Introducing my book
Marketing Strategy for Museums
Marketing Strategy for Museums is a practical guide aiming to demystify museum marketing.
At a time when many museums are facing a vast and broad range of challenges – such as funding and budget issues; huge competition for audiences’ time, attention and money; shifting audience trends; the climate crisis; and recruitment difficulties – this book showcases the role that marketing can have in ensuring that museums stay relevant and viable.
The book explains how museums can develop a strategic and proactive approach to marketing, connect with audiences, and make efficient decisions with limited resources. It breaks down jargon and provides useful models and ideas of how museums can successfully plan and deliver marketing, with examples from a broad range of museums from around the world. It also includes questions to readers for further reflection and ideas for workshop exercises.
Having worked with over 90 organisations as a consultant and trained hundreds of people over the past decade, I used the questions I’m most frequently asked by clients and training participants as the starting point for the development of the book.
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Part I: Marketing as a bridge
Introductory chapters setting out an overview of concepts on:
1. Museums
2. Marketing
3. Audiences.
Discusses their definitions, their development, how they inter-relate and the implications for today’s museum marketing.
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Part II: Marketing strategy in practice
Presents a step-by-step framework for developing a museum marketing strategy and a plan for a marketing campaign that can be scaled up or down:
4. Managing and implementing marketing
5. Developing a museum marketing strategy
5a. Situational analysis: Where are we now?
5b. Goals and objectives: Where are we going?
5c. Target audiences: Who do we want to reach?
5d. Strategy and approach: How will we get there?
5e. Tactics and action plan: What are we going to do?
5f. Resources: What will it cost?
5g. Monitoring and evaluation: How will we know if we’ve got there?
6. Planning and delivering a marketing campaign.
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Part III: Deeper dives
Delves into some themes in more detail, with dedicated chapters on the following:
7. Branding
8. Pricing
9. Communication channels
10. Messaging
11. Accessible and inclusive marketing
12. Ethical marketing.
FAQs
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Marketing Strategy for Museums is aimed at practitioners and professionals working in museums with responsibility for and/or interest in marketing or audience development, whether as staff, trustees or volunteers. For example, people without marketing training who have responsibility for marketing as part of their role, and marketers new to a museum role wanting to understand the sector and environment that are specific to museums and their audiences. The book is also of relevance to students of museum studies and heritage management.
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I’ve written the book to be of relevance to a broad range of museums. The exercises and frameworks included can be scaled up or down depending on available resources. Examples and case studies are included from a variety of types of museum from independent and volunteer-run to well-known national and international ones, covering different subject matters. Examples are cited from a range of countries.
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Marketing Strategy for Museums is published by Routledge, as part of its Guides to Practice in Museums, Galleries and Heritage. The book’s RRP is £31.99 and is available to pre-order direct via the publisher with a 25% off discount until 1 December, and at Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org. The book will ship after its publication on 6 December 2023.
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Marketing Strategy for Museums is published by Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis group. The book is part of Routledge’s Guides to Practice in Museums, Galleries and Heritage series - currently 13 books - which include Interpreting Heritage: A Guide to Planning and Practice by Steve Slack and Welcoming Young Children into the Museum: A Practical Guide by Sarah Erdman, Nhi Nguyen, Margaret Middleton.
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To request a review copy for your publication, please complete this form from the publisher.
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You can receive an inspection copy for a class you’re teaching by creating an instructor profile and submitting your request to the publisher.
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There’s a press release with more details about the book in the news section of my website.
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Please complete the contact form below and I’ll get back to you asap. I am to get back to enquirers within 24 hours.
Get in touch
If you’d like to ask any questions about the book or enquire about a speaking or lecture opportunity or media interview, please complete the form below and I will get back to you asap.