A word on ticket pricing and community sustainability.
Michael Apte
Pricing is a key part of any marketing strategy (one of the four P’s, no less).
For Sydney Marketing Community, in the short term our focus is really on building the community. Both in size and by establishing our events cadence. The reality is that the revenues we bring in probably won’t cover our overheads, let alone any allowance for staff time. And that’s ok, it’s the nature of starting most things.
Longer term, the goal would be to have a mix of service revenue and also selected partners who support the community in a way that provides value to members and a level of sustainable funding. In that world, costs to members would be low and we’d have free offerings for anyone who needs it. There’s a balancing act there, a key operating principle is to keep the community entirely focused on marketers and their needs. Marketers are not the product and any partnerships need to reflect that principle.
In the interim (for however long that is) we’re going to try some things on pricing. We will start to price some events. We’ve put out some lost cost or no-cost events. We’re also sharing discount codes where it helps grow the community and engagement.
We’ll see what works.
We will seek formal member feedback on how we’re going in a few months but in the interim, keen to hear any thoughts below. It’s your community and this is a classic marketing dilemma. Bring on the discussion!
