How Spektrix Powers Lawrence Batley Theatre's Marketing Strategy
Bringing people together through performance
Built by and for the community it serves, the Lawrence Batley Theatre is a producing and presenting theatre in Huddersfield, Kirklees, with a mission to bring local people together through live performance and participation.
In 2020, it was set to enter a new era with a new Artistic Director, Henry Filloux Bennett, and a new Head of Marketing and Communications, Josh Babcock. Both had come across Spektrix in previous roles, and when they realized the Lawrence Batley Theatre’s existing ticketing system was holding the team back, they were keen to bring the benefits of the Spektrix platform to the theatre.
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Better audience insights
help to track behaviour more closely and identify trends
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New membership scheme
at the heart of the theatre’s audience marketing strategy
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Targeted communications
drive message relevancy for potential members and supporters
Designing a theatre marketing strategy for long-term success
Josh’s work began with a detailed five-year theatre marketing plan for the performing arts program, spanning indoor and outdoor performance spaces and catering facilities. From the outset he wanted a theatre marketing strategy, not just short-term campaigns, so he could connect day-to-day activity with longer-term goals for audience, revenue, and community impact.
He contacted Spektrix early in the process, well before the theatre was ready to make a definite move, and spoke to Allegra in the business development team. Those conversations helped him understand what the theatre could achieve with a CRM system truly designed around the needs of arts organizations, and how a strong theatre marketing strategy could be backed up by audience data, practical tools, and sector expertise.
Josh’s work helped him focus on delivering against the theatre’s mission, reaching untapped revenue, and strengthening underdeveloped connections with the community in Kirklees through more intentional theatre marketing strategies. With a clear plan in place and the right CRM system to support it, he could bring colleagues, partners, and stakeholders along on the same journey.
Shared ambitions for audience growth, revenue, and community impact
The Lawrence Batley team believed that a CRM platform built for the performing arts sector would be more responsive and supportive than platforms designed with other priorities. They wanted a solution that recognized the realities of working in a community-focused theatre, where the same people often look after strategic marketing, ticketing, fundraising, and audience relationships.
The arts sector knowledge at the heart of the Spektrix solution translates into better audience insight, shared best practice, and an annual program of learning and events for users across the Spektrix community. That combination of technology, expertise, and peer support gave the theatre confidence that its strategic marketing plans for the performing arts would be backed up by tools and people who understand how their work actually happens.
Some areas were just really limited – a fundraising consultant joined us to tap into data and drive donations, but the evidence wasn’t there to do that work effectively. Spektrix spent time understanding our priorities and showing us how a new solution could meet those needs.Josh Babcock
Head of Marketing & Communications
Connecting with the community through audience insight
There was a great deal the Lawrence Batley Theatre did not know about its audience, making it difficult to build a comprehensive fundraising and marketing plan for the performing arts. Its mission is to reach out, build relationships, and serve a population the size of a small city, so the team needed clearer insight into who was already engaging with them and who they were not reaching yet.
With a comprehensive view of audience behavior across marketing, fundraising, and sales activity, the team uses Spektrix to track data more closely, identify trends, and drive decision-making. Instead of piecing together separate reports, they can see how strategic marketing campaigns, ticketing patterns, and donor engagement fit together, and use that information to prioritize their next steps.
Using automated email programs in Spektrix and Dotdigital, the team will deliver more bespoke communications and target potential members with dynamic content designed around their interests, making arts marketing campaigns more relevant to different audience segments. That makes strategic marketing for the performing arts more personal and more efficient, helping them talk to audience members in ways that reflect what they book, what they value, and how they want to support the theatre.
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Smarter programming
uses audience data to build attendance and develop new genres
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Closer community links
helps the theatre better reflect the demographics of Kirklees
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Clearer impact
through easier measurement of artistic and community work against the theatre’s mission
They know there are people who would be willing to support the theatre’s work, but their existing membership scheme has proven too labour-intensive to administer in recent years. With more targeted communications and closer audience relationships, a tiered membership scheme – and a parallel program for under 30s – is at the heart of the theatre’s audience marketing strategy, with an ambitious target of £10,000 in membership revenue within three years.
As a theatre built by and for the community, the impact of better audience data does not stop at communications. That insight will inform future artistic programming, helping the team build attendance, develop new genres, and strengthen long-term audience relationships. Ultimately, they hope to make their audience more representative of the demographics of Kirklees and measure the impact of their artistic and community work against their overarching mission.
