E-newsletters offer museums a targeted and effective way to showcase what they have to offer, which is why they should form the backbone of any digital marketing strategy.
They provide the perfect opportunity for museums to really show off their unique content, says Eleanor Snare, a marketing consultant and lecturer.
Subscribers
Museums should seek to grow subscribers whenever possible. Sign-up opportunities should be promoted wherever visitors interact with the museum – on visitor questionnaires, on every landing page on a museum website and on social media profiles.
Using competitions or priority booking for exhibitions or events can act as an incentive for new subscribers.
As with any other element of digital marketing, newsletters must be used strategically, whether that is to grow footfall, increase ticket sales or raise awareness of specific events among certain demographics.
So it is important to focus on the goal you are trying to achieve and then work backwards from that, says Snare: “If you want people to pay to visit an exhibition you need to think about what kind of content will make them do that.”
Subject lines
This has to start with an engaging subject line that is simple to understand, concise and free of words that might cause email servers to block it as spam such as “free product” or “click here now”.
“Given the volume of emails people receive now, the subject line is crucial,” Snare says. “People just pick out the ones that look most interesting, so think of the subject line like a newspaper headline. It should be enticing and interesting but clear about what the newsletter contains. If you make a promise of something, it must be in the actual email.”
However, the shorter the subject line the better: “Write it, cut it in half and then probably cut it in half again,” Snare says.
Email marketing programmes such as MailChimp can help with subject lines.
“When you are creating a subject header look for important key words and, when you type it in, the programme will give you a star-rating for it,” says Sophie Colley, the marketing officer at Culture Coventry, the trust that manages the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery, the Coventry Transport Museum and Lunt Roman Fort.
Most email programmes, some of which are available for free for organisations with smaller databases, also allow users to test subject headers before sending them out. Colley discovered through testing that a subject header with tiny car emojis did better than one without.
Content
Katie Thompson, a digital marketing executive at Agency51, which works across the leisure and tourism market, advises museums to also keep newsletters reasonably short: “Content should be divided with appropriate headers and images, and contain relevant links and appropriate calls to action to encourage the user to click through.”
It should also be mobile-optimised so it can be read on different devices, such as a smartphone or tablet.
If the purpose of the email is to encourage click-through to the website, then limit content and make sure it contains a call to action. Otherwise, the newsletter should feature self-contained messages that do not require the reader to do anything.
Ideally, the content should also be something that visitors cannot get elsewhere. This not only deepens engagement but can also grow a museum’s subscriber base.
“It should be something that is just offered to the email list, such as the opportunity to attend a private view,” suggests Snare. “That way you are offering a value exchange to your subscriber base for handing over their email.”
In order to develop great content that is timely and well produced, one team should be made responsible for developing ideas. Ideally that team should implement an editorial strategy and calendar that complements the exhibition and events schedule.
“It is important to think as far ahead as possible,” Snare says.
This shouldn’t be limited to forthcoming events or exhibitions, but could also include the “behind the scenes” work of departments; items for sale in the gift shop; and the cafe’s menu. Contact details should always be prominent at the top and bottom of the email.
“The team also needs to curate what is happening across all of the different departments,” Snare says. “It is the marketeer’s job to see opportunity around the museum and magic in everything it does but, ideally, the whole museum should play a part in coming up with ideas”.
Scheduling emails
Scheduling emails is crucial to getting good open and click-through rates from subscribers. Once again, modern email programmes can offer insight into the best times and days for individual sectors. “I always find early evening is a good time,” Colley says. “But it is good to experiment.”
Snare advises museums to think about their target audience and when they need or access information. “For an harassed parent that might be late on a Friday evening when they are planning the next day, but for a retiree early in the morning could be better.”
In order to establish and maintain a good customer database, it is important to implement an email marketing strategy to avoid “spamming” potential visitors and increasing unsubscribe rates. Thompson recommends no more than three per month.
While it is important to stay on top of your database, today’s email marketing providers make it far easier than it used to be. Providers do not want to be associated with sending out spam, so if newsletters are regularly slipping into spam folders the list in question will “frozen”.
Analysis
Learning from how subscribers interact with the newsletter and responding to what the data shows is extremely important in order to maximise the benefits of email marketing.
Newsletters should tie-in to the wider digital marketing strategy, and all the data collected should be viewed together. This should begin to offer an insight into how visitors are interacting with an organisation across a variety of different touchpoints.
Ultimately newsletters should be treated like any other part of a marketing strategy.
“Think about what you like to read then think about what you want your readers to do,” Snare says. “Really think about what you want to drive people to do then begin gently coaxing them down that way.”
They provide the perfect opportunity for museums to really show off their unique content, says Eleanor Snare, a marketing consultant and lecturer.
Subscribers
Museums should seek to grow subscribers whenever possible. Sign-up opportunities should be promoted wherever visitors interact with the museum – on visitor questionnaires, on every landing page on a museum website and on social media profiles.
Using competitions or priority booking for exhibitions or events can act as an incentive for new subscribers.
As with any other element of digital marketing, newsletters must be used strategically, whether that is to grow footfall, increase ticket sales or raise awareness of specific events among certain demographics.
So it is important to focus on the goal you are trying to achieve and then work backwards from that, says Snare: “If you want people to pay to visit an exhibition you need to think about what kind of content will make them do that.”
Subject lines
This has to start with an engaging subject line that is simple to understand, concise and free of words that might cause email servers to block it as spam such as “free product” or “click here now”.
“Given the volume of emails people receive now, the subject line is crucial,” Snare says. “People just pick out the ones that look most interesting, so think of the subject line like a newspaper headline. It should be enticing and interesting but clear about what the newsletter contains. If you make a promise of something, it must be in the actual email.”
However, the shorter the subject line the better: “Write it, cut it in half and then probably cut it in half again,” Snare says.
Email marketing programmes such as MailChimp can help with subject lines.
“When you are creating a subject header look for important key words and, when you type it in, the programme will give you a star-rating for it,” says Sophie Colley, the marketing officer at Culture Coventry, the trust that manages the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery, the Coventry Transport Museum and Lunt Roman Fort.
Most email programmes, some of which are available for free for organisations with smaller databases, also allow users to test subject headers before sending them out. Colley discovered through testing that a subject header with tiny car emojis did better than one without.
Content
Katie Thompson, a digital marketing executive at Agency51, which works across the leisure and tourism market, advises museums to also keep newsletters reasonably short: “Content should be divided with appropriate headers and images, and contain relevant links and appropriate calls to action to encourage the user to click through.”
It should also be mobile-optimised so it can be read on different devices, such as a smartphone or tablet.
If the purpose of the email is to encourage click-through to the website, then limit content and make sure it contains a call to action. Otherwise, the newsletter should feature self-contained messages that do not require the reader to do anything.
Ideally, the content should also be something that visitors cannot get elsewhere. This not only deepens engagement but can also grow a museum’s subscriber base.
“It should be something that is just offered to the email list, such as the opportunity to attend a private view,” suggests Snare. “That way you are offering a value exchange to your subscriber base for handing over their email.”
In order to develop great content that is timely and well produced, one team should be made responsible for developing ideas. Ideally that team should implement an editorial strategy and calendar that complements the exhibition and events schedule.
“It is important to think as far ahead as possible,” Snare says.
This shouldn’t be limited to forthcoming events or exhibitions, but could also include the “behind the scenes” work of departments; items for sale in the gift shop; and the cafe’s menu. Contact details should always be prominent at the top and bottom of the email.
“The team also needs to curate what is happening across all of the different departments,” Snare says. “It is the marketeer’s job to see opportunity around the museum and magic in everything it does but, ideally, the whole museum should play a part in coming up with ideas”.
Scheduling emails
Scheduling emails is crucial to getting good open and click-through rates from subscribers. Once again, modern email programmes can offer insight into the best times and days for individual sectors. “I always find early evening is a good time,” Colley says. “But it is good to experiment.”
Snare advises museums to think about their target audience and when they need or access information. “For an harassed parent that might be late on a Friday evening when they are planning the next day, but for a retiree early in the morning could be better.”
In order to establish and maintain a good customer database, it is important to implement an email marketing strategy to avoid “spamming” potential visitors and increasing unsubscribe rates. Thompson recommends no more than three per month.
While it is important to stay on top of your database, today’s email marketing providers make it far easier than it used to be. Providers do not want to be associated with sending out spam, so if newsletters are regularly slipping into spam folders the list in question will “frozen”.
Analysis
Learning from how subscribers interact with the newsletter and responding to what the data shows is extremely important in order to maximise the benefits of email marketing.
Newsletters should tie-in to the wider digital marketing strategy, and all the data collected should be viewed together. This should begin to offer an insight into how visitors are interacting with an organisation across a variety of different touchpoints.
Ultimately newsletters should be treated like any other part of a marketing strategy.
“Think about what you like to read then think about what you want your readers to do,” Snare says. “Really think about what you want to drive people to do then begin gently coaxing them down that way.”