Growing your group and audiences

In the spring edition of Highnotes, we explore the wealth of data contributed by our members in the Big Survey 2022, revealing insights about the leisure-time music community. We provide updates on our inclusion project, INCLUDE, and share what the selected groups will get up to over the new year. We also interview conductor Bradley Wilson, who shares his experience of curating a concert experience for a younger audience and the valuable lessons learnt along the way. 

It can be very difficult to get new people to discover your music group. But with our handy resource for beginners, you too can start using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to improve your website’s search rankings.

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Understanding how the demographics of your members or audiences compare to the make-up of your geographical community can be helpful when planning your strategy, performances, or community engagement plans.  

We have created a census comparison survey to help leisure-time music groups collect data from people who belong to your group, or attend your events, so you can directly compare it to the UK government's Census 2021.  

Joanna Burdett, chair of Llysfaen Singers, tells us how, by making small changes over time, the choir have managed to successfully grow their membership.

In this recording of our webinar, our guest speakers discussed different ways of engaging with your communities.

If you’re looking to connect with new members and audiences, getting out into your community with performances and workshops could invigorate your group and help you reach more people. In this event, we heard from two UK-wide organisations that put on annual events that you can use as a springboard in your own community. Plus, a member group talked about how they filled an entire year with exciting collaborations and performances. 

Finding new members for your group requires commitment and effort over a prolonged period of time. So, once they have joined, it’s important they keep coming. This resource looks at what you can do to make sure your members stay engaged and happy in your group.

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Recruiting new members is the biggest challenge leisure-time music groups face. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science and there are no quick fixes, but there are some improvements you can make. Work your way through this five-part toolkit to help you build a recruitment strategy, starting with thinking about who you want to recruit.

The joining journey

When someone joins, it is probably due to a combination of multiple circumstances and influences that could take place over days or even years.