Marketing Magic: A Day in the Life of the All-Female Marketing Team

Marketing Magic: A Day in the Life of the All-Female Marketing Team at Newhampton Arts Centre

“Ah, marketing magic at Newhampton Arts Centre! It’s the sorcerer’s apprentice of the performing arts world, where a team of two work their wizardry to conjure up a wider audience for all the enchanting events at the Centre. Join Stacey, the masterful graphic designer behind all the captivating print, flyers, posters and brochures, as she casts her spell over the jazz, folk and summer branding programmes, and even crafts the weekly emails you receive. And meet Suzanne, the newest apprentice on the team, who’s still learning the digital marketing ways and responsible for putting shows on sale, social media, press releases and more. It’s a magical day filled with emails, ticket sales, social media planning, press releases and a good strong cup of coffee, but there’s never a typical day in the life of the marketing team at NAC.”

Marketing, the secret ingredient that makes any business a success, and Newhampton Arts Centre is no exception. Without it, even the most spellbinding productions and toe-tapping music would fall flat. But fear not, for the marketing team is here to ensure that the word gets out and audiences flock to the Centre. But what’s it like to be on the marketing team at NAC? Imagine a typical day as a magical journey, where you’ll encounter everything from crafting ad campaigns to responding to patron queries, and every day is different

Who are we?

Meet the dynamic duo of the Newhampton Arts Centre marketing team! Stacey, the graphic design sorceress, who conjures up beautifully designed print materials, from flyers to posters and brochures, and has been responsible for some truly spellbinding branding of the jazz, folk and summer programs. Not to mention, crafting the weekly emails that keep you in the loop. And while she’s recently returned from  maternity leave with her adorable little girl, her work continues to amaze us. And then there’s me, the new apprentice on the team, still learning the ropes and bringing my “aged” marketing experience to the digital age. I’m the one behind putting shows on sale, managing social media, writing press releases, tracking performance and more. Together, we make quite the team.

A Typical Day in the Life

I’ll do my best to give you a glimpse into my daily journey, even though it’s never quite the same.

9am – The day starts with a sprint to drop my little one off at school, leaving me feeling like I’ve already run a marathon. (Just so you know, I definitely do not sprint anywhere). But, a strong cup of black coffee and a seat at my desk, and I’m ready to tackle the day’s emails. Today’s highlights include handling a patron’s enquiry about seating at an upcoming Xhosa Cole jazz gig and sending off Stacey’s visually stunning ladder advert for the Wolverhampton What’s On magazine (look out for it in the February issue!) And let me tell you, if you’re into the performing arts, it’s a must-read for keeping up with all the happenings in the area.

10am – Next up, it’s time to check the pulse of our ticket sales and adjust our marketing strategy accordingly. We’ve got targets to hit and plans to make, but we’re also flexible and adaptable, changing our approach based on ticket sales and other factors. After that, it’s time to map out our social media plan for the week, using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even dabbling in TikTok. Once it’s all planned out, I start crafting our posts and scheduling them and tracking their success, tweaking and fine-tuning based on performance and even external factors like the weather or a certain football game (not always a winning situation, but always a talking point).

11am – I’m diving into the week’s press releases. First up, my personal favourite – promoting our family-friendly  show, Hey Diddle Diddle. As a parent myself, I feel particularly at home writing about it and reaching out to audiences who can relate. Next up, it’s announcing the second jazz gig of the season featuring Trichotomy. It’s a bit trickier to write, but I’m happy with the finished product and send it out to the world. It’s pretty much crafting a catchy headline and a writing a compelling story, but every press release is a new challenge.

Noon – It’s bagel o’clock and maybe even a little chocolate break, paired with another cup of coffee. But, I make sure to take a break and stretch my legs, a quick walk away from my desk, and it helps me to come back refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the day.

12.20pm – The moment we’ve all been waiting for, the season brochure has arrived! We get to see all of Stacey’s hard work come to life. I don’t know how she does it, but she has managed to fit all the information, images, copy, dates, times and prices into one beautiful booklet. She has to solve a jigsaw puzzle on steroids. I dive into the task of mapping out our delivery routes and cross-referencing them with our sales data to make sure we’re targeting the right areas. And the best part? You can also view it online! Another great season ahead and we can’t wait to share it with you.

1pm – Time to check my inbox again. And of course, the most exciting email is always from my marketing partner in crime, Stacey. Today she sent me some designs for our folk program.  I use these gems for posts, reels and stories on our social media, as they’ve all been tailored to our target folk audience.  I also received an email from the programming team, which is like a sneak peak of a new blockbuster movie, they asked for our opinion on a very exciting event potentially coming to NAC. No spoilers yet (or is there?), but make sure to follow us on social media to stay in the loop with all the latest announcements and news.

2pm – Sometimes when you visit Newhampton Arts Centre, you might be asked to fill out an audience survey. I feel sure it must be the cherry on top of your theatre-going experience. These surveys are essential in helping us secure our NPO funding. With this information we can really get to know our audience and make informed decisions. For example, where our audiences are from, their age range, what motivates them to attend our events and much more. And once we’ve got that data, we can adjust our programming, tailor our audience targeting and even the tone of our communications. But before we get to the fun part, we have to enter it all into a computer. It’s data entry, not the most thrilling task, but I do love reading the comments section. 

I also like to keep an eye on Google Analytics, which is a bit like spying on our website visitors. We can track how many people visit our NAC website, how long they stay and how many pages they view. We can also see where the traffic is coming from, like a GPS for our clicks and ads. And it’s not just about the numbers, we can track conversion rates too,  how many people actually take action, buy a ticket, download a document or sign up for our newsletter. It’s all part of the big picture, we report back on all this activity (and social media activity) at the end of the month,  like a report card for our digital performance and it helps us set our objectives and make informed decisions for the weeks and months ahead.

2.30pm – It’s time to brush up our online presence! I sometimes allocate some time to scour the interwebs and discover event websites, blogs, and other fantastic places to showcase our events. With the help of websites like The List or Netmums, we’ll reach a wider audience and ensure our listings for event discovery are as fabulous as our events.

3pm – Working with Stacey from a different location can be a bit like trying to coordinate a long-distance dance routine, but we keep in step by communicating regularly. And when we do meet up in person, our productivity takes a nosedive by 50% or more! Not really, but its definitely good to catch up!  But we’re not ones to be defeated by distance, we use a project management tool called Freedcamp to keep our work on track.  I tick off all my tasks off a simple to-do list, make new ones from anything that comes up,  like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole, and upload any actions that we need to complete from our plans.

3.15pm – Time to pick up my little boy, so much for a peaceful afternoon! I’ll be building the world’s biggest train track in no time. Sometimes I have to sneak back online at night, if I’ve left a task unfinished or need to check on a campaign or maybe upload some live event photos. It’s certainly a full job, with lots of brio and miniature trains. 

So, a typical day as a marketing assistant at Newhampton Arts Centre? Good luck trying to pin that down!  One moment, you’re responding to a patron’s seating query, and the next you’re conjuring up a new ad campaign. It’s a never-ending cycle of administrative tasks, spreadsheets and webinars, but where you learn more than you ever thought possible. There’s emails, event uploads, website updates, listings, staff zoom calls, brainstorming sessions, creating reels and stories and even filling out time sheets. It’s a wild ride, but that’s what makes it so magical.

What Digital Tools Do we Use?

Marketing is like a game of Tetris, and we’ve got all the right digital tools to make sure our campaigns are a success. We use MailChimp for email campaigns, Google Analytics for performance tracking, Freedcamp for project management and Ticketsource for online ticket sales and many more. We’ve got all the right software to make sure our campaigns are a hit. And the best part? They often come with a wealth of useful (and free) information too.

Working in the world of marketing has been a steep learning curve for me. From attending webinars and creating campaigns to writing press releases and working out Google Analytics, there’s a lot to take in. Fortunately, with the help of my colleague Stacey, I’m feeling more confident in achieving our objectives. I still get a thrill when a campaign performs well or when I see a press release I’ve written getting out there. Even receiving printed materials in the office is an exciting event, knowing the hard work that goes into creating them and all the proofreading involved. I’m so thankful Stacey has returned to us too as it’s been quite a journey with days of self doubt and the odd misjudged error. The important thing is, I learn from everything and I wouldn’t give it up for the world!

It’s always so much fun to squeeze our brains for new creations and ideas for the arts centre – who knows what kinds of exciting things we’ll come up with today! Remember, don’t be shy – sign up for our email newsletter (we don’t spam you), and it will help us look really amazing on those monthly reports!

 

Suzanne Elkin