Customer Spotlight: Rochester Lilac Festival

[Amanda-S]

Customer Name: The Rochester Lilac Festival

How long they’ve been a customer: 12 years

Fun fact: This 10-day festival features thousands of lilac bushes in 800 varieties

Where you can find them: Facebook, Lilac Festival Website

The Lilac Festival isn’t your average festival– unless your average festival includes thousands of flowers and hundreds of thousands of visitors. This ten-day extravaganza in Rochester, NY features beautiful blooms, local vendors, and more than 85 artists, so it’s no wonder it attracts an average of 500,000 attendees every year, making it the largest festival of its kind in North America.

So how do they get the word out? Well, behind the scenes, the festival team relies on Constant Contact to spread the word and keep their audience informed.

“I am constantly marketing the business. It’s number one on my list of priorities, so I use Constant Contact daily,” says Lexany Rivera, the Production Manager and Director of Marketing for Rochester Events. Calling herself the “Canva queen,” Rivera uses Constant Contact’s integration with Canva to make sure their emails portray the beauty and excitement of the Lilac Festival, and she cites segmentation as a game-changer for effectively engaging their audience.

“Given the fact that we have so many different people, it's tough for us to be able to nail down who exactly we want to hit with what messaging. But Constant Contact helps us do that with email segmentation,” Rivera explains. “It helps us know what people really want to hear from us… because nothing makes my heart more sad than seeing us lose followers!”

Lexany RiveraTo gather data and preferences from their subscribers, the festival team created a sign-up form that allows people to opt-in and select their notification preferences. This way, they can send relevant information about the Lilac Festival or other events hosted by Rochester Events based on what their subscribers want. And that level of targeted communication is working– the Lilac Festival has built a healthy email list over the years, growing their contact list by 14% year over year.

But even with such successful Email Marketing strategies in place, Rivera and the team are always innovating, learning, and looking for the next new thing, citing Constant Contact’s webinars as a source of ongoing education and inspiration. Now, they’re fixing their sights on what the next big marketing move will be for them, including expanded channels. “We will always be using email,” Rivera says. “But to be able to shoot a text? That’s going to be a game changer for us.

Rivera sums up her experience using Constant Contact with a common theme we hear among our small business customers: “I have to be quick on my feet, and Constant Contact gives me that ability.” 

Want to see your list bloom like The Rochester Lilac Festival? Here’s the bouquet of marketing tactics they manage with Constant Contact:

• Using Constant Contact for email marketing and segmentation
• Creating a sign-up form for subscribers to self-select their preferences
• Integrating Canva for easy email design
• Utilizing WooCommerce to track merchandise sales
• Networking with similar companies for growth opportunities
• Taking advantage of Constant Contact's webinars and ongoing customer education
• How to Segment Your Email List in Constant Contact [April, Multiple Dates Available] 

With these strategies in place, the Rochester Lilac Festival team continues to foster community, promote local art, and make their festival a must-attend event for residents and visitors alike.