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03.01.2006
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Volume Four
Issue Two
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Welcome to our Monthly Update. 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....
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Client Feature: The Rhode Island Philharmonic
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PMail Client Since: January 2006
Starting e-list size: 3,000
Current e-list size: 2,400
The Rhode Island Philharmonic is in its 61st season and has approximately 2,300 subscribers for three different series: an eight-concert Saturday evening Classical Series, a four-concert early Thursday evening Fidelity Investments Rush Hour Series and, in a newly established partnership with the Providence Performing Arts Center, a three-concert Pops Series. Six years ago, RI Philharmonic merged with its music school, successfully uniting two relatively diverse institutional cultures into one dynamic working organization.
In the Q & A that follows, Pam Kennedy, Director of Marketing and PR for the Philharmonic, discusses why she is a recent convert to e-mail marketing and how it has - in a very short time - made such a difference to their marketing efforts.
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Q & A with Pam Kennedy, Director of Marketing and PR
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Pam Kennedy, Director of Marketing and PR for the Rhode Island Philharmonic
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What is your role with the orchestra? What are your main responsibilities?
As Director of Marketing and PR, I am responsible for the concept development, copywriting and production of all print materials - brochures, program books, direct mail pieces, print ads, press releases and media updates for both the orchestra and music school.
With Executive Director David Wax, I also develop the annual marketing budget and formulate subscription and single ticket campaigns, oversee the Philharmonic box office, group, program advertising and telemarketing sales, establish and maintain valuable contacts and sponsorships with local media. Marketing Associate, Wendy Litke, maintains our Web site and produces our print collateral.
Tell us what the main incentives were for "formalizing" your e-mail marketing strategy and signing on to PatronMail.
We knew e-mail marketing was a terrific idea when we first began to hear about it, but we decided not to take the plunge until we were able to sell tickets on our own Web site. I think personal experience from many sectors was also an impetus - so many people use the Internet as a convenient buying tool.
The economy of e-mail marketing is a no-brainer - our first experience with PatronMail last month produced sales results that we never expected, at a minimal cost. PatronMail is extremely easy to use, and when we send in our information, the blast is out to our list within a couple hours. This has such a great potential advantage if we need to move ticket inventory the last couple days before a concert.
You were a bit surprised about the response you had to the beginning of your e-marketing efforts. Tell us about your early campaigns and the results you saw.
Our initial success must be couched a bit by circumstance - a Yo-Yo Ma concert is undeniably a very special event. We had developed a careful strategy, offering the Philharmonic "family" first chance to buy tickets and had mailed letters to our various constituents long before tickets were to go on public sale.
Two days before sales went public, we e-mailed our first PatronMail postcard, a reminder to everyone on our combined e-mail lists of about 3,000 names (subscribers, donors, education). We had a 46% open rate and sales jumped!
Before sending the e-postcard, we had managed to sell 813 tickets in six weeks (to the Philharmonic "family"). In only two days (after we sent the e-mail and before the tickets were available to the general public), we took in over $29,000 revenue. Our house was filled to 57% capacity before the general public could even buy tickets!
Now that you're off to such a good start, where will you take your e-marketing strategy? What plans do you have for the coming year?
More, more, more! I expect that e-marketing can change the way we do business at the Philharmonic next season. Cost effectiveness is a major concern at the Rhode Island Philharmonic, as it is in so many arts organizations, so anything we can do via e-marketing that gets the results we're already experiencing will make us look for more and more reasons to use it.
My immediate goal is to build trust with our patrons; to move them into anticipating our monthly e-newsletters and special offers we send out. We constantly add names to our list - we request e-mail addresses from all ticket buyers, registering students and vendors. We're so new at the game that we haven't even tried list segmentation yet, and we're sending out our first e-newsletter this month.
Finally, we want people to turn to our Web site for information about both the Orchestra and Music School, to buy tickets, to sign up for our e-mail list, to check for special offers, and my most anxiously anticipated goal, to renew their subscriptions online!
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming March 28, 2006.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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