Drive Up Attendance During Festival Season with SMS Messaging – Part 1
People love live music. Ticket sales worldwide are expected to reach $20.5 Billion (~£14.2B). The UK alone has around 900 festivals each year. There just aren’t enough headliners to go around. What else can you do to draw people to your event (whether you have a headliner or not)? The answer: Make your event an experience rather than just a destination.
In an article on Music Business Journal, Harvey Goldsmith, a prominent British concert promoter, conveyed that “The market is now oversaturated at a time when artists are not developed by their labels as they used to be.”
Along the same lines, Dan Kunkel, CEO of BeachGlow (a festival in New Jersey), commented in an interview with EventBrite, “For some time now, live music performance has been an important part of the business. As such, many markets are saturated with live performance options — creating steeper competition.”
He goes on to say, “What differentiates a basic event from an experience-based event? Getting down to what the customers want — genuine interaction — whether it be from staff, volunteers, interactive displays, activities, or friends.”
Festivals are going beyond just the music to interact with attendees in many different ways, from adding other creative outlets like artist classes to social media blitzes. Another powerful, personal, and engaging way to connect with attendees is via SMS messaging. Let’s take a look at how it might work.
Start before they even show up
Hopefully you have a list of last year’s attendees – perhaps their emails or addresses. You can use both email and post to reach out to them asking them to sign up for your SMS marketing. You could call it your VIP program, Fan Fun program, In-the-Know program – or whatever works with your festival and demographics. By engaging with last year’s list this way, you can build your new SMS list when they opt in, and increase the probability that they will return for this year’s event.
If you already have an official (meaning everyone’s opted in) SMS marketing list, you’re ahead of the game and can get started right away. But if you can cross-reference it with your full list and reach out to those who didn’t sign up last year you could still grow your list using the above method.
Another way to grow your list is to include an advert for signing up when you send out the tickets or wristbands – even the fancy RFID bands many festivals have begun using. A simple printed form with instructions on signing up and the benefits they’ll receive will encourage attendees to opt in.
Once they’ve opted in, what sorts of messages can you send them?
Build excitement for the event – Share short sneak peeks of the festival, vendors, and other attractions. Will attendees get special deals from a vendor on activation? Did you install new sound or lighting to improve the show? Are there other new facilities they’ll want to know about? Send anything related to the event you know will pump up excitement. For longer content like festival blog posts or news announcements, send links to mobile friendly webpages.
Backstage teases – In the days leading up to the festival, snap some images, video, or sounds of your acts getting ready. You’re probably sharing these over social media, but save some good ones for your exclusive SMS marketing list. You can send a quick message saying your headliner act is on stage rehearsing and instruct them to click on the link to see or hear it on your website. These types of messages will get them so excited they’ll be screaming “I can’t wait!”
Available tickets – If for some reason you still have tickets available, send out a message to your list letting them know. It’s likely they’ll have friends or family that may want to come along too. Sometimes people just wait until the last minute and they’ll be so happy to know they can still buy additional tickets.
You’ll probably be able to think of dozens of other types of content you can send via SMS to keep your attendees engaged even before they arrive. But you should keep in mind you’ll need to be smart about when and how often you send messages. Come back for part 2 of this series to learn how to do that, plus see some options of how to use SMS during and after the festival.
Related Articles
Drive Up Attendance During Festival Season with SMS Messaging – Part 1
People love live music. Ticket sales worldwide are expected to reach $20.5 Billion (~£14.2B). The UK alone has around 900 festivals each year. There just aren’t enough headliners to go around. What else can you do to draw people to your event (whether you have a headliner or not)? The answer: Make your event an experience rather than just a destination.
Why SMS and Mass Participation Sports Events are Made for Each Other
Most major sports teams in the UK and US already know the power of SMS for engaging fans via scores, stats and other data. But the power of SMS can extend far beyond the world of the major leagues. SMS is ideal, not only for communicating with participants but to coordinate teams of volunteers across the event.
One Great SMS Marketing Opt In Campaign Example
In a previous blog post I shared how getting my movie tickets delivered to me via SMS made going to the cinema with my family easier than it’s ever been. I signed up to the company’s SMS marketing list too and I want to share the process with you because it was so easy, so seamless for me as a consumer, that it makes a great example for others to follow.
Why SMS Marketing is Like Facebook Marketing, But Better
Facebook is a popular place. According to Statista, they had 1.44 billion active users in the first quarter of 2015. It’s no wonder then that businesses are flocking to advertise there. But big isn’t always better. SMS marketing is similar in many respects to Facebook advertising, and for some uses it is actually better. Let me explain and see if you agree.
How Entertainment Venues Can Use SMS Marketing
Whether it's a cinema, theatre or concert hall, your entertainment venue is missing a trick if it's not utilising SMS marketing to get those bums on seats. We take an in-depth look at how all kinds of entertainment venues can really make the most of SMS marketing.
Do This One Thing and You’ll Improve Your SMS Marketing ROI
SMS marketing is not quite like most other marketing. You have such a limited space to get your point across, just 160 characters, more or less. It’s not unlike having to create a print advert for a small space, but somehow it can seem more intimidating. That’s why sometimes it seems like marketers forget one basic rule about writing offers: Always lead with the offer! Sounds simple, right?
Creative SMS Crowdfunding Campaigns for Independent Film Productions
No matter what the task is, any campaign can be boosted by SMS marketing. It's great for businesses and charities but could be especially utilised for the creative industry. From the largest scale (mainstream TV shows, Hollywood blockbusters) to low budget independents, there is an SMS campaign to fit all needs and perform a vital profile-boosting function.
Do Your SMS Marketing Messages Sound Spammy?
If you aren’t seeing a positive response from your SMS marketing then your list may be thinking of it as spam and just ignoring it like they do much of their email. So take your latest marketing messages and examine them again with these four questions in mind.
Event Promotion : Use SMS Marketing to Fill Empty Seats
If you run paying events - music, drama, sport or even fine dining, training courses or workshops, you'll know the hardest seats to fill are the last few and they are also the most profitable if you can sell them. SMS is an immediate and compelling means of event promotion that can shift those last few places.
What Your Customers Want From SMS Marketing
Mobile marketing offers an unprecedented access to your customers virtually any time, anywhere. This is particularly true for SMS marketing because it is “always on”. Customers don’t have to be surfing the web, or using an app to receive messages. Instead, they see the marketing messages right alongside ones from their friends and family.