{"id":6486,"date":"2021-11-10T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=6486"},"modified":"2021-11-03T13:54:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T17:54:58","slug":"marketing-and-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2021\/11\/marketing-and-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing and Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Image for ACE Program from AFAC website<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It has been some time since I have had the courage to discuss marketing here. When I first did so many years ago I quickly learned that my view was hopelessly colored by the unfortunate marketing habits of many arts organizations\u2013self focus, ignorance (sometimes willful) of the interests of the people they were trying to reach, and an elitist use of “inside baseball” language in promotional materials. I think I’ve learned a lot since then about the difference between effective marketing and the “marketing” practices employed by some in our field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What brings me to writing about this again is an opportunity I recently had. This fall I was contacted by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture to participate in training they were providing to a cohort of Middle Eastern arts organizations. (The training took place in Amman, Jordan. They allowed me to participate by Zoom.) The program is called Arts and Culture Entrepreneurship<\/a> and they wanted me to address issues related to community engagement. In discussing the content of my workshop, I discovered that my typical presentation of definitions for audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement would not be sufficient. My contact, Moukhtar Kocache, explained to me that the participants were from young arts organizations and not only did they not have experience with community engagement, some of them had little awareness of audience development or marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prompted me to completely retool my typical presentation with a focus first on effective marketing practices. I was excited to discuss marketing and engagement with arts organizations that had not had the time to develop bad habits! The presentation was titled Connecting with Communities and reflected my belief that good marketing is rooted in many of the same principles as effective engagement\u2013coming to know the people you are trying to reach by talking with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In working with the group last week I observed a keen interest in both marketing and community engagement, and, once we got past explaining the terminology, an intuitive understanding of the relationships and differences between them. Indeed, some had significant practical experience in things like finding ambassadors or community liaisons in the communities with which they were working to build relationships. In addition, they were fascinated by suggestions of things like crafting marketing messages to the interests of specific target markets and group sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, when working with arts professionals in settings like this I learned much. This time, in particular, was a valuable reminder that both good marketing and community engagement are rooted in knowing (by asking them rather than by assuming) the people you are trying to reach<\/strong>. Oh, and it’s also much easier to guide a workshop like this when the participants were not burdened by bad marketing habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both good marketing and community engagement are rooted in knowing (by asking them rather than by assuming) the people you are trying to reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Marketing and Engagement: Both good marketing and community engagement are rooted in knowing (by asking them rather than by assuming) the people you are trying to reach.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,13,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-6486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-marketing","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ACE_ProgramImage-e1635962041155.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1GC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1602,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/05\/signs-of-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":6486,"position":0},"title":"Signs of Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While I'm on a roll with posts dissecting the meaning and nature of engagement (Engagement Is, Audience Development \u201cvs.\u201d Community Engagement, Audience Engagement-Community Engagement), I've got some more issues to raise (or repeat). I have made much of the fact that substantive community engagement (as opposed to audience engagement) is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5381,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/09\/reach-and-frequency\/","url_meta":{"origin":6486,"position":1},"title":"Reach and Frequency","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Community engagement is not just a worthy effort to pursue at the margins. It is critical to the future of individual arts organizations and to our industry as a whole.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2818,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/05\/engagement-vocabulary\/","url_meta":{"origin":6486,"position":2},"title":"Engagement Vocabulary","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] I have on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Dictionary-300x153.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4945,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/06\/engagement-terminology\/","url_meta":{"origin":6486,"position":3},"title":"Engagement Terminology","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We need good definitions to make our work more effective. Here is an updated set from my perspective, for what it's worth.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary-300x202.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4733,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/11\/who-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":6486,"position":4},"title":"Who Benefits?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Definitions are important to me. That's probably a reflection of my former life as an academic. (Or, I suppose, it could be why I was an academic.) They've also become critical to my work as an advocate for community engagement. I have presented numerous attempts at defining things like audience\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/01\/an-engagement-continuum\/","url_meta":{"origin":6486,"position":5},"title":"An Engagement Continuum","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Note to new readers: This is a very old and widely read post. In the interest of providing up-to-date information about thinking on this topic, you can find updated definitions of terminology related to community engagement and related arts management tools on the ArtsEngaged website here.] I'm on a roll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/TownHallMeeting-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6486"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6529,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486\/revisions\/6529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}