I’m going to try to keep up with my bullet point format on this one, but first, a little bit of background.
The concept of true fans is not new. One of the most prominently blogged about opinions for what defines a “true fan” comes from Kevin Kelly, who suggests that individual artists need only maintain 1,000 true fans in order to make a living. Kelly writes:
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| Example of a True Fan of Rubik's Cubes courtesy of Hardware Sphere |
“A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.”
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| An Apple True Fan. Courtesy internetevolution.com |
The math is simple, if a True Fan will spend $100/year on your work, and you net 1,000 true fans, an income of $100,000 per year will certainly allow you to live comfortably off of your art. Sadly, the math is actually a little TOO simple. I recommend that artists who consider this route for success read Kelly’s follow-up post, The Reality of Depending on True Fans, which crunches real numbers from a prolific musician who has used this strategy. The short answer is that you may need more than 1,000 true fans if you aren’t making enough high-valued art to get $100 out of them each year.
But the original point of this post was about identifying and creating true fans to help you market your theater, so let us take a look at the strategies from the world’s best marketed brand: Apple. Bullet points commence!
Applying Apple’s Strategies to Identify and Create True Fans
Apple Strategy 1: Don’t Sell Products. People buy what other people have. Sell membership.
- Remember in the last blog entry where I was bemoaning vague facebook posts that repeat the same, “come see our show” every few months? Stop focusing on selling tickets. If I never again see the term “butts in seats” in a blog about increasing audience, it will be too soon.
- Instead, focus on what people do at your shows. Theater is an experience-based art form that is best shared with other artistically-engaged people. Help people feel that their ticket buys them access to a very special experience with an exclusive group of like-minded people.
- Follow through with that promise. MAKE your shows a very special experience and allow opportunities for your audience to be a part of your theater’s unique artistic culture. Accompany shows with mixers, VIP events and use online social networks to foster and participate in conversations between your fans.
- If you run a volunteer theater company like me, the early adopters are the volunteers themselves. No one is investing more than your volunteers, and since they have already chosen to invest in your theater, they’re going to be eager to help you win (since a win for your theater is a win for them).
- If you don’t run a volunteer theater company, certainly don’t discount the potential your actors, crew and staff have as potential early adopters to help you win. Similar to volunteers, these individuals are still investing a great deal in your success and will take every opportunity to promote your brand to their friends and families.
- Those first fans/early adopters (employees, volunteers, your friends and families) want to help you promote, so make it easy on them. Give away stickers of your logo with every product/ticket you sell. Sell T-Shirts from your website so owners can proudly display your brand and endorse it.
- Make part of your website embeddable and make it easy to cut and paste your HTML code anywhere. This way fans will be able to associate themselves with you on their blogs, social networks and personal web pages. Make your embedded stickers, badges or feeds look stylish and keep them subtle so they don’t clash with the designs of your fans' websites.
- Reward early adopters by giving them exclusive offers. A great example of this is when Alicia Keys offered her new album a full week in advance to people who became fans of her facebook page. Can you give sneak previews to your early adopters and true fans? What else can you give them?
- Marketing isn’t what you do to reach your first customers; it’s what you do to help your first customers reach the rest. Marketing success is achieved when prospects easily repeat your message to others.
- Take a look at my post Theater and the Big Why to identify your theater’s message. Truth spreads faster than empty-but-shiny-sounding slogans.
- However, do try to keep messages brief. People can’t memorize more than a sentence or two unless you’re setting it to music and rhyme.
- If you are trying to create true fans, start with the all-important first impression and make their first experience memorable. To quote Apple Marketing guru, Steve Chazin, “Start with packaging. The relationship with the customer really starts after they buy from you.”
- To repeat from strategy #1, "help people feel that their ticket buys them access to a very special experience with an exclusive group of like-minded people.” How can you do this by sending special advanced tickets to people who buy ahead of time? Will you include a sticker? Spend a little more on the postage by including some exclusive publicity photos of your show in rehearsal? Add a special mobile tag that can be scanned to reveal a secret YouTube video with a thank you from the cast?
- Be creative in marketing to your fans, treat them with respect and communicate how much they are valued in every interaction you have with them. Remember, you are counting on your fans to help spread the word – and they need positive experiences to share.
Apple Strategies adapted from Steve Chazin’s ebook Marketing Apple, available on www.MarketingApple.com
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