How SNLCS rebuilt its audience post‑Covid
The Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire Concert Society (SNLCS) promotes an annual series of classical chamber music concerts. Here, Marian Pearson, Chair and Publicity Officer of the SNLCS, tells us about how the Society turned around dwindling membership numbers post-Covid with innovative recruitment strategies.
What first prompted you to focus on recruiting new members?
Like many other societies, our membership dropped significantly after Covid from around 120 to 50 members. Obviously, this was not sustainable in the long term, so we needed to explore how to make the society viable again by increasing our membership and audience numbers. We also wanted to explore how to include a wider range of audience members.
Can you walk us through the specific recruitment techniques that worked best for you?
Our main incentive initially was because of being chosen as one of the four INCLUDE project groups, which enabled us to bring on board a group of volunteers from our membership to specifically look at how to attract new members and widen our appeal.
Our main successes have been achieved through:
- Using Make Music Day to offer free tickets to one concert for anyone who had not been to one of our concerts previously.
- Asking new audience members where they heard about the concert. From this we have discovered that word of mouth is the most effective tool to bring others in – the team that worked on the INCLUDE project have encouraged this. Our website was the second most effective tool.
- Ensuring everyone is given a warm welcome by having two committee members at the venue entrance. This builds on our booking form and all our publicity, which encourages those thinking of coming to a concert to let us know if there are any adjustments which would help them attend and increase their enjoyment.
- Our secretary writes a monthly article for a local paper which goes to each house in a nearby town. This has been very effective in drawing people in.
- ‘De-mystifying’ attendance of classical music concerts by having an explanation of terminology in the programme and, in the week before the concert, circulating links to the pieces of music to be played so those attending can become more familiar with it in advance of our concert.
Did you change anything in the way you promote your concerts or season to attract new people? If so, what approaches made the biggest difference?
We are focused on trying to ‘sell’ the society as an organisation that cares about its members and that the society is only as good as its members. Examples of how we work with members: organising lifts when people need them so they can continue to attend, making sure that requests for specifics, such as seats at ground level are available, adopting a friendly helpful tone in our emails and even, attending funerals of members who have passed away – their families very much appreciate this as do other members of the society who happen to attend also.
As part of the INCLUDE project we contacted local music groups in the area. As a result, we produced a booklet of these groups with a 1,000-print run so information about the society is spread far and wide. A second-print run is about to be distributed with twice the number of groups included so this is a good way of sharing information about what we do.
The Society also acts as a collator of local concerts from these groups, and an email is distributed to all our mailing lists monthly.
How did you use digital platforms, such as email, social media, or your website, to reach potential members?
We have set up systems so people can book tickets through our website, which is proving effective. The website now includes audience feedback, and video clips of all our previous concerts in the last two seasons so those thinking of attending can get a feel of how we operate and the calibre of our artists (last month our website had 1100 views).
Emails are sent out in advance of each concert as a reminder to our general mailing list and when there is anything to share such as other local concerts.
The person in charge of our Facebook shares a post with lots of local Facebook pages to promote each concert.
Were there any partnerships, collaborations, or community connections that helped you bring new members into the society?
We already offer free tickets for school-aged children accompanied by an adult and students in full-time education, but we are aware that parents are not always able (or can afford) to bring their children. We have worked with the Schools Music Service to offer a free ticket to a parent of the children who participate in the schools’ orchestra and bands. This is beginning to have some effect.
What have you found most effective in turning first time attendees into committed members?
We try to chat to first timers either before the concert or in the interval. Following feedback, we introduced a ‘Soloists’ table for those attending on their own to meet others also on their own. We offer a reduced membership subscription giving two concerts free at the start of the season and on a sliding scale up to a half-year membership. This too has proved a useful tool to recruit members.
What advice would you give to other music societies looking to grow their membership, based on the techniques that worked for you?
Get your current members on board. Word of mouth is the best tool for recruiting others.
- Generate a feeling that this is their society.
- Make sure your website is attractive and values feedback from your audience
- Listen to people’s comments and try to accommodate their needs, whenever possible.
To learn more about Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire Concert Society, visit their website and follow them on Instagram / Facebook
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