Reader!

It's been an incredibly busy transition from summer to fall here at Theatre Marketing Lab. A follower on Instagram direct-messaged me last week and asked, "where are ya? miss u"

To use the language of my Gen Z daughter Eliza, "Mom, your aura used to be bussin'. Now it's cringe."

Fair assessment, Eliza!

I want to bring you up to speed on how TML has transitioned to serve you better. Grab a cup of coffee or cocktail Reader! (depending on when you are reading this email.)

What We Know

Organic social media has decreased clicks-to-website, comments, likes and shares by over 148% since 2023. You see this in your sales.

Digital Marketing platforms (Google, Facebook/Instagram, the Web) are not supporting what you do for free on the channels. It's driving your organic posts mostly to your loyalists who are already loyal and buying tickets. A very small % of your free posts are reaching new or lapsed customers in your community.

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Our Transition

After speaking with past and present clients as well as selective polls on social media and insight from focus groups, what I learned was this:

The time for big-sky thinking, strategic planning, and future-planning for performing arts orgs is no longer top priority. Spending time and budgets dreaming and visioning new marketing strategy and evolving strategic plans that were developed since returning from the Pandemic Pause, has been replaced with aggressive focus on "butts in seats" ticket sales. The time for organizing and optimizing marketing process and team member roles has to take a back seat.

Whether you are an executive director, artistic director, marketing director or marketing team member, we're at the point where rubber is meeting the road.

Marketing spend needs to inform, measure, and optimize to grow earned income/revenue to the theatre. Full stop.

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The Need

Theatre Marketing Lab needed high-performing and efficient paid media solutions that solve for the challenge to inform, measure, and optimize ticket sales with online content.

Investing in paid digital marketing media on the web, Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) is the solution.

I learned during focus groups that for the most part, theatre organizations don't have the bandwidth or team members in place to meet the need for the constantly changing world of online marketing.

Websites are out of date and aren't compliant with Google. A theatre's online presence is not tracking with AI: ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot. Their paid marketing is not competitive with other options our audiences have in their communities. (sports, restaurants, SAH (stay at home) options - Netflix, AppleTV, Hulu etc.)

This is the reality of competing for attention and engagement with your community's ideal audience.

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The Solution

Theatre Marketing Lab is now a fully-functioning digital media advertising agency solution.

I met with 9 digital marketing partners over the Spring to determine the best way for me to help solve the challenge of ticket sales.

I determined that Hibu is a spectacular fit for the needs we have to succeed in the journey of awareness, engagement, and conversion to ticket sales.

Hibu is probably digital marketing's best kept secret. They are embedded in every city and state in the country AND they are hyper-focused on local marketing and advertising insights. Spend in paid media is maximized. 100% of your investment is put back into paid media.

I'm honored to be leading Hibu's launch of an Arts & Entertainment Marketing Division. Their Sports Marketing Division is already a leader in the Sports Marketing vertical.

In partnership, we've been able to tap into a unique media strategy that delivers results.

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Pilot Program

Since July, I have onboarded four Performing Arts orgs to learn what works and how we can work with paid media. The makeup of the pilot was:

1 community theatre

1 small performing arts center

1 medium-sized regional theatre

1 major metropolitan performing arts center

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An example of our digital marketing results:

Web Display Ads (branding and awareness/retargeting) arts benchmark: .46%. Current: 1.526%

Google search PPC (pay per click) Ads: arts benchmark: 3.17% Current: 24.1%

Meta (Facebook): arts benchmark 1.57% (IG .60%) Current: 2.162%

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Without exception, all of our Pilot Program theatres are meeting or exceeding their fall earned revenue goals.

That confidence leads me to share what I can do for you and what we are rolling out as of November 1, 2025.

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Qualifications

The parameters to join the TML/Hibu Arts & Entertainment Division program are:

-- the ability to spend at least $1,000 to $10,500+ a month on digital marketing advertising.

-- A six month agreement

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What You Get

--2 Zoom 1-hour meetings with me per month. I call these "kitchen sink" meetings. Together, we contribute to an agenda to ensure you are maximizing my insight and direction. We look at your media spend but I also consult on other marketing channels (email marketing, text-based marketing, brand campaigns, print strategies, OOH strategies)

--100% of your investment in digital marketing ads is put into your spend.

--You have access to creating ads on Google, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and Amazon ad media.

--Access to a creative team who will design and optimize your paid media ads

--Access to a media strategist and their optimization team who keep a daily eye on campaigns

-- When your spend a significant $7,500/month for six months minimum, you get a Digital Marketing Manager along with me that helps optimize and coordinate multiple campaigns each month across all channels.

-- Access to technology to grow your theatre's Ratings & Reviews. Nothing is more powerful with Meta and Google than a consistent contribution of reviews.

--a pilot program theatre saw their reviews grow from 300 to 1,870 in just two months. This placed the theatre as a priority within those digital platforms when local audiences are seeking out entertainment options online.

If you believe you are meeting the investment requirements, please HIT REPLY. I will get back to you. Happy to dive in and work on a custom solution for you and your theatre.

Hit reply and let's find time to connect!

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My best,

Julie

P.S. Because I'm still a theatre-mom, here's a pic of my kid who's playing Elizabeth in Young Frankenstein. Support your local high school theatre programs this fall!

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