Art of Marketing You–Getting Started

At the PMC Guild Conference in Purdue, IN this year, I presented The Art of Marketing.  It was well received and I promised I’d work through the presentation on the blog.  I’ll go through each slide shot and discuss the information presented.  The first group of slides were overviews of the material I would be covering.  I’ll list them and if there is no discussion, it’s because it will be discussed later. So let’s get started!

I started off my presentation showing images of well-known artists: Celie Fago, Gail Crosman Moore, Todd Reed, Jeffrey Lloyd Dever, Robert Dancik, Ford and Forlano, Kelly Russell, and Gordon Ueyhara.  I asked the crowd to say the artist’s name if they recognized the work or if they could recognize the logo presented.  More often than not, the work was recognized more than the logo.  This is how it should be for an artist.  Your work is your product and your brand.  It should be recognizable.  Is it?  Pick up a book like 1000 Rings, PMC Decade or the recent PMC Annual and see if you can pick out the artist.  This will be a good lead for you on a role model.  It will be someone you can use for your competitive analysis (see below, which will be discussed later).

I wanted to find a slogan for my presentation.  With this being a pivotal time in America, I wanted to give everybody a slogan (and button) that would resonate with the times.  A get back to basics thought or idea stated by someone who was one of our greatest forefathers.  This was one of 78 quotes Ben Franklin gifted us with in his book, Way to Wealth.  I wanted to give the attendees something to post in their studios to remind them to market everyday.  To remind them take the steps to successfully marketing their dream, their work, their passion.  If you didn’t get a button, then print it out and post it in your studio.  It’s a great way to jump start the beginning of your day!  Success doesn’t come without hard work, effort, planning, and determination.  Are you willing to put in what it takes to market yourself?

“Success starts with you and ends with you.” 

“Self Marketing is a 24 hour a day obligation.  You are a brand.  A business of ONE!”

“You ARE committed to take your business to the next level or start a business you’ve been contemplating.”

“Marketing used to be the 4 P’s: Product, Place, Promotion and Price.  Now it’s the P.I.C.S.:

 

• Process- planning and executing
• Identify- your target market
• Communicate why the consumer needs your product
• Spur the consumer to take action and make the purchase”

“So let’s break it down: What’s on your marketing road map?

 

• Plan your business. You need to develop a personal strategic plan.  This is also referred to as a Position Statement.  This is your internal business compass.  Have you figured out if you are pointing in the right direction?     
• Mission Statement: The heart of your business!  

  “Assess Yourself…. 
This is also called a competitive analysis.   
SWOT: strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities, threats” 

“What do you want?

What are your goals and objectives?  It’s all good to say you want to be successful, but what does that really mean?  Is your goal to have money, notoriety, work for yourself, be in a great environment or to be your own boss?”

This is a great place to start this marketing discussion.  What are your goals?  If you have no specific goals or you aren’t willing to commit them to paper, then stop reading here.  You aren’t ready to commit to success.  You must be willing to commit it all to paper. Start a journal, a notepad, anything.  Write down why you want to be an artist, sell your work, produce pieces, etc.  Ask yourself whether you want to sell your work, write a book, teach, sell products, write articles?  What would you focus on first, and then next?  Where do you see yourself in 6 months, a year, two years, five years, etc.  Start now.  Grab your paper, get a cup of joe, and begin on the path of success.  Ask yourself these questions.  You can’t market until you know what your goals are.  You can’t market a product (yourself) until you know who that is, what you will offer, and why.  It’s simple, but a step missed by many.

So let’s start there.  Please share some of your goals with me.  Share them with the other readers. Share what you did this week to begin to plan your marketing road map, road blocks or stumbling points, etc.  We will work through this together.   Take the challenge.  For those of you that want to participate, we’ll start a yahoo discussion group just for those that want to participate by either emailing me or posting a comment.