Serious business

I have had the opportunity to watch some folks I know wade ever deeper into the business of creativity. 

One friend, Lizzie Newell is a writer. She explores a world with its own sexual and environmental situations. But in addition to the pure writing there is the whole editing and marketing process.
She is blessed with the talent to design book covers for herself and a few others, but the effort she takes to understand self publishing, because her stories do not fit into a neatly defined mass market box that publishers push on unsuspecting readers is amazing. There are places for independent sellers and small scale publishers to get their product made and on the shelves, but it takes a lot of hustle.

Other friends have opened businesses as the outlet for their creative endeavors. Happily Carol at the Screaming Weasel in North Pole has recruited other artists (including me) to sustain and diversify her inventory.

I have also seen the efforts of other artists who network continually to get shows and their name out to galleries and businesses to hang their work for first Friday art walks or in pop up shops. or marketing through Facebook groups, Etsy, Ebay, Craig's list, and their own websites.

I find myself wondering if I would ever really have the energy and drive it takes to follow any similar paths. Because as many hours as they spend marketing their work they still find time to create new works for the public to enjoy and desire and buy. 

And more than anything I would need the confidence in what I produce to market at the intensity that I would need to to make it pay me.

finding like minded people. Communities within communities

Finding people who like what you like or do what you do can be difficult if you get too narrow in your focus. Some of you maybe asking why you should care about the support of other people doing similar things in your area. There are a myriad of reasons.
Competition: if you are showing or selling your work it is good to know you else is competing for the attention and the money. 
Cooperation: you can share tips about where to find supplies, how to market and how to avoid having side by side booths at the county fair.
Support: its good to know other people have the same thought processes and they may have experienced many of the same hurdles you have. 
Introduction: you can share information about other people in you local crafting community.

So how do you find these like minded people?
Networking. 
Be social when you are at vendor venues. Talk to the customers, but also the other vendors.  When you are not a vendor at a venue go and look around and introduce yourself. Almost everybody appreciates making more connections to people.

Have a card. Having business cards (even if you are not a business) means people can invite you to events you do not hear about through the usual channels. Hand them out and make sure you have an email address that people can use. if you have a webpage or FB page let people know. You do not need to have a physical/mailing address or phone number on the card. But and image and a few words that describe what you do is a great idea. 

Pick up cards too. This gives you a way to start looking at how other artists are marketing themselves. Maybe this can lead to a discussion or the discovery of a class about marketing for the artist. 

Have an on-line presence. You do not need an extravagant webpage to grab people's attention and Facebook is only one facet you should consider when developing your on-line space. Be careful though not to let the on-line pages become your focus instead of your art. Static pages that are rather like a super version of your business card but that do not need constant updating, unless you want to add to your gallery is a good plan. Make sure your business card and your fb page direct people to you webpage as well. On-line markets are also important to connect to all your other on-line media.

Go to events. The more you are seen the more you are known. Marketing at local craft bazaars and shops works great when possible buyers can meet the artist. Gallery walks and such get you known in your own communities.

We should not be afraid to make connections. We should not fear that what we do will lose the mystery or the magic because we are in touch with our communities. Reach out and find more reasons to make connections.

learning about marketing

Yesterday as I sat a very slow bazaar I had a conversation about marketing with someone who used to do it for a living.
He explained that for someone like me: basically a hobby artist the best form of advertising was exactly what I was doing. Getting out in the community, making connections on facebook, and etsy. Joining art clubs and guilds and associating with people with similar interests.
I do admit I need to spend more time on the Etsy store or explore the facebook store concept. But as a hobbiest I tend to ignore the value of the time spent on promoting since my bottom line is not compelled by successful sales. I do admit I prefer to have a busy sales day at a bazaar rather than not even recoup my table fee. But I do get exposure to people who may not buy this time. but maybe next time as my products are now in their mental catalog.
I am also working on some table cards to go with some of the more "complex" items or the ones that have stories or explanations.

So my take away for the slow day at the bazaar was to learn as much as I could from other vendors and to get some exposure for the work I do.

creativity and marketing

In these tough economic times marketing yourself or your product effectively becomes more crucial and more difficult at the same time. There are more and more outlets for making those connections, but doing it the wrong way can be far more devastating than missing a few opportunities.
Here is an example. I belong to a group of artists whose work is sold through a particular outlet. the group of people that runs the outlet occasionally sends out an email with news about the shop or monthly events and classes. By accident one day they sent out their email without the bcc protection on everybody's email addresses. I personally barely noticed this glitch. however one person whose product was marketed there took all those email addresses and began a marketing campaign. Spam hit everyone's email accounts. and while it was not voracious amounts it was a little disconcerting to get offers for products I had no interest in. The folks who made the inital mistakes have been trying to get the spammer to give up the use of these addresses. Since they have refused the store has recommended that people block the incoming email address. but I will probably do more. I had seen and heard of this tea shop before the spam started and had even talked about joining my coworkers on a little shopping trip there, but now I will very likely share this story and encourage them not to give their business to an operation that would take advantage of such a mistake.

So then the question is where and how to use as many tool as you can to reach the audience you want. There are lots of options to consider and that will be the topic of my next essay eventually.