Susan Hawksworth
Small Museum Marketing
Overview
For smaller museums, it can be difficult to know where to devote our marketing resources. Small museums are often strapped for cash and their staff is wearing 20, or more, different hats. It can be a real mystery to even figure out where to begin.
To help out small museums (including my own), my project focuses on how to spend a marketing budget in the most effective way possible to reach the most people who are likely to visit, join the museum’s membership, purchase from the store, etc.
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Why I Started This Project
For a couple of years, I have been trying to figure out how to best spend my marketing dollars, but didn’t really know where to start. Because I use a mixed approach to marketing, it is hard to tell exactly what brings people into the galleries and to attend programs. As a free museum, we have limited opportunity to pole our visitors. We do ask visitors how they hear about us when the visit the gallery, but answers people give are very generic. In addition, what analytics I can collect doesn’t mean a whole lot because there is nothing for comparison. The small-scale research lab seemed to be an opportunity to reduce the uncertainty to some of my questions about marketing.
Biggest Surprise(s) and Lessons Learned
I’m going to start off with what wasn’t a big surprise: 99% of respondents use free social media channels, with 93% saying it was a channel used most.
Surprisingly, only 46% reported that free social media marketing strategies work best. One respondent may have captured why this is:
Creating & scheduling Social media ads & posts takes far too much time away from other more efficient and effective methods of advertising but is EXPECTED by the public. Worse, we all have to share the responsibility, so we struggle with consistency and timing, but for some reason, leadership doesn't think we need a dedicated marketing or social media specialist. It seems counterproductive (and poor use of staff skillsets) to expect marketing to be effective when it is run by non-marketers who have many other skills that are sidelined while they struggle with learning & practicing marketing.
Another surprising finding is that 84% reported using print marketing, but only 42% say print is one of their most-used channels. This could be because only 24% thought print worked best for them.
Eleven of 17 reported using email marketing the most, and 15 thought it worked best. Email marketing seems to hold up best among the various channels, but it should be noted that the sample is small.
Insight into the following questions was:
What marketing channels are being used the most?
A total of 13 categories were listed as the most used marketing channels.
The top five are: 1) free social media with 93 responses; 2) print with 42 responses; 3) paid social media with 28 responses; 4) direct mail with 22 responses; and 5) radio with 16 responses.
What marketing channels seem to work best?
Social media, both free and paid, are reported to work the best, getting 39% of responses.
Print came in next at 12% of responses.
The third highest response was “not sure,” at 9%.
Newsletters, email, and flyers/signs actually had the best return for those few who used those channels most.
Findings
The survey was intended for small museums. However, the definition of small was left to the respondent and varied from museums with budgets under $10,000 to over $1 million. Most of those who answered the organizational budget question are at $250,000 or more (52%). Of those under $10,000, more than half are under $3,500, and two said they have zero budget. Most advertising budgets (57%) are from zero to $10,000.
Staff size varies from all-volunteer organizations to 60-75 staff members for one organization. The majority (51%) are in the realm of two to nine staff. Whether that is a volunteer/paid or full-time/part-time was not asked.
Of those who answered the survey, 47% of respondents are the ones handling the marketing alone. Only three museums utilize an ad agency, another has a publicity committee, and one uses a “community communication plan approach” “rather than a media approach.”
There are 22 different categories of marketing channels used. All but one organization reported using free social media, and 84% rely on print advertising. Paid social media, direct mail and radio round out the top five marketing channels. The remaining channels used in order are e-ads, email marketing, TV, giveaways, flyers and signs, rack cards, newsletters, influencers, local CVB and Chamber of Commerce, local hotels, referrals, media releases, events, online calendars, marketing partners, website, and ads in partner organizations’ materials.
It is interesting to note the differences in marketing channels used by the level of marketing budget. The larger the budget, the fewer marketing channels seem to be used, or at least reported as used. Those with budgets under $10,000 used 20 different channels compared to those over $10,000 using only 8-10 channels.
Of the reported marketing strategies that seem to work best compared to what channels are used most, half of those who use free social media feel it works well. But 56% of those who use paid social media say it works best.
Email marketing also comes in with 88% of those who use it saying it works best. Newsletters, flyers and signs, while not reported as high use, do show an excellent return for those who use them, but these channels may not be best for reaching new audiences.
One respondent had this to say about free social media marketing: “Creating & scheduling Social media ads & posts takes far too much time away from other more efficient and effective methods of advertising but is EXPECTED by the public. Worse, we all have to share the responsibility, so we struggle with consistency and timing, but for some reason, leadership doesn't think we need a dedicated marketing or social media specialist. It seems counterproductive (and poor use of staff skillsets) to expect marketing to be effective when it is run by non-marketers who have many other skills that are sidelined while they struggle with learning & practicing marketing.”
Respondents defined success in many ways, with most citing an increase in visitation/attendance/ticket sales (57%). Revenue via memberships, donations or sponsorships (27%) was the second most listed definition of success.
Unvanquished Uncertainties
It was hoped to find some insight into the question, “how are others tracking/measuring their marketing results?” Instead, there is still uncertainty because of the following:
1) Eighteen respondents do not track or measure results, often citing time as a factor. Five respondents were unsure how to.
2) Of the reported ways to track/measure marketing results, one must wonder if there is bias in reporting the best-performing marketing channel (social media at 41.5%) due to the ease of measuring analytics.
3) Do other channels perform better but are not known to because it is harder to measure the effectiveness of those channels?
Methodology
In December 2021 through mid-January 2022, museum industry participants were sought to complete a survey on small museum marketing. The survey went out through several sources including the MAP community, my state’s museum association, and the AAM Museum Junction Open Forum.
Susan Hawksworth
Susan has risen through the ranks to become the director of an AAM accredited museum in the heart of Kansas. A lifelong museum geek, she is passionate about sharing the wonderful world of possibilities that museums provide