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The first step is to set your business goals, and define the website metrics you’ll use to measure your progress.
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September 26, 2012 @ 9:30 a.m. in The Business Lab by Ian Summers | Heartstorming View Comments
Concept reigns! Creating an email campaign that rocks means creating a campaign that’s connected conceptually and stylistically.
Make sure it contains fresh work, not recycled images that second-guess the marketplace. Be certain you show where you’re going, not where you have been.
Take risks. Be outrageous. You have nothing to lose, because you cannot lose something you don’t have. Go for it.
We all spend time and money marketing our work, online and off, and nagging questions always remain: How do I know whether any of this is working? What works best? What should I do more of and what should I abandon? Is any of this actually producing enough income to justify the time and money I spend?
These are all really important questions. Analyzing your “return on investment” – known to web-marketers and bean-counters as “ROI” – is a crucial part of an effective web-marketing strategy.
Effectively measuring your marketing ROI is accomplished by combining two contradictory ideas: The first is that the answers you seek are in the data. The second is that, to find the answer, you can’t rely on data. It’s rather mind-bending.
Every freelance illustrator knows some months are slower than others. As a result, freelancers don't always have as much money to spend on promotion as they might like – but there are still plenty of promotional ideas that are perfect for putting yourself out there on a small budget.
I think what most fellow photographers mean by this question is, “Have you gotten any new jobs as a result of your investment in CMPro?”
Let me cut right to the chase and answer this question straight out: No, I have not gotten any new jobs – yet. But we are close, very close!
I knew this from the beginning. I wasn’t expecting immediate results. You might not want to hear this, but most effective photography marketing happens over a two- to three-year timeframe, not two to three months.
Although often confused for each other, sales and marketing are very different. But they both require a good balancing act and require business owners to wear multiple hats!
You can’t determine your website’s “effectiveness” until you define its goals. Is the goal to attract new clients? To make sales? To encourage people to share your work via social media?
Emails, emails and more emails - they are the huge debate today. When I consult with a client, I always say “emails are cheap and easy to send, but don’t let them be the ONLY thing in your marketing plan. It should be a minimum of one-third of your plan and preferably one-sixth of your plan.” Meaning, please include direct mail and meetings into the plan, and if you can include special mailers, contests, taking care of existing clients that is even better. Even my most skeptical clients are sending emails and having success. Here are a few recent examples:
In this week’s instructive Dialogues Podcast, top industry consultants discuss affordable and effective methods for helping your direct-mail marketing campaigns rise above the rest. The best campaigns demonstrate the artist’s creativity and reinforce the artist’s brand, but still put the audience first. How do they do it? How do you find the right balance between too little copy, and too much? How can one strong image drive the message home? And how can creative use of “quick response” codes pump up your ROI?
Tune in for expert advice on:
Imagine an art director, art buyer or photo editor getting hundreds of email promotions every day. Some of those may stand out while others will not. Now imagine the same art buyer’s inbox with snail mail. This inbox is filled with invoices to be approved, invitations to parties and events, a few direct mail pieces advertising publications, programs to make you a better artist and then this great promotional piece that is fun and functional - something that is special, something that is saying “open me, open me.”