The 100 Best

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------When I'm working with artists or arts organizations, I often start with this question:

Who are your 100 best customers?

By that I mean who are the 100 people who ALWAYS show up for a production? 

Who are the 100 people who always pick up your stuff when you put it in the Etsy shop? 

Who are the people that you KNOW would donate to your Kickstarter campaign?

If you ponder this question for a while, you may realize something:

You actually have best customers!

Maybe not a 100 people.  Maybe it's only 50, or 20.  But right now you probably have a few people, outside of friends and family, who are really supportive of what you do.

A huge part of good marketing is recognizing, rewarding and cultivating those people.

One of our greatest sins in the arts is that we spend a lot of time trolling for new bodies and much less time (and money) showing that we notice and care about those who are already involved in our work.

I understand why we do this.  A life in the arts is often a life in constant pursuit of more.  More bodies.  More grants.  More money.

But consider what could happen if you spent more of your time interacting with and engaging your current audience and then trusted them to do the hard work of bringing more people to your art.

You take care of them, they spread the word about the art.  Great companies are built on this principle.  Starbucks didn't advertise for YEARS.  Zappos built a billion dollar brand on delivering good customer service and then letting those customers rave about the company.

If it worked for them, it could work for you.

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Comments

[Rebecca Zellar]

I was just thinking, Mr. Adam, that some share buttons would be lovely to have on your blog entries. I'm planning on cutting and pasting your link to share this on facebook and twitter, but ... I could just do it with one or two clicks if those buttons were added. Love this entry. :-)