RWL Design Success Story

Redlands Symphony Increases New Season Subscriptions by 16%

Taking a strategic approach to digital marketing, we leveraged Google Adwords, savvy Web Development, and expert Google Analytics to grow their sales and local impact.

Who is Redlands Symphony?

Regional Orchestra Offering World-Class Performances

Based in Redlands, California, Redlands Symphony is a non-profit organization that offers exquisite classical music performances and music education to local youth.

ROI & Growth Aug. 2015 – Dec. 2015

16%

Increase in new season subscriptions

95%

Single ticket sales exceeded projections

10K

Increase in monthly ad budget via Google Grants

Stephanie P.

The RWL Design team have helped us get the most out of our marketing budget. With their expertise, we've been able to broaden our target audience and increase our season subscriptions.

Paul Ideker • President & CEO, Redlands Symphony

The Goal

Attract New Season Ticket Holders and Increase Brand Awareness

While the symphony consistently maintained a growing group of loyal patrons, they wanted to attract new season ticket holders in different demographics. They needed a way to connect with potential concert goers in the Inland Empire, alert them to events, and encourage them to buy tickets online.

The Solution

Content Strategy

An Affordable and Effective Marketing Campaign

Ultimately, the Redlands Symphony needed an affordable and effective marketing campaign that increased their overall ticket sales. We implemented a three-part strategy that utilized Google Grants to provide up to $10,000 in free monthly advertising, outfitted the website with schema to help Google see richer information, and optimize Google Analytics for better conversion tracking.

Our Full-Service Approach

Design
Google Grants and Digital Advertising

In 2015, we helped the symphony qualify for a Google Grant. This unique grant is available to non-profits. It provides qualifying applicants a $10,000 monthly budget for Google advertising products such as Google AdWords, a pay-per-click marketing tool.

To use the budget effectively, we did an in-depth analysis of the symphony's target audience. This included identifying their target audience's age range, additional interests, and frequently used search terms.

Preview of Ads Process
Ads using Google Grants and Facebook helped drive traffic to build awareness and sell tickets.

This information allowed us craft ads and website landing pages specifically designed for the symphony's target audience. Additionally, it let us display the ads to individuals who were predetermined as potential buyers. We did so by installing the ads on Google with highly specialized display settings. This means, the display of the ads were triggered by factors such as specific search terms and location of the search user.

These targeted ads worked to bring the Redlands Symphony in front to new people to:

  • increase donor base
  • increase volunteer base
  • promote season subscriptions
  • promote events specific to the organization such as fundraisers
  • sell single event tickets

We were then able to re-market to potential ticket buyers via Facebook Ads and engage users at every stage of the buying process.

PPC Consulting
Help Google See Richer Information About Concerts

We helped Google to parse and display event-specific information from the Symphony by using an HTML syntax called "web schema." The schema, embedded on the website for each event, let Google show event data and other relevant information in organic search results.

Preview of Web Schema
Web Schema helped Google parse relevant information that lead to stronger local and organic ranking.

This increased the size of their search results, giving the Redlands Symphony more visual weight on Google and helping prospective customers navigate to concert information faster.

Recent updates to Google's search platform have given organizations with schema-optimized websites a higher ranking. For example, with the right schema, Google will showcase an organization's upcoming events within relevant search results at the top of the page. This added visibility increases website clicks and ultimately increases sales.

SEO
Optimizing Google Analytics for Vendini

At RWL design we firmly believe in tracking success and ROI. We worked with Redlands Symphony's ticketing system, Vendini, and made modifications to their site to track when someone actually purchased a ticket.

To track success, we added the appropriate tracking codes to the symphony's ads, website, and links to Vendini's ticket pages. This allowed the symphony to see which ads were getting clicked and driving visitors to their website. And, it let them see which of those clicks were getting visitors from their website to their Vendini ticket pages.

Using these strategies, we could optimize the Adwords campaigns to their greatest effect. The same methodology can be applied to measure the success of email blasts, print marketing, and other media placements.

The Result

Substantial Increase in Season Subscriptions

16% Total Increase in Season Subscriptions and Significant Growth in Single Ticket Sales

In five months, we helped the Redlands Symphony capitalize on up to $10,000 of free monthly advertising dollars, nearly triple their website visits, and increase their season subscriptions by 16%.

This increase in traffic helped introduce the symphony to new ticket buyers and lead to new purchases over the phone. 95% of their concerts exceeded projections for single ticket sales.

The ultimate win for the symphony was a significant increase in new subscriptions from their website. From August to December of 2014, they had fewer than a dozen new subscriptions attributed to their website. Between August and December of 2015 after our campaign, the symphony had 116 online subscriptions attributed to the efforts of RWL Design - not counting the myriad of new subscriptions sold over the phone.

Is Your Web Presence Working for You?

Content Optimizing

Could a highly targeted digital marketing plan help your business grow right now?

We won't lie. Sales increases don't happen overnight, but we've seen good strategy make a big difference in the future of our clients.

Let's chat about how digital marketing with RWL Design can boost your sales and reach your goals.

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