The Mission Paradox Blog

Looking for my 2012 clients

Here's the deal:

Every once in a while I work directly with a handful of individual artists and arts organizations.

For example, this year I worked with a visual artist, a theatre that focuses on highlighting artists with disabilities and a few other interesting folks.

We are headed toward a new year so I wanted to open the door to a few new clients. I'm going to do this the old fashioned way. I'm going to explain what your getting and offer you a discounted price for a limited time.

Technically what I'm offering is called marketing coaching. You are going to come to me with your marketing challenges. Challenges like these:

You need to sell more of your jewerly on Etsy.

You need to build awareness for your Kickstarter campaign.

You need to sell more tickets to your plays.

Then we are going to break your problem down into pieces and tackle the thing one week at a time. We do that through a series of phone calls.

The phone calls last about two hours. At the end of each call, you'll get some homework. DO THE HOMEWORK.

We do that for six weeks, maybe seven if we need it.

At the end of the process you should have some answers to your challenges. That's cool, but that's not the point. The point is the process. The goal is that when the next tricky marketing challenge comes up, you'll have a way of finding your own answers.

The price is normally $750.

If you sign up by Monday, Jan. 2nd, I'll knock it down to $500. I'm comfortable with taking payments in installments. If you need an installment plan, email me and let me know. Payments are done via Paypal.

Need some testimonals, click here

Got questions about the process? Email me at mission.paradox(at)yahoo.com

Ready to get to work? Email me.

Paradox Marketing Plan #4 - Getting your assets in order

One of my most popular posts was this post about assets and marketing.  It's the foundation for Step 4 in the Paradox Arts Marketing Plan, so check it out before moving forward.

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To market effectively you must know what you have.  That's what Step 4 - The Asset Check - is all about.  In this step you will list two different types of assets:

1.  Personal or Organizational Assets - These are the assets that belong to you (as a solo artist) or to the organization that you work with.  Here are some examples:

 

-  Longevity

-  Being a new voice that is rarely heard in the arts

-  A reputation for a particular artistic style

2.  Project Assets - These are unique aspects of the artistic project.  Some examples:

-  A world premiere

-  A particular performer that is popular with the buying public

-  A strong production aspect

-  The ability to leverage the work to reach new audiences

What are the assets?  Write them down.  Now decide which assets you want to use as part of your marketing campaign.  I'll give you an example, for the first production of my day job's 11/12 season we are going to leverage these assets:

1.  The playwright.  A fairly well known individual

2.  The cast.  We will have members of the cast that are well known to our target audience.

3.  Organization reputation.  We have done work similiar to this in the past that was well received.

When people see the marketing for the work, it will focus on one of those three things.  That is our way of explaining why people should see the art.

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Alright, let's review your art marketing plan:

You have a set of clearly stated goals.

You have a timeline.

Now you have a listing of assets which will be the focus of the marketing.

But of course you can't talk about assets without talking about liabilities.  That's next.

 

Paradox Marketing Plan #3 - The Time Factor

Time is one of the most vital, but unappreciated, marketing factors.  Great ideas fall apart because they were not given the time they needed to full develop.

So, once you have set your goals, the next question is how much time do you need to make everything work?

My basic rule is to estimate the time you need, then add 20% to that estimate.  If you think you need eight weeks to execute your marketing plan, give yourself 10 weeks.  If you think you need four months, take five months.

There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is that things also go wrong when executing a plan.  Things get delayed.  Mistakes happen.  That's just how it is.  Your timeline should account for that.

The second reason is that the buying public you want to engage is extremely forgetful.  You need time to remind them, constantly, of the work you are doing.  Time is a crucial element of that process.

Also remember that there is a connection between the time you spend on marketing and the money you spend on marketing. 

Basically, the less money you are spending the more time you need.

So if you're trying to let the world know about your upcoming album and you get spend money to promote it . . . then you better give yourself plenty of time.

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Now your arts marketing plan should have three elements:

Strategic Objectives

Financial Objectives

The amount of time you need to execute the plan.

There's much more to come, but you're off to a good start.

 

Paradox Marketing Plan #2 - Financial Goals

So you've decided what your strategic marketing goals should be.  Now let's talk about the money. 

First, please revisit this post on setting financial objectives.  It talks about some of the elements you should consider when determining those goals.  I've been preaching using those elements, wisely, for years.  So why revisit the issue?

I want to talk about it again because there are two elements in setting financial goals, technical and emotional.

Getting past the technical elements is easy.  Managing the emotion in the process is hard.  Every artists I have ever met wants more.  More audience.  More revenue.  The same is true for organizations.  It can be hard to admit that a project that you're passionate about doesn't have a lot of revenue potential. 

That creates a lot of pressure to increase those projections.

In my experience, the best way to manage that pressure is through transparency.  Write down all the elements that figure into a financial decision.  Paper is a powerful weapon.  It's a lot tougher to argue with things that live on paper.  Also be sure to make these revenue conversations as vocal and public as possible.

In pressure filled environment, revenue projections need daylight.  Click the link above to learn what should go onto those goals, put it on paper, talk about it in public and always remember that this is an emotional process.

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Next up: a primer on time and it's role in marketing.

 

Paradox Art Marketing Plan #1 - Double Goals

Alright, time to switch things up a bit.  For the next several weeks posts will come Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  For this first series of post, I'm going to dive into the fundamentals of marketing art.

My hope is that you'll use this series of post to build your own marketing plan.  Let's start at the beginning, setting the goals:

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Every marketing plan should have two sets of goals, financial goals and long term strategic goals.  I'll cover financial goals in another post, but right now let's talk about long term strategy.

Most artists are natural project managers.  There's an upcoming event, an art exhibition, a play, a series of film screenings, etc.  

Because of this there is a reflex to focus on the short term.  Everything is about getting the next thing up and running.

The issue is that artistic careers and organizations are built over the long term.  No matter how urgent the current moment feels, there should always be progress toward long term goals.

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Let's use an example of a writer who is preparing to launch her book.  Even if she's working with a publisher, she's smart enough to know that she needs to do some things on her own.

Time to break out the double goal approach.  The first goal can be about sales:

Goal:  Sell 10,000 books in six months.

Now let's consider the long term strategic goal.  Here are some ideas: 

Collect 5,000 email address (for future marketing purposes).

Build relationships with 10 fellow writers (for future partnerships).

Cultivate 1,000 new book buyers (to build the audience base) 

Each one of these goals are about the long term. 

What's important to remember is that both sets of goals are EQUALLY important.  If our author sells 10,000 books, but doesn't build 10 good relationships with fellow writers then it was a failure.

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That's the double goal approach.  It's a tangible way to make sure there is a focus on both the short and long term.  Make sure you write down both goals AND that the goals are freely shared with your entire team.

On Wednesday, we will discuss setting good, reasonable, financial objectives.

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Couple of plugs:

If you're looking for more help on creating marketing that is both authentic and effective then consider picking up a copy of Authentic Arts Marketing.  It's available on the Kindle and any Kindle compatible device (IPAD, PC, etc.)

If you want more long term help, then consider some private marketing coaching.  Details are here