• 2 are alphabetic
• 2 are alpha/numeric
• 1 is a Text field
• 3 are drop-down lists
• one field, Age Code, is predefined in Theatre Manager.

These fields can be custom labeled to reflect the information chosen to record. For more information on customizing the marketing field label please click here.

It is not always easy to initially define a use for these marketing fields. The following examples come from practical uses that our customers have made of them.

Source: Most users will set aside one field for 'source'. Specifically, a code that indicates how the customer first came to be in the database. This can be useful when analyzing marketing efforts. For example; if the local paper is called 'The Rag' and the organization advertises in it weekly, number the ads as 9701, 9702, etc. for each ad in 1997. If the customer first came to be in the database because of ad #4, their source would be TR9704. This allows examination of the effectiveness of different media, ad placement, size, etc.

Year Youngest/Year Oldest: For our children's theatre venues, some keep track of the year when the youngest was born. This allows them to manage the transition of their 'little' customers through the theatre seasons. There comes a point when children feel they are to old to come to shows and would rather be with their friends ... until they have children of their own and the cycle begins again and the organization can now market to Grandma!

Government Officials: City/municipal, Provincial/State, Federal. This could be a marketing field to record the patron’s political affiliation. At a glance the system can produce a list of all patrons who are Federal Officials. Create a mail list of these patrons for special invite purposes etc.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Musical - useful to record a patron overall preferences or type of performance they generally like to attend. However, using a Mail List to maintain this information is more beneficial.

County/Township: A marketing field used to record the county for patrons. Information that is not readily recorded in the address section and could be useful for grouping patrons based on their location.

Patron Type: A marketing field used to record the type of patron account. For example, corporation, foundation, granting agency, individual, school, etc.

School District: A marketing field used to record the school district and age category for patrons. Information that is not readily recorded in the address section and could be useful for grouping patrons based on their location and age category.

This is really general but certainly there is no limit to the types of marketing fields that can be created.

Marketing to the Customer

Marketing really depends on the buying habits of the customers. Good things to assist the process are:

• Sell the next season during the last show of the previous year. If the organization had a good show/season , it is easy to pick up 20% or more subscribers for the next year. Make sure that the price that the subscriber can buy for is the lowest possible (e.g. do not invent a discount to be used later in the year that makes the early subscriber think that they should have waited). Typical discounts for early season subscriptions is 20-25% or 5 shows for the price of 4. Something that will enhance those sales is a deadline where regular subscription prices are only 10-15% discounts.

• There is usually a local paper section that everybody reads for movie listings, entertainment guides, upcoming events. Choose that paper and advertise in it. A suggestion for a season that starts in the fall is to put something in the paper that coincides with early renewals -- it can usually be included with advertising for the last show of the previous year.

• Decima Research (A Canadian study in the arts industry in the early 1990's) indicated that 50% of the people make their buying decision 4 weeks in advance of the show. So for a 4 week run, start advertising 4-5 weeks in advance and throughout the show. Also, most people read a specific days newspaper. In Calgary, the 'Scene' comes out on Friday - so Friday is an extremely good day to advertise; followed by a Tuesday advertisement.

• People listen to radio on the way to work; so a contract deal with a local radio station for a few free tickets for a caller as long as the giveaway is done during the morning driving hour is a good thing. Depending on the type of theatre, give away a show package that is less than the average number of attendees - so that they will be compelled to buy one or more tickets. (e.g. For children's theatre, the average attendance is 3.5 (one adult and 1-3 children, so give away only two tickets).

Getting names in the database is very important for direct mail. Good 'guerrilla' tactics are:

• Have a draw for a meal for two at a local restaurant - but the patron must provide name, address, telephone number, etc. Drawing is done on the last performance. Now the names can go into the database. Chances are the local restaurant will give the organization the meal in exchange for some tickets.

• Use a 2 for 1 coupon book and make the coupons valid for slow performances (e.g. Wednesdays or Thursday). Some people will do anything for a discount and the organization gets their name.

• Do some co-op advertising with a local business and use their mail list. A clothing store or electronics place where they record names is a good thing - ideas may include 10% off a tie with purchase of a ticket or 10% of a ticket with purchase of a tie -- they do the mailer with the theatre's flyer and everybody wins.

Organize some special days where the people get to interact with the production people. Examples are:

• Talk back to the director day.

• Special award night.

• Autograph day for the kids where actors sign for the kids in the lobby.

• Sleep-overs in the theatre (the organization can charge a bundle for the tickets).

• Theatre Tour and wine tasting night.

Remember to use a mail list. Once people buy, target them for similar shows and they will buy again. They just need to be asked. A telemarketing campaign to people on the list who have not yet bought subscriptions during the last show and before the early discount arrives is a very good thing. Best time to get people is between 5:00-8:00pm. And the caller needs to have a good script like:

• Noticed you came to our show for the first (or second) time...

• How did you like it...

• Anything that would have improved your experience and made it more enjoyable...

• Would you like to be our partner next year and come to all shows...

• etc., etc., etc.,

It's all about building a personal relationship with the customer.

Determining When the Customer will Buy

The ideal time to sell tickets is dependent on the customer base purchasing habits. Evaluate if the customer base plans out their activities, or whether they wait until the last minute to make a purchase decision. Once the organization determines the purchasing habits, then determine the most effective time to advertise the event, at which time, be prepared to start selling tickets. There is no need to advertise unless the customers are in a situation to buy.

The organization may find that people typically buy tickets first thing in the morning (e.g. 9:00 am), over an extended lunch hour (11:30 am - 2:00 pm) and there is always a rush before 5:00 pm. In the hour before the event, there will be walk up sales so plan on having the box office open at least an hour and a half before the event starts.

For a large community or city where there is competition with other events, start advertising and selling tickets 6 to 8 weeks in advance to insure that they purchase the organization's tickets first before another organizations tickets. For a smaller community or town where there is less competition with other events, start advertising and selling tickets 3 to 4 weeks in advance.

If the event adverting is focused for children, the organization may find that many tickets will be purchased at the last minute, as children get sick; go to birthday parties; have recreational activities (soccer, hockey, baseball) and the parents may not make a decision to go until the event is within the next few days. With events focused on adults, the organization normally can count on them more, so the organization may see that they will purchase tickets more in advance as they plan what they will be doing in the upcoming weeks.

Again, the key to determining when the best time to sell tickets has to start with knowing the purchasing habits of the potential customers and knowing the audience that the organization is trying to attract.

And remember to use Theatre Manager to assist in finding out purchasing trends. Theatre Manager's cash flow report tells when people buy for a show. It's very important because the organization should see two or three major humps. One at early season renewal, one in the fall when the season subscription campaign occurs, and sales start to rise about 4 weeks in advance of the show. There should be mini spikes after a prior day's advertising. (e.g. Friday should see some extra Saturday sales, or a Tuesday advertising should see some Wednesday sales). If not, move around the advertising to different days, or move around to different advertisers.

• Placing full resolution pictures into a database rapidly increases the size of the database and affects backup times. For example: a single 5 magapixel picture takes as much room as approximately 5000 patrons in the database.
• Sending emails or eblasts with large images affects the delivery of the eblast to customers with slow internet connections or who like to receive their emails on mobile devices.
• Sending high resolution screenshots to our support team was filling our database and affecting support

We've chosen to assist you in managing your database size by limiting the size of images that can be put into the Theatre Manager database. In order to fit pictures into the image space on the PROFILE tab of the patron record, they need to reduced to under 500kb in size. Ideally, 100kb is a good target size for most images. The question is how to change a high resolution picture or screenshot into a lower resolution and then place it in a Theatre Manager database or send it as an e-blast or email attachment.

Using Image Converters

There are tools available for you to use and a fairly common shareware application is GIMP. The following describes how to use gimp on Windows. GIMP on the Mac OS requires xWindows to be installed. However, on the Mac, you can use Apple-Shift-4 to capture a specific area of the screen or use a tool like Snapz Pro (not free) which we use for our documentation.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

GIMP is a free download from the internet and the web site contains information about downloading, installing, using, and enhancing it. This site also serves as a distribution point for the latest releases. To use GIMP to capture a screen image and reduce its overall memory size:

In the Main Palette:

1. Go to the FILE menu
2. Choose CREATE, and then Screen Shot
3. Click the GRAB A SINGLE WINDOW
4. Use the +hand tool to grab the active window where your image resides (you will crop the window in the next step

1. Use the selection tools (the dotted rectangle or dotted lasso) to highlight the desired area.
2. You can also manipulate the image in any way you see fit, including flipping, rotating, or airbrushing.

1. Go to the IMAGE menu
2. Click CROP TO SELECTION
3. Proceed to the FILE menu
4. Choose SAVE AS
5. Use the SELECT FILE TYPE to change the file format to JPG. JPGs are the only file format that will import into the PROFILE tab in Theatre Manager.
6. Click SAVE
7. A window will pop up that allows you to change the Image Quality. Quite simply:
   High Quality = More KB and more storage space
   Low Quality - Fewer KB and soemthing that is better for storage in databases or use in eblasts
8. Use the slider to adjust the image quality so that the final image is under 500KB.
9. Click SAVE

The patron Contact Card is accessible without opening a Patron Record from the Contact List window by clicking on the Contact Card icon in the toolbar. It can also be opened once on the Patron Record by double-clicking on any patron name in the Household Member List window

Parts of the Contact Card

The patron contact card has three parts to it, Patron Details, Address and Contact Info.

The Patron Details area stores information on the Type of patron, their Company and Title, their proper Salutation, Formal and Greeting Names. Some of these fields maybe marked as Mandatory Data Fields and require data to be entered and can not be left blank. Mandatory Data Fields are located in Company Preferences.

The Address area stores patron mailing information; their Address, City, State/Province, Country and Zip/Postal Code. A Patron can have many different addresses stored here as need. Some examples: a patron may have a winter home, summer home and several work addresses. Some of these fields maybe marked as Mandatory Data Fields and require data to be entered and can not be left blank. Mandatory Data Fields are located in Company Preferences.

The Contact Info area stores information on how to reach a patron by Home Phone, Work Phone, Mobile/Cell, Home Fax, Work Fax, Home Email or Work Email. There can be as many lines of contact information as needed.

When a Patron's address is highlighted from the Address Tab several additional functions are available setting column Preferences, Add, Open or delete a patron address, Export, Get Google Map and Geocode Address.

Additional Address Features

Click the new, edit or delete buttons under the asset list to edit various aspects of the assets, including the value and when it was valued. A total of all assets is displayed to the right at the bottom of the statistical information column.

	Refer to the Donor Assets Code Table to create or edit code table values used in this window.
	A user must have access to the asset tracking data in their employee permissions, otherwise this list is not displayed in the window. You can choose to have only key development staff members see this information.

1. Open the Credit Card tab.
2. Click the New button.

   The Credit Card detail window opens.

   

3. Enter the credit card number.

   Theatre Manager will determine the card type and populate the type into the Card Type field.

4. Enter the Expiry Date for the credit card.
5. Type the name from the card exactly how it appears.

   This is an optional process all though it allows for stronger security when processing the card.

6. Enter any comments about the card as needed.

   The Use Count will increase as the patron uses the card over and over.

7. Click the Save button.
8. Close the Credit Card detail window.

   The card information now appears in the Credit Card tab.

• Expiry Date for an existing card. A change will affect all future authorizations for post dated payments.
• Name on the card if it was swiped incorrectly.
• Blacklist status - you can black list a card which can be used to prevent this card from being used again.
  • If the same card number is in use by other patrons, you may be prompted to also blacklist those patrons.
  • Only employees with permissions in functions tab can clear the blacklist status.

If you need to change the card number used on future post dated credit cards, please refer to changing post dated credit card. You could change the expiry date using this process.

1. Open the Credit Card tab.

   The Credit Card tab is located on the Patron Window.

2. Select the Credit Card to be edited.
3. Click the Open button.

   The Credit Card detail window opens.

   

4. Make changes as needed.
5. Click the Save button.
6. Close the Credit Card detail window.

   The card information is now updated in the Credit Card tab.

1. Open the Credit Card tab.

   The Credit Card tab is located on the Patron Window.

2. Select a credit card.

   Select a credit card by single clicking on it.

3. Click the Delete button. One of two messages will open:

   The message below indicates the card has been used for previous transactions within Theatre Manger. For record and auditing purposes the card can not be removed from the patrons record.

   

   This message indicates the card has no previous transactions history within Theatre Manger.It can deleted from the system.

   

4. Click the Delete button.

   The credit card is now removed from the patrons file.