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December 2011, Eugene Carr- Best Guest Blog-Fest!
Regular readers of Gene's "Wired for Culture" blog know that over the past few months he has invited members of the Patron Technology staff to be guest bloggers. Their posts focused on a range of topics, from innovative ways of offering great customer service, to data collection, to website improvements. The feedback he has been getting has been so positive that he decided to devote this newsletter as a way to give these articles wider attention.

November 2011, Eugene Carr- What Can You Learn From Corporate America's Chief Marketers?
Gene discusses how important it is for arts marketers to pay attention to what the chief marketing officers (CMOs) that run corporate America are thinking, as a way to benchmark their own thoughts.

October 2011, Eugene Carr- Patron Technology TV: Interviews with Leaders in the Industry
October's newsletter includes the first in a series of periodic interviews to appear on our YouTube channel www.patrontechnology.tv. Patron Technology CEO Gene Carr talks to Linda Forlini, the Director of Customer Service and Sales at the New York Philharmonic and a 26-year veteran in the box office and ticketing industry. In this conversation, Linda reveals how a CRM approach has brought an entirely new role for the box office at the New York Philharmonic.

September 2011, Eugene Carr- Top Insights from the Top Tech Conference
Last week, the Moscone Center in San Francisco became the epicenter of the technology world as 30,000+ attended salesforce.com’s annual Dreamforce conference. CEO Marc Benioff announced that Dreamforce is now the biggest technology conference in the world. And his company, with 104,000 customers worldwide and $2B in revenue, isn’t riding the technology wave -- it’s creating it...

August 2011, Eugene Carr- The Ticket Is Dead
"The ticket is dead," proclaimed Fred Maglione, CEO of New Era Tickets.
That's a shocking statement coming from the President/CEO of a company that does the ticketing for such high profile clients as the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers and is owned by Comcast-Spectacor..

July 2011, Eugene Carr- Is E-mail Dying? Digital Preferences of Arts Patrons Revealed
There is something that's been nagging me for years, and it has to do with marketing research, and the urge to compare what we’re doing against other such studies.
For the last seven years, in an attempt to advise our clients and inform our presentations and seminars, we've fielded a national survey of arts patrons' online behavior by working with a selection of our clients and sending a survey to their e-mail lists. I've used this as a proxy for arts patron behavior in general and quote from it extensively in our publications. In fact, the whole first section of our new book, Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century, reports on our 2010 survey.

June 2011, Eugene Carr- A Springtime of Discontent: Two Paradigms for Thriving Arts Organizations
I spent last week at the League of American Orchestras annual conference in Minneapolis, and came away confused, concerned, and frankly somewhat depressed. My reaction didn’t stem so much from the problems the orchestra field is facing as from what people are talking about – or NOT talking about – in terms of solutions.

May 2011, Eugene Carr- What's the Secret Sauce Today?
It’s hard to have a serious conversation these days with an executive director without talking about the rash of bankruptcies, closings, and financial stress arts groups are under. And yet, for each example there seems to be an equally compelling example of an organization that’s doing extraordinarily well. It’s hard to pull apart real lessons here, but I’m going to try based on a few encounters recently.

April 2011, Eugene Carr and Michelle Paul- Breaking the Fifth Wall (Excerpt)
As any actor will tell you, the “fourth wall” refers to the imaginary separation in a theatre between the action on stage and the audience sitting in the dark watching the play. When an actor “breaks the fourth wall,” he turns and speaks directly to the audience, breaking the illusion of the autonomy of the action. The effect is often startling—even a bit jarring—as the imaginary world of the stage is momentarily interrupted.

March 2011, Eugene Carr- Is Social Media Killing E-mail Marketing for the Arts?
During the last few weeks we have fielded our seventh annual arts patron research study, which analyzes the online behavior of arts patrons. This year, we mailed a questionnaire to over 70,000 patrons and the results are just starting to come in.

February 2011, Eugene Carr- Motivate the Motivated
Is persuading kids to experience the arts when they are young is important in building a foundation of future arts-goers. But given where our country is headed right now, universal arts education seems a worthy but distant goal.

January 2011, Russell Feldman-  Your Mission: Climb the Pyramid of Arts Actualization
Ever since I encountered the frustrations of my first data management system in my first job in the arts, I’ve tried to understand the data needs of arts administrators. What’s the best way to manage our data, and why does it seem so rarely achieved or even understood?

December 2010, Eugene Carr - We're In the Business of Tomorrow Along with 15,000 others in a packed convention center in San Francisco last week, I witnessed an amazingly inspiring event. President Bill Clinton took the stage (introduced by Stevie Wonder), and held court for more than an hour, talking about what’s on his mind. From physics to green energy to the earthquake in Haiti, he outlined his take on what’s wrong with the world, what’s wrong with America, and how to fix it.

November 2010, Eugene Carr and Michelle Paul- Facebook’s New “Deals” Feature: A Geography Lesson Did you happen to notice the latest news from Facebook last week? It was perhaps the quietest, least controversial announcement they’ve made in years, but it may very well have the most impact for anyone selling anything to the public.

October 2010, Eugene Carr - Connection-Seekers: A New Target for MarketersWhat if I told you that the particular art you put on the stage isn’t so important after all? We recently found out that for some arts patrons, this may be true. Although the accepted wisdom is that what happens on the stage or goes on the wall is the key driver of audience development, followed by price, there’s now another factor that seems surprisingly important.

September 2010, Eugene Carr - Is the Recession Affecting Arts Patrons? It Depends on Who You Ask Last March, we surveyed over 10,000 patrons of 23 different arts organizations about their online habits and arts attendance. We found that the ongoing recession is affecting a large segment of the arts-going community, and that the segment that is being most affected is the audience of the future.

August 2010, Eugene Carr - Back to the E-Future: What a Difference (Nearly) a Decade Makes!   We started Patron Technology exactly nine years ago this week, and as I thought about how to mark this anniversary, I was reminded of an article I wrote that was posted on our website in 2002.

July 2010, Eugene Carr - Revolutionizing the Arts with Technology: Introducing Customer Relationship Management & PatronManager CRM Last month at the League of American Orchestras' annual conference in Atlanta, the Duke Foundation’s Ben Cameron delivered a knock-out introductory speech about the challenging world that confronts arts managers...

June 2010, Eugene Carr and Michelle Paul - The New Curtain Raiser: Online Ticketing Once you've got your pricing right, the ticket purchase is the moment when all of the cumulative effects of your marketing come together. It's what you've been striving for and working towards — to get patrons to transact with you and buy a ticket. Gene Carr and Michelle cover the ticket-buying process — specifically online ticketing.

May 2010, Eugene Carr - Demystifying Cloud Computing If you've read a technology-related article recently, it's likely you've seen the phrase "cloud computing." It's become one of those buzzwords that everyone uses, and maybe you sort of get the idea, but deep down maybe you don't really understand what it is. Gene Carr gives some background on cloud computing and explain how it will become more and more relevant for the arts.

April 2010, Jack McAuliffe - Audience Surveys: Ask and You Shall Receive You never know until you ask, and statistics show that audiences are more than willing than ever to answer. In this webinar, Jack McAuliffe, president of Engaged Audiences, shares his insights on surveying and the benefits of taking care to always survey with a purpose. Jack will go over the various survey methods available, as well as help determine which methods are best suited for specific purposes.

March 2010, Eugene Carr - The Demanding World of Dynamic Pricing "Dynamic Pricing," "Demand-Based Pricing," and "Variable Pricing" are all words that describe the notion of changing ticket prices day by day, like the airlines do. This concept has cropped up on a regular basis over the last few years in the arts, and it seems to be happening with increasing frequency. In this article, Patron Technology president, Gene Carr, explores this world of dymanic pricing and it's implications for the arts.

February 2010, Ken Davenport - Ten Simple Steps to Start Internet Marketing Your Show or Your Theatre Ken Davenport, our guest writer this month, is one of Broadway's rising star producers. This article, though initially written for theatre producers, is as succinct a summary of good arts marketing practices as we've seen in a long time.

January 2010, Russell Feldman - Three E-mail Truths I Wish I Had Known at Carnegie Hall Patron Technology's newest Account Executive, Russell Feldman, shares three truths he learned about e-mail marketing that he wishes he had known during his time at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere. Even if you're a marketing guru, there's some fundamental facts about e-mail marketing that you might not know.

December 2009, Eugene Carr - 2009 Year End Wrap-Up: Social Media, E-mail, and CRM Patron Technology, Gene Carr, reflects on arts marketing on the Internet, the work we've done here at Patron Technology, and the work we will be doing next year.

November 2009. Lorna Dolci - Mad Men for the 21st Century E-mail marketing, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are all simply new media vehicles, which are slowly displacing traditional media such as newspaper and magazines and radio. But the underlying fundamentals are truly the same.

October 2009, Emily Barrett - Still Haven't Joined the World of E-commerce?: The What, the How, and Three Reasons Why Many of our clients' organizations are already well-acquainted with the world of e-commerce, but this article is intended for those who haven't yet taken the leap... 

September 2009, Ching Jen Lum and Michelle Paul - The Secret Formula for E-mail Newsletter Content Ideas Coming up with newsletter content month after month can be difficult, especially in the off-season... 

August 2009, Chelsea Jones, Allison Klein, and Michelle Paul - Social Media Chemistry Lesson: Facebook + Twitter + Blogging Over the last several months of articles, we've presented an introduction to Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. Now come the bigger questions: How can you make all these pieces fit together as part of your organization's social media strategy?...

July 2009, Eric Saber - Over and Out: How G-Mail Can Help You at Work (and Why It's Time to Ditch Outlook) Gmail is a free web-based email program than can make day-to-day emailing easier to manage and more efficient. Patron Technology Account Executive, Eric Saber, goes over why organizations should consider switching to Gmail for their work email, shows how to get started with it from a technical perspective, and provides tips and tricks.

June 2009, Chelsea Jones - Is Blogging Yesterday's News? No Way!: The Why and How of Blogging The simplest and most important thing you can do to energize your Web site and motivate repeat visits is to make it a place that patrons can count on to provide relevant, updated, and compelling content. One of the best and easiest ways to do this is by blogging... 

May 2009, Allison Klein - What's All the Fuss About Twitter? Beyond the Basics (Part 2 of 2) In part four of our social media series, Patron Technology Account Development Manager, Allison Klein, builds on the basic concepts of Twitter that were presented in April, focusing on content and how to approach tweeting differently from other forms of communications with patrons. 

April 2009, Allison Klein - What's All the Fuss About Twitter? (Part 1 of 2) In part three of our social media series, Patron Technology Account Development Manager, Allison Klein, explains what Twitter is and how people use it, and introduces a simple way for arts organizations to start using Twitter for marketing research.

March 2009 Michelle Paul - Getting Friendly with Your Fans: Your Organization's Presence on Facebook (Part Two) Facebook recently announced some changes that will affect the way organizations use Facebook. In part two of our social media series, Michelle sheds some light on these changes and what they might mean for arts organizations building a presence on Facebook.

February 2009. Michelle Paul - Fans Are Better Than Friends: Your Organization's Presence on Facebook (Part One) Facebook's growing popularity is inescapable. This article is the first of a multi-part series on how to establish your organization on Facebook. Michelle Paul, Business Development Manager at Patron Technology, gives a broad overview of the options for arts organizations (and other businesses) on Facebook, as well as some essential tips about what you should be doing.

January 2009, Chelsea Jones - My Top E-mail Marketing Blunders and Resolutions to Avoid Them! Chelsea Jones, Client Services Manager of Patron Technology, offers her list of common e-mail marketing mistakes and resolutions to avoid them.

December 2008, Lily Traub - A Twenty-Something's Take: How to Raise Money from My Generation This month we focus on the twenty-something generation, particularly on targeting them in terms of fundraising and audience development. Lily Traub, Senior Account Executive (and in her mid-twenties), offers up a suggestion for how to solicit donations from those in her generation...

November 2008, Eugene Carr - Obama's E-marketing Victory We're pleased to once again bring you a commentary on current events. Everyone is talking about last week's election, of course, and this month's newsletter article is no exception. Read on for Gene Carr's analysis of Obama's online marketing success, and his suggestions for how you can take advantage of the same principles his campaign followed. Also, we report the results of last month's poll about your responses to the economy, and ask a new question about your Web site statistics.

October 2008, Eugene Carr - An Open Letter to Arts and Non-Profit Organizations  We're interrupting our usual "Arts Marketer of the Month" feature to bring you a letter from Patron Technology's President, Eugene Carr. As the nation is experiencing tough economic times, we realize that arts organizations are feeling the pressure. Gene offers his advice on how to make the most of your marketing budget.

September 2008, Interview with Carol Fitzgerald, our Arts Marketer of the Month Carol Fitzgerald, co-founder and president of The Book Report Network, was our Arts Marketer of the Month for August — but she had so much to say that we asked her back for this issue of E-marketing E-ssentials. Here she talks all about the Book Report's Web sites and newsletters aimed at kids and teenagers, and explains why they are the most important group to consider when planning your organization's online marketing.

August 2008, Susanna Kearny - E-volution: Learning As You Grow This month's Arts Marketer in Residence is Susanna Kearny from VSA North Fourth Arts Center in Albuquerque. Read about how she's developed a real "voice" for their e-newsletter content, how she chooses the best layout and design for the e-mail itself, and how VSA NM's e-marketing program has evolved.

July 2008, Susan Summers - The E-mail Renaissance This month's Arts Marketer in Residence is Susan Summers from the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. In this month's article, read about her insights into how the design of Callanwolde's e-mail newsletters has led to their success.

June 2008, Sarah Pressler - The Virtual Front Row: Using E-marketing to Capture and Develop New Audiences This month's Arts Marketer in Residence is Sarah Pressler from the Round House Theatre. In her conversation with Christina Blodgett, Sarah talks about the personalized newsletters that come directly from Round House's Producing Artistic Director, as well as the new marketing plan that has greatly increased group sales.

November 2007, W. W. Norton & Company Norton has lots of exciting new e-marketing initiatives going on right now, so once again we've split up this interview into two issues. Click here to read part two.Today, learn the secret to Steve's success at using his e-newsletter to launch personal interactions.

October 2007, The Victoria and Albert Museum Kat Herve-Brazier is the Marketing Officer at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and as you'll see, the e-marketing issues in the U.K. are much the same as the ones facing marketers here in the U.S.Be sure to click through to see our special e-mail design sidebar, where Kat tells us a bit about the V&A's excellent use of color and branding in its campaigns.

September 2007, New York Philharmonic Earlier this month, Julii told us about the Philharmonic's successful e-mail marketing program, and provided a great case study, made possible by the marketing department's careful tracking of results. In this issue, she explains how they applied that same careful, detail-oriented approach to the re-design of the nyphil.org Web site.

August 2007, The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture We interviewed Melissa Calderón, the Program Coordinator. This organization has been getting amazing response rates to its newsletter for the last few years. This positive response may be the result of the special, close relationship that the organization has with its constituents.

July 2007, Wigmore Hall Wigmore has its own live CD label, and Claire Hargrove, Head of Sales and Marketing, has found e-mail to be a very successful way to get the word out about new disc releases, as well as generating increased CD sales by linking to the purchase page on the Wigmore Web site. Read on to find out more about Claire's approach to Wigmore Hall's e-marketing...

June 2007, 92nd Street Y This month, our interview continues with Howard Levine, Director of Web and Creative Services for New York's 92nd Street Y. Howard described the Y's editorial plan which addresses the Y's varied audience base. Here, we learn about the Y's e-mail list-building activities and how sending targeted e-mail generates uncommon success.

June 2007, Roundabout Theatre Company Marketing Director David Steffen recently launched an aggressive online campaign to build the Roundabout e-mail list, and in the interview below you'll get hear about (and see) a new sign-up form that appeared on the Roundabout's site, and find out about the impressive results...

May 2007, American Dance Festival The American Dance Festival is about to launch its 30th season in North Carolina, and for the second year in a row, they are including video clips of the performing companies on their Web site. Read on to find out how the clips are integrated into their e-mail newsletters, and how their patrons have reacted...

April 2007, Landmark on Main Street Landmark on Main Street is a national, state, and local historic landmark that was built in 1908 and used as a public school until 1985. Executive Director Sharon Maier-Kennelly discusses Landmark's thriving membership program, and the success they've had using online methods - both e-mail and online donation forms - to solicit new subscribers...

March 2007, Mark Morris Dance Group Mark Morris Dance Group, based in Brooklyn, NY, was founded in 1980. The company's 25th Anniversary celebration included over 100 performances through 26 U.S. cities and ten U.K. cities; five world premieres; and Morris's conducting debut in a performance of 'Gloria' at BAM...

February 2007, High 5 Tickets to the Arts High Five Tickets to the Arts was founded in 1995 to encourage young people in the New York City area to access the arts by providing tickets to the performing and visual arts for only $5. Ada Ciniglio, High 5's Founding Executive Director, came to the organization with a background that included both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors...

January 2007, Patron Technology To wrap-up the year, we're presenting a Q & A with Patron Technology President, Eugene Carr, who shares his thoughts and insight into the year that's been, and looks at what's to come in the world of online arts marketing...

December 2006, Imago Relationships Imago is a global organization that helps couples create and sustain healing relationships. Using both their Web site and e-mail campaigns, Imago is growing their business with fantastic results. In the Q & A that follows, Linda Thompson, Marketing Producer for Imago, describes the secrets of their e-marketing success...

November 2006, October 2006 The Irish Repertory Theatre is the only year-round Off-Broadway theatre company in the U.S. devoted to bringing Irish and Irish American works to the stage. Managing Director, Patrick A. Kelsey, oversees the majority of the business and administration work for the theater, wearing many hats. This includes collaborating closely with his colleagues to make sure that all marketing efforts are covered.

October 2006, Shakespeare Dallas As Communications & Membership Coordinator, Chris McMurtry manages the marketing initiatives for the company's three main programs with the assistance of Executive Director Sandra L. Greenway and Producing Artistic Director Raphael Parry. And with a turn-around in the works - after financially difficult times - Chris is finding that e-marketing has a large part to play in the theatre company's future development and success...

September 2006, Poets & Writers As Poet's & Writer's Executive Director, Elliot Figman oversees all programs and operations, working closely with the organization's program managers and Board of Directors. He is also very involved with fundraising, strategic planning and communications - including a very successful e-marketing program...

August 2006, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Maggy Fouché, Director of Marketing for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, is responsible for overseeing a large part of the department's promotional initiatives including their flagship event, Grant Park Music Festival, and venue, Chicago Cultural Center. With the help of e-mail, Maggy and the Department are seeing some great results...

September 2007, Time Out New York Time Out New York's Online Business Development Manager, Mike Ankener, directs all online advertising sales, online partnerships and integrated sponsorships, including their weekly e-Newsletter program and a new, highly successful, interactive e-mail-based promotional initiative.

June 2006, Jazz at Lincoln Center Sara Jensen, Applications Manager for Jazz at Lincoln Center, discusses the challenges in consolidating and maximizing the valuable information available to the organization through their varied databases and applications.

May 2006, The Architectural League of New York This month we focus on The Architectural League of New York which is marking its 125th anniversary this year. As Special Projects Manager (a position created, in part, in anticipation of the League's 125th anniversary), Gregory Wessner is responsible for integrating the League's history into the anniversary year programming.

April 2006, World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of FameThis month's Client Feature focuses on the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame in Colorado, where Marketing and PR Manager Linda Famula is using e-mail to help build the profile of the newly independent organization.

March 2006, The Rhode Island Philharmonic This issue features PatronMail client, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, who have only recently begun using e-mail strategically. Read on to discover some secrets of their success....

January 2006, National Book Foundation This edition features an interview with the National Book Foundation's Meredith Andres, Senior Program Officer of Technology, who shares how e-mail and the Web are re-shaping the Foundation's outreach potential, and how they've come to achieve some stunning open rates.

December 2005, Eugene Carr For our final newsletter of the year, we're interrupting our normal pattern of interviews with arts marketers to offer you a wrap-up and predictions by Gene Carr, Patron Technology's president.

November 2005, NYC Audubon This month's Client Feature focuses on NYC Audubon - a grassroots community that works for the protection of wild birds and habitat in New York City's five boroughs. Read on to find out how e-mail is helping them spread the word...

October 2005, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater This month's Client Feature focuses on The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as they approach the one-year anniversary of a very big move into their new home. 

September 2005, The London Sinfonietta This issue features an interview with the London Sinfonietta's Marketing and IT Product Development Manager, Alison Atkinson, who discusses the new music ensmble's complex web presence and recent marketing innovations.

August 2005, Broward Cultural Division In this issue we bring you an interview with Jody Leshinsky of the Broward Cultural Division in Florida, who shares with us her view of how the organization has changed over the last two decades and how Web-based marketing has become such an integral part of all they do.

July 2005, Spa Phoenix Summer is the time to depart from routine, so this issue doesn't focus on a not-for-profit arts organization - instead we are featuring another kind of cultural entity...a Spa!

June 2005, Carol Fitzgerald This issue features The Book Report Network's Carol Fitzgerald, who discusses how her "seduction marketing" approach has helped author Joseph Finder's latest novel, Company Man, become a New York Times bestseller.