JESSICA BLAXLAND ASHBY
Business Manager at Marian St Theatre for Young People
Awarded a HerBusiness scholarship for the Get the Email Marketing Edge Master Course and the Offers That Sell live event, 2017
What sort of work does your organisation do?
Marian Street Theatre for Young People provides a unique experience for young people in the performing arts. Young People in the Drama School are invited to audition for a professional length season, performing up to 26 times in front of a public audience while being mentored by industry professionals. Young people develop resilience and skills for life through the program, and many go on to work professionally in the industry. The Drama School teaches drama education for young people from 5 - 18 years, as well as an Accessible Drama Class for young people 14 - 28 years.
Describe a typical day's work.
No such thing! The year is very varied, from focusing on drama enrolments in December and January, to marketing in November / December, setting up the foyer and auditorium prior to a performance, putting together business and marketing plans, and preparing documents for the board. No two days are ever the same!
What are some of the key learnings from the HerBusiness training?
From the Email Marketing Edge course I learned best practice and how to set up automations. Already we’re seeing a good return on these and the database in growing significantly. The Offers That Sell live event was excellent in giving both a broad understanding of EMS and in assisting us to set these up. It included some factors all the way from the real basics (what’s an email automation?) through to best practice tricks and techniques. It really helped me understand these in both breadth and depth.
How has it impacted / changed / benefited your role and your organisation as a whole?
The Email Marketing Edge course put in motion a number of different developments, including adopting CRM software, which has made our organisation accessible for those with different needs and family circumstances. I have now set up email automations for another organisation as well, and we are seeing people transitioning from the automation into the drama school. The impact of both courses on the organisation has been huge, really helping us go online, and helping turn people from having no awareness of the organisation to being paying customers. While not an intended benefit from the course, it’s also helped us implement some online software solutions which has saved us HUGE amounts of time, and enabled more flexibility in our workplace – super essential for those of us with families!
How did you come to be working in the not-for-profit sector?
Theatre! Most theatre companies are Not-For-Profits, we don’t do it for the money, and the industry generally speaking doesn’t pay.
What do you feel is most needed to sustain and build the impact of the not-for-profit sector?
Skills building - the industry tends to lack specific skill sets. For small arts organisations like ourselves, up-skilling the marketing is especially important, and most organisations of our size have very little expertise in this area. The more we can learn the better!
What is something interesting / unique / unusual about you?
I have a love for new theatre writing, puppetry, movement based storytelling and children’s theatre. My ultimate goal is to make a lasting contribution to the theatre industry in Australia through developing business models and marketing strategies that will grow our audiences. The more robust these are, the more artistic risks can be made and new Australian works can be produced. I also run half-marathons regularly and make homemade jams and chutneys to go on homemade bread.
Click here to read about other ASF scholars.
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