Before, during and after the event : 3 ways to build audience loyalty

Written by Solène Jimenez | Apr 18, 2024 10:27:25 AM

A spectator's path, a visitor's path, a fan's path... Here are several variations on a single idea: to create a personalized dialogue with the public before and after your events.

Because while a great deal of marketing effort is put into the moment of sale, these efforts must not stop once the public has bought their ticket. Once a ticket has been purchased, another stage begins: that of experience and loyalty. This means providing the public with all the information they need to make their visit to your venue a perfect experience.

3 digital mechanisms are particularly useful as part of a well-thought-out visitor experience.

Post-purchase mail

Just because your audience has bought a ticket doesn't mean you should stop communicating. For some events, your audience will anticipate their purchase, from a few days to several weeks. While you're waiting for them to arrive, make the most of this special moment, during which you've succeeded in being strongly present in the minds of the public who have decided to buy a ticket.

This can be an opportunity to get to know them better, and to ask them to provide you with information they didn't give us when they made their purchase (e.g. telephone number, date of birth, newsletter subscription or thematic communication preferences).

You can even take advantage of the post-purchase e-mail to get to know a particularly important category of viewers: first-time viewers.

Like the Théâtre des Célestins, you can automate a post-purchase e-mail to these new audiences, with a very short questionnaire to better understand what triggered their purchase. In the automated post-purchase e-mail to first-time viewers, the Célestins ask 2 questions to assess the effectiveness of their communication channels towards this audience ("How did you hear about the show?") and to better understand the trigger for the purchase ("What made you want to choose this show?").

Pre-event mail

Access conditions, nearby transportation, parking, services on offer (checkroom, bar, restaurant, etc.): the amount of information you can make available to the public to help them prepare for their visit is considerable. This information is generally available on your website, where the public can consult it. Is this enough? A pre-event e-mail will enable you to provide the public with personalized information, while highlighting the elements that will make their experience more fluid. A pre-event e-mail can help you provide personalized information to the public, while highlighting the important elements that will make their experience more fluid: a parking lot under construction, the introduction of a shuttle or car-sharing service, the availability of a catering service. Useful and effective mechanisms (a pre-event email is generally 80 or 90% open) for Château de Versailles Spectacles, Folies Gruss, Théâtre des Célestins and Maison de la Poésie.

Post-event mail

And after the event?
How you set up post-show mailings will depend on your objectives.

As Château de Versailles Spectacle, you can : propose another event in your programming that might be of interest to the public. You are free to associate an exceptional price offer with this e-mail.

Like Folies Gruss, you can set up an awareness questionnaire.

This questionnaire can give you a better idea of how your audience heard about your event and why they came: posters, word of mouth, press, newsletters...

Like the Belgian event Julia au cabaret, you can set up a satisfaction survey.
This survey can be used to ask spectators how their experience went.

Are there any detractors in the audience? This e-mail can help you identify them, so you can personalize their experience: call them, reassure them, and offer a stronger experience from a true customer relationship management perspective.

Are the holiday season approaching? Before festive occasions, you can also put forward a gift offer to suggest that the spectator who had a good time at your place should offer the same experience to their loved ones.

These examples are just of what marketing automation can achieve.
The ideal tool for building audience loyalty, marketing automation is also very interesting from the point of view of developing new audiences.
Would you like to find out more about this tool and start implementing these mechanisms with your audiences?

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