Why some of the smartest organizations across the country are listing their events on TheaterMania, and why you should too
There is no live events organization in the world (that I’m aware of) that spends their time complaining about having too much revenue. There are always shows or events that need a boost to sell more tickets and deliver on their earned revenue goals.
Where do we most often see complaints? Programs and platforms that fail to produce a positive return on investment (ROI). As live events organizations reopen, they literally can’t afford to spend their time and precious budget on campaigns that don’t yield positive results.
Listings on TheaterMania (and its UK counterpart WhatsOnStage) are a tried and true tool that will cost your organization $0 and have proven to be effective for performing arts organizations across the world.
Here’s why your organization should list and how well it’s worked for your industry peers…
First, what is TheaterMania?
For those that are unfamiliar, TheaterMania is the only digital-first property to offer unique reviews and provide insight into the world of Broadway, off-Broadway and a variety of live entertainment across the nation. Our editorial team provides up-to-the-minute news, reviews, eye-catching videos, hot-button opinion pieces, streaming content, and more to keep our community in the know. In addition to editorial content, the team works hard to publish a curated and comprehensive list of performances, both live and virtual.
TheaterMania sees more than 800,000 visitors per month, has 1.5 million (and growing) engaged email subscribers and, more importantly for you, is an audience growth engine for live event organizations.
And don’t let the name fool you. It’s not just for theater. Events on this site include genres as diverse as live music, streaming-only shows, symphony and burlesque. And yes, also musicals and plays. The audience comes from across North America and around the world, and offers a home for some of the most highly informed and passionate live events fans in the world.
Why should you list your events on TheaterMania?
First, it’s free. While affiliate programs are available, most of the listings on TheaterMania are there for the convenience of our audience. And ticket buyers are here. Even now as the world is just emerging from COVID-19 lockdowns, we are seeing more than 15,000 people per month clicking on Buy Ticket links on TheaterMania – for ALL types of events.
Second, it works! We took a look at the top 10 most active listing organizations from among the AudienceView software clients. These organizations spanned the country (including venues in Florida, Texas and Colorado), spanned genres (comedy, opera and burlesque), and offered events (and created their listings) in both English and Spanish.
For the shows listed by these clients, 73% of the people who looked at the listings ended up clicking the Buy Tickets button. Of those who did so, 16% bought tickets on the venues’ websites.
By listing their events on TheaterMania, these organizations saw an average of $16,559 in incremental ticket sales each in the past 3 months, which represented an average of 6.2% of their earned revenue for those shows. This would represent an incremental $66,236 over the course of a year.
That is incremental revenue that any arts organization would be happy to have.
The SEO Bonus
Search engine optimization (or SEO) is an area of marketing that can be very confusing. There are many factors that impact your likelihood to rank highly in search engines when fans are looking for events to attend. I’d like to talk to you about one element in the magic SEO formula – backlinks.
A backlink is when another website links to a page on your website. They’re important because having other sites link to yours is an indicator to search engines that your site is valuable, trustworthy and has good information on it. Think of it as an electronic vote of confidence.
Backlinks are most valuable when they come from a website with a high authority score, meaning a site that has lots of traffic, great content and longevity.
TheaterMania.com and WhatsOnStage.com both have higher authority scores than even the largest AudienceView client venues – and we have some big ones. For the smaller venues in our client community, TheaterMania’s authority score is 3x theirs (or more). As an example, when we added a backlink to AudienceView.com from TheaterMania, our ranking for the term we used went from page 4 to page 1 on Google, and our visibility score for that term grew 10x.
Adding your listings – and the associated backlinks – can have the same impact for you and your website.
The bottom line is that even in the unlikely event that no one ever clicks on your event listings on TheaterMania, it’s still a good thing for your organization and your ability to be discovered by ticket buyers.
How to list your events on TheaterMania
The good news is that if you’re an AudienceView software client (using either AudienceView Professional or Unlimited), you can list your events from right inside the product with just a few clicks. You can find instructions in your product’s Learning Portal by searching “Marketing View” or “Listing.”
If you’re not an AudienceView software client (and why aren’t you yet?!) visit industry.theatermania.com to learn how to add your listings to TheaterMania (or come see us at AudienceView.com to find out more about what we offer and upgrade your software).
Other TheaterMania Benefits
In addition to their easy access to listings, AudienceView software clients receive a broad range of benefits from TheaterMania. This includes exclusive access and discounts on advertising, editorial, streaming and more. Click here to learn more or to reach out to our team with questions.