Following on from booked-out workshops earlier this year, Vicki Allpress (Marketing Manager at the NBR New Zealand Opera) has published an excellent article on effective e-marketing. It features examples and ideas taken from our very own cultural organisations.

Vicki says e-marketing involves using communications technologies, such as email newsletters (see an earlier post on this blog about these), social networking websites, RSS, blogs and podcasts, to reach audiences.

Which channels you use, what content you provide, how you segment your audience and when you contact them all depends on what you are trying to achieve with your marketing endeavours. Vicki encourages a strategic approach to e-marketing:

Any e-marketing requires commitment. You need to work consistently towards long-term goals, maintain accurate lists and information, fulfil promises to users and customers, and dedicate the resources needed to do this. An effective e-marketer never stops.

Which all sounds kinda tiring, but Vicki reports that arts organisations are experiencing success with e-marketing and are making headway in some previously difficult areas. E-marketing has particular benefits, including speed, cost-effectiveness, interactivity and flexibility. The case studies in the article vouch for that.

Vicki’s article is full of practical tips, including cautionary advice if using Microsoft Outlook for mass communications and the very helpful five ‘elements of an e-marketing programme’:

1. capturing the data - collecting email addresses, phone numbers and other information
2. storing and managing the data - making sure your data is accessible, updated and accurate
3. defining your communications - determining which channels to use, as well as what content and how often
4. deploying communications - deciding how you will deliver your communications
5. measuring and reporting - tracking your campaign so you can refine and revise next time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Marketing, Technology, Building audiences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.