In my last post I talked about the first venue I’m using for my upcoming concerts and went through a few reasons as to why I chose it, and what risks there might be (gulp).
I’m feeling a bit more confident in my second venue where I’ll be doing 3 concerts between September and November. The primary reason for this is that I know my potential audience well, and this place is a bit of a magnet for this demographic. Plus, geographically it’s right in the sweet spot.
So let’s take a look at the pros and cons for this one-
PROS
Target market
This is a venue with multiple faces. It’s a garden centre. It’s a boutique gift shop. It’s a top café. It’s a providore stacked with gorgeous local produce. It’s a spa and beauty centre. And, importantly, it’s a function centre.
On any given day it is filled with my target market- usually people who are retired, but enjoy a stylish time out, and have some disposable income. (My apologies to any of my truly lovely mailing list who might be reading this- I do value you as people and not just categories. Really! But the hard world of marketing demands these things. And there’s another post in that!)
Location
As I mentioned in my last post, most of my audience are situated in the north and east of Melbourne. This venue is in that region, and while it is a little way from some, being about 45 minutes from the city centre, it is very much a destination venue. With so much to do and see, it’s easy to encourage people to travel and spend some time enjoying themselves.
Also, as a venue in the outer suburbs, the hire rate is less than the inner city venues. This means the ticket prices are $10 cheaper than the concert I’ll be doing in South Melbourne.
Food
Melbourne is one of the top foodie cities in the world. We love good food. We love good coffee. We happily travel places to get these things. And this venue has agreed to provide beautifully set tables for ten, with wait staff who will take food and drink orders from the audience and deliver them to the tables before the concert starts.
Marketing
With so many people passing through the venue, and/or sitting at café tables there, it is a major bonus to have management agree to have flyers on display on varying counters around the site. It also has a very active social media presence, and a monthly newsletter. This is an enormous benefit for spreading the word!
CONS
Very few, to be honest.
My biggest concern is that the food and drink is in addition to the ticket price. I have a horror of someone misinterpreting this and thinking that the ticket price includes everything. So I’ve gone out of my way that make this very clear in all the marketing.
With any venue though, and with any amount of marketing, there is one other deciding factor when it comes to attracting an audience. And that is the date and time of the concert. So more on that next week!