Austin Lyric Opera A new website and digital strategy

By Marc van Bree April 24, 2012

Developed a new website and digital strategy that increased online single ticket sales from 28% to 55% of total single ticket sales while delivering a greater ability to analyze patron behaviors, track conversions and account for advertising spending.

Website development Building a new website for Austin Lyric Opera

Selected vendor: Venture Industries Online Total spent: $6,500 Time frame: 3 months

Driving conversions All roads should lead to a conversion. The ticket buying process needs to

be straightforward, simple and seamless; from campaign source to order confirmation.

Data collection How do patrons get to our website? What do they do when they arrive?

We need to track the entirety of the sales funnel.

Highly customizable

A responsive website that can handle breaking news, custom landing pages and continuously revolving sales and institutional messages.

Easily manageable

Staff with little technology skills should be able to make basic website updates and embed multimedia elements.

Four core concepts

Selected vendor Venture Industries Online

Key selling points • A proprietary system on top of today's best content management solution: WordPress • Venture’s principal has thorough understanding of the performing arts and online user experiences • Making use of in-house resources, proposal is less than half the cost of agencies

Budget: $10,000

Actual: $6,500 *

Project start to launch: 3 months * $1,500 custom development; $4,000 annual license fee (includes hosting, support, updates etc.)

Website development process

In-House Resources (Client) • Planning: entirely redesigned site

architecture and navigation • Content: content migration, creation

and population; and integration with third party box office

• Design: custom graphic design template along with home page and interior page layouts.

• Development: basic custom CSS changes.

Custom Work (Venture) • Adapt client’s graphic design into

custom PHP templates. • Designed custom admin interface. • Designed custom search bar that

appears in the top, right hand corner of every page.

• Removed slider overlay for unobstructed full width image while maintaining use of standard action button.

Simple, clear navigation

Revolving sales messages

Focus on conversions

Focus on conversions

Customization and flexibility

Embed multimedia

Embed multimedia

Driving action in sidebar widgets

Event/Product landing pages Flexible content and driving sales

Landing page for email

marketing effectiveness

Purpose-built page for custom

messaging

Custom landing pages Easily manageable and customizable

Straightforward, simple and

seamless ticket buying process

Third party ticketing integration Mirror design and functionality

Tracking conversions Inside an email marketing campaign with Google Analytics

Ticketing solution: Paciolan Email marketing: Pacmail (Lyris HQ) Analytics: Paciolan, Google Analytics

Email Details Date March 22, 2012 Subject Save 20% off Turandot in the next 72 hours! List segment “No Turandot ticket yet” Unique open rate 16.4% (1,931 opens) Unique click through 2.3% (272 clicks)

Internet 66%

Phone 22%

Box Office 12%

Distribution of Sales

Traditional results (sales report from Paciolan)

“72HOUR” tickets sold 104 seats

Revenue Phone: $1,931.20 (23) Box Office: $1,017.60 (12) Internet: $5,822.40 (69) Total: $8,771.20 (104)

Tag your links in your emails with campaign parameters … Visit the Google Analytics URL Builder tool

and Google Analytics will tell you a bigger story … Notice how total online revenue is higher than expected

Paciolan reported $5,822.40

The campaign directly delivered 39 regularly priced tickets at an additional $1,770.50* in revenue …

* Unlike previous screen, product revenue does not include taxes and fees ($32.00 total).

and there is a second direct source and medium in the campaign …

Direct sales from Facebook post

and ad

A supporting role for Facebook … A quick Page post

CPM = $0.48 ROAS = $9.78

… amplified by Facebook Ads Ad from Page post (two-day run)

Increasing reach

CPM = Cost per thousand impressions | ROAS = Return on Advertising Spending | CTR = Click Through Rate

But wait, there’s more! Multi-Channel Funnels and Assisted Conversions Sometimes the conversion is not directly sourced from a campaign. This is how Google Analytics tracks a conversion path …

Our “72HOURS” campaign can be an “Assist Interaction”

Indeed, there are three “Assist Interactions” at an additional $215.00 in revenue

Why not include “Direct” traffic as “Assist Interactions”? In the Multi-Channel Funnels reports, if a person converts on your site during a "direct" visit (i.e. used a bookmark or typed your site URL into his or her browser), the conversion is attributed to the "direct" channel. This differs from other Google Analytics reports in which the conversion is attributed to the previous non-direct campaign or source, if there is one.

Total revenue $8,771.20 + (Reported in Paciolan: Internet, phone, and box office sales)

- - - - - - - - - -

$1,770.50 + (Reported in Google Analytics: additional regular Internet sales)

-- - - - - - - - -

$215.00 + (Reported in Google Analytics: “assist interactions”)

- - - - - - - - - -

$10,756.70 (Total revenue reported across systems *)

* While close, the Google Analytics data is not completely consistent with Paciolan. Fine tuning and calibrating is always part of the analytics and measurement process; next steps include eliminating those points that skew data (for example bit.ly links etc.).

Online advertising A look across various channels

Platforms: Google AdWords (Google Grants), Microsoft AdChoices (Retargeting), Facebook Ads, local media

Platform Google AdWords

Google Grants for Nonprofits Google AdWords campaigns at no cost through Google Grants Maximum cost-per-click (CPC) is $1.00; Monthly "ad spend" will be capped at $10,000

Turandot at Long Center Impr.: 1,527 Clicks: 86 CTR: 5.63% Puccini’s Turandot Impr.: 1,227 Clicks: 67 CTR: 5.46% Turandot in Austin, Texas Impr.: 353 Clicks: 7 CTR: 1.98%

“Turandot at Long Center” delivers most

traffic

A testing playground … Which ads perform better?

… but look again Impressions, clicks and CTRs aren’t everything. Google Analytics will tell you.

“Puccini’s Turandot”

delivers more revenue

Platform Microsoft AdChoices

Spent $109.19 Impr. 21,837 CPM $5.20 CTR 0.33%

Retargeting … online advertising that is targeted to consumers based on their previous Internet actions, in situations where these actions did not result in a sale or conversion …

Impr. = Total impressions | CPM = Cost per thousand impressions | CTR = Click Through Rate

Platform Facebook Ads

Better social reach, better

CTR

CPM: $2.11

CTR: 0.06%

Platform Local media Individual print and online package agreements with local media

Impr. 198,000 total

CPM ranging from $4.50 to $11.50 CTR ranging from 0.12% to 0.23%

CPM Cost per Thousand Impressions

Google AdWords $9.03 Microsoft AdChoices $5.20 Facebook Ads $2.11 Local media $4.50 – $11.50

ROAS * Return on Advertising Spending

Google AdWords $68.16 Microsoft AdChoices $1.12 Facebook Ads $0.55 Local media $0.03 - $0.10 * ROAS is calculated by conversion values, including assisted conversions, as reported in Google Analytics. There are several problems with that calculation and its accuracy, not in the least the lack of box office or phone sales data, but the numbers can still serve as an indicator for relative effectiveness of each ad channel, taken with a grain of salt.

Social media Cross-functionality of social media tools

Platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Integrate marketing channels in custom

tabs: brochure, email and YouTube

What patrons want in social media:

behind the scenes and personality

Platform Facebook

What patrons want in social media:

behind the scenes and personality

Messaging for engagement;

solicit responses

Messaging for engagement

… and follow up and follow through

Social media as customer service:

respond personally and rapidly …

Consistent branding

Integrate marketing channels

Platform YouTube

YouTube in email campaign

YouTube on ALO website

Messaging for engagement

Social media as customer service:

respond personally and rapidly

Consistent branding

Platform Twitter

Mobile site ALO on the Go

Selected vendor: Venture Industries Online (additional WordPress installation)

Total budget: $0 (no additional costs) Time frame: 3 months

Four Core Concepts • Easily accessible program notes and pertinent event information readily available

• Smartphone and touch screen optimized design • Complement, not replace, main website

• Drive mobile sales and box office sales by phone

Promote accessibility in

email marketing

ALO on the Go No auto detect for mobile browsers. Traffic is directed specifically to mobile site where deemed appropriate. If mobile site proves more effective in delivering mobile sales, auto detect can be enabled.

Currently, mobile devices deliver nearly 20% of total traffic …

… yet they only deliver less than 10% of the revenue …

Mobile ticketing Third party ticketing integration includes a mobile specific box office site. Auto detect for mobile browsers is enabled. Question: will this mobile specific site improve conversion rates? As the site just launched, it is too early to tell at this point.

Questions? Connect with me

twitter.com/mcmvanbree facebook.com/dutchperspective marc@mcmvanbree.com mcmvanbree.com

Austin Lyric Opera A new website and digital strategy

By Marc van Bree April 24, 2012