mazing Audience Development News!

***

Until next time, may your audiences be happy and loyal ones, and if not, feel free to contact me!

~Shoshana~

Shoshana Fanizza is the founder of Audience Development Specialists. Her mission is to introduce organizations to their existing and potential audiences and to help them form more rewarding relationships with them.

www.buildmyaudience.com
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Shoshana Fanizza

Boulder , CO

Shoshana Fanizza has posted 22 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 1/18/2008. Shoshana Fanizza 's average blog rating is 5.

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