Hi Tessiturian marketers out there,
Our marketing department and ticket office jointly decided to stop tracking source codes from ticket sales. This has been a little surprising for me, as campaigns, appeals and sources are an integral and important component of Tessitura business model.
The main argument is that patrons do not declare their sources in a meaningful way to reflect on an array of appeals directed at them. And, when they do, the likelihood of error in transferring the info into Tessitura by tickets sellers is so high that the reports based on it become meaningless.
As a non-marketer, I am wondering if this belief is commonly shared with most of the organizations using Tessitura or not. For those of you who use source codes successfully, what do you do to capture source information with Tessitura? Do you use other tools?
Thanks for sharing your experience and wisdom!
Hi Ahmet,
The sentiments of your marketing department aren't uncommon, but I'm happy to see you aren't willing to give up. Inaccurate source code usage is a challenge but it is not insurmountable. A little planning and some careful choices can easily turn things around.
Levi had some good suggestions. For some more strategies and procedures to improve source code usage check out the recorded Webinar, Making Sources Work for You, which Anna Wessley and I presented last year.
A very quick summary of what you'll learn in the webinar is that in house sources are the key. Promoting sources to track your direct marketing efforts (emails, mailings, phone calls, etc.) makes source code usage pretty easy and sets things up so that you can still get useful source reporting even when the box office doesn't use the source codes accurately. Tracking your general marketing (things like ads in the newspaper, radio, and t.v.) is inherently inaccurate and worth sacrificing for effective direct marketing tracking.
Take a look at the webinar and if you have any questions about anything we covered feel feel to email me directly.
-Kevin
Thanks for the helpful suggestions Levi and Kevin. I will definetely look at the webinar.