Brilliant burlesque: how to target customer interests
- Josh Mehlman
- 15 September 2009
"I was a big follower of burlesque around the world, but I found myself disappointed about what was going on in the scene in Australia," she says.
"There were some great, innovative underground burlesque things happening, but I associated burlesque with something that was really high end, with major props and costuming."
Bowie came up with the idea of the Burlesque Ball - a showcase of high-end performers, costumes and props, and "an opportunity for the audience to step up their dress for the occasion and enjoy a night out in old world Paris".
By the time the first Burlesque Ball was held in 2006, the art form was considerably more on Australians' radar.
"The big rise in popularity in Australia happened as we were preparing for our first Burlesque Ball - that was quite handy," says Bowie with a grin.
Jac Bowie's story sits at the meeting point of two waves, which both made a splash around the same time: the mid-noughties burlesque revival and the phenomenal success of MySpace, which grew from startup in mid-2003 to being acquired for $US580 million in July 2005 by News Corporation.
Target customers based on their interests
Bowie still relies on MySpace to build buzz around events and help her keep tabs on the burgeoning number of burlesque performers and fans around the world, but now focuses more strongly on Facebook.
"MySpace is definitely important but Facebook has become our number-one networking tool," she says.
"There's definitely a high proportion of people who only follow us on Facebook or via email."
Bowie's initial approach - creating a personal Facebook page - soon evolved into a more nuanced strategy including Facebook groups for individual events and the Australian burlesque community.
"It got ridiculous; I had 4000 people on my personal page and I just couldn't handle it," she says. "I'm in the process now of moving everyone to the various business pages. The good thing about that is I can target my updates. If it's about Sketchy or Ruby in Sydney, or Burlesque Ball in Melbourne, I can target people according to their location."
As well, it has allowed Bowie to better separate her business and personal lives.
"I don't want to bombard my friends with event invitations instead of things that are going on in my life," she explains. "I find that can be quite rude. If they are friends and they want to know about our business, they can join the business page as well. It keeps everyone happy."
The company has taken a similar approach to its email newsletters, maintaining separate mailing lists for different events and interest groups. Bowie sends updates to almost 20,000 burlesque fans around the world through these lists.
"Our unsubscribe rate has really improved since we separated into different lists," she says. "People who want to go to the Burlesque Ball every year don't want to hear about who's happening at Sketchy every week."
These newsletters offer some opportunities for cross-promotion of the company's various events, but Bowie insists this has to be low-key and subtle: "It has to be absolutely secondary at the bottom of the page."
Content keeps them coming back
The final piece of the online puzzle is the Jac Bowie Worldwide website, which Bowie and her colleagues keep constantly ticking over with new information.
"I had a friend tell me the other day, ‘It's like a Westfield, there's just a menagerie of information - you could spend all day there!'," she says. "I like to give people fresh content so they find they can come back and use us as a general resource on what's going on in burlesque, not only in Australia but around the world.
"I have relationships with other promoters and different performers around the world; they send me their information and I post it. All that content is great for search engine optimisation.
"We've enlisted some writers who are going to be reporting on the scenes in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Brisbane, and one about to start in London." #
