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Luck of the Irish Part II – Audience Development at work

Posted by Shoshana 
· Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!   Luck is on my mind again after reading another article about the law of attraction.  Is luck something that just happens to us (or doesn’t happen to us) or is action needed?  I tend to believe that some work is involved to produce a lucky outcome, even if it is simply starting with creating a powerful, positive visual.

One of my fiance’s favorite sayings is “Pray to God, but row to shore.”  Prayers, affirmations and visualizations can get you in a positive mindset, but you will still need to do the work (or hire someone to do it for you).

Last year at this time I formatted an example visualization plan for selling out an event.  With each action you plan you figure out what percentage of people will likely purchase a ticket and attend.  The work you put in and the decisions you make on how to accomplish the plan will give you a percentage towards the outcome of selling out.  What you need to do is put this plan down in writing and refer back to it often to make sure you are staying on the right track.

Of course the work needs to be done too.  You can write – 100 comps – down, but you will need to make the phone calls, emails or visitations to accomplish sending the tickets out.    You can plan to sell 23% based off of marketing, but you will need to get the ads designed and placed, hopefully with targeted audience development in mind.  You can say 30% will sell based off of an intense email invitation program, but you will need to get those email sent out.

The more personal the attempt is, the higher the percentage will go up.  The more of a connection you have with people, the more likely they will want to attend your event, but you still need to invite them!

The same theory applies towards getting more volunteers and donations.  You can wish all you want for more support, but you need to do the work to get the word out. Write down your goals in a plan and form programs to accomplish a percentage of the total outcome desired.  All of your actions, your percentages, will add up.

The key is to focus on transforming your programs into making more connections.  This will increase your outcome percentages to give you a better chance to equal 100%!

I hope this makes sense and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment.  Have a wonderful  St. Patrick’s Day and may the luck of the Irish and the personal connections you make help you to achieve your  goals!

Until next time, may your audiences be happy and loyal ones, and if they are not, feel free to contact me!

~Shoshana~

Shoshana Fanizza is the founder of Audience Development Specialists. Her mission is to introduce artists and arts organizations to their existing and potential audiences and to help them to form more rewarding relationships.

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Categories : Arts, Audience Development
Tags : action vs luck, action vs wishes, audience building, Audience Development, Luck of the Irish, Marketing, visualization, visualize audiences

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