What I’m not sure about is whether you can save money on print if people are using the website. It seems logical and it’s certainly what managers would like to do in these difficult times but research does show that an awful lot of people still need a piece of paper to stimulate their initial interest. Not to do with websites but I think the real digital saving is getting people to accept emails rather than letters.

So, how do we get people to use the website? First, make it easy to find. I’ve done quite a bit of PR for touring shows and I’ve been shocked at how many times council owned venues’ websites are hidden within a local government site or how many use a name that is different to the one people know it by. Assuming the address is what the customer would expect, you still need to rank highly in search engines. So, first, make sure your website is search engine optimised. It would be nice to think Google and the like would automatically recognise that you are the number one theatre in your area and indeed there is every chance that if someone types in your theatre’s name and location, your website will come up. But you may share your name with other theatres or people may type in much vaguer search words. So, you need to use all the methods we’ve discussed before that ensure your theatre’s name, location and the simple word ‘theatre’ combined with your location are picked up by search engines.

Second, make it easy to use. If you know me, you’ll know I have a thing about designers who get carried away with their creativity. We all know branding is important and the appearance of your website needs to impress your visitors but, come on, you couldn’t get a more simple site than Google’s and it’s the world’s number one. Okay, you’re a theatre and you need to look a bit showbiz but make sure your home page gets straight to the point. ‘This is what’s on now’- ‘this is what’s coming soon’- and a quick download.

It’s the same with navigation. Of course, your designers are bored with the same old tabs and left hand column list of page names. But your customers aren’t. That’s what they understand and they just want to get to the information.

Ideally you’ll have a mobile version of your website available since at least 20% of your visitors will be on their smartphone and find your traditional desktop version difficult to view.

So, you’ve told them about the production and you’ve shown them photos and a video. They want to buy. What’s this? They’re going to have to pay a booking fee! Why? If you want people to book online, you cannot charge them more than they would pay if they phoned up or called in at the box office. Fact. For goodness sake, the internet is where they’re used to finding things cheaper.

All right, let’s look at other ways to get your audience to go online. You need to collect email addresses. Whenever someone buys a ticket, ask for their email address (you don’t need permission to email someone whose bought something from you).  When someone visits your theatre, get their email address- bribe them with a free drink or something but just imagine how much that small investment may yield.

Make sure that all your communications- season brochure, fliers, letters, emails, even business letters- include your website address or a link directly to the show you’re promoting. Always include a QR barcode. These are the square barcodes you increasingly see in advertisements. When you point your smartphone at one (with the right app), it goes straight to your website. They’re catching on (and they’re free) so use them.

You also need a presence on social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest may not yield huge amounts of business but people who are interested enough in your theatre to follow it are worth nurturing, so post wisely and give your followers news and links to your website. And YouTube- a bigger search engine than Google- is essential. Create a channel and post all available video footage. The rules about search engine optimisation apply.

A few more things about website content. If you provide links on your website to other sites, e.g. a show producer or a sponsor, don’t lose your visitor: make sure any links open in a new page, so your site remains open and available. Make sure your site has all the useful information about how to find the venue, where to eat or stay nearby, what the auditorium looks like, parking, seating plans. If people want this information, don’t fill you precious brochure with it, direct people to your website. Finally, make your website a place where audiences can rate, comment on and discuss your theatre and its products- even if the postings are critical, it gets people to engage with your theatre online

Your company should have a clear policy on bribery in any case because there are other more obvious areas where bribery could come into effect- someone offering you a bribe to use them as the printer of your brochures even if they’re not the best value; someone in your organisation offering a party booker cash in his pocket to bring customers to your theatre. Regarding theatre critics, the Ministry of Justice guidance suggests a policy that states ‘any hospitality should reflect a desire to cement good relations and show appreciation… promotional expenditure should seek to improve the image of the company (and) to better present its products or services, or establish cordial relations… the recipient should not be given the impression that they are under an obligation to confer any business advantage or that the recipient’s independence will be affected.’ the key seems to be that you need to show in writing that you’ve thought about how to prevent bribery and told  your staff and suppliers.

Going back to reviewers, I think it is a good idea to make clear to journalists that you expect them to write what they think and not be afraid of offending you. I know it’s galling when, in addition to drinks and tickets on the night, you’ve spent a lot with their paper on advertising but never complain about a poor review by saying ‘After all we’ve done for you.’  I remember one venue manager a few years ago stopping advertising in the local paper because he didn’t like the critical reviews. I suspect that wouldn’t go down well under the new Act. I have always taken the view that there’s no such thing as bad publicity- at least they think your show or venue is important  enough to write about. When it comes to meals, avoid paying for purely social meetings- only provide some hospitality when you are doing a media briefing.

Of course you wouldn’t give or accept a bribe but the new Bribery Act requires that you prove yourself to be above suspicion.

On the matter of accepting gifts or hospitality from your suppliers, my rule of thumb was to always return the compliment. In other words, if they take you out for a meal, make sure you take them out next time. Don’t give gifts at Christmas and if you’re given one, declare it and put it into a staff raffle.

I’m not a lawyer so don’t take this as legal advice. My point is, you will need a policy on bribery and you do need to think about all the occasions when you offer or accept gifts or hospitality.

Pricing is often not the responsibility of the marketing department which is unfortunate because it can make or break a show. Price too high and no-one will buy a ticket, too low and you don’t make the margin you need. Pantomime is about numbers so it is better to keep the price down as low as is profitable and concentrate on selling high volume. As always, offer at least five prices (three if you have a small venue) to appeal to all pockets and attitudes. Plan discounts for early birds, last minute buyers, groups and less popular performances.

It’s Behind You

The golden rule for promotion is, as with panto itself, it must be over the top. The first thing is to be first. Get the news out as early as possible. Party bookers are the foundation of a successful panto and they start thinking about their Christmas outing in January. Remember, yours won’t be the only show in town, or if not your town certainly somewhere within reach of a 55 seater. You want the others to be behind you so email or write to them in January. And write to them again. And phone them. And invite them to the press launch. And… you get the picture.

As to PR, since the first wave of individual ticket buyers comes quite early, I recommend a major media launch before it goes quiet for the summer. Then a series of individual visits by the stars through the autumn. If you have no stars, you can still feed stories about the director planning unbelievable theatrical magic, the writer researching the true story behind the fairy tale or an actor overcoming a fear of heights to climb a beanstalk.

Media coverage through PR is more important than ever because traditional print or broadcast advertising is far less cost effective than it used to be but the online alternatives have yet to deliver the numbers you need. Panto is particularly problematic in this respect because it appeals to an audience much greater than your usual customer base so they can’t be reached only through your email, SMS or postal mailing list.

You will need to advertise but do it sparingly and with a bang. Don’t throw your limited budget in every direction. Don’t even start until October when the main booking period begins. Do use only the paid for papers that cover your town- free and fringe media won’t deliver the numbers. Take only a few ads but make them big so they can’t be missed and because they say to the reader this is a major show worth seeing.

Otherwise use the proliferation of media that’s out there to best advantage. Make sure you have masses of photos, interviews and short videos freely and easily available for download to the huge number of websites, social networks, magazines and newspapers that want to cover your panto.

Oh Yes It Is

With such a massive choice of channels, you need help. So use your strongest supporters to spread the word. Get the word out to supporters on Facebook and Twitter but also get everyone else involved in the show- cast, creatives, producers and your own staff- to do the same.

Your website has a key role to play so make sure you’re pushing that panto as hard as possible on the home page from the moment it goes on sale. Keep updating your entry with new photos (cast in costume, set designs) and, if at all possible, upload short video interviews.

And let’s not forget that there are many people who still get their information from a season brochure or a flier. Get it in the spring brochure, even if you don’t have much information. By the time of the autumn brochure you’ll need a double page spread. Get those fliers everywhere- bulk distributed, included in mailings of tickets, handed out at shows.

As always, try to learn from what you do. The Panto Villain just spends money without knowing what works. The Principal Boy constantly experiments and monitors to find out what’s most cost effective.

I learn a lot about how to treat Your Life Your Style‘s customers from how I’m treated when I’m a customer. When Kwikfit quoted me £210 for new front brakes, I quickly moved on to another garage who quoted £70 less. But it was the offer of a home service that made me finally settle on the similarly priced Phill’s Auto Repairs.

When it comes to who you choose to fulfil your medical prescriptions, the price is fixed so it’s all about service. I decided to try one of my two local pharmacists’ services where they order, collect and fill your prescription. I based my choice purely on the fact that Boots gave me some points on my loyalty card.

Now you would think, since it’s all about service, pharmacists would go out of their way to get it right. Apparently not. Apart from the fact that my chosen one used an antiquated system of writing in a diary when they needed to order the prescriptions, there was no procedure for checking whether they had received them. This, I was told, was because they were too busy. Why take on a service you can’t properly deliver, you might ask?

Consequently three out of my last four monthly prescriptions were not there when I went to collect them. This is where service really comes into play. Businesses win or lose on how they handle a problem. So when the pharmacist on duty blamed me for it going wrong, it was not a good start. According to her, I hadn’t collected my previous month’s prescription.

I knew this couldn’t be true but, in the end, it doesn’t matter if the pharmacist was entirely blameless. Just as Bates thanks Lord Grantham for giving evidence that sent him to gaol, the retailer must treat the customer as right even when they’re wrong. As a customer, I didn’t need an argument, what I needed was my prescription, an apology and an assurance that they were working to improve their system. So they’ve lost my business. I’m changing to Lloyds who say they have a computerised system and have a member of staff check that prescriptions have arrived.

A version of this article appeared as a blog on the Southern Daily Echo website

We would probably all like to to think that when someone signs up to follow our Facebook posts or our Tweets, it’s because they like us, they like what we have to say and they want to know about us. That’s what the marketing officers surveyed thought. However the majority of consumers said they signed up because they wanted offers, games and info about new products. Only 38% said they wanted to show they were a fan. (I assume this leaves out all the people who sign up purely to try to sell you something.)

If we don’t research why our customers follow us, buy our product or visit our venue, how can we hope to market effectively to them? We often can’t afford to do our own research but that’s no excuse when there’s so much available on the internet. You may be right that your customers are different to those in this particular bit of research but it can’t harm to make sure that your postings on Facebook and Twitter include plenty of offers and news about new products.

Even in these days of online catalogues, the printed brochure remains an important selling tool. I’m not a designer but, over the years as a marketing person, I’ve made a point of learning how to produce a catalogue that sells. When I worked at The Mayflower Theatre, the season brochure was the single biggest generator of ticket sales. Apart from my own experience, I learned a great deal from the brilliant American catalog specialist Richard S. Hodgson. I’m still happy to offer advice to companies on how to produce effective catalogues on a tight budget.

So what was wrong with John Lewis’s catalogue and why does it matter? Here are just three examples. Faces and eyes on the cover attract attention yet all JL had were a few tree decorations against a grey background. Yes, grey- the least attractive colour in the universe.

Number two. When people look at a double page spread, their eyes start at the top right, travel the middle, then go to the bottom right. In other words we barely notice the left hand page unless there is something there that grabs our attention. This is scientific research done by Professor Siegfried Vogeler using a camera to measure eye movement. I could find hardly any left hand pages in John Lewis’ brochure that had a striking image.

I could go on- choice of font, font size and, moving on to the text, the need for copy that sells benefits not features…

Third thing. More scientific studies, this time conducted by Colin Wheildon many years ago, showed that the most easy to read colour combination is black type on a white background. Did you ever read a novel that wasn’t? You might think white on black wouldn’t be much different but in fact ‘good comprehension’ goes down from 70% to 0% and ‘poor’ comprehension up from 11% to 88%. Despite this, more than half the pages in the John Lewis catalogue use white type. To be fair, it’s not always on a black background, sometimes they use white on grey or even wood grain. Wheildon doesn’t have a statistic for this latter combination- I doubt he thought anyone would try it.

Why does it matter apart from giving me the chance to show off my knowledge? Well, I think we should be concerned that there are an army of designers, who have studied at art college and who create lovely looking catalogues, yet ignore or have never been taught the scientifically researched rules of producing a brochure that actually does the job of selling the products. They’re not dissimilar to religious fundamentalists denying evolution. That’s not what we retailers and other businesses need.

Now John Lewis may feel they got exactly what they wanted out of their Christmas catalogue. I guess that in an age when scientists are wondering if there is something faster than the speed of light, anything can happen. Personally I don’t see the harm in following a few tried and tested rules. The catalogue I produced for Your Life Your Style for door-to-door and mailing was simple in style and produced on a shoestring but it did just that and the results were everything hoped for. Please take a look at my 10 Ways for A Winning Brochure.

If an architect ignored the science of constructing a building and simply made it look nice, it would fall down. It seems some catalogue designers don’t want anything as boring as selling to customers to get in the way of their art.