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CASE STUDY: Increasing ROI

Reading Arts and Venues

Sarah Cox

“We can now guarantee that a brochure mailing will have an average 30% response rate compared with our average of 11% before using Vital Statistics.”

Since subscribing to Vital Statistics (VS) in 2005 we have applied the functionality to undertake detailed customer analysis and segmentation for general marketing reporting.

 

From using VS in this way we very quickly established that we had a significant audience cross-over amongst our three venues, which are all very different in size and programming, alongside customer groups that are venue loyal and would only attend at particular times of the year, for particular types of shows.

 

Firstly, we concentrated on individual event mailings and used VS to segment our customers.  This resulted in an increase in response rates and therefore ROI. We then decided, approximately 3 years ago, to apply that experience to the Brochure.

 

Tried & Tested

Up to this point our mailings were less targeted and more costly and we were not in a position to monitor the success rate of them. After doing detailed research into our brochure bookers using VS, we realised there was a very distinct group of customers that always responded to the Brochure but thousands of customers that didn’t; therefore reducing our mailing ROI considerably, especially when you note that we send out brochures three times a year.

 

The first thing we did was identify all customers who booked tickets online and rarely via telephone or the Box Office and asked if they would be happy not to receive a hard copy of the brochure but instead receive an e-brochure and supportive e-shots. From the thousands that we contacted only a small handful requested that they continued receiving a hard copy so that immediately reduced our mailing numbers.

 

We then decided, again through research using VS, which customers were most likely to book tickets from receiving a brochure. From this research we realised that time since last attendance, frequency of attendance and specialist performance information were all relevant.

 

From this research, we defined the criteria to receive a hard copy brochure; customers must have attended a performance within three years, attended at least twice in the last three years and must not have booked tickets via the internet. We also looked at the season and researched any specific performance booking history to see how booking habits changed for different performances and therefore noting if any specific groups of customers could be added, but still fitting into our criteria.

 

For Example: The Christmas brochure can be very full with family shows and, of course Panto so we would run a specific family show / Panto customer list, remove all customers from that list that hadn’t attended for three years, had booked online and hadn’t come at least twice, de dupe them from the original brochure customer mailing list and then add any extra customers in to allow to us to complete more specific mailings to people that we are almost certain will book tickets as a result of receiving the brochure by post.

 

Dramatic Increase in response rates

From using this specific technique for the last 3 years we have seen a huge difference in our brochure mailing statistics. We can now guarantee that a brochure mailing will have approximately a 30% response rate compared with our average response rate of 11% before using Vital Statistics.

 

Our last brochure mailing (Jan – March 2009) resulted in a 29.2% response rate, generating £701,000 ticket revenue, approximately 47,500 tickets sold as a result of sending out 22,260 brochures at a cost of 50p per mailing. Therefore our return on investment was £689,870.

 

Compare this to some of our previous brochure mailings and it is clear what a huge improvement we have experienced from using VS to show us who we should be contacting, why and how. For instance our Sept – Dec 2007 brochure mailing was sent to 20,722 people and gained us a response rate of just 12.6%

 

Vital Statistics made it possible

Reviewing our brochure mailing list, segmenting customers and limiting the customers to whom we send hard copies would have had to happen eventually in order to make cost savings however, I believe that it would not have happened as quickly, efficiently and effectively if we had not had VS.

 

VS allows you to see a Snapshot of your customers and their habits which is exactly the information which is needed when making important, high risk decisions that could either be hugely successful and increase ROI dramatically OR have the potential to reduce ticket sales if you do not target the correct people.

 

Using Vital Statistics has given us the confidence and ability to target our brochure mailings effectively with highly successful results. We continue to use VS to inform our marketing and communication decisions and achieve cost savings while increasing the Return on our marketing Investment.