How one arts organization boosted email opens by 15k+
What happens when you ditch product-centric messaging? For one orchestra, it turned into 15,000 more people opening their emails every year.
The New Bedford Symphony Orchestra made that shift, and it’s already paying off.
This month, their email open rates hit 43.2%. That's 5.6% higher year-to-date, and puts them at the very top of their field. (Open rates for the sector hover around 37%, according to industry benchmarks.)
What made the difference? Subject lines that center the consumer’s world.
Last year: "September Newsletter" This year: "Permission to Pause.” One feels like homework. The other feels like an invitation.
That one shift—to audience-first, emotionally resonant language—means:
~300 more people opening every email
~15,000 more views across their full season
Thousands more opportunities to convert interest into ticket sales and donations.
It's a simple but powerful reminder: Your audience doesn't need to know more about what you do. They need to feel understood for who they are.
And it's not just the metrics that are responding.
NBSO is getting direct messages from donors and partners—like a VP at their venue who called the new messaging "a lovely reminder and a great way to connect people to the heart of what you do." Another donor couple called it “fresh, innovative… clever.”
These are more than compliments. They’re signs that this shift is strengthening community goodwill and reinforcing NBSO’s reputation as a relevant, emotionally attuned organization.
It’s proof that emotionally resonant language doesn’t just work—it ripples outward.
