“Effective marketing can make your dreams come true.”
-Jane R. Snyder
Two weeks ago, I attended the Make Your Art, Make It Work: Crafting a Brand that Sells conference presented by Tennessee Craft. Saturday was jam-packed with great branding and marketing wisdom for artists to use to promote and share their unique and authentic point-of-view.
While there was a ton of great advice shared, I narrowed down my list to a handful of favorite pointers.
Top 5 Marketing Takeaways:
1. Don’t get hung up on your logo.
Often times one of the first things we want to do when creating a new business or starting a new venture, is to slap a logo on the idea to make it feel more official. (Guilty!) However, before spending time on figuring out the perfect graphic and/or text to communicate our idea, we first need to make sure we’ve taken time to consider our goals and value.
Brittany Blankenship of Matchstic gave a great talk on branding and compared the logo to the tip of an iceberg. There are a lot of important things that are beneath the surface that the world doesn’t see, but it creates the lens through which the logo, name, product, social media, etc. should filter through for consistency and strong execution.
2. Share your story.
Writer and marketing expert, Jane R. Snyder, spent a lot of time discussing this topic. Someone in the audience asked what one of the most common marketing mistakes was, and Jane stated that it was “not digging deep enough into their own story.” She emphasized the importance of a well-written bio and artist’s statement in order to pique interest and connect potential buyers to the person behind the art.
Share what’s special about you and your journey. Jane suggests planning all marketing around this uniqueness. Presenting a clear and attention-getting message is vital to creating buzz for your work.
Story was also a big theme for Matt Alexander of HollerDesign. Check out his story and custom furniture!
3. Narrow your marketing focus to a few channels.
Marketing Strategist, Kirsty Hughan, encouraged us to limit our efforts to 3 channels consistently and then re-evaluate after three months. Which ones are best for you to use to reach your ideal audience right now?
- Blogging
- Networking
- Public Relations
- Advertising
- Other
4. Good photography is vital.
Brit McDaniel of Paper and Clay and Katie Gonzalez of linenlaid&felt emphasized the importance of quality photography in their marketing, especially on social media. Katie recommended using people in photos to assist with demonstrating scale and action photos to show others how to use the product.
5. Network.
Entrepreneurship and creative work can be lonely and isolating at times. This conference was such a great opportunity to learn and meet other talented individuals and gain some perspective. Relationships are the key to awesome collaborations and continued creative growth.
If you attended the conference, what was your favorite piece of marketing advice? Which one of the above ideas did you find to be most helpful?
Need some help crafting YOUR story? I’d love to assist with putting together your bio so you can communicate your message more effectively. For more info, click here.