Startling Admissions

The Octopus Insights: finding 8 paths toward improving membership programs

2009-10-05T23:43:00Z

Visiting the North Carolina Aquarium at Ft. Fisher last week was a treat. Volunteers have extended themselves throughout the Aquarium: at the touch tank, manning the loggerhead turtle station, helping to interpret Luna the new albino alligator, as well as being represented deep in the organization. The octopus on display was ever-active and ever-changing its shape....as your membership program should. The goal is to expand membership, but which direction? how? and where is the greatest reward...today? The juxtuaposition of the octopus and the reach of volunteers created a powerful image. Flexible, responsive, sometimes nearly invisible by virtue of its adaptive skin, the octopus reminded me of eight questions (how could there be fewer?) whose answers can guide you to membership program success:

1) Which tentacle of your membership program has the best traction? Is it aquisition, retention, upgrades, and/or outreach?

2) Where is the greatest opportunity for membership growth? Is it among volunteers or can they help expand your reach? Ever-present, often changing their footprint in the organization, volunteers may lead you to new members who may not be current visitors.

3) Ask your volunteers (they will speak the truth) why would someone become a member? Use your volunteers as an in-house focus group to learn what member benefits are most valued. Use them as a research team by asking what member benefits raise the interest of non-members during cocktail party conversations or during those conversations in the produce section at the grocery store (or wherever). Ask them about the value proposition of your membership offerings.

4) Among your volunteers find the folks that are paid members of the highest level. Ask them why they stopped there. Ask the same question of volunteers for each of your membership levels by those who populate those levels. Don't ask them to give more, just ask why they stopped where they stopped.

5) Segment your membership (no, it does not need to have eight legs) and recognize that each segment may have different expectations and wants. While all of the segments have a central goal (to support the whole) they each require slightly different marketing messages.

6) With eight legs, an octopus is always touching, exploring...dipping its toes into different footholds. Your membership program should invest some minor attention into finding the next hidey-hole, the next opportunity for movement and growth. Are you constantly looking around for opportunities?

7) Consider the suction cup. What binds your long-term members and volunteers to your organization? It may be different than the tug of a temporary toehold. The light touch of a direct mail campaign is different than a firm handshake. Don't confuse loyalty with the latest greatest new marketing pitch that boosts member numbers temporarily.

8) Remember that your reach exceeds your own particular grasp. Volunteers can help you shape membership strategy as well as being ambassadors on the exhibition floor and beyond outside your institution. Look among your volunteers for former marketers, price point consultants, interviewers, data analysts, and all of the other behind-the-scenes services that can help your membership program grow.

In these tough economic times, the most successful organizations are those that keep their members and volunteers close while continuing to reach out in new directions.

Eternal Tut: Make those blockbuster exhibits have lasting effects

2009-08-28T18:10:00Z

The blockbusters continue to roll through the museum field-- in Indy at the Childrens Museum of Indiannapolis is Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs. Chihuly exhibits continue to draw big crowds at art and childrens museums as well as at botanic gardens. The Franklin Institute has the amazing exhibit on Galileo (including the original telescope from Italy) that is drawing strong crowds.

Beyond the initial exciting media coverage and increased attendance and membership sales is the opportunity to learn more about your new visitors. No matter how small your organization, you can use these techniques; figure out their interests and motivators to keep them returning by:

1) Have your admissions and/or advanced sales staff track who is coming -- ask for their zip code, "have you been here before?", and "how did you hear about us?"

2) Compare the characteristics of new visitors and new members to those of your repeat visitors and current members. What are the commonalities and differences?

3) Experiment with lectures and programs as spinoffs of the temporary exhibit's themes. Use this as a way to introduce those new visitors and members to the excitement of your institution.

Not only will you to leverage the exhibit's rental costs and any advertising expenditures, but you will understand who is coming and why. This information will help you bring some of those new visitors back a second and third time and retain those new members.....without relying on expensive temporary exhibits.

Penguins and Tut--marketing through temporary exhibits

2009-07-11T19:53:00Z

Congratulations to the South Carolina Aquarium on their uptick in admissions due to the Penguin Planet temporary exhibit. According to the Post and Courier article yesterday--nearly 22,000 more locals and 3,000 more tourists visited YOY. It would be interesting to know why those locals did not visit the year before?

Also the article mentions that new memberships grew more than 30% YOY. As many museums, zoos, and botanic gardens know, those new members many times do not renew when their first year expires. The new membership sale is often due to the offer of a discounted admission to see the current temporary exhibit. The challenge: how to keep those members renewing year after year?

Driven by the metrics of getting PR coverage, sponsorship dollars, and increased attendance and membership sales, temporary traveling exhibits continue to roll through the museum, zoo, aquarium, and botanic garden world. The current popular blockbuster exhibit is King Tut currently at the DeYoung Museum; it seems to be the latest spin on Body Worlds.

Why Startling Admissions as a Blog Title?

2009-06-25T21:58:00Z

The minute someone thinks about coming to your museum, zoo, garden or theater...and considers purchasing a ticket and walking through that front door....the outcome is an unknown. We hope that the experience meets our visitors' expections and ours (as staff, board and volunteers). We hope that our visitors are startled in a good way.....delighted, intrigued, and motivated to become members, donors, and season ticket holders.

It's that great combination of selling the right experience, at the right price, to the right person, at the right time. That magic formula starts converting a casual visitor in to a lifetime supporter. And helps our cultural organizations continue to do the great mission-related things that they do.

Clear vision, distrinctive programs, compelling customer service, and communicating the right message help to cement the relationship. It's a combination of art and analysis.

I hope you enjoy the notes from the cultural field in this blog. And special thanks to one of our talented software engineers, Greg, for suggesting this title!

American Public Garden Association--Annual Conference 2009

2009-06-25T21:38:00Z

"Plant people" have gathered in St.Louis to celebrate "The Global Garden" addressing topics such as the role of gardens in biodiversity and basics around membership and facilities maintenance.

Many gardens are reporting increases in membership numbers inspite of overall lower attendance....which means either retention is high and/or recruitment of new members is strong. What are you seeing out there in your museums, zoos, aquaria, and historic sites?

Check out APGA's site for more garden fun-facts and to find your nearest garden.