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Aletta de Wal, Artist Advisor
ArtMatters! Tip of the WeekArt Career Cheer: How to Use Print Promotional Tools Robin Sagara, Web Marketing Mentor
Question: Which comes first, your printed materials, or your website?
Answer: Neither!
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How to Use Print Promotional Tools
 My recent tips about business cards and postcards brought me lots of samples for my collection. Thanks to all of you who sent them!
"What do I need to think about before I start a print promotional campaign?
How do I decide which promotional tools to use? Do I have to use all of them?"
Start with Your Promotional Identity.
Your audience sees your promotional pieces one at a time, in different places and contexts. You want to build a unified image of your brand in their minds, not fragments. Define a brand identity before you create the bits and pieces you plan to send out. Choose a consistent theme for all of the promotion you do in a given year or period of your art career.
You need a signature to your body of work to be recognizable and you need a clear "signature" for your promotion to be memorable. Your promotion materials don't all have to look the same, but they should have a consistent look and feel. Keep your fonts, colors and overall design consistent with your work.
Every piece you produce should make it easy for people to find you and contact you. Always include: - Your Name
- Your Company Name
- Your Logo
- Images of Your Work
- Web Site Address
- E-Mail Address
- Telephone Number(s)
- Surface Mail Address
Next Decide the Purpose of Your Promotion.
You usually want to do one of three things: Introduce yourself to people who are not familiar with your art Give information about your art or events to people who have expressed interest Stay in touch with people who know you and like your work
Then Choose the Print Promotion Piece.
You can use most of these tools for more than one reason. Some of them just naturally suit one purpose better than another.
Next week, I'll write about cover letters. By the end of this series, you'll know how to use all 12 print promotional tools.
Post your success stories and questions about promotional tools here.
 Tara Reed  |
P.S. If you are curious about how to market your designs for licensing make sure to join Tara Reed* for "How to Find and Interact with Manufacturers Who License Art"
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 4:00 pm Pacific.
Tara will answer these questions and more - How do companies find art to put on products?
- How do you find companies that license art?
- What do you do if you are afraid of picking up the phone?
- What are the key attitudes to succeed in licensing and in particular, with talking to manufacturers?
- What are the main tips when you have a client?
- How do you stay connected and build the relationship?
- Why is follow-up so important?
If licensing is new to you, here are three highly recommended resources to help you decide whether or not you should license your art:
1. Read These A.C.T. tips:
How are you making your art business blossom? Share your stories here. ( Click Here and leave a comment on the blog.) |
Robin's Marketing Action Tip -
Question: Which comes first, your printed materials or your website?
Answer: Neither!
Like Aletta says in her tip this week, what comes first is deciding on what your promotional identity will be, the purpose of your promotions, and what promotional pieces you will need.
Okay, so I was being a bit tricky with the question "Which comes first..."
But let's say you ARE clear about your promotional identity and what you want to do to market your work. Which do you work on first, your printed materials or your website? The answer is still neither!
 What comes first now is gathering together the graphics, information and images you'll need for both.
Don't tune out on me! I know, I know, getting organized and thinking ahead can feel like a chore. But trust me, whether you're going to do-it-yourself or hire someone to help you, you'll save lots of money (and time) down the road if you do a few things first. Seriously.
Here's a list to get you started, and during this series about promotional tools I'll go through them all in more detail as we go along. You'll need:
- Images of your work. Good ones, professional quality. High resolution. Digital.
- The print and online colors you use, and their print/web ID numbers.
- The names of the fonts you use.
- Graphics, like your logo, photos of shows/events, etc, high resolution.
- Your artist bio, artist statement and resume.
- A complete inventory of your work (no sweat, not as hard as you think).
- Copies of reviews, articles, any media mentions of you and your art.
- Your mailing list of buyers/potential buyers.
- Your mailing list of galleries, press, media (stop rolling your eyes, again, not as hard as you think).
Also, write to me if you have questions
and I'll cover them in upcoming tips (robin@artistcareertraining.com).
All my best to you and yours, 
Robin Sagara
Web Marketing Mentor |
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Contact:
Aletta de Wal
Author of the Forthcoming Book:
"My Real Job is Being an Artist: How to Make a Living Making Art"
Artist Advisor
Artist Career Training
www.ArtistCareerTraining.com
www.ArtBusinessLibrary.com
(650) 917-1225 Pacific Time
aletta@artistcareertraining.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/artmktgmentor
Friend me on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/aletta
Supplemented by ArtMatters! Art Business Bits, Art Career Cheer, Art Marketing Morsels and A.C.T. Learning Opportunities to Help Artists Make More Money. Library of Congress ISSN# 1552-9428.
© 2010 Artist Career Training. Aletta@ArtistCareerTraining.com. All Rights Reserved.
*FTC
Disclosure: When we find artists like Tara Reed who have deep, proven
experience in a topic that will help you make a better living making
art, we put them front and center. When these fine folks offer
services and products that are first class, sometimes we agree to help
each other get the word out to you with an "affiliate" arrangement,
which means that we will earn a small commission for referring you to
their resources. Those are marked with an asterisk.
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