Audience Development is the art of turning one-time visitors into repeat regulars and fans and – lowering the barriers for new fans to find you. We give you the tools to understand your guests, strengthen relationships between visits, and fill your arenas, rooms, and venues. Time and time again.
For many in the experience industry, marketing is about putting out fires: quickly selling out the next show, match, or weekend package. Audience Development flips the perspective. It is a long-term process and strategy where the goal is to move people from being first-time visitors to becoming your most loyal ambassadors.
When we speak of Audience Development, we focus on three core areas:
Insight: Truly understanding who is sitting in the audience, and who isn't. Does a specific event attract a new demographic? Why are certain segments underrepresented? Use your data to inform your programming and grow the segments you want to reach.
Connection: Keeping the conversation alive even between visits.
Reach: Lowering the barriers for discovery. Use insights from your current data to find new customers who look like your best fans, ensuring you aren't just preaching to the choir but actively expanding your fanbase.
The playing field for events and hospitality is changing faster than ever. Competition for the guest's attention (and wallet) is increasing, while the rules of digital marketing are being rewritten.
The cost of attention: Ad costs are soaring and third-party cookies are disappearing, making it harder to reach out via traditional ad networks.
New behaviors: Post-pandemic, we see new buying patterns, shorter booking windows, and higher demands for relevance from visitors.
Competing for leisure time: You aren't just competing against other venues, but against streaming services, staying in, and new travel options.
In this landscape, your own customer data is your most valuable asset. Owning the relationship with your audience is no longer just "nice to have" — it is essential for survival and growth.
If Audience Development is so important, why isn't everyone working this way? The answer is simple: The right tools haven't been available.
As a marketer, you are often stuck with data scattered across silos. The ticketing or booking system doesn't talk to your newsletter tool, and analysis is done manually in Excel files that quickly become outdated. Trying to build personalized customer journeys in that environment usually leads to one thing: Administration instead of communication.
This is where MarketHype comes in.
MarketHype is designed to make Audience Development operational, simple, and profitable – whether you run a theater, a festival, or a destination. We clear away the manual clutter so you can focus on the experience.
We automatically sync data from your ticketing or booking system. You get a complete view of your contact database and can analyze buying behaviors instantly.
Segment your audience based on demography and buying behavior. Identify which events drive new demographics and use those insights to shape your future programming.
Take action on your audience data to create targeted upsells, reactivate previous visitors who haven't returned, and find new lookalike audiences based on your best customers.
Stop guessing what works. See exactly how many bookings and tickets every single campaign actually generates.
Ditch the Excel exports and manual data entry. Let our automation tools handle the routine work for you.
"So far it's been very interesting to take part of all the customer data, all the sales and all the customer insights that come with the connection. We have a much better control and overview now than before."
Vebjørn Skaseth Ørpen
Marketing Manager, Norefjell Skisenter
Let us show you how MarketHype can turn your data into more bookings, sold tickets, and loyal fans.
Book a free demo and we'll tell you more about how we can help you!
