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Overview

Connecting with visitors is one of the most important aspects of running a museum. 

Without a welcoming atmosphere, engaging interpretation, and a wide audience reach, people will lose interest in your museum. Make your establishment open and accessible in order to build a visitor attraction with a sustainable number of guests. 

To effectively design and promote a programme, service, or exhibition, you must understand, listen to, and communicate with users. 

While it is best to target a particular audience, you also need to ensure that you have removed or reduced potential barriers to access. 

Key issues

Museums are educational and entertaining spaces which bring learning to life. 

To make your museum as successful as possible, you need to: 

  • Understand who will visit and why, ensuring your museum appeals to enough people 
  • Look after your visitors by creating an attractive and welcoming environment 
  • Identify how you want to broaden and increase your audience 
  • Identify how far you want to involve your users 
  • Choose how to bring your collections to life through interpretation 
  • Create educational opportunities for formal and informal learners 

Visitors first 

When a visitor walks through your front door, they are choosing to come to your museum instead of going to a cinema, park, library, café, playground, or shopping centre. As you are competing for their leisure time you must be confident that you can meet their expectations. 

Regardless of the facilities you provide, customer-focused service with a smile can transform a visitor’s experience of your museum. 

A space for visitors

A museum is something that exists for visitors. This means that you will need some kind of space to welcome them. 

Leasing a space or purchasing a building has legal and financial implications and should only be undertaken following robust business modelling. This is not recommended if you are an unincorporated organisation as trustees are jointly and severally liable for any financial loss. 

If your museum is keen to own its own property, it might be worth considering whether there are buildings currently owned by a public sector body that could be transferred to your organisation. For a number of years, local authorities and other public sector bodies have been interested in transferring the responsibility for managing buildings to community organisations. 

This process, commonly known as Asset Transfer, has been explored in Scotland as part of the Government’s community empowerment agenda. Liability for the building and responsibility for its upkeep are likely to be transferred as well. 

Using your space well 

Bear these things in mind before you choose your space: 

  • Use external signage well so people can find your museum easily. Consider signs on your building and on major routes to the space, although this may require contacting your local planning department. 
  • Flyer the local community and the surrounding area with information about your building including directions. 
  • Don’t cram facilities such as shops and cafes into your museum if you don’t have space for them. Prioritise your museum’s purpose when designing the space. 
  • Make the most of local facilities. If the best cup of tea is available next door, then tell your visitors. This will leave you free to concentrate on other services that complement those of your neighbours. 
  • Front-of-house staff and volunteers are crucial to a positive visitor experience. 
  • Consider working with other museums to send in “mystery visitors” for regular feedback on your service. 

Visitor experience checklist

Use these questions to ascertain whether visitors are having a positive experience of your museum: 

  • Are you easy to find?
  • Are you open when people want to visit? How will they know? 
  • Does your site feel secure? Is it a safe building? 
  • Will visitors be dry and comfortable? 
  • What will visitors do with wet coats? 
  • Where are the nearest clean toilets including baby changing and accessible toilets? 
  • Where can visitors get refreshments? 
  • How will you welcome people to your museum? 
  • Is there a safe space for school groups or vulnerable people to have a break? 
  • Is there space for members of the public and academics to research your collection? 
  • Is your interpretation accessible and easy to understand?
  • Are you asking your visitors how they enjoyed their visit?

A bad experience drives visitors away more than a lack of facilities. Don’t underestimate the value of a smile and welcome, or a properly resolved complaint. Collect user feedback through surveys and websites such as TripAdvisor to help you improve visitor experience. 

Identifying audiences

You need visitors if your museum is to be a success. However, as people have varying interests, not everyone will be in a rush to visit your museum. Understanding your visitors is vital – who they are, where they come from, their likes and dislikes – as it can help you build a stronger museum that appeals to more people. 

Who goes to museums 

Your audience depends on where you are and what you have. A major city museum with a large and diverse collection will have a larger pool of people to draw from than an isolated rural museum with a specialist collection. 

Be careful not to overestimate the number of visitors to your museum as it can have serious consequences on the viability of your organisation. Scotland has a population of 5.3 million, of which a third visit a museum or gallery at least once a year. Your museum is entering a competitive market where even the well-established museums only get a small percentage of all visits. 

It is well known that new entrants in an established market often find it difficult to attract and retain visitors. It may be that your museum is most likely to appeal to a modest number of local people or those enthusiastic about your collection.

Who will come to my museum? 

Knowing who your visitors are will help you plan exhibitions, events and target your marketing activity. In your planning stage you could use local population data such as the census to identify to the scale of potential audiences. Speaking with similar or neighbouring museums and attractions may also help you to estimate visitor numbers. 

Once you are up and running, make sure you put systems in place to find out who is visiting and collect some feedback on their experience. 

You can monitor visitor numbers through: 

  • Patterns of tickets sales 
  • Asking staff to informally identify types of people coming in 
  • Using Gift Aid postcode data to identify how far visitors are travelling 
  • Carrying out visitor surveys 

Whatever you decide to invest in, make sure you know what you want to do with the information. Then remember to set time aside to analyse it all and discuss your response. 

Find out more from our Understanding your Audiences through Evaluation advice guide.

Marketing and promotion

Marketing is essential to keeping your museum in the public eye. Even when budgets are tight, don’t cut back on marketing. Cutting it will cause further damage your income streams. 

The four Ps 

Once you have established who you have as an audience, think carefully about how to reach them. Focus on what to say, and how to say it. Your messages should be consistent, and tailored to the needs of each of your different audiences. 

Use the four Ps to devise your marketing strategy: 

  • Product – What is your museum? Why should someone visit you instead of another attraction? Consider who your service is for and what you can offer them. 
  • Pricing – Who are you competing against, and do your prices reflect that? Make sure your prices are not a barrier to participation. 
  • Place – Where is your museum? What else is available to the audience in this area? 
  • Promotion – What are the most effective methods of communicating with your target audience? Where are the best places to reach your audience? Always keep your budget and resources in mind. 

Promoting museums 

There are a number of different ways (sometimes known as channels) through which to get your marketing and promotion out there. 

Your choice of how and where to market will be based on your target audience. Different channels attract different audiences, and it is important to use a variety of channels to attract a range of people. Audiences using a channel can change so it is good practice to evaluate if a channel is still relevant to your target audience. 

Your message should be consistent across different channels, but different audiences need slightly tailored marketing approaches. 

Marketing channels:

  • Website. This is an essential marketing channel for your museum. Start with the basics: think about the things which visitors need to know. Make sure people know where you are and when you are open – you might be surprised by how many museums hide such crucial information on their websites! 
  • Social media. Set clear guidelines for use which ensure clear communication of key messages in a timely manner. Use social media to encourage wider public engagement. 
  • Visitor Review websites. It is recommended that your museum has an account with at one review channel such as TripAdvisor and Google Reviews.
  • E-marketing and emails. Seek out free or competitively priced e-newsletter tools that will help your museum look professional. Building your mailing list will take time and patience. Make sure that any information or mailing lists you are keeping comply with the GDPR guidelines. Find GDPR information on the Information Commissioner’s Office website. 
  • Public relations and media. Work out what journalists want to hear and share relevant information with them. It can be helpful to build strong relationships with journalists. 
  • Working with influencers. This can be a low cost, high impact way to reach different audiences. It’s important to find influencers who are read/watched by your target audience.
  • Advertising. This takes many different forms and costs. It’s important to know your audience so that you can  choose the most effective place to advertise. This can include: digital, print, outdoor, and broadcast advertising such as radio and TV. 
  • Leaflets and flyers. It is best to have these designed and produced professionally. There are various distribution services that can use for leaflet racks and hotel and B&B bedroom packs. There is a cost attached to this service. Alternatively, local community services, visitor attractions, and museums may be happy to take your leaflets in exchange for hosting theirs. 

Find out more on where and how to market your museum or gallery from our range of marketing and PR advice guides. 

Communication and interpretation 

Your museum will make its objects come alive through stories and storytelling. It is these stories that will draw visitors through your museum, capture their interest, and make sure they remember you long after returning home. 

Methods of interpretation 

  • Exhibitions of objects which have engaging labels and panels 
  • Events and activities which engage visitors with collections – for example, baking in a historic kitchen or a drawing table for children 
  • Live interpretation through re-enactment or commentary 
  • Immersive experiences such as period rooms 
  • Digital elements such as apps, touch screens, audio units, projected films, and soundscapes 

When it comes to interpretation, simplicity is usually best. Sometimes far more work goes into a ‘simple’ display than a high-tech experience. Factor in wear and tear, ongoing running, and repair. Make sure to include these costs in your budget. 

Start by asking yourself: what do my visitors want? 

Learning outcomes 

Good interpretation communicates a message by understanding the ways we learn and matching them with a recognised set of learning outcomes. 

When setting out your desired learning outcomes, keep these questions in mind: 

  • What kind of information (facts, messages, ideas) will visitors get and take away? 
  • What kind of attitudes, perceptions, and opinions do you want visitors to develop about your subject? 
  • How will people feel during their visit? 
  • Following a visit, what kind of skills might people have developed? 
  • Are visitors encouraged to try new things? 
  • How do you help visitors express their creativity? 
  • Are your displays or activities fun for visitors? 
  • How do you surprise and challenge your visitors? 
  • How do you want people to behave during their visit? 
  • What would you like your visitors to do differently as a result of their visit? 

Developing good interpretation 

There are a number of ways you can sharpen and shape interpretative practices in your museum: 

  • Change your exhibitions regularly. This is good for your collections and will give people a reason to return to your museum. 
  • Temporary exhibition spaces and open storage can improve access to collections and encourage new interpretation. 
  • Visit other museums and attractions to get ideas about engaging with guests. 
  • Consider your objectives and your target audience, then decide on two or three guiding principles and key messages. Base the messages on human stories for maximum impact. 
  • Long text labels and panels aren’t effective. Use sound, images, and brief text labels to convey your messages. 
  • Remember, research suggests that we will recall up to four messages or themes more easily than facts and figures. 
  • Every object that is selected for display must serve a purpose. Ask yourself what each object really contributes to the museum. 
  • Lighting makes all the difference. Check that your star objects are well lit, but also that the lighting won’t damage them. 
  • Use object stands and wires to display objects to their best advantage. 
  • If something breaks or is damaged, remove it straight away. Visitors will spot faults and remember them. 
  • If you can, go round your museum on your knees to see a ‘child’s eye view’. This also helps identify potential health and safety issues. 
  • Capture visitors’ responses to objects in your collections. 
  • Digital and online solutions can allow those interested to participate and add their own stories. 

Formal and informal learning

Learning is central to the activity of every museum as it delivers benefits to your visitors and your community. 

Learning isn’t a fixed concept – it can involve both formal and informal education. The former engages with schools and colleges, while the latter takes place in family and friendship groups outside of the formal education system. Many museums choose to focus on one or the other, with some museums developing long-standing relationships with formal education providers such as schools and colleges. 

Depending on your museum, you might use learning as a means of generating income. Alternatively, you might wish to use it as a loss leader to fulfil your charitable purpose.  

Learning is fun 

Museums are great places for informal learning as they provide a neutral, safe learning environment. Your unique collections and passionate workforce will inspire interest and engagement. 

Make informal learning the bedrock of museum activity. Create activities and workshops with clear learning outcomes. Such activities should encourage families and visitors of all ages to be more positive about learning in general, which in turn boosts participation in formal learning. 

Who is formal learning for? 

Formal learning applies to people in education from nursery to university. If you cannot link your collections, exhibitions, and learning resources to their curricula then you are unlikely to secure formal learning visits. 

Most educational demand is for primary school children or lifelong learning groups. Other age groups tend to be involved through targeted project activity. 

Attracting and retaining formal learning customers is hard work and is unlikely to generate profit for your museum. You should only engage with this market if you are committed to supporting formal learning because it enhances children’s learning experience. 

Curriculum for Excellence 

The Curriculum for Excellence is a Scottish curriculum designed to help students aged 3-18 become: 

  • Successful learners 
  • Confident individuals 
  • Responsible citizens 
  • Effective contributors 

Your museum should be clear on how it can fit in with the aims of the curriculum and develop these ‘four capacities’. 

Most schools undertake educational visits to museums to meet the requirements of their history, geography, and science curricula. With Higher Education, Further Education, and Lifelong Learning providers it is best to contact the organisations directly to understand how your work could fit with their programmes. At the other end of the spectrum are early years learning providers, who work with under-fives. 

Get people involved 

  • Consider whether you could deliver learning programmes in partnership with another organisation so that you can share expertise and capacity. 
  • Build relationships and talk with teachers and local schools. 
  • Find out how a visit to your museum might fit with the curriculum and their priorities – they may be able to spot different connections and possibilities. 
  • Discuss what resources they might need to make the visit run smoothly. You both want it to be a success! 

Safeguarding 

Museums are usually safe learning environments. Although is very unlikely that your users will be exposed to exploitative individuals you must still make every effort to prevent this from happening. This is for your benefit as well as that of vulnerable individuals. 

National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (2014) places a duty of care on all those who work with children and young people. This means that your museum has a responsibility to ‘do what is reasonable in all circumstances to safeguard the child’s health, development and welfare.’ 

The same principle should apply to a wider category of people who are vulnerable due to age, life position, or medical condition. This relates to the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. 

If members of staff (including volunteers) are likely to be responsible for or alone with children or vulnerable adults, your organisation might wish to apply for a ‘Disclosure’ document from Disclosure Scotland. In some instances, it can be a legal requirement for your organisation. 

Due to the sensitivity of these matters, it is advisable to obtain professional advice about your approach. 

Finally, if you handle Disclosure documents, your museum must think how it manages access to them in compliance with the Data Protection Act. 

How to attract learners 

Informal learners 

  • Offer layers of information so that people can take in as much or as little as they choose. 
  • Remember that families often visit in groups. Think how you can encourage conversation between generations. 
  • Offer a range of activities. Think about talks, activities, or workshop programmes which will complement your displays and exhibitions. 
  • Make sure your environment is comfortable for people to stay in for as long as they like. Think about chairs, refreshments, and toilets. 
  • You don’t need to have a ‘handling collection’ for learners. You can use your collection providing you understand the conservation implications. 

Formal learners 

  • Think around the different areas of the curriculum and how your museum can relate to them.  
  • Learning outside the classroom can bring a new dimension to schools. Familiarise yourself with the benefits of this and be clear about how you can add value. 
  • Make sure you can cope with a class visit. Do you have adequate toilets and a place for children to put their coats and bags? 
  • Groups can be noisy. Having a specific education area creates a safe space, helps manage noise, and provides a lunch venue. 
  • Schools need to consider travel distances and funding for transportation. Ask who can reach your museum, and how.

Case study: Coastal Communities Museum

The Coastal Communities Museum is a community museum which is based in North Berwick and serves the whole surrounding area. It is run by volunteers who work in partnership with East Lothian Council. It is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, but not yet an Accredited museum. 

The museum reopened in 2013 after having been closed for eleven years. It is very much a museum by and for the people of the area, which much of the exhibition content coming directly from local groups. 

In their own words 

We’d had a museum for North Berwick since 1957 in a former school building. The building didn’t meet health and safety and access requirements and so East Lothian Council closed it down in 2002. 

Local people didn’t want their museum to disappear – but no-one had the money to pay for the repairs. Support for the museum continued through the Friends of Berwick Museum and other groups. They petitioned the Council who eventually, in 2011, committed £1.5m capital funding to renovate the building which also holds the library and a café. 

When the Council were in a position to support the renovation works they recruited a range of partners to form a shadow committee – some of the original campaigners were still on board and were joined by others with specific skills. Our remit has widened to include North Berwick and the surrounding villages. 

Our first task was to make sure we were properly incorporated and in December 2012 we established the Coastal Communities Museum Trust as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). This all took time as we were a new group who hadn’t worked together before and needed time to get to know each other and work out what we wanted to do. 

We gave ourselves the goal of opening in July 2013. This coincided with the Open Golf tournament coming to Muirfield in East Lothian – and the last time it had come here was in 2002 when we closed. So we wanted to “Reopen for the Open”! It was an intense period of activity, but in hindsight the date gave us the focus we needed to make something happen. 

The reopening was hugely successful – 5500 people came, 45% of them from the local area. The community link is vital to us. We work in partnership with lots of groups and societies and will be relying on them to provide content for the museum. In fact the success of the opening led to demand for us to be open throughout the winter – and it was our partners who came through with the exhibition content. 

We now need to return to basics and work out what kind of organisation we want to be and how we can fund it. Do we want to be an Accredited museum with all that entails? Or do we want to keep a more home-grown community feel? Or both and more? We haven’t yet decided. 

Finance 

We are entirely volunteer run. The Council renovated the museum, gave us some kit, pay our building costs and give us in-kind support. We have a contract for services with them and we deal with all other aspects of running the museum. 

We have had some fundraising success locally as well as from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Awards for All and now have a sub group working on all aspects of generating income. 

Being a museum 

We want to work to professional standards as far as we can. We haven’t yet decided whether we want to apply for Accreditation and anyway we haven’t been operating long enough at the moment. Our collection is owned by East Lothian Council and comes under their collecting policy which is one issue we’d need to discuss first. 

We are most proud of… 

Opening to our July 2013 deadline and welcoming 5500 visitors, many from the local area. That led to public demand for us to remain open during the winter. And doing it all in such a short space of time. 

Our advice for others 

  • Get plenty of support from your community. 
  • Take the time to work out where you want to go and plan ahead. 
  • We are a good example of a community group working partnership with the council and would be happy to advise others. 

The Big Question

One of the most common reasons museums are not successful is over-optimism when estimating how many people will visit and not providing a good enough experience to attract return visits. 

The next step helps you ask the critical questions to help you determine whether your visitor services and offer mean you are a sustainable museum. 

Have you evidenced how many visitors you might attract, and whether this is enough to be sustainable?

If you haven’t, you aren’t viable as a museum. Return to the ‘First Steps’ advice guide to review alternative models. 

Do you have an attractive, accessible space for collections display and visitor activities?

You need to ensure that you have the facilities to create a positive visitor experience. This will secure return visits. 

Have you analysed who is likely to visit your museum, and targeted your marketing towards them?

Without a clear understanding of the profile, interest, and drivers of potential visitors, your museum will struggle to attract the maximum number and range of users. 

Does your planned interpretation encompass the various learning styles of your visitors?

If your museum only addresses your interests, your audience will be limited.  

If you have learning programmes, are they relevant to subjects taught in local schools and colleges?

If they aren’t relevant, your museum will struggle to attract formal and informal learners. 

If you can answer ‘yes’ to all the questions above, proceed to the next guide to explore the expectations placed on museums in collections management and care. 

Resources

Visitors first 

Identifying audiences 

Communication and interpretation 

Formal and informal learning 

Supporting Documents
New Museums Toolkit
(PDF, 2 MB)
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Continue with the New Museums Toolkit

Read our guide to developing and caring for collections