Direct marketing

Direct marketing involves finding your public and placing your promotional material

directly into their hands. For example, send a personalised letter to their home rather

than place an advertisement in the daily newspaper for them to possibly see. Another

example of direct marketing is handing out flyers outside an event similar to your own

event. You need to know your target markets and know what to place in their hands.

Direct marketing is about quality rather than quantity. It is by far the most cost effective

form of advertising and helps you build closer relationships with your audiences. Like

Chinese whispers, a message becomes weaker at every stage in a communication chain. 

If you can speak directly to your public you have a better chance of getting your message

across intact. It also engenders a feeling of inclusiveness in the recipient, giving them

further motivation to attend. And that's what marketing is about   giving people reasons to

go to your show.

You need to get inside the heads of the people you're trying to reach. How would they

respond to what you're planning to send them?

Contact lists 

When you're compiling a contact database, which includes contact details for

individuals, make sure you comply with the principles of the Privacy Act

(www.privacy.org.nz/top). The most relevant principles are:

  Personal information must be collected directly from the individual concerned or from a

publicly available source, unless the person has authorised an agency to pass on his/her

information.

  When you're compiling a contact database from a source that isn't publicly available

(e.g. from box office information), the person concerned must consent for the

information to be collected and be told why it's being collected.

  Personal information must be kept secure and can only be used for the purpose for which

4

it was collected. It cannot be shared without permission.

  A  person has the right to ask to be removed from your contact database.

PIGGY 

There are no privacy restrictions on collecting and storing contact details for organisations

BACKING

or businesses. 

Your type of event will dictate the best ways to locate targets for direct mail. With the

If another organisation is

festival of children's writers (page 10), you would need to source lists of local schools and

doing a mail out, you can

insert your material with

any book groups; with the dance show (page 10), you should source lists of local dance

theirs. If this organisation

groups and women's business networks; and with the Maori Pacific theatre production

is willing to write an

(page 10), you might like to use runanga, marae, or Maori and Pacific business networks.

endorsement for your

Most tertiary institutions also have Maori and Pacific student networks, which should

event, even better.

provide a good opportunity to market this production.  

42

Smart arts

|

Toi huatau