Recently, True Concord Voices & Orchestra celebrated a major milestone: our 20th Anniversary Season. When we unveiled the season in spring of 2023, we had big plans. One of True Concord’s guiding principles is to execute at the level of excellence of a large, nationally-known ensemble, but with the personal touch of a small, local organization. We certainly wanted an enthusiastic response from our audiences, and I’m happy to say that it has worked: not only did we see a record increase in season ticket package purchases, but that pattern has continued into our upcoming 2025-26 season. I’d like to share what worked for us!
Since the pandemic, we have been fortunate to have avoided a dramatic attrition in our subscriptions. They remained steady at nearly half of our total ticketed audience, but we had not yet had a full return to the audience numbers of the last pre-pandemic season, 2019-20. That year, we had the highest number of subscriptions ever, even though the end of the season was cut short by the pandemic. At the end of the 2022-23 season, our subscription sales were about 80% of that high point.
That spring, for the 2023-24 20th Anniversary season, we rolled out a new feature that significantly changed our ticketing approaches: all-reserved seating. Before, our concerts had all been general seating, with three main sections/price levels, and one of those was “Reserved,” but it required a great deal of manual coordination – each “reserved seating” patron had to be individually contacted to select their seats, and name cards had to be created and placed in chairs. This task was faithfully and expertly carried out by our lead volunteer usher, Joan Biggar. As this labor-intensive seating method grew in popularity, we knew we needed an update, and the 20th Anniversary season was the perfect time to do it through our ticketing system, where patrons can select seats online at the point of sale.
Our team, advised by Board Member and box office guru Lendre Kearns, put together a plan to introduce reserved seating and generate excitement for the 20th Anniversary.
The advent of being able to claim the perfect seats created a sense of excitement and urgency among patrons – many wanted to claim their coveted seats before they were snatched up by someone else! However, that’s not the only thing that contributed to increasing our ticket sales, so if your organization is not at the point of considering switching to reserved seating (a huge task), keep reading, there’s more to it!
1. MARKET YOUR SEASON EARLIER
The team worked hard to finalize our full season brochure earlier than ever before, in time for our subscription campaign, a full 8 months prior to the first concert of the season. This meant that programming, venues, and other details had to be largely in place before December. Our Founding Music Director, Eric Holtan, presented the overall season programming in November, and brochure design started at the same time (in fact, we had been laying the groundwork for the brochure design process months before). In previous years, we had unveiled a smaller, subscriptions-only brochure in the spring, and our full season brochure would go out in the fall when single tickets went on sale—but now we were able to present patrons with a flashy, full-season brochure at the same time we opened up subscription sales, focusing more energy and attention on those early subscriptions.
2. CUSTOMIZE SUBSCRIPTION PACKETS
Rather than simply mailing out brochures, we created customized packets (in large envelopes) to mail our current subscribers, each containing:
- A personalized letter describing the season and the exciting changes to the ticketing process
- Detailed seating maps of all the venues we would be performing in
- A beautiful full season brochure
- An order form with which subscribers could renew their packages, now with a reserved seat selection. Patrons had the option of purchasing their subscriptions on our website (where they would select their seats) or by phone or mail. By mail, patrons could write in their exact seat preferences, or just indicate the approximate area they wanted to sit in. Most opted for approximate seat locations and box office staff selected the best available seats for them when processing the order. Most patrons purchased their subscriptions online.
For this past season, our second year offering reserved seating subscriptions, we merged in each subscriber’s past season ticket order info, including the updated renewal price, so they could easily check “renew my same subscription and seats” or “make changes,” making it easier than ever before to choose their season ticket packages. Because of these customized forms, we saw an increase in mail and phone renewals over online orders in subsequent years.
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3. TARGET AUDIENCES DIFFERENTLY
We split our audience into groups, each with its own priority deadline: Donors (who also received information about potential concert sponsorships), current subscribers, lapsed subscribers, and multi-concert single ticket buyers. Each group had a slightly different packet and letter (for example, single ticket buyers received an invitation to subscribe and an order form customized to first-time subscribers.)
The subscription mailing was timed to these specific groups. Donors received the first priority period, about 3 weeks, to purchase their subscriptions. Then current subscribers got their packets and had an exclusive access period. Finally, non-donating single ticket buyers were in the next wave. Our ever-so-helpful volunteers assisted in stuffing and mailing the envelopes.
We were thrilled to see a very positive response, with a mix of mailed, online and phone orders pouring in quickly. Within 2 months, we had surpassed previous sales figures, and by the end of the season, our subscription sales had surpassed our previous best season by almost 50%!
Our letters emphasized the priority dates, creating that sense of urgency for each audience segment. For us, their reserved seating priority was the major incentive, but you could implement all kinds of other perks for subscribing by the deadline, whether they be priority seating areas, invitations to exclusive pre-concert events or open rehearsals, membership in a subscribers’ circle or other forms of recognition, free merchandise, etc.!
This, combined with the early brochure and the large, personalized packets focused on different audience segments really made a difference, and I would recommend this type of approach regardless of your organization’s seating format. It was worth the effort!
4. OFFER A RENEWAL PERIOD — WITH A DEADLINE!
Last spring, we unveiled our 2024-25 season—our second reserved seating season. The reserved-seat renewal process introduced a new factor into the subscription campaign: we needed to give existing subscribers time to renew their same seats (or request different seats) before new subscribers could select new seats. This was complicated by the fact that we perform in multiple venues and they are not always the same year to year, and we offer flexible packages, so subscribers could renew for a different set of concerts than the previous year, and some subscribers would want to change or upgrade seats. I was worried about how many seating conflicts this would introduce. Fortunately, it was relatively smooth and we planned enough time to iron out seating conflicts, but be prepared as it has added some more administrative workload.
For the renewal campaign, we again split our audience into groups and priority periods, starting with donating subscribers. To capitalize on the audience’s desire to renew their same seats from the previous year, we assigned each audience segment a firm seat-renewal deadline. This required placing holds on seats in our box office system, and manually clearing it when patrons selected their seats, which meant that patrons had to renew their seats by calling or mailing, rather than on our website.
The deadlines are essential for motivating subscribers to renew! Even if you are not doing all-reserved seating, you can offer some perks that expire after a certain point, whether it’s a priority section, a chance for free add-on tickets, free merchandise, access to exclusive events, etc. Then, CALL lapsed subscribers as the deadline approaches (or has passed) to thank them for their past subscription and remind them to renew. This is a great job for volunteers!
For our upcoming 2025-26 season, we are pleased to report that our subscription sales are even ahead of the prior year’s record-breaking season. This endeavor has been a team effort, with good ideas and input coming from all involved.
How do you entice your patrons to return year after year? Do you offer special seating options or other incentives? Let us know in the comments below.
Joshua Keeling is the Operations Manager for two-time GRAMMY-nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra in Tucson, Arizona, where he has administered box office, fund development and finance activities since 2018. Keeling was previously Operations Manager for the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished composer and educator, having earned a DMA at Florida State University and taught at Illinois State University and other colleges. He lives in Tucson with his wife and daughter and enjoys spending time outdoors, playing board games with his family, and building things in his free time.