What If Audiences Don’t Know What You Know?

In a post on The Playgoer blog re: the closing of Ragtime, the following excerpt caught my attention.

I guess what surprised me was that–despite, let’s assume, paying something at least close to the list price of the four prime-location orchestra seats they occupied–they had no idea this was a Lincoln Center production and no idea that a play with no stars might have trouble selling out a 1,000-seat house eight times a week at $100 a pop.

No, not all playgoers are as obsessive theatre nerds as, well, “Playgoer.” But Kaiser’s dream of people caring who produces a show and buying tickets based on that seems remote at best.

They had no idea

This intrigues me on a marketing level. Especially for smaller companies.

I mention smaller companies because most times it’s easier for them to stay in contact with their list on a more personal level. This is a huge advantage. You do maintain a list correct? I can’t express enough how important this is.

What makes your list so important?

Well, people don’t know, what they don’t know. They don’t view something as important, simply because they don’t know that they should.

So if you use your messages as a chance to share information about what you’re doing, how it works, why you’re doing it, etc.

Guess what? The people who didn’t know, start to know.

Why is knowing important?

This is important because the more people start to know about you and understand what you do. The more they start to care about it. And yes, they start to feel more connected to what you do. And this can be very persuasive.

For example:

Have you ever seen this video about the new iMac from Apple? Take  look. Notice how they talk about what they’ve created.

It’s all about sharing the magic

Share those things that get you excited about the theater. The things that excite you about your work.

It’s okay to share a bit about the process you work through to produce a show. Share that journey.

No, not everyone is going to care

But the people that do are going to become your greatest champions. And this is going to help you in the long run.

Perhaps there’ll be something different to overhear

Once you start sharing with your audience perhaps you’ll hear a different conversation while standing in line. One where someone is sharing a story about all the work that went into the show they are about to see.