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.

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".