No longer places of quiet reflection—museums have evolved into dynamic cultural hubs competing for attention in a digital-first world. But with limited staff, tight budgets, and increasing pressure to engage audiences, how can your museum do it all?
The answer: marketing automation.
HubSpot for Nonprofits offers museums powerful tools to streamline communication, nurture relationships, and supercharge outreach efforts.
Before diving into how HubSpot automations can transform your outreach, do you know where your tech stack stands today? Take our Check My Tech quiz to see if your tools are helping—or holding you back.
Now let’s dig in.
In this blog, we’ll cover eight HubSpot automations your museum can use right now to elevate your next marketing campaign, from driving ticket sales to delighting donors.
Why Museums Need Marketing Automation
Museums often face a familiar set of challenges: stretched-thin teams, siloed data, and manual processes that eat up time. Marketing automation addresses these pain points by simplifying workflows, enabling more personalized communication, and ensuring no opportunity is left untapped.
In fact, museums that embrace marketing automation report:
By leveraging HubSpot’s robust features, your museum can focus on what matters most: delivering an exceptional visitor experience.
Let’s dive into eight specific automations to start with.
1. Welcome Series for New Subscribers
What It Does: Automatically sends a series of onboarding emails when someone subscribes to your newsletter or mailing list.
Why It Matters: First impressions are everything. Use this automation to introduce your museum, share its mission, and highlight upcoming events or popular exhibits.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Builds excitement, drives early engagement, and creates a strong connection from the get-go.
2. Event Registration Follow-Up
What It Does: Sends confirmation emails, reminders, and post-event thank-you notes to attendees after they register for an event.
Why It Matters: Clear communication improves the attendee experience and ensures higher participation rates.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Reduces no-shows, boosts engagement, and makes visitors feel appreciated.
3. Membership Renewal Reminders
What It Does: Triggers a series of emails leading up to a member’s renewal date, with links to renew their membership online.
Why It Matters: Retaining members is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. This automation helps keep your membership base stable.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Reduces membership churn and ensures a steady stream of revenue.
4. Abandoned Ticket Purchase Recovery
What It Does: Identifies visitors who started buying tickets but didn’t complete the purchase, then sends follow-up emails to encourage them to finish.
Why It Matters: People get distracted. A well-timed nudge can recapture these lost sales opportunities.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Boosts ticket sales and ensures your events are well-attended.
5. Personalized Exhibit Recommendations
What It Does: Sends tailored recommendations for exhibits or events based on a visitor’s preferences, previous visits, or ticket purchases.
Why It Matters: Personalization drives engagement. Show visitors that you understand their interests and keep them coming back.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Encourages repeat visits and deepens connections with your audience.
6. Donor Appreciation Updates
What It Does: Automatically sends a thank-you email after a donation, followed by updates on how their contribution is making an impact.
Why It Matters: Donors want to know their support matters. Keep them engaged by showing exactly how their funds are being used.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Builds trust and encourages repeat donations.
7. Visitor Feedback Collection
What It Does: Sends a survey to visitors after their trip to gather feedback on their experience.
Why It Matters: Understanding what works (and what doesn’t) is crucial for improving operations and visitor satisfaction.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Provides valuable insights and demonstrates that you care about your audience’s opinions.
8. Birthday and Anniversary Greetings
What It Does: Sends personalized emails for birthdays or membership anniversaries, including special offers or discounts.
Why It Matters: Small gestures go a long way in making your audience feel valued.
Example Workflow:
Impact: Strengthens loyalty and encourages continued engagement.
Make Museum Marketing Magic Happen
Each of these automations is designed to save time, increase efficiency, and foster meaningful connections with your museum’s visitors, members, and donors. But here’s the kicker: automation is just the beginning.
HubSpot doesn’t just execute tasks—it gives you the tools to level up your strategy with segmentation, data insights, and seamless integrations. Here’s how you can go beyond basic automation to make an even greater impact:
Automation is powerful, but pairing it with smart segmentation makes it unstoppable. HubSpot lets you create custom segments based on behavior, preferences, demographics, and more. For example, segment your audience into first-time visitors, loyal members, and lapsed donors to tailor your messaging for each group.
Combine with Automation: A membership renewal reminder becomes even more effective when targeted only to members whose attendance has dropped in the last 6 months.
Combine with Automation: Automatically add lapsed donors to a re-engagement campaign or encourage past event attendees to sign up for an upcoming exhibit based on their interests.
Your museum likely uses tools like Eventbrite for ticketing, Mailchimp for newsletters, or a donor database like Blackbaud. HubSpot’s integrations bring everything into one cohesive system, eliminating data silos and enabling a smoother visitor experience.
Combine with Automation: Sync event registrations from Eventbrite directly into HubSpot, and trigger follow-up automations like thank-you emails or pre-event reminders—without needing manual input.
Combine with Automation: Use this data to refine future workflows. If analytics show that event reminders sent three days in advance get higher engagement, adjust your automation workflows accordingly.
HubSpot’s CRM also uses predictive insights to forecast donor behavior, visitor trends, and campaign outcomes. This allows you to focus resources where they’ll make the most impact.
Combine with Automation: Predict when a major donor might lapse based on inactivity and preemptively launch a personalized stewardship campaign to retain their support.
Each visitor, member, and donor deserves to feel seen and valued. HubSpot’s marketing automation—when paired with its segmentation, insights, and integrations—helps museums deliver just that.
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Nonprofit Tech Shop & MNHS Collab: A Case Study in Success Dive into our detailed case study on the MNHS transformation, and discover how your institution can achieve similar results:
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