Use the tools that make your marketing better and easier. Are you using the top 5 on-line tools that are helping people market the arts more effectively? Do you have a Website? Are you using an Email Service Provider? To you have a Sales Funnel to help create life long customers? Are you using Social Media Analytics Tools so you can measure your engagement on Social Media?
Video:
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Podcast:
[powerpress]
Video Transcript:
Hi, Craig Lambie here. The IT Guru at the Auspicious Arts Incubator bringing you this week’s Hot Tip Tuesday. This week I’m talking about the Top 5 Arts Marketing Tools, the top 5 things that you should know. I’m going to run through them with a little bit of data on each one. It’s going to be about a minute longer than usual.
The number thing, the number one marketing tool that you should have is a website. It brings everything together in one basic place that you own. That is the most important thing that you own. You can use Weebly, you can use WordPress, you can use Squarespace, whatever you like but make sure you have that.
Second marketing tool is the email service provider. This is so important to have an ESP, email service provider so that you’re not sending emails out from your own inbox and you’re tracking opens and clicks on every email big email out to a big group list every time so that you know if people are opening it, people are caring and you know then how to change things like the subject line and things like that. Just make your email better or just dont do it. If you dont know who is opening it dont bother doing it at all.
Number three, you need to have some sort of database system. A CRM is a good one, a customer relationship management system which is just a simple database. It can be as simple as an excel list that you keep up to date or a google sheet that you work with somebody else on. It’s really important to have some sort of database system. You can use Mailchimp as your database system as well, completely recommended. It does sort of work but it doesn’t do a great job. The important about having a database is being able to label and segment and group people together and know and what you’re doing. We use Infusionsoft, there’s Salesforce, Patron Manager. There’s a few free ones in the google marketplace that work really well with Google apps. I can’t recommend any. You’re going to have to go and work out what works for you. If you want to have a session to talk about that then.
The fourth solution in arts marketing is a sales funnel. This might seem ridiculous, oh my God. We dont sell things. That’s selling out and once you’ve got over the fact that in order to do what you’re passionate about, to do the art that you love you need to get paid and to do that you need to sell. In order to sell you need to have a sales funnel. You need to develop some sort of method. There’s lots of good sales funnels out there. One that we use is called Unbounce. Another one that you can use with WordPress is OptimizePress and Google Analytics. If you dont have that then there’s no point even having a website. The most important thing Google Analytics. It comes to that measurement thing again. You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
Number five is the social media analytics tool. Why would you post anything unless you’ve got something really valuable to post. You should already know that from previous Hot Tips or marketing and things like that. It’s about getting engagement. If you’re not measuring your engagement you’re just randomly posting things out there and hoping for the best then it’s as good as spray and pray marketing which we say is a big no-no here at the Incubator to. You need to measure. You need to measure engagement and then you then know what to share in the future, what is valuable, what your audience enjoys, the people that like your art enjoy these types of things that you’re posting. If not then dont post anything at all. The one analytics tool that we like and we use here at the Incubator is called the Buffer App. We’re not getting paid by them or anything but we’re just letting you know what it’s there.
They are the top 5 marketing tools for arts marketers. If you’re in the arts and you do marketing you should have those five bits of kit in your repertoire of tools to do good marketing.
If you’ve got something out of this video then please like the video. We really enjoy the engagement from these videos and the best way to do that is to like it. If you know something that is an arts marketer or that is an artist that needs some help in the marketing department which is pretty common. They’re not all in the 1% club like our 1% Club of graduates.
If you know somebody that needs a bit of help then please share this video with them. Tell me which email service provider you use in the comments. I’d love to know. Any other questions or comments that you have of course write them in there but please tell me which email service provider you use to send your emails out. You can shamely tell me that if you use around inbox and you’re madly signing up for another one straightaway. You can do that but please write it in the comments. Of course here at the Auspicious Arts Incubator we want you to more than just survive we want you to thrive. In order to thrive you need to subscribe. I’ll see you next time.
Let the term, open calls artists, awaken your inner entrepreneur.
How often have you seen these opportunities — call to artist, artist open calls, calls to artists, international call for artists, call for artists submissions, open calls artists? These are good opportunities to gain exposure but chasing them can be exhausting and sometimes depressing. As artists we are often “opportunity heat seeking missiles” We are very good at popping our head up and identifying an opportunity. What you might be failing to recognize is this is how they grow their business. So the next time you see open calls artists take this as a call to develop and grow your own arts business.