Unhappy with the customer support and fees of his email marketing software provider, Mailchimp, Ben Gillies was recommended to switch to Audience Republic by his manager, who had previously had a positive experience with the platform while working at Universal Music Group.
Since making the move to Audience Republic – a CRM and marketing platform built for the needs of the live entertainment industry – Ben’s mailing list has grown significantly, he’s seen more engagement from his online community, discovered cost savings, and received "incredible" customer support. Here's how he did it:
In an effort to "give something back to the fans", Ben utilized the gamified campaign competition feature within Audience Republic. Offering a variety of prizes such as signed Silverchair posters, fans were incentivized to share the competitions with their friends, family and wider network to earn points. The highest point scorer would ultimately win the prize on offer. This method of incentivizing word-of-mouth among his fans helped grow his mailing list significantly.
"It's a really clever way of expanding your audience and getting in front of people... I went from only a couple of thousand on my mailing list to tens of thousands"
Conscious of how difficult it is to break through the noise on social media platforms and make his brand stand out among the endless supply (and budgets) of advertisers and influencers, Ben realized that word-of-mouth referrals between friends was the best way to build trust, gain exposure and grow his audience.
"Four or five" gamified campaigns later, Ben hasn’t just grown his audience, he now has full ownership of it. With all those contacts now stored in Audience Republic's CRM he can quickly and easily send out highly targeted email and SMS marketing messages to his fans without having to worry about social media algorithms preventing them from seeing them.
“When you're getting a message from a friend, it's very direct, and you're much more likely to engage with it. So the people that were engaging with it, were clicking and following me or signing up to my mailing list.”
Feeling let down by the price point, lack of support and understanding from Mailchimp, Ben sought advice from industry peers and was introduced to Audience Republic, a marketing platform built with the live event and entertainment industry at its core. The team at Audience Republic understands the nuances faced by live event industry professionals whether they’re an artist, festival, venue or event – and are versatile and knowledgeable enough to cater to each segment’s needs.
“My mailing list at that time was with Mailchimp, and I just felt for one, it was really expensive, and two, if something went wrong, or I couldn't figure something out, there wasn't really wonderful support. With Audience Republic, the support has been incredible. Also, it's a much more competitive price point.”
