Work on Creating Better Experiences for Your Target Market

You already know that the world doesn't need more messages.

We get enough of them. All day. 

So when you think about having to "market" your creative work it becomes a bit daunting. 

We get those negative feelings coming in because we don't like being marketed to and we don't like advertisments.

Or do we?

I know. You're expecting me to defend advertising and marketing because I'm a digital marketer. But I'm not going to defend advertising and marketing.

I'm going to defend GOOD advertising and GOOD marketing.

The kind of highly targeted and helpful marketing that a good digital marketer specializes in doesn't have to come with baggage. We're not selling spam. You're not getting Viagra emails from us.

In fact, unless you're someone who is interested in art or photography, in some aspect, then I likely am not going to bother you. You won't even know I exist (unless you friended me on Facebook becuase we went to school together but even Facebook fixes most of that).

The world doesn't need more messages. What we need are better messages. Better messages about better products that will make our lives better in some way. Otherwise they are wasting our time and we don't want to bother with it. 

Think about that last sentence. ...we dont want to BOTHER with it.

When you're looking at marketing your art work, your photography, or your gallery don't bother people.

Help them. Inspire them. Find the people who are already in the market for your goods and help them discover what your products or services offer. Educate them on how doing business with you will enhance their lives. 

That's what good marketing really is. It's helpful. 

I love that cookies have enabled marketers to track our Internet browsing habits. I'm not saying this as a marketer. I'm saying this as a consumer. 

When I'm browsing the Internet, and Google knows what I'm reading, and Facebook knows what I like, I'm less likely to get ads that are bothersome. 

That's a better experience for me and I'm sure it's a better experience for you. I'm bothered less by things that aren't of interest to me because my browsing and shopping history and ads are more targeted and helpful. People are finding me based on my interests and location and that means I'm more likely to actually need their services.

Think about those things when you're looking at branching out your creative marketing. Think about how your target audience can have a better experience online becuase of your marketing efforts and you will find that your creative business will be better off.

Successful Art Marketing Requires Some Sacrifices

How do you define success?

Success by yourdoku - CC

Here's how I define it:

You are successful when you are able to take full control of your life instead of waiting for unseen circumstances to bring success to you.

Marketing yourself as an artist or photographer is about letting go of the notions that luck will bring you money and fame and that you can take charge of your own financial destiny.

Ensure that specific success points will happen in your business because of your actions, your decisions, and your personal abilities.

You have the power to decide TODAY that you will make things happen. You're not going to wait for something to happen someday. You're going to take control of your life and your business now!

Success will come to you when you take full control.

There are sacrifices along the way.

That's just part of making your dreams come true.

You'll sacrifice some of the time you would otherwise be creating your art. Or making photographs.

This time will be spent on marketing your work and selling prints or services.

Of course, it should also be noted, you'll spend more time doing administrative duties tied to your business like accounting, ordering supplies, fulfilling orders, etc.

But those are the marks of success!

It's about choices.

Know what you really want to do.

But make no mistake, you won't be able to spend all of your time creating art. People have to be able to find it. You have to be able to sell it. You have to put time into marketing.

If you really want something you can achieve it. But you have to make sacrifices along the way.

7 Articles and 3 Videos on Social Media to Get You Through Your Weekend

    I'm considering doing a weekly link roundup of digital marketing and social media articles, videos, and other interesting tidbits found around the web. Here's my first shot at it. I'll work on different formatting along the way. I'd love to hear some feedback.

Do you find these helpful?

5 Ways Social Media Will Change The Way You Work in 2013 - Forbes

forbes.com - Ryan Holmes is CEO of HootSuite, a social media management system with 5 million users. In the nine short years since Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, social media has evolved from dorm ro...

How Non-Profits Relied on Social Media in 2012 [INFOGRAPHIC]

mashable.com - Fundraising for non-profits is no easy task. No matter how noble the cause, getting folks to part with their hard-earned cash presents a tricky challenge. But, more than ever, non-profits are relyi...

How to manage and curate social media for live events

econsultancy.com - Posted 12 December 2012 12:52pm by Tamara Littleton with 0 comments Today, live events and social media go hand in hand. Get your social media management right and you can enhance the live event ex...

How to Use Google Analytics to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

socialmediaexaminer.com - Have you ever wanted to know which of your links are driving more traffic? Seeing referral traffic from Facebook is great, but which wall post drove the traffic? Do visitors who come from Twitter t...

So You Think You Can Do Social Media Marketing?

socialmediatoday.com - Everyone can create a business Facebook page.  My friend admitted that her 19 year old neighbor created one for her father’s small business. "It was for free," she said, "about a year ago." Soon af...

If Facebook & Co Made Everyone Honest Christmas Cards

simplyzesty.com - With there being only thirteen days (and counting) until Christmas, the holiday is in full swing as people buy gifts, arrange to see loved ones and send out Christmas cards, lots of Christmas cards...

Six simple social media tips to get you noticed

econsultancy.com - Posted 12 December 2012 10:25am by Matt Owen with 0 comments There are loads of ways to stand out on social media platforms, but frankly nothing beats due diligence and knowing what the hell you’re...

Are You Using Tags, Labels, and Categories to Organize Your Website?

Everyone has a digital camera. Even people who don't consider themselves "photographers".

My mother has one. My father has a nice DSLR (although in his youth he did fancy himself a photographer) he uses it primarily to take pictures of his grandkids.

If you chose photography as a vocation you likely have your digital photos organized through a program like Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture.

If you aren't a "photographer" you may try to utilize iPhoto or maybe Adobe Elements in an effort to keep them orderly. If, however, you fall into the vast majority of people you simply dump them all into a folder on your desktop.

Photographers the world over are shaking their heads in disbelief. They simply cannot fathom that most people just have thousands, or even tens of thousands, of digital photographs sitting in a folder on their desktop. Professional photographers are typically much more organized when it comes to this stuff. They have to be.

I'm cringing as I think about it.

Imagine this very common scenario: You're looking for a picture you took a few months ago of your significant other while you were in Vegas. You took several dozen, or even hundreds, of photos while you were in Vegas. And your common practice of just dumping your photos into that photo folder on your desktop seemed like a good idea at the time.

The images were saved. Good. Done. But now that you're looking for them you have to open the folder, wait for your OS to render all of the image thumbnails for your perusal, and then you start scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, looking for one image labeled "DSC0235.jpg" even though you don't actually know that's the name of the image you're looking for.

What you are looking for are context clues that help you pinpoint the general time.

Aha. After 20 minutes you've found some images of your trip to Vegas. Now you start looking closer at the thumbnails, even opening up images (one at a time) for closer inspection, as you hunt for this one elusive photo.

This process has taken you way too long. And it only get's longer as more photos are added to that folder. You're frustrated.

You have to get organized if you want to actually want to find things.

You can use a photo organizing software like Lightroom or Aperture to label your photographs as you upload them.

So instead of dumping your photos into a folder you label them as you upload them. The photo in question could have, and probably should have, been labeled as such; Vegas, Nevada, (insert significant other's name), the casino's name or attraction, fun times, gambling,..etc.

Now the next time you look for an image on your computer you can start with keywords.

This isn't a post about which image editing or management software you should be using for your photography.

Life's More Fun When You're Organized by ifindkarma: CC

This is an example, one that you're probably familiar with, about how the web works.

We write blog posts. We upload photos to social networking sites like Flickr and Facebook. We have little points of data that we are using to market our businesses online and we do so with limited time.

But what most successful online marketers don't do is simply dump them online.

They label them. They tag them. They index, sort, and use keywords for everything that goes online when it relates to their inbound marketing.

While tags and categories may have fallen by the wayside from a purely SEO perspective they are still very handy from a user perspective. It's how people find things on your website when they are looking for more information related to a post they just came across.

If your post is about your latest gallery showing and a gallerist or museum curator has stumbled upon that post will they be able to easily find other gallery related posts on your blog? They may want to quickly find what other galleries you've worked with. They'll want to do this easily. Tags and categories can help them do this.

If you're a wedding photographer and you just did a blog post about your latest wedding shoot at the Magnolia Ballroom in Houston, TX did you tag it that way. So that a bride who is considering hiring you knows that you've shot there on several occasions and can easily find more examples of your work at that specific venue. She's much more likely to hire a wedding photographer who knows her venue well.

People who are browsing the Internet are often times finding things serendipitously. One search leads to reminder about one thing that leads to another search that leads to a link that leads to a related link that informs them of more information or guidance in whatever it is they are hunting for.

Help them. Guide them. Organize your blog so that people can find other posts that are related to the article they just found. Use tags. Use categories. Show them how to know you better and you'll be closer to building a relationship with that reader.

Help them find things on your website. Make sure your website is organized with people in mind.

Find Ways to Bring New People Into Your Tribe

How many tribes do your customers belong to?

Your customers love art. They love photography.

They also, most likely, love other things that are closely related to both of those interests.

Perhaps they love knitting or watching independent films.

There's a ton of information that can be gleaned from analytics from your website or from looking at someone's Facebook profile. Can you find the other interests that tie into what your target audience is interested in by looking at your current audience?

Do those other interests include tribes of people who are passionate about art as well?

Consider co-branding efforts. Contact another industry to see where you can cross promote each other. Find ways to expand both of your audience base but remember to do so in a win-win situation.

People crave tribes. They crave the new. They love to be involved in something bigger than themselves.

Something that's moving forward.

Tribes need leaders.

When you lead a tribe your building your brand. 

Good Ideas Die Without An Audience

There's a natural resistance for change. It's everywhere. 

We see it when we present ideas that are both good and bad.

So how can you tell when your idea is good if people will resisit it either way?

There's no magic button you can push. There are ways, however, to test your ideas. You can do studies and focus groups. You can survey and talk to people.

But really, you don't know until you try it.

And during this "trial period" you have to have the guts to stick it out for a while. Longer than most. That's how the best people succeed. They stick it out.

Most of the time you just need an audience. 

If your ideas is good, and you are building a business around it, then all you have to do is allow the people who are looking for that idea to find you.

This is true whether your idea is to be a portrait photographer or a caracuturist. There's an audience for you if your idea is good and you have the talent to pull it off.

Find your audience. Build a platform that enables them to find you. That's what digital marketing is really all about. Letting people find you. Social media strategy is about finding the people that are already looking for you.

Do both and you're bound to succeed.

Older Content Does Not Equal Irrelevant

We don't live in a world of limited shelf space.

And that's a good thing.

In Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More he opens up with a story about an older book, almost out of print, whose sales were suddenly revived by its proximity to a newer book covering the same topic.

Recommendation engines in online bookstores picked up on the buying habits of its customers and began to pair the two together. People bought in this manner and an infinite loop was created. Over time the older book began to outsell the newer book.

green bottle and friends by Damien Franco

It's a great story that illustrates something that most of us are already coming to terms with. We no longer live in a world that shuns older work. Not entirely anyway.

Because of the internet and it's ability to bring older, relevent, content to the masses on a daily basis we have opportunities to sell things beyond their launch date. This is true whether you sell fine art prints through your online gallery or whether you have past client work you want to show off as proof of your work.

When we blog, tag, and push our content out into the Internet we create little bits of information that is waiting for discovery. Take a look back on the work you've done in the past. Is there a way to push it back to the front of people's minds?

If your older work is still relevent, if it's still timely, then you are allowed (encourage really) to tweet about it.

Look through your archives. I'm sure you'll find a goldmine of work that is evergreen. Push it out there. If it needs updating then do so. Then push it out there.

As a photographer I take a look back at some of my older photographs to see if I've missed something meaningful. Especially if it's something I hadn't shared before. When Adobe releases a new version of Lightroom and they've tweaked their processing I like to look into those older photographs and see what the new filters can do with them.

Take one day a month to comb through your archives (whether that's your art archives or your blog archives) and see what can be worked on, improved upon, and pushed back into the streams of your followers.

We no longer live in a world of limited shelf space.

And that's a very good thing.

In Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail he begins by describing a real life scenerio in which an older book, almost out of print, was suddenly revived through online bookstore merchants because of it's closeness to a newer book that was selling well.

Recommendation engines picked up that 

One-to-one Marketing and Building Raving Fans

Do you remember the last time someone held a door for you? Or gave you their cab because it was raining and you didn't have an umbrella but they did?

In today's age we can often become jaded. We think that people don't do these things anymore but they do. And they do it all the time. We get hit by one of these gestures and it sticks out because, even though there are some really amazing people all around the world, they aren't everywhere.

Or are they?

It's the same with companies. Do you remember the last time you went to a store and the clerk greeted you with a friendly smile and asked how they could help you? I mean genuinely help you?

When those things happen they stick out. We remember them and we think about the culture of the company and we put it in our minds that we will shop there more often. We'll visit that restaurant where the manager goes by every table more often. We'll go to the art gallery where they talk to you and greet you no matter how much money you look like you may have.

These are all "real world" situations and scenarios that can be replicated online.

You can, and very much should, do these same things online.

Because when you can connect with your current, and potential customers and clients, on a level that exceeds their expectations you begin to build a relationship on trust. You begin to build a relationship based on what you can do for your clients not on what they can buy from you.

And you build clients for life.

They remember you. They like you. They believe in you.

This trust begins to build into something much more. It begins to build into a relationship where they start to root for you. They want to support your business and your brand -- your culture -- becomes part of their buying decisions.

This is one-to-one marketing. This is that personal touch that we all crave in the online world where everything else can seem like push marketing.

Look at your digital marketing campaigns. Do they reach people on an individual basis? Are you having a conversation with them or are you just shouting "look at me, look at me!"?

Getting your product or service in front of the people who are going to become lifetime customers can be done on a one-to-one basis online. And it can be done in a way that reaches the masses at the same time. You can spread the concept of your company culture. You can build brand awareness by listening to your customers.

Stillspotting NYC Bronx Audiogram 3rd Show (102 of 118) by Ennuipoet * FreeVerse Photography - CC

Remember that they have given you that privilege when they sign up for your newsletter. Or when they like your Facebook page. When they've raised their hands and said "Hi, I'm a fan" then you have the ability to nurture the relationship and build on that.

You can turn them into raving fanatics about your company and they will spread the message of your culture.

Don't Fail to Diversify Your Online Marketing Efforts

Why do some businesses stick around and others don't?

Is it really just a matter of some businesses being born as a good idea and others as a bad idea?

Businesses fail.

Every day. In fact, according to the SBA, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years.

 I speak to small business owners and entrepreneurs on a daily basis. I'm often baffled when the discussion of marketing comes up and I ask, because it's my job to ask, what they are doing to promote their work or their business.

I hear over and over again that they don't have a full marketing plan. Now, let's be clear, that's not how they say it. Here are some of the actual responses I get:

• "We advertise in the yellow pages and that seems to work. But not anyplace else, not really."
• "We advertise in the newspaper and put out coupons."
• "We don't really advertise."
• "There isn't a budget for that and we're doing fine without it."

I hear these responses over and over again. Some of these businesses seem to be doing fine. I think. I don't really know. Most of them I had never heard of before but that's because they don't have any marketing or advertising plans in progress online or offline.

It doesn't have to be that way. Don't fail at marketing your business!

When more than half of all small businesses will fail in the first five years is marketing really something you don't think you should be doing?

Now here are some of the things that I hear from more successful companies and entrepreneurs:

• "We have an agency who manages that for us."
• "We use traditional media and have a Facebook page."
• "We advertise on Google."
• "We are in newspapers, phone book, Facebook, Twitter, and we have an in-house person that manages that for us."

Notice that the successful companies are often doing a blend of traditional and social media strategies to get the word out about their businesses.

Blending different strategies is a great idea. You should be blending your online marketing strategies just like you blend your traditional. 

Companies that diversify their online marketing efforts win!

When I think of a company that's doing it right one of the top companies I think of in the photography industry is Think Tank Photo. They make great camera bags (I have two) that are rugged and stylish. They have embraced online marketing and social media to create a great brand.

Here's what I've seen them do to increase brand awareness and create a demand for their product.

1. They reach out to photography bloggers and offer bags to be reviewed. This is old hat and it still works well. This helps them get the word out about new bags and creates inbound links to wherever their products are sold. They don't ask for favors or good reviews. They ask for honest reviews. 
2. They are active on Twitter and Facebook. They respond to their community and engage in conversations with influencers in their niche.
3. They participate in co-branding efforts like contests and giveaways on websites and blogs. This is so easy for them to do. A photography blogger or website admin contacts them and says "we're looking for prizes for our contest". Think Tank Photo gives them a bag or two and provides a logo for the contest page and now they get highly targeted advertising and probably some more inbound links to their website.

I'm sure that they do much more than this but these just popped in my head. It works. It's a well rounded strategy of online marketing that hits their targeted market at various points.

All of this sends people to their website where they can educate people about their products, get them to sign up for their newsletter, or contact customer service. Various points of entry for the many potential customers in their varying stages of purchase.

You have to do that if you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner. You should have marketing efforts that are popping into people's lives as they naturally work themselves around the web. It shouldn't be intrusive. It can be educational, inviting, and fun.

Having a company Facebook page isn't enough. Not any more. Not that it ever was. Don't fail at this.

Why Passion Sells Better Than Sex

Here's something we don't talk about enough in social media marketing: Passion.

Digital marketers will drone on and on about metrics and about community and about strategy and tactics but they don't talk about passion enough.

We don't discuss why we do what we do. The best people in their industry (regardless of the industry) are at the top because they have passion. It can be passion about the product. Passion about the service. It can be passion about the company. For some, it's passion about the process. 

You can't do it without passion.

If you work in the arts you should already know this. You will not make it in this industry if you don't have passion.

Make products you would use. Create services you wish you had when you were starting out. Know that what you are creating is helping someone be better at what they do.

When you can wrap your product or service around a big pretty bow of passion then you can market it with an enthusiasm that will sell it to your clients. 

It's way better than "sex sells".

Are You Building A Tribe?

"A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea." - Seth Godin Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Building a "tribe" is becoming more and more essential for many small and mid-sized businesses. The old ways of advertising and marketing are changing too rapidly to be able to rely on traditional marketing alone.

Adulation by Today is a good day - CC

Social media and digital marketing are where smart companies are putting their effort towards building their business. This is true whether their needs are for client acquisition or through reputation management. It's how they turn clients and customers into raving fans. It's how they build a tribe.

Are you listening to your clients?

Do you know what your customers really think about you?

Today it's easy enough to gather that kind of knowledge by leveraging social media, email, and other two way communications.

Open up your business to the online world and you'll see improvements in brand recognition and reputation management. Be savvy and nimble.

Your competitors are.

Your competitors are building tribes. Are you?

They are building a base of followers, fans, and friends online that are current customers or soon-to-be customers. They are listening to the good and bad things that are being said about them online and are able to work at changing perceptions or fixing issues that can help propel their business to the next level.

This is true whether you're a plumber or a fortune 500 company.

Finding a the right digital marketing plan or social media strategy can mean the difference between being #1 in your industry and region or being that other company.

Do you have the leadership capabilities to spearhead a new initiative like that? Do you have personnel in the company who can utilize their social networking skills to bring in new clients?

Are you building a tribe? What are you waiting for? 

Start Where You're At

Is there a myth to the idea that inspiration must be with an artist for the artist to create?

I think this is something that most artists struggle with.

I know I do.

There really isn’t anything like being in the process of creating.  Whether I’m sitting with pen and pad, charcoal and sketchpad, or behind the camera or computer, I’m at my best when I’m creating something.

You’re probably the same.  You’re probably at your best when you’re creating something.

If, as artists, we don’t need inspiration to create then what do we need?

Perhaps it’s the idea of creation as a response?

Theoretically we respond to anything.  You respond to emotions of rage, anger, love, lust, etc…aren’t those emotions enough to trigger something – anything – that can, in turn, work itself through creation?

Start where you’re at.

I’m doing that now.  Just writing about creating is, in itself, an act of creation that can trigger responses to my lack of production in the past couple of weeks.

While it may feel forced at times I think it’s worth noting that forcing yourself to be creative from time to time can actually be an enormous gesture.  Especially if you embark on this forced journey with no goals in mind. Perhaps it allows a subconscious idea to emerge that can transform into a new project or direction in your artwork.

Art Is All About Starting Again

Art is all about starting again.

Throughout my life as an artist I’ve faced (and so far beaten) that tendency that every single artist faces from time to time.  Some artists are able to beat it but most aren’t.

That tendency?

Quitting.

We aren’t talking about stopping.  We’re talking about quitting.  Never picking up the brush, the pen, or the camera again.

There is a difference.  I’ve stopped making art for days, months, even years at a time.  But I’ve never really quit.  I’ve never lost that core thing inside of me that gives me my identity as a person.

I hope that I never lose it.

In truth, I don’t think I could.

I do wonder though;

Why do so many artists just quit?

Why do they let their brushes go dry?  What makes them pack up their cameras never to use them again?

Is it fear?

Sometimes I think that discovering the answer to this question would somehow help prevent me from becoming an art quitter.  Another failed artist.

I don’t mind “failing” really.

I don’t think I really will fail to be honest and not quite so freakin’ humble.

I just figure that I’ll be too stubborn or shortsighted to know that I’ve failed and I’ll die trying.

I think I’m okay with that.

Own It

Original.

Overrated.

Obstacles in our paths.  That’s what both of these words represent to me.

One is the quest for making your own mark in the world.  The thing that sets you apart.  The idea or vision that every artist truly attempts even if they search for it in the works of the masters of the past.  This can take more than a lifetime.

One is the idea that once we “make it” someone, somewhere, has the ability to completely denounce our hard work and possibly end our career (even before it’s really began).  The art world is brutal and fickle.  It can be maddening to entrench yourself in this arena and even more maddening to find yourself a spectacle instead of a gladiator.

Over it.  That’s how I have to be when these thoughts creep into me.  I have to strive past the idea that true originality is unattainable.  I have to suppress the fear that someone out there, without any control of my own, can “make or break” my career.

Own it.  I own it.  I own my art.  I own my path.  I own my career.

25 Random Things About My Art

This is an exercise.  Try it.

1. I love art.  No really.  I LOVE art.  I love how art can take people to a whole other place and how art can bring people into themselves.  I love how it’s transformative and how it’s timeless even when it can be timely or tired.
2. I love how photography limits what I can create.  It keeps me from being able to completely manipulate a scene while forcing me to find angles and use equipment to tell the story or spread the idea.
3. I have a really bad memory.
4. I write things down so I don’t forget them.
5. I photograph people, places, and things so I don’t forget them.
6. I’m genuinely scared that someday I’ll forget too much.  I’ll forget why I do what I do.  I’ll forget who I am.  I’ll forget why I love the things in my life that I love.  It scares the shit out of me.
7. I can be highly emotional.
8. Movies, books, and art have a big influence in my life.  They make me feel.  They help me relax and they fire me up.  They inspire me to be a better human.
9. I’m scared my kids will grow up in a world without culture.
10. I listen to music almost all day long.
11. I dance when no one is looking.
12. Sometimes I sing in the shower.
13. I hate reality TV.  I really do believe that it’s ever growing popularity will trigger the downfall of our society.  Or something like that.
14. I wish I never had creative blocks.  But sometimes I’m thankful for those breaks.  It gives me time to reflect.  Even if I’m reflecting on how much my creative blocks suck.
15. I secretly (okay not so secretly) want my kids to grow up to be creatives even though I know how hard it can be both personally and professionally.
16. I think technology is pretty freakin’ awesome.
17. I believe in humanity and progress.
18. Even when I’m scared for our future I’m optimistic about it because I see so much passion in the art that comes out of the young.
19. I want to create the kind of art that makes people stop and think or feel.  Even if it’s only for a split second in their hectic lives.
20. Sometimes a great piece of art can literally take my breath away.
21. The idea of working at a desk for someone else, for the rest of my life, for something I don’t believe in, is almost worse than the idea of spending the rest of my life in prison.  If I didn’t have a family it would probably be equal.
22. I’m compelled to make art because it’s what I believe in.
23. I am one of those people who never stopped believing that art can change the world.
24. I believe that great art is supposed to make you think…
25. Did I mention that I love art?