Back to Basics: Five Evergreen Choral Marketing Tips for Beginners

Are you tired of trying to keep up with the latest viral trends and social media challenges? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. The good news is I’m giving you permission to step off the social media speedway and get back to marketing basics. And—coincidentally—Chorus Connection’s blog is a treasure trove of marketing tips just waiting to be uncovered!

But how do you know which tips stand the test of time? Don’t worry, I’ve got you.

Whether you’re taking the first steps to build your chorus’s marketing from scratch or you’re a seasoned pro who wants to boost existing efforts, there’s never been a better time to get back to the marketing basics. Here are five evergreen choral marketing strategies curated from the Chorus Connection blog archives that transcend the trends for a solid chorus marketing foundation!

1. Focus on Retention, Not Attraction

Whether you’re selling concert tickets or cookies, there’s one universal fact underpinning all marketing: it’s easier to sell something to someone you know than it is to sell something to a stranger. It’s this fact that Jen Rogers writes about in her invaluable blog post about DIY marketing campaigns. She writes:

“The first thing to do is to stop fretting over trying to get new audiences through marketing. It’s easier and more cost-effective to convince an existing patron to come to your concert than it is to try and convince a stranger to come to your concert. 

Simply put: Marketing to strangers is a waste of your small marketing budget.

To build new audiences, focus on relationship-building, outreach, and engagement. However, for this marketing strategy our primary goal is to retain our current audience and we retain our audience by marketing to them. 

But I don’t know how to do marketing! (Yes, you do.)

Marketing is simply the variety of ways that we will use to remind our existing audience that we have concerts coming up. That’s it. That’s all we’re trying to do. 

Through marketing, we are inviting our audience to the concert, sharing what’s interesting about it, what they will experience, and giving opportunities to take action – buy a ticket – to attend. We do this several times and in a variety of ways, and this is known as the ‘marketing mix.’”

Curious to learn more? Dive into Jen’s blog to discover what the marketing mix is all about.

2. Video is Vital: Tips for Mobile Video

Video is a vital part of marketing your choir. Not only is this true today, but it was true in 2018. In his blog post discussing the whys and hows of video content, Nick Deyo shares:

“Video marketing has been shown to have higher engagements, stronger SEO, and increased buyer conversions. It has become so essential in business that companies which do not do video marketing are now falling behind companies that do.

Since video can immediately tap into human emotions, it’s a key marketing ingredient for nonprofit choruses. Use video marketing to your advantage as a mechanism for sharing your chorus’s story and brand. With a video studio and the right volunteers, you can see for yourself how effective it can be!

VIDEO PRODUCTION TIPS

1. On your smartphone, go into your camera’s setting and change “record video” settings to 4k at 30fps/60fps.
2. Remember the rule of thirds for shooting.
3. Get your lighting and your sound right.
4. Minimize noise in the room. Turn off any fans or other noisy appliances.
5. Shoot each shot a few times so you can choose which take you like best.
6. Use a tripod so that the camera doesn’t shake or move.
7. Shoot with smartphone/camera horizontally.
8. Don’t let on-camera personalities read from a script. Try to get them to speak as casually as possible.
9. Don’t change the focus, zoom, or angle mid-sentence. If you want to change angles, wait for a break in the conversation.”

Add some video production tips to your toolbox!

3. Choral Marketing Essentials

In order to begin marketing your chorus, you’re going to need a few essential things. In her guide to DIY digital marketing, Jen Rogers shares a wealth of invaluable info for beginners and pros alike. In the spirit of truly getting back to basics, Jen shares:

“Laying the foundation: The four building blocks for choral marketing

Before we get into the marketing mix, you’ll need to have a few marketing assets ready to go. These assets are the building blocks, or foundation, of your digital marketing.

1. Branding - Your brand is made up of your logo, images of your choir, and the vibe of your website – does it feel formal or fun? Flashy or subtle? Don’t overthink it. The most important element here is to build brand consistency by using the same logo with as little variation as possible.

2. Website - Your website is your most important tool for marketing. I always say it’s not really real until it’s on the website! This is where all of the pertinent information about your organization and concerts will live, including your logo and photos. If you don’t have access to update your website, you need to gain access. You must be able to hop in there and add basic concert information. It’s important to keep the website accurate and up-to-date. Why? Because we want our patrons to visit our website to find these details, and to be able to count on our website as a reliable source for this information. 

3. Audience - To retain your audience, you need to have one to communicate with. This requires collecting and storing patron information. Using an online ticketing system will help you with storing this information securely. At a bare minimum, you’ll need their first name and email address to be able to communicate with them. 

4. Concert Details - Oh, the dreaded process of finalizing concert details… It may not be what you want to hear, but the truth is you need to finalize your concert details well in advance (at least 3 months) to have enough time to build the materials needed to market your concert effectively. Here’s a handy checklist of what your concert details need to cover: 

   • Final concert program - what are you singing?

   • Concert title - what is the concert called?

   • Concert description - what is interesting about it? A paragraph or two is enough.

   • Concert date, start time, location, and address.

   • How to buy tickets - the website URL (link)."

4. Engage with Your Followers

It’s not just nice to engage with your followers, it’s necessary. In his helpful blog about improving your choir’s marketing, Nick Deyo writes about the importance of engaging with your followers: 

“I’m consistently surprised by how many organizations and brands don’t seem to value this important attribute. Social media is designed to be conversational. Whenever someone comments or replies to you, make sure you’re engaging with them. Even a “favorite” or a “like” goes a long way to foster digital relationships, whether it be with potential donors, audiences, or members. If followers feel that the conversation is one-sided, they’re less likely to engage in the future. Depending on how many platforms you’re on and the frequency of your engagements, it can be difficult to monitor this on an ongoing basis…”

And I couldn’t agree more. Don’t be afraid to interact with your followers by thoughtfully replying to their comments in an on-brand way. Just make sure you show up consistently and don’t “engagement bomb” them, then disappear for weeks.

5. Create Measurable Goals and Objectives

How do you know if your marketing efforts have been successful? By setting goals and objectives that can be measured. Tori Cook writes:

“Decide on which metrics you want to track and look at last year's analyses on those metrics. From this data, create attainable and measurable goals and write objectives for how you will obtain each goal.

Let's say that you want to look at your monthly web visits. Last year, you see that you've had an average of 1,000 visits a month. Some of this might be guesswork at first, so you'll want to decide what seems "attainable" in the new year, perhaps 1,200 visits per month would be a good goal. Write the goal out as follows with specific numbers to make it "measurable":

Goal: Increase monthly web visits to an average of 1,200 sessions - an increase of 20% from 1,000 monthly visits.

Then decide on a few "objectives" or actionable ways that you can meet this goal. These objectives might look something like this:

1. Objective #1: Increase brand awareness and web traffic through our efforts in building strategic partnerships, a seamless content distribution strategy, and social media efforts.
2. Objective #2: Write an additional 10 pieces of blog content this year for a boost in SEO.
3. Objective #3: Identify three marketing channels for content distribution focused on our target audience. Utilize these channels throughout the content creation process.

Create these goals and objectives for every metric you want to track in the upcoming year. Then, start to build out your marketing budget to achieve these goals.”

Discover more tips for how to create a marketing strategy for your chorus.

What marketing strategies have been most effective for your chorus marketing? If you were going to add some evergreen chorus marketing tips to the list, what would they be?