Most marketing theorists talk about promotion by subdividing it into four main areas of technique: advertising, public relations, sales promotion and personal selling. Some add ‘direct marketing’ as a fifth element, and it is appropriate that arts marketers adopt this extra element because of the fundamental importance of developing long-term relationships with their customers. Furthermore, as many arts organizations are fortunate enough to possess box office data which provide a wealth of personal details about their attenders, the use of direct marketing techniques can be both straightforward and very effective.
Different industries tend to use different combinations of techniques in their promotional strategies. For example, infrequently-purchased but expensive items like life insurance and holidays have traditionally relied heavily on personal selling, whereas frequently-purchased goods like soap powder or baked beans have tended to rely on advertising and sales promotion. The arts, too, have historically adopted a typical industry mix of promotional activity, tending to rely heavily on public relations and a wide distribution of printed material, including direct mail, supplemented by low-cost advertising and an element of sales promotion. In the UK arts organizations have been slow to embrace personal selling, although a proactive stance in the box office can both improve income and raise levels of customer satisfaction by improving service.