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A tremendous number of people have become reliant upon searching the Internet for finding out information about things. Not having a website for your museum is absolutely costing you money. If you don’t currently have a website for the museum it may be because you don’t have anyone employed who knows anything about technology. Perhaps you feel that having a website is unnecessary for your museum because it is so small or hobby oriented, or because you just can’t imagine people wanting to visit a website instead of coming to your location.

I can’t stress enough how important it really is to have a website. Even if it’s a very simple one, you need to set up a website and maintain it over time. We live in a digital age now, and many of the newer generations of people have become dependent on it. Even if your museum is in a remote location, I would be willing to bet that you have received phone calls, visitors, or emails asking if you have a website.

A few reasons that people want to visit your museum’s website:

1. Consumers want to quickly look up where you are located, what your hours are, and how much it costs to visit
2. Consumers want to learn about what your museum is and what kind of exhibits you have
3. Consumers want to see pictures of your exhibits
4. Consumers want to read about upcoming events or other important museum news

It is understandable that you may not have a budget to build a website, and you may be intimidated by the process after speaking to a website consultant. If you have no website at all you might consider learning how to build one. A poorly designed but functional website is better than not having one at all.

There are many tools and services available to make websites. While learning how to build a website is outside the scope of this article, you can use tools like Microsoft Word and Apple Pages to construct a website even if you have no technology skills at all. These word processing applications will not create a correct or even very well designed website, but it will at least let you put up the basic information necessary to appease your potential visitors.

You may think that websites are only needed for larger museums, or museums that center around technology, but that is not true. All museums need a website.

This article is part of a series titled Improving Your Museum’s Marketing Efforts. To learn more about the series and to read the other articles, visit the series introduction article.

Whenever you talk about your museum, whether it’s on your website, blog or description on a social site, you should be pitching about why people should visit your museum. The history of your museum may be meaningful to you, but people who are unfamiliar with your museum will first want to know what makes your museum special and thus should be the first thing people see. There are a variety of other museums and activities for them to go to if you do not successfully convince them to learn more about your museum. Tell them what the museum is about and what makes it stand out from the others.

Start by writing 3 paragraphs about what the museum is and what it offers. Narrow that down to 1 or 2 paragraphs that are concise and to the point. Most people have short attention spans and are use to scanning with their eyes when reading on a computer screen. While it may go against your common sense to “dumb things down,” it happens to be the right thing to do. Simple is better.

Additionally, attempt to connect with the reader by reducing the amount of strict and formal tones. You don’t have to be too loose or chatty (such as the style I’ve chosen to write in), but you want to be as inviting as possible. Remember who your audience is, so try not to alienate anyone by sounding too intellectual.

Once you’ve got your pitch, you should use it everywhere that you discuss your museum… on your website, on social networks, as descriptions wherever you list your website on the web, in your email newsletter, and in print. The quicker you can get to the point about what is so special about your museum, the higher the possibility that you will convince the potential new visitor to come in.

This article is part of a series titled Improving Your Museum’s Marketing Efforts. To learn more about the series and to read the other articles, visit the series introduction article. 

Bringing new people to your museum is a worthwhile challenge. It keeps your funding alive, encourages patron interaction, and helps to keep your exhibit list fresh.

This challenge exists for all museums, regardless of the size of the museum. Large museums funded by government organizations require a high patron count in order to justify the continued funding allocation for the museum. Small or kitschy museums require a high patron count in order to keep the doors open and pay the bills in order to continue offering the owner’s passion to the world. Engaging new potential visits is most difficult for the small museums without funding, and I’m constantly surprises at how many of these small museums do not implement even a fraction of the things they could do to improve it.

Here are some steps you can execute to improve your marketing efforts and I will be presenting a new article every few days focusing on each of the presented steps. If your museum is not currently doing several of these things, I certainly recommend that you put a little thought into making them happen. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on them to get set up, but maintaining them over time may require some experience and a little commitment. Regardless of the size or budget of your museum, you need to step into action and do these things.

Steps to Tell the World About Your Museum

1. Write a summary or pitch of why people should visit your museum
2. Create and maintain a museum website
3. Have as many ways to contact you as possible
4. List your museum on Yelp
5. Create social networking accounts 
6. Create social checkin accounts 
7. Create a blog and post regularly
8. List your museum on Mused
9. Invite bloggers and journalists to visit your museum
10. Donate entry tickets to raffles, charity events, or local travel orgs/hotels
11. Offer 1 Free Entry day per month

Although this does not contain a complete list, I will update this introductory article with links to each step as the new articles in the series appear. Additionally, as new steps are added to the list I will update it to reflect the complete table of contents. At some point I will likely put together an attractive and printable PDF (depending on demand for it).

I encourage you to check back in and look for updates on a regular basis. If your museum has implemented any of these steps, I encourage you to leave a comment about your experiences on the articles in the series as it will help to enhance the series moving forward and show others what your perspectives are. Your feedback is welcome!