It's official! We are definitely in a recession and no one really knows how long it will last. During difficult economic times, companies look for ways to cut their expenses-and where do they typically look first? We all know the unfortunate answer only too well. Advertising is often viewed as a non-essential expense, and many companies end up cutting their marketing budgets, even though this is exactly the opposite of what they should do. There is plenty of research that proves categorically that those companies who continue to advertise during a recession not only reap the benefits during the economic downturn, but more importantly, they sustain growth over time following the recession. I have seen a number of articles detailing various case studies which prove this point. At the end of this article, I will point you to other sources of reading on this topic.
You may be finding that a lot of your clients and prospects have cut their advertising spend, and business may be more challenging for you. More than ever, you need to market yourself. This will allow you to stand out when your competitors mistakenly cut back on their marketing, and be remembered when assignments start flowing again. In this article, I want to give you a few ideas for approaching your marketing efforts right now. You don't need to spend much money but you do need to invest some time. The return will be worth it, I assure you.
Plan Your Spend
By now, I am sure you have your 2009 Marketing Plan in place. If you don't, then it is not too late! Refer to my article: "How To Create A Marketing Plan That Works" for some ideas on creating your plan and a helpful planning template for you to download.
If you have a marketing plan in place, you may want to review your tactics. You need to ensure that you are marketing to both current clients and prospects. You want to maintain consistent marketing with the appropriate frequency to stay top-of-mind. You can also use the Promotional Plan template; another practical tool we created to assist you in planning your campaigns.
There are a number of different strategies you can employ to ensure that you maintain your consistency while reducing your spend. For example, if you need to cut some expenses you may wish to change your direct mail strategy. Use print more intelligently. When someone clicks through on your email, send them a personalized postcard using variable data printing technology. Although personalized print costs a little more per piece, it has significantly higher response rates. It makes sense to spend a little more per piece to gain the attention of prospects or clients who have already shown interest, as opposed to poorly targeted mass mailings. Overall you will spend less as you will print fewer pieces, but will have better results.
You still need to market in more than one medium for the greatest effectiveness. Later in this article, I will give you some other cost-effective ideas that you may want to consider incorporating into your overall marketing approach.
Keep What You've Got
First and foremost, during recessionary times, you really need to focus on and care for existing customers. Keep marketing yourself as a trusted resource to the people who already know your value. Caution prevails when times are tough and often people want to do business with a "known entity". It costs 7-10 times more to acquire a new customer than keep a current one, according to MarketingProfs. They also note in the article "Five Small-Business Email Customer Lifecycle Tactics for the New Year by Kara Trivunovic and Andrew Osterday", that: "Growing customer loyalty by 1% can be the equivalent of a 10% cost reduction, according to Bain & Company", Copeland Communications has issued a whitepaper on this topic (see "Other Resources below) and reminds us that "Current customers also become more profitable the longer they stay. So don't ignore them, create a dialogue with them. Find out what they want from you. They may not spend as much during this period, but they will reward your leadership with their loyalty when the economy rebounds."
Upload your current client base into ADBASE and include them in your marketing efforts. You may want to position your messaging differently for clients vs. prospects. Don't just promote your imagery, but remind them of the overall package you have to offer. Remember you are marketing yourself as a brand so promote your vision, your uniqueness, your reliability, and your commitment to providing good service. As an artist you need to focus on positioning yourself as a valued, indispensable resource. If you are marketing yourself solely on the quality of your images or art, you need to re-think this. It isn't enough to set you apart from other artists in these economic times.
Think of little things you can do to show your appreciation to your clients, and stand out from competitors. Send a card on their birthday, forward an article you think they will find interesting, or send a handwritten note thanking them for their business. Stay top of mind in unique ways-think of different reasons to contact your clients.
Let Them Praise You
I strongly recommend gathering testimonials from your best clients and using these to market yourself on your website, your email campaigns, your direct mail campaigns and your brochures. Be sure that the testimonials don't only speak to your artistic talent, but to your distinct competitive advantage and the benefits of dealing with you. Check out the ADBASE website to get some ideas as to how you might format your testimonials. Generally, testimonials lend credibility to your marketing efforts. It has great impact when one of your clients evangelizes your great talent, unique vision, and fantastic customer service.
Remember, during recessionary times clients are looking for the sure thing - they are less likely to take risks. Testimonials help provide the comfort level they need to take that leap of faith. Consider a testimonial email campaign to current and prospective clients; ADBASE has had great success with this approach.
Target for the Best Results
You already know the benefits of direct marketing as a measurable method of reaching your target audience cost-effectively with a targeted message. This is why you have an ADBASE subscription, and you need to continue sending regular email campaigns, supplemented by direct mail, to your clients and prospects. A word of caution - be even more circumspect in your targeting than ever. When fewer artists are marketing, poor marketing is equally as memorable as good marketing.
MarketingProfs agrees: "The key is to fine-tune your targeting tactics to grow your customer database with those individuals who have a true interest in your products or services. Adding 50 new and engaged customers or prospects can have a better positive net effect on your bottom line than adding 500 prospects who might not be as interested in what your organization has to offer."
For a refresher, check out Jenny Millar's previous article Email Marketing. There are many resources on the ADBASE blog to help you with your direct marketing approach.
Alternative Cost-Effective Marketing Tactics
Now is the time to try some new approaches to complement your traditional marketing. Entire books with a lot more detail are available on the suggestions below; these are just some top-level ideas to get you thinking. These may be a little "outside the box" for many of you, who are entrenched in the traditional methods of artist marketing. Be open to trying new things in addition to the tried and true to maximize your exposure. "Same old, same old" just doesn't work the same old way anymore.
- Social Networking. LinkedIn is an invaluable business networking resource. There is so much you can do with it, including: inviting clients to link in with you, joining marketing and other relevant groups (there are hundreds of them available) and answering and asking questions on forums, increasing your visibility and setting yourself up as an expert in your field. Once you have set up your profile, ask clients to recommend you. Constantly change and update your profile with projects you are working on and updates you have made to your website/blog. Because LinkedIn ranks highly in Google searches, this means that any Google searches for your name will usually appear in the first page of results. To make sure you are connected with as many other LinkedIn users as possible, promote your profile page as part of your email signature. Of course, Facebook and MySpace have similar benefits but aren't as effective for B2B marketing.
- Star in Your Own Video Create an entertaining, amusing, artistic video and post it on YouTube or Google Video. If your video catches attention, it will spread virally, creating fabulous free publicity for your photography or illustration business. Many photographers are starting to get involved in video- it's hot right now. We know of a photographer who filmed his photo shoot, demonstrating all the behind the scenes stuff, and gained some great publicity. If you aren't sure where to start, create a video story revealing the inspiration behind a personal work series. If you are an illustrator, you could, for example build a video log around characters you have developed.
- Become a Blogger It seems like everyone is blogging these days. In order to be a successful blogger, you need to market your blog and make sure it gets exposure in the search engines. Write about your opinion on subjects affecting your industry, your clients, or relevant news items. You can set up a blog for virtually no cost, but you do need to post frequently to keep readers engaged. New content is picked up by search engines, which then boosts your rankings and gets you placed more highly in organic searches. Be sure to offer RSS feeds and the ability to bookmark and share your content on the various social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Technorati or Digg.
- Network Like a Fiend You need to invest a lot of time and energy into networking. You need to go where your customers are - both off and online. Attend local Marketing and Advertising group/association networking meetings, bring your business cards and have your 30 second "elevator pitch" prepared. (Your "elevator pitch" is what you would say to a stranger about your value proposition during the time it takes to ride in an elevator, roughly equal to the attention span of most prospective customers - there is a resource for how to prepare it at the end of this article). Another idea: you can hold your own fun, innovative "can't miss" event and get more face time by inviting clients and prospects. Use your creativity to do it economically! Posting on the blogs and forums your target audience follows is also a great way to make connections. And of course, utilize the social networking sites mentioned above.
- Market Your Content Now that you are doing blog/forum posts, market your content to your clients and prospects. Have links to your blog from your website. Have links to your posts from your email marketing campaigns. Consider creating an e-newsletter and have people sign up for it on your website and blog. You may not think of yourself as a great writer, but start with brief articles on topics that you are comfortable with, that will interest your target audience. Some topic examples might be: your inspiration for a personal work series, the secret behind your most successful advertising campaign, when to use black and white over color, or the story behind a character you have created. Your e-newsletter should, of course, contain images and should have links to your website, blog and online portfolios. Content Marketing enables you to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, keeps you in front of clients and prospects, and allows you to position yourself as a resource. This is a much more customer-centric approach - the more your communications can be about the customer and less about you, the more customers you will win.
Here's a tip for those of you who hate writing or think you have no talent putting words on paper. There are many out of work journalists out there who are willing to write inexpensive articles for you. It may be worth the cost if you just don't have the time or inclination. Use Linked-In or Facebook to find journalists who have expertise in photography, illustration or advertising - network and reach out to groups you belong to. Go to Journalism.net for a list of various journalist groups and associations. Alternatively, use a friend or an associate who has some writing skills to edit your work
Just Do It, and Keep on Doing It!
The intention of this article was to give you some food for thought. The number one message you need to take away: You need to market and you need to do it now! How and what you do to gain attention is completely up to you - get your creative juices flowing. Just make a plan and execute. Be prepared to work hard for your success, but I guarantee you will gain business and exposure. The world is still doing business, companies are still advertising and consumers are still buying. Assignments are out there to be had. But getting them means you need to be more diligent in the regularity of your marketing, as well as incorporating some additional, low-cost and different options that can get you noticed. Channel positive energy into positive results!
Other Resources
"Advertising in a Recession in Chaos Lies Opportunity"
by Douglas Burdett, Artillery Marketing,
http://www.artillerymarketing.com/files/articles/VP.9.21.08.pdf
"Don't Fear the Recession-5 Tips to Successful Recession Marketing"
by Copeland Communications
http://www.copelandcom.com/dl/Five_Tips_For_Recession_Marketing.pdf
"Preparing Your Elevator Statement"
http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/p184544978_Preparing-your-elevator-statement.html