Da Capo Digital

Da Capo Digital Social media strategy for arts organisations & classical musicians
Aligning onstage & behind-the-scenes teams
Audience-first. Practical. Bespoke. Work with us ↓

21/05/2026

The key to a great concert experience is acting like someone who’s never been to one before.

Not a musician. Not a regular. Not someone who knows the “rules”.

Someone who’s thinking: where do I go, what do I do, and am I about to embarrass myself?

Most of the time, the difference between “that was lovely” and “I felt awkward all night” is basic hospitality and a few obvious cues.

What’s the smallest thing you’ve noticed at a concert that made you feel welcome?

07/05/2026

DON’T PANIC. Your audience is still there.

If your accounts have lost followers overnight, Instagram has been removing bot and inactive accounts in bulk.

Check your stats and you’ll see those followers weren’t lost the normal way. 500 people didn’t suddenly unfollow you. Instagram removed them.

For arts organisations especially, this is less alarming than it looks. Your followers tend to be real people who actually came to find you. Your community is exactly where it was yesterday.

If the drop looks significant, it’s worth reporting it via the Help Centre; though be prepared that it probably won’t change anything.

Except possibly improve your engagement rate, because those remaining followers are real 🫶

Because we love performing to an empty front row 🫠Recently we didn't post about one of our ensemble's concerts. Kind of ...
29/04/2026

Because we love performing to an empty front row 🫠

Recently we didn't post about one of our ensemble's concerts. Kind of on purpose.

It's a regular series with a loyal, growing audience. They hadn't sent us any useable content so we decided to treat it as an experiment.

Guess what happened.

Around half the normal audience turned up. Which meant roughly half the ticket sales and half the donations too.

All because we didn't remind people it was happening.

Not every post should be a ticket push. We absolutely believe that.

But your audience is busy. They forget. A single post the day before can be the difference between a full room and a half-empty one.

Make it easy for people to come to you.

28/04/2026

Expectation setting is not boring admin. It’s audience care.

When people know what they’re walking into, they relax, enjoy it more, and are far more likely to come back. Especially first-timers.

A quick checklist of things worth spelling out (before your audience has to do detective work):

• Runtime and whether there’s an interval (and crucially, whether there’s a bar)

• Highlights and movements vs full works (and how many movements)

• Arrangements and ensemble size (is it a trio, or the full orchestral experience we’re imagining?)

• Seating and temperature (especially in churches, should I bring a cushion and a coat?)

• Filming policy and when it’s welcome (and who to tag, because people will ask)

• Late seating policy (will I miss one piece, or the entire first half?)

• Parking and access basics (and is the loo a hike across the car park?)

None of this kills the magic. It builds trust.

What’s the one piece of info you always wish you had as an audience member?

I spent yesterday afternoon at my kids’ school career fair.Thirty-odd parents, all from different industries, sitting at...
25/04/2026

I spent yesterday afternoon at my kids’ school career fair.

Thirty-odd parents, all from different industries, sitting at desks while teenagers did the rounds.

The questions were good. One that came up more than once: what does a typical day actually look like?

Honestly, oddly timed phone calls feature more than I’d like to admit.

This week alone we’ve worked across five time zones, translated content from Danish and German, and written in three different varieties of English — each for a different artist with a completely different voice.

We work with musicians who are known globally, we go to their concerts, we’re in the room for things most people never get near.

It’s not just posting on Facebook.

Arts marketing sits at this particular intersection of culture, communication, and strategy that doesn’t get talked about enough.

You have to understand the art deeply enough to represent it honestly. You have to understand audiences well enough to invite them in. And you have to care about both.

We think it’s a pretty great place to work.

Nobody talks about the glamorous side of arts marketing.Current office: the floor at the back of a rehearsal, wedged bet...
11/04/2026

Nobody talks about the glamorous side of arts marketing.

Current office: the floor at the back of a rehearsal, wedged between the organ and the wall.

Planning week at Da Capo Digital! 🤓This week we’ve been building Q2 strategies for our clients — and ourselves (ofc 🙈). ...
04/04/2026

Planning week at Da Capo Digital! 🤓

This week we’ve been building Q2 strategies for our clients — and ourselves (ofc 🙈). Every brief looks similar on paper. Every strategy looks completely different — because every organisation is.

If you’ve just seen this and thought “oh no, do I need a Q2 strategy?” then yes, probably 😂

And it’s not too late. Drop us a message! 👋

28/03/2026

Friction kills ticket sales.

If someone wants to book but the link is hard to find, the info is scattered, or they have to click around… they’ll get distracted and you’ll lose them.

The goal is to make booking ridiculously easy. And in the inevitable case that someone still drops out halfway through, you want a gentle nudge that reminds them: you were interested in this, and it’s still here.

Low-budget ways to reduce friction:

• Pin the ticket link (either in the comments, or as a pinned post at the top of your feed).
• Use saved replies for DMs and messages.
• When someone asks, DM the link quickly, and comment to let them know you’ve sent it.
• If your ticketing platform supports it, switch on abandoned checkout/cart reminders.

And if you do have a small ads budget, retargeting can help too. A Meta Pixel lets you show reminder ads to people who visited your booking page but didn’t complete.

What’s the number one reason people say they didn’t book?

09/02/2026

Is selling tickets just a numbers game?

Not exactly… but it is a frequency game.

If people only see your concert once, in one place, most of them won’t act, even if they’d genuinely love it. Repeated exposure is what helps people remember you, trust you, and finally book.

Here are 10 free-ish ways to create frequency (without making loads more content):

Share into relevant local Facebook groups

Ask the venue to share (and tag them in Stories)

Ask each musician to share one post

Community newsletters + parish magazines

Council and local “What’s On” listings

Local radio event diaries

Nextdoor neighbourhood posts

Community WhatsApp groups (ask a friend to share)

Posters in high-footfall places: cafés, libraries, gyms, schools, music shops

Programme insert swaps with another local arts organisation

If you’re a registered charity, Google Ad Grants can be a useful visibility lever too.

Quick note: when I say “free”, I mean free in cash spend, not free in time. Time is valuable. Some of these also require a bit of bravery and calling in favours.

Tell me which of these you already do, and which you’d like to learn more about.

Fantastic few days at the Association of British Orchestras Conference, topped off with an evening with my favourite orc...
06/02/2026

Fantastic few days at the Association of British Orchestras Conference, topped off with an evening with my favourite orchestra, La Serenissima (not that I’m biased).

We’ve been working with La Serenissima for four years now, and it’s been a joy watching their digital presence go from strength to strength, especially with such limited capacity. They’ve built something far beyond what their size would suggest, including the most-streamed recording of The Four Seasons ever, which still makes my head slightly explode.

This year I’m grateful to be taking on a bigger role within the team, not only supporting their digital work, but also getting stuck into concerts and real-life events too. And yes, you’ll still find me selling CDs in the interval at most concerts.

Musicians are nothing if not resourceful 😂

It’s been inspiring spending time with so many brilliant people from across the UK classical music scene, meeting new faces, and hearing how different organisations are approaching the same big questions.

Thanks to everyone who made time to chat this week. I’m looking forward to staying in touch and learning more from you all.

PS. Don’t worry, we’re still doing all our wonderful digital and social media work with our other brilliant organisations too 😊

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