COVID-19: Urgent Communications & Your App
COVID-19 is increasingly and unavoidably at the top of everyone’s minds. We know that it is having a major impact on everyone in arts and culture, and we want to express our support for you. We hope everyone stays safe and healthy.
We’ve seen many communications from our clients start to go out to patrons. To help you keep patrons informed of updates, closures, and cancellations we’ve compiled tips for sharing important information via your app.
Push Notifications
Your app’s push notifications provide a strong vehicle for delivering urgent communications.
App users opt-in to receive your notifications. They want to receive your news.
You can connect push notifications to content in your app or online.
Renaissance Performing Arts Association connects their push notification to their website’s COVID-19 update page.
Push notifications can go out to everyone who has opted-in. You can also target notifications to reach specific groups of patrons.
You can base your targeting on their responses to your app’s Categories and Interests
If your app integrates with Tessitura, you can target your notifications based on Lists. Click here to learn more.
You can send a notification immediately or schedule it for delivery at a specific time.
Home Screen
When the information is this important, it should be one of the first things your patrons see when they open your app.
We recommend using the Cards or Slideshow home screen options in order to grab your app user’s attention.
You can connect your card or slide to additional information in the app or on your website.
St. Louis Symphony places a “Coronavirus Update” card at the top of their home screen with a link to information on their website. 5th Avenue Theatre uses the Slideshow home screen option to place a COVID-19 performance alert as the first slide so that everyone will see it.
Events
If the events in your app sync with Tessitura, then any changes you make for an event on your website should be reflected in the app. Contact us if the event is not displaying correctly.
If you create and edit events in the app’s control panel, here are some options for making changes to event information.
Highlighting Postponements & Cancellations
If you need to postpone or cancel events, we recommend placing “POSTPONED” or “CANCELLED” in front of the event’s title. We also recommend adding a note to the event’s description.
Edmonds Center for the Arts adjusts event titles to clearly convey that they’re postponed. They also reveal the circumstances for the postponement in the event’s description.
Want to remove the “Get Tickets” button from a postponed or cancelled event?
Delete the purchase link from the event’s information in the control panel.
Removing an Event
If you are postponing an event, you can remove it from the app but keep its information in the control panel.
Go to Events. Find the event you need to edit, and select Manage.
Select Status from the menu on the left. (See image below.) Change the status from Online to Pending.
When you have details for the rescheduled event, select Info from the menu. Add the new date, time, venue, and purchase link. Then, change the status back to Online.
If you are cancelling an event, you can remove it entirely by selecting Delete. You will be asked to confirm that want to delete the event.
Mobile Tickets
If your app integrates with Tessitura and has In-App Tickets enabled, any changes you make to tickets in Tessitura will be reflected in the app. This includes reissues and cancellations.
If you’re a Tessitura user who wants to enable In-App Tickets, click here to learn more.
Need Help?
If you need assistance in making changes to your app, please contact support@instantencore.com.