My last marketing tidbit

3. Think of the possibilities.

There are groups that I have not really connected with that I know would love my message. My main audiences are colleges and health related conferences. I love speaking to these groups but I also want to expand and speak to women’s groups and anything to do with feelings after fifty and body image. So I start looking for the tools that will help me connect to those groups including, mass e-mail, blogs and articles. I look at the websites of groups i would like to present to and see who speaks at their conferences to see if I am a good fit.

Someone asked me why I am writing about marketing if I am an artist. Half, if not more, of what I do to stay in business as a writer, performer, painter, poet and educator is marketing! The creating part is easy, getting people to the product is the challenge.

So good luck and enjoy your dreams!  Tune into tomorrow to find out about my new chickens and the pecking order of life. 

2. Set up programs to monitor your progress.

Make marketing a game, not a chore. How far out into Internet land can I go? Who can I reach? Who is reading me?  I changed my the way my website exists, not just the design but how I interact with it.  I know what pages are most popular, how people find me-google, facebook, twitter, other websites, links  There are a number of ways to do this. I choose hubspot because it works best for me. Besides helping me with the analytics of my website it also is helping me to learn how to use facebook, twitter, my space and YouTube to reach the people who want my services. 

 www.hubspot.com 

tomorrow: more on how to use social networks without losing full weeks of your life!

I love what I do-- I mean I really love it! I feel blessed to travel the country and the world to perform and speak to all kinds of audience. What I have always found difficult is the marketing. All of you marketing gurus might call me a "wuss" and all of my friends might call me a liar (my Husband calls me "riverhuston.com"), but marketing was the most tiresome part of my work. It is however, the most necessary. If no one knows what  I'm are doing how can they hire me? 

So I have turned marketing into a game. How can I have fun with this and not feel like a narcissistic, shameless self-promoter? Okay, I  sort of have to be that too, but I still it can be fun. So for the next three days I will post  a few things that  get me up in the morning and on the job of letting people know about my fabulous services.

1. Have confidence that what I do is something people will benefit from and they need me.

This is the thought I have when I sit down at my computer each day. My ideas usually come to me when I am running, which I do most mornings. All these ideas come up and I think, "Wow! This will be great".People will realy enjoy this. For instance, today I decided to partner with iTunes so people can buy one chapter of my book, or a poem put to music and I can offer songs to give as gifts. Additionally, I decided to add things to my store, such as a set of Goddess cards with images from some of my paintings. This will give me the opportunity to paint later in the afternoon which is another way to keep me motivated, juiced up and ready to market!

 That's it for today check in tomorrow for another way to love marketing!

Links: 

http://www.apple.com/itunes/contentproviders/ 

It has been a long time coming but I finally have a professional website! I have been designing my own forever and they turned out more like large art projects that often looked cool but were hard to use. The people who designed the site, Backbone Media, were absolutely the best! Especially Miss Emily Saylor. If you ever need web work done, check them out!

So much great stuff is going on! I am jumping into the 21^st century with both feet. Adding media to my lectures such as twitter, streaming video and texting so no matter where you are, you can join in. Stay tuned for upcoming lectures where you can watch from home or wherever you are.

I have also rediscovered my passion for painting and have entered work into several shows. I will keep you updated on whether the world is ready for my abstract paintings. I was inspired by Bob Burridge in a workshop I took at the Mendocino Arts Center in California this summer. It is an amazing place and they offer just about everything if you thinking about an art vacation!

Links:

www.backbonemedia.com

http://www.robertburridge.com/

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/  

That’s all for today but I will be back tomorrow, so stay tuned!