Promoting Yourself to Creatives Through Content Marketing
Question: If most art buyers and creatives are being inundated with email and direct mail promos, and don’t have time for meet & greets or portfolio reviews, what avenues of self-promotion do you recommend?
More and more, the best self-promotional strategy to rise above the cluttered media environment is to position yourself as an industry expert. Spread your ideas and vision by speaking and writing in strategically chosen outlets. Your ideal prospects will see and hear you demonstrating your expertise in the industry, which is a positive thing – as opposed to self-adoration, which is not what people want to hear about.
WHY?
Proper self-promotion enhances your positioning, increases your visibility and ultimately engenders trust, the foundation of all strong photographer and illustrator client relationships.
HOW?
The tools to self-publish and self-produce your “expert content” are accessible, affordable and easy to use.
WHAT?
Speak and write on what you know best: the work you do for a target market, how the highest quality is created, how it is changing, what trends you see coming, and anything else you find yourself saying over and over to clients – that is the basis of your material. With that material you can:
- Blog: Post on your own blog or guest post on industry blogs where your prospects go looking for help.
- Social media: Be strategic in your use of the various and constantly changing social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to reinforce your positioning and to drive traffic to your own web site and blog.
- Email marketing: Send a monthly message (bi-monthly at minimum) to a growing list of targeted prospects with tips and tricks you learn as you do your work or answers to questions you are constantly asked by your clients. This is still one of the most effective marketing tools because you have the most control over what you send and to whom.
- Articles: Expand your blog posts and email marketing messages into longer-form articles and submit them to online and offline publications in your target markets.
- Speaking: Repurpose your written materials (blog posts, email marketing messages and articles) as potential presentation topics and submit them to associations and conferences within your target markets.
- Video: The latest and trendiest tool. Step in front of the camera to make a more personal connection.
Speaking of speaking, here I am with Dyana Valentine, speaking at the 2011 Creative Freelance Conference in Chicago.
So tell me, how do you put yourself out there?
About Ilise
Ilise Benun is an author, consultant and national speaker, the founder of Marketing Mentor.com and the co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference. Her books include "The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing (HOW Books), “Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive” (Career Press), and her latest, The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money (HOW Books 2011). Marketing Mentor
Related Articles:
1. Social Media: Three Steps to Gain New Clients and Work
2. 10 Ways to Focus Your Promotional Marketing Towards Clients
3. Why and How Should Artists Use Social Media
