Technology is constantly changing every industry, including the arts. In days gone by, art galleries and museums were enough to attract not only local visitors, but visitors from around the world. However, today’s landscape is much more competitive.
With cinemas, theme parks, and other attractions competing for your visitors, it can feel like an uphill battle to keep patrons coming through your doors. Technology has often been viewed as the enemy of the arts, but in fact, it can be a tool to help take your museum, theatre, or gallery to another level!
In this article, we’ll explore how you can use technology to increase engagement and foot traffic in your venue.
Augmented reality is a very exciting piece of technology that offers a lot to the arts and museum sectors. If you’re uncertain of what it is, augmented reality is when you use a device to overlay digital images or objects onto an environment through a device. Or, in human speak, what they did with Pokémon Go!
What this means for your space is that you can use the devices of your visitors to transform your space before their very eyes. Suddenly, paintings are coming to life, digital versions of artists are explaining the inspiration of their work, and much more!
Developing augmented reality functions and experiences can be expensive depending on the scope of your vision, but this technology allows you to offer even more to visitors. This can keep your regulars coming back and attract new patrons to your venue.
Customer experience has a huge impact on the visitor numbers of your venue. For starters, anyone with a device and an internet connection can leave a scathing or glowing review of your venue online that can be seen by anyone. All it takes is a few people to see these poor reviews and they will happily spend their time somewhere else.
So, creating a good customer experience is essential and technology can help with this. One of the easiest things you can do is to adopt e-ticketing. E-ticketing not only makes entry to your venue smoother, but it’s also more cost-effective as you no longer need to pay for printing.
Another tip is to have an app with features such as a map and other useful information such as upcoming events, special content, and more.
Using technology to enhance the experience of your visitors is only going to help your cause.
The hype around the metaverse and the popularity of virtual reality technology shows that immersive experiences are in vogue. The good news is that you can use technology within your venue to create more immersive experiences to attract and delight more visitors.
How you go about this is up to you, but what you can achieve is only limited by your creativity. If you run a gallery, for example, your space will likely rely on the visual. So, the question is how can you engage other senses to add another layer to the experience? Can you incorporate sound somehow or use lighting or other effects to add more to a space?
Furthermore, devices can be used as part of this effort. QR codes can take users to special content or specific audio tracks to be used in a room for example. Almost everyone walking into your venue will be carrying a device – why not use them to your advantage?
Technology can also be used to promote your venue and attract more visitors. This may seem obvious, but it is often forgotten. Social media, for example, is a great way to promote your venue around the world and reach people who would otherwise never hear about your space. Be sure to really nail your social media strategy and content to bring more people through your doors.
Another example of using technology is to offer the experience of your venue to those who previously might have been able to enjoy it. For those with visual or hearing difficulties, technology can be used to help get as much joy out of your space as any other visitor would.
Through technology, you can actually take your museum to people around the world instead of simply trying to bring them to your space. For example, you can create a digital version of your entire space or a single exhibit and allow people to visit it virtually. Whether you charge for this experience or not is up to you, but this will help you to spread the awareness of your venue and help you to build your reputation and attract even more visitors from around the world.
When used in the right way, technology can help you to offer more to your visitors and attract even more visitors to your museum or arts venue. Reach out to the team at Zudu on 01382 690080 to see how we could help you.
