You've put your heart and soul into creating a theatrical production, but you're struggling to fill the seats. What can you do to attract more audience members and generate some buzz for your show? Here are some tips to help you boost your visibility, engagement, and sales.
Before you start promoting your production, you need to know who you're trying to reach. Who is your ideal audience? What are their interests, preferences, and pain points? How can you appeal to them with your marketing messages and channels? Conduct some market research, survey your existing customers, and create audience personas to guide your strategy.
Take a look at your marketing strategy to ensure that you are effectively reaching your target audience. Consider adjusting your messaging, channels, or targeting to better connect with potential attendees
In today's digital world, you need to have a strong online presence to stand out from the crowd. Make sure you have a user-friendly and mobile-responsive website that showcases your production, provides clear and compelling information, and allows easy booking and payment. Use social media platforms to share behind-the-scenes content, testimonials, and sneak peeks. Create a blog or a podcast to share your story, insights, and expertise. Use email marketing to nurture your leads and keep them updated. And don't forget to optimize your site and content for search engines, so that people can find you when they look for relevant keywords.
Your online presence is your entrance to the theater. People wander around on Insta, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, etc. through your program and your theater. They want to know everything that happens in the theater and in the production. Educate them, feed people the first bites before and during rehearsals and inform from day to day so that they think they know something and stay still curious enough to finally go to see the theater production. The line between curiosity and information is crucial, but keep enough jokers on hand. Always surprise them, especially when they come to the theater and are expected to speak well of the performance afterwards, to their friends, family and colleagues. On average, one happy spectator attracts 4-5 more.
One of the most effective ways to attract an audience is to get them to talk about your production. Encourage your fans, followers, and customers to share their feedback, reviews, and referrals with their networks. Offer incentives, rewards, or discounts for referrals. Partner with influencers, bloggers, or media outlets that have access to your target market and can endorse your production. Create a referral program, a loyalty program, or a contest to generate more buzz and engagement.
Sometimes, you need to tweak your pricing and packaging strategies to attract more audience members. You can try offering discounts, coupons, or bundles to entice people to buy tickets. You can also create different tiers of tickets, such as premium, standard, or economy, to cater to different budgets and preferences. Alternatively, you can use dynamic pricing, which adjusts the ticket prices according to the demand and supply. This can help you maximize your revenue and fill the seats.
Another way to attract an audience is to connect with your local community and build relationships with them. You can participate in local events, festivals, or fairs that relate to your production or your niche. You can also sponsor or support a local cause, charity, or organization that aligns with your values and mission. You can also collaborate with other local businesses, artists, or venues that can cross-promote your production or offer complementary services or products.
Finally, you need to evaluate your results and improve your performance. Track and measure your marketing efforts, such as website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, conversions, and sales. Use analytics tools, surveys, or feedback forms to collect data and insights. Identify what works and what doesn't, and make adjustments accordingly. Test different variables, such as headlines, images, offers, or channels, and see what resonates with your audience. Keep learning, experimenting, and improving to attract more audience members and grow your theatrical production.
Never lose your nerve if the number of audience doesn't develop as well as you predicted. That's why no theater producer should promise many spectators, but first and foremost good theater. It is more important to intervene at short notice: let the team know very transparently what the situation really is and that there is no reason to despair. Design guerrilla measures and contact influencers who can best help you develop the word-of-mouth advertising you need. Often all that is needed is a catalyst or an initial spark. However, if the production falls short of expectations, be self-critical and never pass the criticism onto the artists and the team. They will never forgive you for this cowardice if you try to hide behind them.