Word gets around
Word of mouth marketing is and always has been essential to arts marketing. Actively identifying and engaging with arts ambassadors for your organisation can help drive word of mouth marketing. Mel Larsen looks at what makes a good arts ambassador, what the rewards can be, how you can work closely with your arts ambassadors and things you’ll need to watch out for. This article was first published in JAM (issue 38 / April 2010).
Article snippet
- Finding suitable ambassadors – online volunteer and job networks, friends of staff, current audiences and mini targeted advertising campaigns can be a good starting
point. - Management time – the biggest challenge and cost for most. Even for a handful of ambassadors, think of it as managing a new team or department and allow plenty of time for training, briefing, calls and evaluation.
- Setting boundaries – be clear at the start about whether you are open to changing the way your organisation works or not.
- Ineffective ambassadors – some will just be better than
others, but don’t just count new audience numbers: value the new connections, opportunities and ideas ambassadors bring too. - Online ambassador work is important but don’t forget that face-to-face and telephone conversations are very effective in prompting actual attendance.
- Arts ambassadors are trusted by their personal and social contacts and are generous in giving access to their networks. For this reason it is vital that they authentically believe in the product and that their time and efforts are respected.
To read the full article download Word gets around.