Transcript

[00:00:00] Aubrey Bergauer: Hey, everyone. Happy March, if you were listening to this in real time when the episode drops, and happy whenever, if you were listening some other time. It is almost spring right now as I'm recording this, and I've been thinking lately about spring training. You know, like how in baseball, when the players get in shape, teams try some new things like that spring training, right?

They update their roster. Coaches are scouting new ideas or scouting new talent. Spring training is just this time of learning and building some operational muscle for the team and the club as a whole. And that is what I've been thinking about for our arts organizations, too. Today, we are talking about data.

So, I don't know if this fits spring training for you, but data, how to use it better, more effectively, no matter where your orchestra or opera, theater, museum, chorus, zoo, whatever [00:01:00] organization, no matter where you're at, how do we use our data more effectively? And this ties into the last episode on patron messaging.

So hopefully you listened to that. We talked last time about how one size fits all messaging Is not really working in today's marketplace and how we as arts organizations, as arts administrators, arts leaders, we really have to be more sophisticated in terms of our patron messaging than we used to have to be.

And the other side of that coin or the other part about being able to get the right messages to the appropriate audience or donor segment or whoever is the data piece. It's the data piece of all of it that makes this work. So one of the. The biggest mistakes I have to say that I see arts organizations of all sizes make is not having control of their data.

And sometimes organizations don't understand their [00:02:00] data. Sometimes they don't have clean data. Sometimes they are the biggest organizations on Tessitura with mountains of data available to them, and they're still not. Able to fully take advantage of that for various reasons. So I just see organizations of all kinds really struggle with their data and it's holding them back.

And in many ways, that makes sense, okay? Getting good with your data can feel hard. I know that. Whether that is hard to wrap your head around, like if you're like, where do I begin? Or if it's hard, like, oh my gosh, this is going to take up so much time or so much resources. Or if it's hard and you're thinking like all of our data lives in different places, we've got donor data there.

We've got ticket data over there. Like, how am I going to work with my venue to get the data we need from them? Right? So. I've been there, and I was talking with one organization recently on this topic of patron retention, patron messaging, and using their data more effectively to do that. [00:03:00] And they said, why would we spend that much time on someone who might never come back?

So, if any of that describes you or your organization, know that those are just really Real feelings and thoughts, and I just want to acknowledge that. And also, I have good news for you. Data isn't hard when done right. You're going to hear that as kind of a recurring theme in this episode. So let me say it again.

Data isn't hard when done right. This is excellent news. And this topic, this episode is totally completely in the category of how do we work smarter, not harder. Right? So data, meaning like good data, being able to harness your data is actually about creating systems. That's another huge theme. You're going to hear in this episode.

And A lot of systems these days can be automated and automated quite fast. So more good news for all of us. I just gotta say I've been in this business for 20 [00:04:00] years now, and this is an area that has gotten so much better really just in the past few years. And that is just such such good news for us at arts organizations, the automation, getting systems in place, getting systems talking to each other so, so much easier than it used to be.

So we're gonna unpack some of that in this episode. It's not about how much work it is, right? But once we understand how it all works and fits together, it's really about creating systems that make it work for you. And to me, that just feels very empowering. How do I make my data work for me? When we have the right systems in place, the question isn't how much time or money or resources does this take?

The question really becomes how much Are you leaving on the table when you don't have a solid grip on your data? So we're going to break it all down in this episode. I have a free resource to help you with all of this. So I'm going to share more at the end on how you can get that. And I also have a great, great guest [00:05:00] to talk about all this with us who has been there in the trenches of all of this, meaning they've managed data at multiple arts organizations, not because they have a data background, but just the opposite.

This is. Someone who has developed systems multiple times now for multiple organizations to address this exact topic of just getting the house in order, so to speak, getting our data in order, creating a process to make sure you own your data, to make it work hard for you as it should, because you own it.

And our patron data is an asset that we have at arts organizations. Not every organization in every sector owns their data. We get to do that. That is an asset. So when you put this topic of patron data together with everything we talked about in the last episode about patron messaging it is the beginning of a revenue firehose for your organization So here we are episode two of season five of the offstage Erin.

I cannot [00:06:00] wait to get into it with you I'm, Aubrey Bergauer and welcome to my podcast I'm known in the arts world for being customer centric data obsessed and for growing revenue The arts are my vehicle to make the change I want to see in this world, like creating places of belonging, pursuing gender and racial equality, developing high performing teams and leaders, and leveraging technology to elevate our work.

I've been called the Steve Jobs of classical music and the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony. I've held office Stage roles, managing millions of dollars in revenue at major institutions, been chief executive of an orchestra where we doubled the size of the audience and nearly quadrupled the donor base.

And now I'm here to help you achieve that same kind of success. In this podcast, we are sorting through data and research inside and outside the arts. Applying those findings to our work in arts management and bringing in some extra voices along the way, all to build the vibrant future we know is possible for our [00:07:00] institutions and for ourselves as offstage administrators and leaders.

You're listening to The Offstage Erin.

Hi everyone, Aubrey here. I want to share a quick case study with you. About a year ago, Austin Chamber Music Center knew they needed to work on identifying prospective donors and building relationships with the donors they already have. Plus they went through a leadership transition and knew they needed to fundraise more and fast.

They came to Annual Fund Toolkit, who did a comprehensive analysis of their donor base, then developed a system for the organization to connect with those donors based on their needs and giving styles. They did all of this combining in person asks with email, social media, and direct mail. By the end of the fiscal year, their year to date fundraising had doubled compared to the year prior.

And that's just the numbers. They now also have a streamlined process for fundraising. For tracking and maintaining donor relationships going forward. How did they do all this? [00:08:00] They did it with Annual Fund Toolkit. Annual Fund Toolkit is not just another consulting firm. What sets them apart is their laser focus on two critical challenges, improving donor retention and growing the major gifts pipeline.

This can be your organization too, because this is what Annual Fund Toolkit does every day. Their founder, Luis Diaz, is one of the most brilliant minds in fundraising I've ever met. Utilize annual fund toolkits, advice and assistance are coming out ahead. To read the full case study, head over to get that annual fund toolkit.com/acmc.

That's GET dot annual fund toolkit.com/acmc for Austin Chamber Music Center. Trust me, your donors and your mission will. Thank you.

My guest today is [00:09:00] Stephanie Stallings. She has over 15 years of experience in nonprofit leadership. Stephanie specializes in driving organizational growth, securing funding, and building meaningful community impact. She has worked at organizations including the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.

C., the Ford Theater Foundation, and L. A. County Arts Commission. She was the executive director of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra for about three years, where she delivered some really transformative results. You're gonna hear her say this in the episode. They increased first time patron retention by a hundred and sixty percent.

They grew their annual subscriptions by forty percent. And they boosted individual donations by 25%. Sounds pretty good, right? She did this by implementing a lot of the strategies that I teach. And a big through line for Stephanie's work is how she's used data at all of these various organizations. But not like a data scientist.

That's important. [00:10:00] She has used data as somebody who has an arts background, like so many of you listening. She was trained as a musicologist and she has a PhD in musicology. And this is for all of my fellow classical music people listening. She was even a contributing editor for the Grove Dictionary of American Music.

Stephanie has also taught at Northern Arizona University as an assistant professor, where she taught courses on fundraising, arts, marketing, and cultural policy. And I'm very proud to say that Stephanie now oversees all of the programming, teaching, and course content and strategy for my business, Changing the Narrative, as our program director.

I'm so excited we get to tap into all of the knowledge and experience she brings. Welcome, Stephanie. Thanks for having me, Aubrey. So I just want to start as I am thinking about all of your experience at different arts organizations, what made you get into this topic of data in particular? And [00:11:00] then I guess that kind of a part two of this is What, through that journey, like what are some of the key ways you've seen data serve an arts organization?

[00:11:11] Stephanie Stallings: So I've spent, I think, almost 25 years now working in arts administration, but my journey into data really started in a place many of us in the performing arts know well. It was the box office. So early in my career, I worked in ticketing where I really saw firsthand how every single transaction was so much more than just a seat sold.

It was really a relationship in the making. And I just became fascinated by the patterns behind audience behavior. Who was coming? Who was returning? Who were we losing? Um, so that curiosity really led me deeper into databases and CRM systems. And I guess ultimately into helping arts organizations use data to make smarter decisions.

And I think anyone who's ever had to write a grant application or report has [00:12:00] dealt with data, right? Because funders always want to see numbers that demonstrate. So, you know, for example, uh, earlier in my career, one time I was working at the L. A. County Arts Commission and I was evaluating the reach of their community engagement programs.

These were like free music and dance workshops that were open to the public. And since the commission was a public entity funded by taxpayer dollars, they really wanted to ensure that their programming reflected the demographics of every neighborhood they served. But when I got there, they really couldn't tell.

Because they were relying on a combination of paper and emailed surveys that just turned out to be not quite right, the right system to collect the data they needed. And I guess ever since then, I've seen some version of this in many organizations where it's, well, we know what data we need, but we don't really know how to get it, and we don't have a system in place to collect it.

Or the flip side, like you mentioned in your [00:13:00] intro, which is we're drowning in a sea of data, and we don't know how to make sense of it and use it to make decisions. So, um, you know, I think about some of the key ways that data serves an arts organization and the ways that that's changed during my career.

I remember when Back when the cultural data project was getting started, I don't know, 15 years ago or so, and a lot of grant makers in the arts were saying, you know how to fill out this profile that collects all of this financial and programmatic data. And it was like. You want us to track what? You know, how many national premieres did you have?

Like how many open rehearsals did you hold? And how many people attended those? All of those really granular programming details that a lot of us had never reported on or even tracked before. So, you know, we got used to it. We, for grant purposes, many of us are now accustomed to tracking those key metrics having to do with our audience demographics, fundraising, ROI, et cetera.

And I think just like we do all that data [00:14:00] crunching now, I'm pretty confident that the next data frontier for many arts organizations is tracking their patron retention and using that data to be very intentional in how we build relationships with our audiences. 

[00:14:14] Aubrey Bergauer: Yeah, I'm hearing you say all of that. I, I'm having this kind of aha moment, maybe, um, like talking about cultural data project and like how cumbersome that's what the word that was coming to mind, like how cumbersome that was.

And so when we're talking about how data, this topic can be challenging for some organizations. I'm like, well, no wonder we kind of have like Like, okay, trauma sounds like way too dramatic here, but like, you know what I mean? But like, we've had experiences so many of us where it was like, it was hard and it was cumbersome and it was time consuming.

So I'm just having this moment where I'm like, yeah, that really, that tracks, but it doesn't now we're here to say it doesn't have to be that way. I now want to talk about your time at the Flagstaff Symphony. You served there. As executive director for about three years, but that was [00:15:00] after about three years prior to that of serving on the board.

So around six years total, you spent with that organization. Tell me about not just your journey with data at that organization, but really the organization's journey with data as well. What was the kind of prevailing view or prevailing approach when you first joined the organization as a board member?

And then how did that evolve? Once you transitioned into your executive director role. 

[00:15:26] Stephanie Stallings: Yeah. So the Flagstaff Symphony, like a lot of performing arts organizations, was locked into using its venues. Ticketing platform. And prior to joining us Ed, I had seen the symphony go through, I think three different CRMs and maybe three or four years, and, you know, they were using it mostly to log donations, but the patron or ticketing side of the data was much less comprehensive.

There really just wasn't any effort to keep up with like, who was actually buying tickets to which concerts. And I've [00:16:00] seen this. is actually pretty common, where an org says, great, we have this robust, shiny new CRM. Now, what are we supposed to put in it? And so, because I had followed your work, Aubrey, for several years, by the time I transitioned into that ED role, I already knew the value of not only tracking who attended performances after the fact, but the value of knowing Who's coming before they get there, because then, you know, that, that opens up possibilities of how you prepare them for the experience.

You know, you can get them the information they need about the venue, the parking, the timing of the performance, you know, can they get a drink or a bite to eat beforehand or at intermission? All of that is obviously great information for them to have, but maybe even more importantly, it also shows your audience members that you value their time and you're anticipating their needs.

So it starts building a relationship with them before they even [00:17:00] arrive in the hall. And I think this is especially true if they're new to your organization, you know, can you personalize their experience in any way to welcome them and make them feel. Extra special, I think most of us have had the opposite of that experience, probably where, you know, as a new attendee, you bought your ticket.

You maybe got really dressed up, you arrive at the hall and you feel sort of anonymous and ignored. And, you know, that happens for a lot of reasons, but I think one of the biggest ones is that the organization maybe doesn't have the system in place to know that you're coming. Or have some plan to onboard you and welcome you into an experience that, frankly, can be very intimidating to first timers.

[00:17:51] Aubrey Bergauer: Here's a fun fact. A returning audience member is worth seven times more than a first timer. Yes, I am talking about audience retention, one of [00:18:00] my favorite topics, but the problem I hear all the time from arts organizations is how to best track your own patron retention data across marketing and development.

That's why I want to tell you about Artelize. Artelize has brilliantly solved this challenge. Their audience retention dashboard is the one stop place to access your audience data across every important metric. First time buyers, multi buyers, subscribers, and donors. I've worked with a lot of tools in data management programs over the years.

The Artelize audience retention dashboard works with. NECRM, and it supports arts organizations of all sizes all over the globe. If you can upload a spreadsheet, within minutes you can access all your data. Your key patron segments and top retention metrics, beautifully laid out and easy to read. It's just that easy, no joke.

And their tool even makes real time recommendations based on your patron data to boost conversion at each stage of the customer journey. So you can see what's [00:19:00] working, refine your approach, and keep doubling down on what drives the best results. The Artelize team brought me into their process and we had clients test the product with their own real data.

So let me tell you, I have seen firsthand the immense time, money, and effort this dashboard can save arts organizations, allowing you to finally harness your data in one place. Think. Easier collaboration between marketing and development efforts, easier for presenting at board meetings, easier to see everything in one place without running multiple reports.

If you are ready to grow, retain, and grow. And engage your audience with data-driven tools that are easy and fast to use. Visit Aubrey auer.com/dashboard. Listeners of this podcast, save 20% and members of my run it like a business academy. Save even more. That's www.Aubreyauer.com/dashboard. To learn more about artize today,

[00:20:00] I. Love so much that you were talking about the value of knowing who's coming before they get there. Like, I think that's just everything you're saying is just so hugely important. And. In, in many ways, I think easily overlooked, like, especially I know, and you were in this scenario too at Flagstaff that so many people say, like, I don't own my data.

My box office has all of this. How do I get this? And that was the boat you were in as well. I've been in organizations like that before. I've also been in organizations where we owned all the data and my point in saying all of this is it's more of a choice of how are you gonna whatever that thing is that the venue owns it or we own it, but we don't harness it like you have to make a choice.

What are you gonna do about it? Right? And so I just love that that didn't hold you back is what's going through my mind right now. That didn't hold you back. You were like, No, we're gonna work with our venue. There still is value in knowing who's coming before they get there. And we're not gonna wait until we get the report from the venue two weeks later or whatever.

So okay, so continue to play this out. You start bringing this [00:21:00] more data mindset to the organization. It was before you and I even knew each other that some of my work helped inform some of that. That's really amazing to hear. And then, but keep going. So what results did you see after you started implementing systems to use your words from earlier?

[00:21:16] Stephanie Stallings: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, as we had hoped for, we saw a huge boost in first time patron retention. I think 160%. 160%? 

[00:21:30] Aubrey Bergauer: Say that again. I just want everybody to hear this. Say that sentence again. 

[00:21:33] Stephanie Stallings: So, yeah, we, we more than doubled our Number of first time attendees coming back within the season. But also one of the things we hadn't anticipated was just how many of those first timers.

Not only came back, but they jumped directly into an annual subscription or they came back multiple times during the year and then they subscribe to the following season. So our subscriptions went up 40 percent [00:22:00] after the first year. And then there were also all of these interesting follow on effects.

You know, suddenly we had really exciting things to report to the board about how our audience was growing, which. Really fired up our board members. Um, we had interesting things to report to our grant makers. So our state arts agency funding grew 79%. Our local arts agency funding grew 84%. And so it's really, you know, that compounding effect that, uh, was most surprising, I think, to me.

And then one of the most meaningful results to me has been some of the audience feedback that I received. And I just, I pulled one because I wanted to share one that I got with your listeners because it puts a very human face on the topic of collecting and acting on patron data. An audience member wrote to me after a concert, she said, and I'm just going to quote it here, she said, Our city likes to think of itself as a [00:23:00] welcoming place, but people don't go out of their way to talk to newcomers.

Uh, my partner and I have been astonished that whenever we attend a reception before a concert, your board members and volunteers actually talk to us. She said, it's the only organization in town where we always feel warmly welcomed and included. And I was just like, yes. This is why we're doing this. You know, that's the critical connection I see between data, which people, many people see as like a dry, boring topic.

They want to have nothing to do with and really true audience success and revenue growth. 

[00:23:39] Aubrey Bergauer: Yeah. Oh God. And then when you tell a story like that, it's like, it has everything to do with everything. Like my heart is bursting over here. I want to now talk about the organizations you've worked with. Since Flagstaff.

Tell me about a time when an organization came to you having some desire to get their data in order. Like [00:24:00] maybe somebody's listening right now and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand the why, but they weren't sure what to do or where to start. So can you Can you maybe give an example or story to that effect?

[00:24:10] Stephanie Stallings: Sure. Yeah. Um, so more recently I was working with, uh, sort of a startup organization where they have all of their data in a truly impressive air table database. And that's great. Um, that's, that's a way to do it. And there's a relatively new ED though, who didn't set up that system. And is spending a lot of time kind of struggling to make it work.

Um, you know, they were wrestling with the question, like, Should we spend money on a new CRM? Is it going to pay off for us? And eventually we just kind of figured out a way to automate some of the things in Airtable. And they realized, again, it wasn't about which CRM they were using. It was about getting a system in place that allowed for [00:25:00] All of the necessary data gathering and reporting.

Um, so. That has been really rewarding to realize that, yeah, it's not about which CRM you choose, you know, you can cycle through them like my former organization did, um, it's really about how you're using it, like you said. 

[00:25:19] Aubrey Bergauer: Yeah. On the heels of that then, what is necessary? Like, what is necessary to get a system in place that works for an organization, if we're saying the CRM is not the de facto answer?

[00:25:30] Stephanie Stallings: Now, um, you know, especially in terms of patron retention, I think of it like the classic three legged stool because I really think I see it as three pillars that are equally important. The first one is the CRM or wherever you're storing your patron and donor data. The second piece is the ticketing software.

Which is often separate from the CRM, or if your venue owns the ticketing platform, you know, the best case scenario in that situation is to get them to set you up with reporting [00:26:00] access. If they won't do that, you know, ask them to send you timely automated reports with all the patron data you need, but you need that data because you need to know who's coming.

And then the third piece is the email service provider. that you use to communicate with patrons, which for many is something like MailChimp or constant contact. But I think the real key to making the system work for you is really getting all those three pieces integrated, talking to each other and exchanging data.

Even in the case that you have one piece of software that does two or all three of these things, you know, in order to track patron retention, you ideally want to be able to automate every part of this system. That deals with things like email communications or reporting. Those are great things to automate.

So like, for example, when someone buys a new ticket and enters your CRM for the first time, you will have it set up so that that system automatically tags them. Triggers [00:27:00] an email welcome series, you know, maybe puts them on a list to get a welcome letter from the artistic director on their seat at the performance they purchased.

All those things are possible and you can get really creative with how you welcome people into your organization. But it's important because the performing arts are competing with so many other leisure options. That when someone does take the leap of attending live for the very first time. We kind of have no choice but to surprise and delight them, right?

So having a system like this makes that 

[00:27:35] Aubrey Bergauer: so much easier. Ah, so much, so much like gold in what you just said. I just want to reflect back a few things that really jumped out at me. One is working with the venue. Comes back to that again. And just, you know, asking, can these, can we get reporting access? If not, can the reports be sent weekly or some cadence?

And I just have to say, because I know somebody listening right now is like, you don't know my venue. And I know somebody's thinking that because I hear this from [00:28:00] people all the time, you don't know my venue and I'm like, well, I know a lot of venues and I've worked with a lot of different people in a lot of different organizations at this point and it cannot be factually true that so many people are like, well, my venue is the one that won't, you know, and yet then I meet other plenty of other people.

You are included in this boat who, Figured it out with your venue. So I just want to say that for anybody who's like, you don't know my venue, like you, you have a choice. Is that going to stop you? Or are you going to try, because I will say we're paying clients, right? Like we're not begging for a handout, like we're paying clients.

So, and we don't have to be a jerk about that, but just to say that helps with this kind of conversation of like, no, no, no, like all ships rise, like when our orchestra does well, or theater, opera company. Whoever, when we do well, the venue does well. So anyways, just to, if that is helpful for anybody listening to know that I know venue relationships can be tricky and also they can be managed effectively as well.

So, okay. The other thing, and I, and this goes into a followup question I have for you, you were talking [00:29:00] about getting all these pieces, talking to each other and exchanging data and how so much of that can be automated now. And. This is one of my, in some ways, favorite topics because it makes it easier.

And I think, you know, 10 years ago, it was a lot harder to do a lot of these things than it is now. And you just described a scenario where. Yeah, so many things happen automatically and they get the email onboarding or, you know, whatever the thing is and all of that can be set up and it just works in the background and it's amazing.

So my question is, how do you start to integrate those three pieces? CRM, the ticketing software, the email communications provider? How have you done it in the past, whether at Flagstaff, or how have you done it with other organizations? Where does somebody start? What do you do? 

[00:29:50] Stephanie Stallings: Yeah, well, one of my favorite new digital tools, maybe one of my new best digital friends, is Zapier.

Which, um, I've [00:30:00] heard you describe Zapier as the duct tape of the internet, and I just love that description. I totally describe Zapier as the duct tape of the internet. It's um, it's really a no code. tool that just connects your CRM with your external ticketing and your email provider. It just makes it possible for all of them to share data seamlessly.

So once we get that process going, um, and then we just look at what parts of the system, again, like you said, can we automate, like I mentioned, communications. So is it the know before you go email? Is it the follow up communications to first timers? You know, is it the reporting that makes it easier To see and communicate those wins to your board or to your other stakeholders.

There are many pieces of the process that can be automated. 

[00:30:48] Aubrey Bergauer: Okay, all of this, I just have to tell a story. This is in the category of people not trusting their data. But my very first job was at the Seattle Symphony. I worked in the fundraising [00:31:00] department and We were on Tessitura, so this is for all the people, I said, sometimes the big organizations struggle too, and now this was 20 years ago, so my job was managing all of the donor events, so I realized when I came to the job, the person, my predecessor, was keeping a separate database, like not Tessitura, I mean I'm young, I'm in my early 20s, and I'm trying to kind of sort out like what's going on here, and I had been taught Tessitura is what we use, and then I'm finding this other like repository of all of this information, and even to this person's credit, She had left a lot of how to documentation for me and it was all about access or whatever she was using.

And I just remember thinking like, what is going on? Like this can't be right. And like, now I look back on that and I'm like, no, that's not right. You have to have one source of truth, one place where the data lives and having like a second thing because she didn't trust the data is really what it came down to.

Didn't trust it. Or maybe. Another thing I hear is not having [00:32:00] proper training. Cause if you don't have proper training, you don't know what to do. I say all this to say that is the opposite of integration. Like you were just describing. And I guess I just want to maybe pull that thread a little bit. I hear all the time.

It is so hard or how much time it could take. Like, sure. Aubrey, I need the training, but. How much time is that going to take? Where do I, what do I do? And sometimes I wonder, is it just a fear of the unknown? How do you respond to that? What do you recommend when you hear versions of these thoughts or barriers or limiting beliefs?

[00:32:35] Stephanie Stallings: Yeah, I think you nailed it. It's often a fear of the unknown or, you know, a reluctance because, well, I've never done this before. Um, so, you know, I tell people that data really isn't hard when it's done right. You know, and I know a lot of people think, ugh, like I don't have time to learn what to do with this data or how to use it or how to pull it.

Um, [00:33:00] but I try to make the point that really the consequence of ignoring, especially patron data, is really not just missed growth opportunities. It's really a story of continued revenue decline. And I would tell them it's not really about how hard it is, it's about how easy things get. Like you said, once you have a system, and the revenue starts flowing that you haven't seen before, and then suddenly board members and donors are more engaged, and it's just that flywheel that turns and feeds on itself, just like you talk about in the academy.

[00:33:33] Aubrey Bergauer: Oh, I love this. Yeah, you're really speaking my language. I know there's people listening who are like, I'm not the problem. I'm all in on this. The resistance is other people, other people in my organization, whether that's colleagues, leadership, the board, I don't know, I hear versions of this all the time of no, it's it's other people who are resisting this.

What advice do you have for that? Like any like, team buy in advice or just [00:34:00] someone who if they feel like they're the only one at their organization. This is the value in getting their data in order. What would you say to that? 

[00:34:08] Stephanie Stallings: Yeah. I mean, admittedly I had the advantage at the Flagstaff Symphony of being in the driver's seat of the operations.

But. I was still accountable to the board. So, you know, it was really important to me to be able to justify these decisions to the board in terms of revenue growth. So, somewhere along the way, I picked up one of your budgeting tools that calculates how Focusing on patron retention compounds revenue growth over time.

And that was just such a powerful visual. I mean, it was just like a spreadsheet, but it was still a powerful visual to share. So, you know, I put together, I shared it in a board meeting and they were just kind of blown away. Like, yeah, this is a real plan we can get behind because they could see how a little [00:35:00] work up front.

Led to a much bigger payoff 

[00:35:04] Aubrey Bergauer: down the line. Patron retention and this data piece of it as well is like compound interest because of what you just said. It really, it just builds on itself. And that kind of comes full circle to all the numbers you were sharing earlier. It's not just a hundred and 60 percent increase in first time buyers.

It's, Oh, we also saw all those then multi buyers. It's like so many of them become subscribers and then, you know, and on and on and on. So I just love that you're a walking case study of this. So that's amazing. Okay. Last question, next steps. So for the organization listening or person listening right now who wants to get better at segmenting their data, the previous episode was all about.

Patron messaging, not treating all of our patrons the same, getting the right message to the right segment. And then this is the other side of that coin, other piece of the equation, like the data that helps us do that. So for someone who is like, yes, I totally get [00:36:00] it. I am ready to create the system or do what needs to be done to get this asset of data working for us.

Now what? Like, what are the next steps we can give somebody right now? 

[00:36:13] Stephanie Stallings: I think is to decide which audience segment to focus your attention on. For me, and for many organizations, and a really obvious choice is just to get started tracking first time attendees because they're the low hanging fruit.

They're already curious about what you do. They've already bought a ticket. Let's just get them to come back, right? But I find that still for many folks, that's counterintuitive. I heard a board member say recently, like, why would we spend time on new audiences? We should just cultivate the people who already like what we do.

And, you know, I mean, of course, you shouldn't ignore your core audience, but we literally can't afford to continue to ignore new audience members. Many more of them will come back. More will subscribe. [00:37:00] And more will eventually become donors because you started building a respectful relationship with them from day one, instead of ignoring them until they make a donation.

[00:37:11] Aubrey Bergauer: I love that you were saying all of these things. It really matches, uh, the free download we have for this episode, so I'm going to give everybody the details on that in a moment, uh, but for now, I just want to say thank you so much, Stephanie, for sharing your thoughts, your insights, for sharing some of your story and for making it so actionable.

It is just on a personal note, a real joy and honor to not just bring your expertise to everybody listening, but to work with you every day and work with the organizations we serve together every day. So thank you so much. Thank you, Aubrey. Hey, Offstagers. We talked a lot in this episode about having the right systems in place, and I have a free resource for you to help you do that.

Checklists and step by step guides are so important to developing processes that are repeatable, [00:38:00] meaning you get faster at it every time you do it. So I made a guide for you called Six Easy Steps to Targeting Your Messaging, and it literally takes you through the six steps you need to follow whenever you have a new ticketing subscription.

Our fundraising campaign coming up. Use it so you don't have to memorize the steps we talked about today or have to reinvent the wheel every time. This is exactly the kind of thing that helps you work smarter and faster and saves you some brain space along the way. It's there for you on my website@www.Aubreyberger.com slash 43.

That's four three for episode 43, Aubrey berg.com/ 43.

That's all for today, folks. Thanks so much for listening. If you like what you heard here, hit that button to follow and subscribe to this podcast. And if you've learned something or gotten value from this, please take two seconds to leave a quick one tap rating or review in return [00:39:00] to all of you. One more time.

Thanks again. See you next time on the offstage Erin. The offstage Erin is produced by me, Aubrey Bergauer and Erin Allen. The show is edited by Novo Music, an audio production company of all women audio engineers and musicians. Our theme music is by Alex Grohl. Additional podcast support this season comes from KellyKelleman, other members of the Changing the Narrative team, and Social Media Brand Management by Classical Content.

This is a production of Changing the Narrative.

Good marketing talent can be hard to find. That's why I'm so glad I discovered Marketer Hire. As my business has grown this year, I can definitively say a part of that growth was because of the way Marketer Hire helped me not just find good marketing talent I needed, but how fast they did it and how they worked to match me with the perfect people.

First, I reached out about an email copywriting project and email platform migration we were going through and MarketerHire matched me with Jamie within [00:40:00] a week. A few months later, we needed technical support on our Google Analytics and they had us connected to Alec within days. Both Jamie and Alec needed zero training, were incredible to work with and experts in their respective areas.

And most important, they completely delivered on time on budget and got the results I needed. What I like about marketer hire is that you can engage someone for as long or short as you want. I hired Jamie for a three month project. For example, on the intake call. They really listened to what I said I needed.

I even said that I need someone with an interest in the performing arts. And it turned out, Jamie had a theatre background and is still a member of her local thespian troupe to this day. Both Jamie and Alec were able to move my projects forward so much quicker than if I had led a traditional hiring process or search.

The whole thing was really easy from start to finish, and they never made me feel obligated to proceed if I didn't want to. They were even able to work with my small business budget. At your [00:41:00] arts organization, imagine working with fortune 500 level talent who ramps up to understand your work fast and then delivers great results.

Get a 1, 500 credit toward your first hire. When you go to try. marketerhire. com slash offstage, Erin that's try. Dot M A R K E T E R hire. com slash offstage. Erin, whether your arts organization needs email, copywriting, or Google analytics set up like I did, or if you need paid ads, paid search, or even a fractional CMO market or hire, we'll get you set up with top talent fast.

One more time. That's try dot market or hire. com slash offstage. Erin to get started and get your 1, 500 credit.