Five insights to determine your online target group
When does an online cultural experience become a fully-fledged experience? How do you find the right balance between online and offline content? Ten cultural organisations looked at how the audience experiences their digital offering. We supported this study and share the five things we learnt to help you gain a better understanding of your online target group.
Five insights from the online audience study carried out by ten cultural organisations:
Online data helps to get to know the new audience
When heritage festival Gooi & Vecht looked at their website statistics, they noticed that not only did the number of visitors increase during the festival, but that this increase represented new visitors. They also found out more about the gender division, the visitors’ age groups and what provinces they lived in. All this information is useful when determining your target group. You can get these insights from an online ticket system as well.
Audience research allows you to optimise your offering
What are the visitors to your website hoping to find? The Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum (Brabant Historical Information Centre) wanted to know exactly what their visitors were looking for when browsing through their collection of stories, photographs and films about the various municipalities in Brabant province. They received 2000 responses to their micro survey which they are using to tailor their offering to the target group.
Audience research offers an insight into people’s needs and experiences. You can use this information to create appealing online content!
Formulate one clear research question
Your research will yield the most tangible and useful results if you can focus on one clear and specific question. Make audience research, whether online or not, a fixed part of your continuous improvement process.
Online visitors and physical visitors have different reasons for their visit
Research conducted by the Literatuurmuseum (Literature Museum) and the Nationaal Museum voor Wereldculturen (National Museum for World Cultures) showed that online visitors can certainly have a valuable experience but that they may have different reasons for their visit: “Content is an important reason for online visits whereas the social aspect is much more important with live visits.”– Nationaal Museum voor Wereldculturen.
Online offering provides opportunities for inclusion and impact
Visitors who bought a ticket to access Theatre De Schalm’s online offering said this was the perfect solution for them as they would otherwise not have been able to attend. So, online content is an opportunity for people to experience culture more often, for example if they live further away or if they are unable to visit the venue. “Online content is inclusive. We don’t just care about our revenue streams but also about the significance for the target group.” – Theatre De Schalm.
