Episode 9: Creating Brand Love For Your Museum

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What is brand love and why is it so important for your museum?

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Brand love is when your visitors

loved their experience so much that

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they come back and bring a friend.

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How you achieve brand love for your

museum is what we're talking about today.

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Let's get started.

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Hello.

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Welcome to the "Love my Museum" podcast.

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I'm your host, Amy Kehs,

and I love museums.

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I also happen to be a brand

strategist and communications expert.

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I've worked for some of the most

renowned and well-loved museums on the

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planet and my goal is to ensure that

museums thrive into the next century.

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I use the general term "museum" loosely

to mean museums, historic homes, art

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galleries, zoos, aquariums, nature

centers, anything that falls into that

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educational, cultural institution realm.

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I am really passionate about helping you

get visitors through your museum's doors.

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Now, you might be thinking, if you've

been listening to the podcast up until

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this point, "Amy, I don't get it.

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You've just spent all of the last eight

episodes not talking about how to get

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visitors through our museum's doors.

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You've just been yammering on

and on about how we work together

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and internal communications.

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What on earth does this have

to do with getting visitors

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through my museum's doors?"

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Okay.

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Well, hear me out.

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How your employees feel at work, how

productive they are, how burnt out they

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are, how supported they feel, has a

direct correlation to how your visitors

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feel when they visit your museum and

if they decide they want to come back.

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Even if you are a staff person who

isn't in a communications office,

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how you interact with visitors,

whether it's in-person or behind

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the scenes, your job satisfaction is

going to affect those interactions

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and that visitor's experience.

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So getting your internal

communications running smoothly

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is the first step to a successful

external communication strategy.

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And yes, today we are finally

going to talk about external

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communications and how to get

visitors through your museum's doors

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You'll have two kinds of visitors,

the people that are visiting your

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town or city for what I like to

call a "once-in-a-lifetime" visit.

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And the people in your community

that you hope will want to come

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back often and bring a friend.

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For the "once-in-a-lifetime" group,

you want to be in touch with your local

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visitor's bureau or town hall so that

you can maximize your chances of being

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part of that "once-in-a-lifetime" visit.

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Those "once-in-a-lifetime" visitors are

going to go home and tell their family

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and friends about their awesome trip.

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You want to be included

in those highlights.

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The "once-in-a-lifetime"

visitors are very important.

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Maybe their visit is so great that

they turn into a repeat visitor,

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even though they may live far away.

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You really need the repeat

visitors to sustain your museum

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and make sure it thrives.

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Now we hope the out-of-towners

become regulars.

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But that could take some time

and here's the important thing.

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If there is only one thing you hear

me say in this episode, please hear

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this and sear it into your brain

and how you think about your museum.

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Every museum is a community museum.

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Let me say it again.

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Every museum is a community museum.

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No matter how big or how small you are,

no matter if you are a five-year-old

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museum or a 100-year-old museum,

making your museum into a place

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that your community loves is what

is going to ensure your success.

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And establishing yourself in the community

means that your museum will thrive.

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Okay.

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So how do you do this?

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How do you get visitors through

the door and how do you get them

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to come back and bring a friend?

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Well, I call this brand love.

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You want people to love your museum

so much that they not only come back

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and bring a friend, but maybe they buy

something in the gift shop or they buy

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a membership or they make a donation.

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They are invested in you and

you are invested in them.

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Brand love is when your audience

loves your museum so much that

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they tell others about you when

you're not even in the room.

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They know what you're about.

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They know what you do.

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They know who you are.

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Your museum, it takes

on a persona, a brand.

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A lot of times my clients

say, "Amy, why do you care so

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much about this brand stuff?

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Brands are for big corporations

like Nike or McDonald's."

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No, no, no, this isn't true.

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In today's world, people

are bombarded with noise.

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Words, words, words.

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Think about it.

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Think about how much you

hear throughout the day.

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You need to create a solid

brand for your museum so that

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you stand out in this noise.

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Visitors who feel like they not only

know, like, and trust your brand or

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your museum, but they love your brand...

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brand love is something that is earned

and it is slow-growing, but the benefits

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are much, much more effective than

any other public relations strategy.

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There are three things that you

need to work on to create what I

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call brand love for your museum.

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: authentic brand messaging, visitor

experience, and media relations.

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Okay.

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Let's talk about each one, just a bit.

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First—authentic brand messaging.

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Recognizing and getting to know your

museum probably begins for most visitors

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before they even leave their house.

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They will probably find you on social

media, or look up your website, or maybe

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they get a recommendation from a friend.

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And the words that you use

are part of your brand.

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Your brand is not just your logo.

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It is also the words that you use.

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This is your brand messaging.

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While your logo or font colors, the

visual aspects of your brand, capture

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your audience's attention, it's the words

that you use that will let them know if

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they're in the right place and if they

want to invest more of their most precious

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commodity, their time, at your museum.

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Your brand messaging

should be three things.

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I call them the three C's:

clear, consistent and confident.

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If your audience understands the clear

and simple message, then they're going

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to remember it and hopefully they will

even be able to repeat it to others.

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In addition to being clear and

simple, r epeat it consistently.

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That's going to help them remember it.

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It takes people seven times to see

a message before they act on it.

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If you deliver that message with

confidence, that means that they will

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trust what you're saying as well.

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The second part is visitor experience.

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Knowing what the visitor

experience is like from beginning

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to end is really important.

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I have my clients put themselves

in the shoes of a person who has

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never been to their museum before.

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Is it easy to find

directions on their website?

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Can they plan their

visit before they arrive?

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What about when the

person gets to the museum?

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Are they greeted by a friendly

staff member or volunteer?

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Is the museum accessible to everyone?

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How does the museum support its community?

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And also, how do they keep in

touch with you after they've left?

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This past weekend, my daughter

and I were visiting Cape Cod.

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We were in Sandwich,

Massachusetts, and we visited

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the Heritage Museums and Gardens.

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This place, oh my gosh,

their visitor experience from

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beginning to end was amazing.

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I'm sure I'll talk about it on

another episode, but let me just

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kind of give you the highlights.

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So.

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, tickets are required.

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We went online and purchased

tickets in advance.

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The website is great.

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It is one of the best museum

websites I have ever seen.

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I'll leave it in the show notes

so you can go and check it out.

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So we get to the museum.

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They have construction going on right

now, but there were a lot of signs and

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directions and cones and staff there to

help you navigate getting into the parking

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lot and then getting to the entrance.

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It was really easy for the visitors

because they had taken the time to

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think through the visitor experience.

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It just made it a really welcoming

and well-thought-out experience for us.

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We get to the ticket booth and

show our tickets, also a very easy

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process with very friendly staff.

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Heritage Museums and Gardens is

three indoor gallery spaces and

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then 100 acres of outdoor gardens.

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It is also quite hilly.

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My daughter and I were really excited

to get our steps in, but I can see where

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the amount of walking and the type of

walking might be tough for some visitors.

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They have even thought of that too.

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There was, at the entrance,

a man with a golf cart.

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And he was introducing himself

to everyone that came through and

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letting us know that he would be

driving around in his golf cart.

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If we needed a ride or if we needed

anything, to just flag him down.

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And sure enough throughout the day,

we saw him driving around on the golf

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cart and checking in on the visitors.

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It was so nice.

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It was just such a nice touch.

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All of the staff, the docent at the

car museum, the staff that were out

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working in the gardens, the staff that

were in the art gallery, everyone was

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not only friendly, but so informative.

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They had so much information.

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The visitor experience was top notch.

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When I got home a few days later,

we received a follow-up email

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because to buy the tickets, you

had to give your email address.

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So they have captured my email address.

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And I got a really nice email that

really said, "Thank you for your visit.

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We hope you enjoyed your time here.

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We enjoyed hosting you, we're so

delighted that you came to see us."

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Then the next part of the email was about

turning your ticket into a membership.

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It was just really, really well done.

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They checked all of my boxes

for a good visitor experience.

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And I know that it's going to be

something that I recommend to friends.

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I know that it definitely will be a

part of my next visit to Cape Cod.

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We just had a really good time.

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So that's the second part of brand

love is creating a really good

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visitor experience that is consistent.

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You want every visitor experience

to be as consistent as possible.

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The third part of brand

love is media relations.

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If your audience feels like through

the brand messaging that they know

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you really well , their visitor

experience has been really good, if

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they see positive media coverage, it

validates how they feel about you.

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I could talk about

media relations all day.

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I've been doing media relations

for museums for over 30 years now.

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And the important thing to

remember about media relations is

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it really is about relationships.

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How you cultivate the relationships

with the hardworking journalists

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on your media list takes time.

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It takes effort.

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And it's important to remember that

it is definitely a two-way street.

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So how can you help the

journalists on your media list?

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Have you positioned your

curators as experts?

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Do you have spokespeople who

know your messaging and feel

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comfortable speaking to journalists?

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Because seeing your museum in the media,

seeing media coverage, is going to

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validate how they already feel about you.

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So there you have it, the three

things that you need to create

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brand love for your museum.

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You need to attract your ideal

visitors with your brand messaging.

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You need to create for them

an amazing visitor experience.

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And you need to have really good

third-party endorsements, like

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media relations, to validate

how they feel about you.

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Working on these three things, brand

messaging, visitor experience and

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media relations is my tried and true

external communications strategy.

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We'll be talking about these

things a lot more on the podcast.

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This podcast is part of my "Love my

Museum" suite of services, which are

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professional development, resources

and support for museum employees.

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I really hope that these services help

you transform your museum into a lovely

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place to work while also making your

museum a place that your community loves.

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And I have just added something

new to the "Love my Museum" suite

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of services, a new Facebook group

just for museum professionals.

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And I would love to see you there.

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If you search "Love my Museum"

under Facebook groups, it should pop

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up and you can go ahead and join.

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It's brand new and my plan for

it is to share more resources

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like the metrics template that

I shared in the last episode.

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And maybe we'll have some workshops in the

future and just start some conversations.

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It'll be a private group.

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So everyone that is in there

will be museum professionals.

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I'll put the link to the new

Facebook group in the show notes.

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You can also find in the show

notes, some more free resources.

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And I'll also go ahead and add Heritage

Museums and Gardens' website if you'd

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like to take a look at that too.

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That is all for today.

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I hope this was helpful.

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Please let me know if

you have any questions.

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Send me an email or better yet, send

me a message in the new Facebook group.

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I'll see you next time.

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