Category: Promote Yourself

Market Yourself and Your Business

Have you heard of DIYdigi.com? If not, DIYdigi is an organization of freelance professionals dedicated to helping create for DIYdigi tools to market yourself or your business.

Are You a DIY Type Person?

How does this help you? It means you can have DIYdigi create for you digital tools that you in turn can use to DIY (Do It Yourself).

Get Your eBook

How do you get started working with DIYdigi.com? The best method is to visit their website where there will soon be a newsletter form for which it could have as a means of not only contacting them but possibly getting an eBook as well.

Finding Resources

One thing that artists can never get enough of is business resources for the creative entrepreneur within, or shall we say, ArtisticPreneur. There are many programs that help artists with the careers, you just have to look for them in your community. In fact, depending on your financial situation you can even find free stuff. Also, there are websites like Artist Steps that help you stay on track. Additionally, ArtisticPreneurs are recognized for making a difference by awards shows such as Big Apple Awards, formerly known as the Platinum PIAs.

Look for Community

You want to always look for community while seeking out resources. This is because in addition to navigating your artistic and business career, you need to nurture those who can appreciate your work. You could call them fans but we prefer supporters.

Supporters Support

In this addition of ArtisticPreneur we hope to provide you with the tips, guidance, skills, and inspiration necessary to flourish as an ArtisticPreneur. Our mission is to support artists and creative entrepreneurs in their effort to achieve their goals, both with their art as well as from a business standpoint.

One of the First Things You Should Do is Monitor Yourself

Dig down deep. Are you happy or are you tortured. If you are tortured is recommended you get help, because even through there is a myth that tortured artists do the best work, the reality these days is that you need to a positive outlook as you move forward.

Will Having a Manager Solve Your Problems?

An ArtisticPreneur can be an artist who sidesteps the traditional paths to success as an artist and independently sells their art. A creative person with business acumen, is more likely to succeed. Some performing artists seek having management thinking this will solve all their problems.

The Reality of Managers

Having a manager will not solve all your problems. You must understand the business of the artistic expression that you have selected. Why? Because many managers are not so much interested in helping their clients. Instead, they are looking to hook up with someone who is already on the path of success. Why? Because then they can more effortlessly have a cash cow from which to collect profits. Artists need to see the bigger picture as sometimes explored on sites like Artist Steps.

No Conference Plans at the Moment

Many have suggested that we here at ArtisticPreneur start a conference or “trade show” for artistic people to learn how to integrate business know how into their practice so that they have more of an ability to navigate through the issues to attain successes. We here at ArtisticPreneur want you to succeed.

What is Success?

It is truly a myth that an artistic person can’t be successful as an artist and a successful person can’t be creative. This mindset keeps the ArtisticPreneur from moving in her or his career. Although it is nice to be recognized by awards shows like the Big Apple Awards, you need to keep your inner life solid to be able to work through the storms.

Work Smart

A lot of people who are ArtisticPreneurs get stuck with what they are doing. They may take a seminar or class about making money with their craft only to find that many of the strategies don’t work and the depressing (for some) reality that it is not working harder but rather is about working smarter. Yes, we know it is a cliché but it is more true these days than ever.

Communication is Good

In this post we’re going to take a look at a simple marketing tactic you might want to try. It is not given in actionable steps but in the manner used by Artist  Steps you do so. Also, this is a communication undertaking where everyone wins: the prospects and those doing the implementing! Communication can be a good thing! Communication is key to the development of the Big Apple Awards that helped ArtisticPreneur with this post.

Needs a Trade Show

Here’s how it works. First you write a letter with a somewhat press release feel, that is addressed to the businesses (prospects) who are the exhibiters in a trade show or convention of some sort.

Emails vs Social Media

Get the exhibitors’ info off of the website of the event and do further research if need be to get their email addresses or social info (though emails tend to work best depending on the demographic your are targeting).

Need for a Blog

The thing that makes this different than an exhibitor targeting play is that you place the press release “letter” that you wrote on the website of the blog that is doing the story. Did we mention there is a blog involved? The blog is in the industry that the exhibitors are from. This is important. It is much like the idea that ArtisticPreneur.com and ArtistSteps.org share an audience so they could help each other out.

Your Story

The idea with the initial outreach you make with the exhibitors is that you are seeking content from the trade show and encourage the vendors to email you back with any pre/during/post stories they have of their own experience of the event. And in some cases, those participating could be nominated for Big Apple Awards if the work they are doing makes a difference in the community.

Mail it Twice

The bottom line is that you need to have a legitimate blog for which you need content. Some exhibitors will respond to you and some of them will not. One thing you can do to up the chances of getting a response from them is to email them the same message you did earlier, just before the happening.

Don’t Forget the Link

And in the same manner as you did the first time you emailed them, you’ll want to link to the blog version of the letter that has all the info on it they’ll need to submit to you.

Always Have Transparency

Again, communication and benefit for all is the key here. The exhibitors get their business publicized and you start to develop relationships with them. There is a transparency to it because of linking to the online version of the letter.

Proven to Work

This works great for us and we’ve done many variations on it including from our days of being a nonprofit sponsored entity.

Get to Know Your Audience

First off, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

More than ever knowing who your audience is and how to reach them is as important as ever. In this, the digital age, there should no longer be the wasteful spending of the old guard of marketing and a newer and fresher approach should be used instead. That is what we are going to discuss in this current blog and newsletter offering.

Save Yourself Time, Aggravation and Even Money

To start out with, think of it this way. Have you been considering lately what marketing approach is going to be best for you? If so, stop thinking about the tools and contemplate instead WHO is YOUR audience. Until you are clear on this inside and out all the marketing gadgets in the world are not going to help you.

A Great Tool

Do your research before you start paying for marketing. There are a lot of great tools out there including Google! Google what you know thus far about your audience and follow through on searches leading you to other ones and more. The idea is to not just understand who your GENERAL audience is but your SPECIFIC one.

A Source of Research

Once you get a handle on your audience, dig still deeper. Look at what your competition is doing in terms of targeting their audience. If you see strategies that resonate with you, consider integrating them in your own way. Remember, in the end it’s all about how YOU are DIFFERENT from the rest. What is your competitive advantage? Why would a customer, client or fan want to go with you rather than another?

Who Are They?

If you want to do what pro marketers do, then create a profile of who your ideal client is. Put in as much information as possible into it in a way that is going to be helpful to you. What is their age? Their hobbies? Their belief systems? And so on.

Keep Learning

And the great thing is that as you get clearer on your ultimate customer, as well as applying relevant and well fitting marketing, you will begin to get actual clients. As you get clients, analyze who they are. Are they from your perfect audience? Maybe not, which likely means you are going to want to update your profile.

The Journey

In short, finding your perfect audience and marketing to them is a long and ongoing journey filled with learning and even fun!

Income Generating

My brother Mark, who is a website and marketing guy like I am, calls it: “Monetizing Your Life.” It’s roughly described as being the act of taking the elements of your existence and converting them into a way of creating income.

All it takes is Motivation

In a certain sense this relates to living your life in a state of reality-based TV, except all your dramatic moments become a products or services. Clearly someone with a web marketing process background is probably best suited for this, but in truth it can be done by anyone who is self-aware and motivated.

If Kim can Do It So Can YOU

Why would anyone want to turn their drama into consumer problems to be solved for which you offer the solution, for a price? In theory it could be an interesting lifestyle that you might enjoy. And there are examples of people who do this such as Kim Kardashian and other reality stars with their lifestyle brands.

Problems Become Solutions

But if you are interested in monetizing your life you don’t have to do it like reality stars do. You can turn your problems into solutions for others in the form of eBooks.

Bundle Your Conflicts

Ebooks are easy to create and sell online, and there is a big market for them. If you wanted to do this as a monetizing your life process, this would involve taking every conflict that comes up in your life and making something concrete out of it to put out there as a PDF for others to purchase. But the key is to do so quickly! Like this blog/newsletter post you are reading that was written in less than a half an hour!

Who Would Have Thought Selfies Could Become “Ka-ching?”

Why would anyone in her or his right mind want to do this? It could be fun especially if you’re the kind of individual who puts every last bit of her or his being on Facebook complete with selfies and hyped up descriptions of “exciting” things that happen to you.

Giving the People What They Want

Simply take those impulses and make eBooks out of them that solve a problem for the consumer. You can still put your selfies online in the form of photos or video, but now you do it with something that folks can buy.

Anyone Out There Who is Doing This?

If you monetize your life we’re very interested in talking to you. Please send details to info@videofilmweb.com. Meanwhile, even if you don’t, why not give it a whirl? Worst case scenario you might end up with an eBook that doesn’t sell, but heck, in that instance you can contact me (simply hit “reply” if you’re reading this as a newsletter) or Mark (at Off Media) to assist you in marketing (MARKeting) it!

Y.E.S.

Do You Feel You MUST Have a Newsletter?

Many businesses and artists are told to have email newsletters. But why have one? It depends on what you are you trying to achieve.

Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down for Newsletters?

Logic could reveal that people aren’t interested in receiving email newsletters but in fact studies reveal that more people WANT to receive email newsletters as opposed to people who DO NOT want this form of correspondence.

Can You Get Clients with a Newsletter?

If you’re doing a newsletter you need to be upfront about your motives. For example, for my newsletter it’s a kind of “giving back” thing. Sure I’d love to get clients through doing it, but the fact is that I would do a newsletter regardless of getting any clients or not!

Triple Types of Subscribers

There are basically three different types of people who will subscribe to your newsletter: (1) those who will never buy your products or services (2) those who will always buy them and (3) those who are on the fence and could go either way.

Nurture Your Readers

Be careful to provide content of value or your subscriber will unsubscribe. But even if this happens, it’s not the end of the world. It just means one less person who wasn’t rooting for the team (whatever that means, I shouldn’t be trying to use sports metaphores because I’m a juggler).

Credibility from Having a Newsletter?

You can use newsletters to get more people to believe that you are credible. Of course you need to be credible. If you’re not credible then best not strive to achieve credibility. I just wanted to see how many times I could write the word credible and it’s variations.

Other Uses of Your Email Newsletter

Another fun and useful thing about newsletters is that you can use them to test marketing ideas. For example, I’m often not quite sure what to use as the subject line because interest by your list of subscribers can change. So for us it’s never quite clear what is going to get someone to actually open an email. I try to be as on-topic as I can be because there’s nothing worse than someone expecting one thing from the subject line and the when opening and reading the newsletter they get disappointed.

How Timely are Email Newsletters?

Some “experts” say that email newsletters are going to go out soon. Interestingly enough, many people have email on their phones. So this means you can reach people on their mobiles! Seven or so years ago everyone thought the rave for advertising was going to be text messages. But that didn’t work out quite like that. Email newsletters won the battle!

DigiComArts seems to be offering more information lately that has to do with promotion and marketing. In their current offering they are outlining 10 quick and easy tips that you can use to advance your career as an ArtisticPreneur!

The 10 tips can be found here.