Picture it. Your season announcement day, sometime this spring.
Your audience — not only your loyalists but even casual ticket buyers — eagerly counting down to your season announcement.
Some may even be ready to click “buy” before you drop all the details.
You hit "send" on your season launch email blast and "post" on social media and enjoy a strong first day of renewals and new subscription sales.
Your boss is so happy with you and your team.
Why? Because you didn't announce your season out of the blue.
You spent months (or even all season) building anticipation by priming your audience for the announcement instead of releasing it into the wild that day.
You've been pre-suading them.
We're covering some strategies that drive people to buy before your campaign over the coming months.
Chances are you're already using many of them. Still, we want you to understand why it works and how to apply it at your organization better so you welcome more of your audience as subscribers, members, and donors into your theatre instead of an audience that only attends occasionally.
First, a Pre-Suasion Overview
What is it?
Pre-Suasion is a set of strategies introduced by social psychologist Robert Cialdini in his book Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.
When combined, the strategies set the stage for getting your audience in the right frame of mind before your marketing campaign or you ask people to commit. It helps people excited about saying "yes" to you.
How does it work?
Let's Get Into It — Arts Marketing & Reciprocation
Ever heard of the phrase "calling in your favors?" Reciprocation works because people are hard-wired to feel like they need to return a favor after they've received one.
In one study, shoppers at a candy store became 42% more likely to purchase if they'd received a gift piece of chocolate as soon as they entered the store (Pre-Suasion).
This is why you see so many free samples at the grocery store, and you often get free mailing labels or stickers in a fundraising appeal.
Reciprocation is so powerful that all human cultures teach some form of it, and children respond to the rule before they are two years old.
What to Know About Reciprocation
If you want your reciprocation strategy to be more likely to be effective, you'll have to take a risk and give first without a guarantee that people will reciprocate.
In order for this to work, the gift also needs to be meaningful, unexpected, and tailored to their preferences:
Meaningful
In a study, a waitress offered diners in a New Jersey restaurant one piece of chocolate per person at the end of their meals, which increased her tips by 3.3% (compared to diners who weren't offered chocolates).
However, when the waitress invited other diners to take two chocolates, her tips rose by 14.1% (Pre-Suasion).
Unexpected
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra launched a "surprise and delight" program. First-year subscribers were personally thanked by a staff member at their seats during intermission and invited to select a small gift like a CD or drink coupon. This resulted in a higher renewal rate.
Tailored to Their Preferences
Pre-Suasion mentioned another study that suggests a gift means more to your audience when it's tailored to their tastes. At a fast-food restaurant, customers were greeted with one of two equally priced gifts.
Here's what happened:
Gift | Result |
Gift not related to food | Order increased by 12% |
Food-related gift | Order increased by 24% |
As you can see, people spent more when they received a gift; however, they spent even more when the gift was relevant to their tastes, the brand, and the purchase.
We Recommend Three Ways to Apply This to Your Arts Organization
Shift Early Bird Perks to Pre-Announcement
If you offer gifts to early bird subscribers, shift your timeline and budget so that your subscribers and other members of your audience get a gift before you announce your season. It will prime them to feel more valued.
Surprise Lapsed Subscribers in Your Pre-Announcement Campaign
We've seen many audience members love that free drink ticket. Instead of leading with a litany of perks for coming back up front, save that free drink ticket or parking voucher for later and offer it in the pre-show email, making it unexpected.
Open up Benefits to Multi-Ticket Buyers (for more than one night)
Give multi-ticket buyers or other likely subscribers access to your benefits and exclusive events for more than one evening. We've found this to be effective, and you're showing them how much they're missing. This also builds goodwill but also gives them a chance to hear from other subscribers about why they love being part of your community, building deeper connections. More on that later.
In conclusion, part of pre-suasion is about building relationships with your audience in unexpected, meaningful, and personalized ways. It should happen all season, not just during renewal time.
Too busy to plan and execute a pre-suasion audience development campaign? We can help. Join us at our next Executive Roundtable Discussion where we'll be discussing this with other smart arts marketing leaders like you. Grab your seat here. Or, when you're ready, check out our 25/26 Prep Packs.
