Marketing Your Museumon a Shoestring

Christina Inge, VP of Marketing, EdTrips

You want more visitors!

But you can’t go over a fiscal cliff!

Need a plan for effective and cost-effective marketing

Look at what you want

More visitors? More tour groups? More donors? All of the above? Set realistic goals and prioritize them

Look at what you have More than you think! Much of current marketing uses

“free” channels that depend on current visitors and supporters

Social media PR—not what you think!

Now decide what to go after!

Set realistic yet aggressive goals Be concrete:

We want to increase bus tours by 50% over same time last year

We want double the number of school field trips

We want to grow the attendance at lectures and events by 40%

Targeting: key to affordable, effective marketing People respond best to

messages that strongly touch their interests

Need to know “Why should I go?” in a way that addresses their unique needs

Find out who your best 5 types of attendees are, and create marketing specifically for them

Targeting in action: Identify

Teachers taking kids on field trips

Their specific needs: Address Common Core and

other education standards Age-appropriate Bus parking Allergy-aware food CORI-ed staff

Targeting in action: Address

Create web page, brochures, materials addressing their needs

Talk to them directly: “We have great field trip programs.”

Outline what you offer, how it meets their needs, why it’s for them

People have questions—answering them helps them make the decision!

Targeting in action: Target

Find communities of teachers: Mailing lists Organizations Online publications and communities Facebook advertising Word of mouth

Share your message Measure responses

PR is “free” – but you work for it

Can be the most credible channel after word of mouth

Think creatively New England Quilt Museum:

Wonderful collection of vintage quilts

Owned the intellectual property

Write about history of women, folk culture, and create spinoff, modernized quilt patterns for core audience of 28 million-plus quilt enthusiasts

PR done right Familiarize yourself with the

publication Think about what the editor needs.

When you do a placed article, you work for the publication

Good photos, great stories, outstanding resources appeal

Get your strongest writer Inform, rather than promote This is not paid

Social media

Single best way to get your biggest fans to promote you Share interesting content, not just updates:

Candid photos Trivia Questions

Engage people Don’t be afraid to ask for a share!

Email marketing

Companies get back over $40 for every $1 they spend on email Still the best way to reach core advocates Make sure you email with regular schedule:

Announce events and exhibits Monthly e-news People come to expect it!

Measure clicks on each article, to see what your attendees like!

Web, email, and social together

Make sure it all works seamlessly: Consistent imagery and language Signup forms easy to find Social media links and calls to follow

Add information easily: Include links to specific pages, rather

than homepage Use your blog to highlight very specific

information Keep email short and pithy, use

website/blog for full info

Are you wasting budget here?

Large print magazine ads with no tracking

Big, untargeted mailings Print brochures in too many locations Not getting competitive print quotes

You can save!

Print ads: Track with coupons, special web pages Smaller and co-op ads

Mailings: Target by household type: Families with kids under 15, seniors, over $100K income Costs more for list, but worth it Tailor message to the demographics Try mailing via a targeted list by interest group

Advertising: you can afford it

In addition to smaller and co-op: Online ads—they are often a fraction of print Google Display Network Outbrain Email newsletters

Bringing it all together

Set priorities Look for combined

campaigns: PR on new exhibit with an Ad in a targeted email blast

and Targeted postcard mailing

and Multiple social media posts

Re-use materials as much as possible

Measure!

Google Analytics Coupon redemption Social media tools:

Hootsuite Facebook insights

Email open rates and clickthrough rates

Thank You!

Blog: EdTrips.com Christina@EdTrips.com @Ed_Trips &

@ChristinaInge