Museums provide an important cultural service to the community. Whether you have an internationally known museum or a small one focused on local art, history and/or culture, some of the most important clients you have are your members. It is common for museums to rely on donations from members to sustain their events and bring in new and exciting exhibitions. Group texting provides a way for you to engage with your audience to drive interest and attract more members. There are many ways to utilize this channel to help your museum flourish.

Promote Your Museum

Group texting is an excellent way to promote your museum and membership options. Include a keyword and your short code or long code on your advertisements in the paper, magazines, TV, radio, billboards and anywhere else. When people see the ad, they can reach for their phone and quickly text to get more information. Choose a keyword that matches your exhibition and offer a discount for improved impact. An example would be, "Text 'Picasso' for more information about our exhibit and to receive a 20 percent discount on tickets."

Reminders About Events and Exhibitions

Once you have patrons as members or interested parties, then text them reminders about events and exhibitions. Email newsletters, your website, social media and other channels provide more space for a lengthy explanation about your events. However, people do not always look at these, so you often have to send them out days or weeks in advance.

Text messaging has a 98 percent open rate, and the messages are typically opened in just a few minutes of receipt. This makes your group texting program the perfect medium for event reminders. You send out an email about the event a few weeks in advance and then text your subscribers the day before or the day of to remind them. This helps to increase attendance, keeping your members active and happy so they will continue to renew year after year.

Information About Pieces

Not everyone who comes to your museum will wish to take a guided tour or use an audio tour, even if you make it easy and have an app for smartphones. However, they might still have questions about particular pieces in your exhibitions. Post keywords on these pieces and create an auto response that has more information. You will only be able to send 160 characters in the text, but you could include a link to a web page that has even more information.

Discounted Tickets

Your group texting program also provides a space to send out discounted tickets. Although most of your members will be able to get in for free, they might wish to bring family or friends and take advantage of the discount. You might also have subscribers who have visited your museum but are not members, or there might be those who have let their membership lapse. Upon receiving a discount rate to come to an exhibit, they will be motivated to come back. Once you have them in the museum, you can try to get them to join as a member. You can also occasionally offer deals on your membership directly.

Easy Membership Renewal and Donations

One way to keep your members active is to make it easy for them to renew. You might have it set up to auto-renew, but not all museums have this option, and not all members wish to do it if you do. With group texting, you can make it easy. Send them a reminder that it is time to renew. Ask them if they would like to renew now, and then when they reply with YES, send them a link to enter their credit card information. You can do the same with donations.

It is also possible to set up a text to donate program for your fundraising efforts. With this, patrons can simply text a certain keyword to a number to donate a preset amount, such as $10. It is very easy for the patrons, but many non-profits find that it can be limiting. That is why they choose to send a link instead. Then, patrons can choose to give a much higher amount, and it does not cost as much as the text to donate programs.

Get Feedback

It is always important to engage with your members and other patrons and ensure that you are providing the best experience possible. Occasional feedback helps you to assess how well you are adhering to the wishes of your guests. Group texting makes it easy to get feedback through texting polls and surveys. With this information, you can continue to make improvements so that your members and guests continue to enjoy their experiences at your museum and wish to come again and again.

There are many other ways that you can use group texting to engage with your members and guests to keep your museum alive. It helps to facilitate engagement so that more and more of your guests will want to become members and return to your museum again and again to enjoy all your exhibitions and events.

Contact us to learn more about using texting for your museum.