If you have never written out a marketing plan, the task most likely sounds daunting.

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A sound marketing plan however, is a great way to increase the success of your business and helps you to make informed decisions around purchases, networking, events, and promotions throughout the year.

A marketing plan should include your market research, your location, the customer group you have targeted, your competition, positioning, the art product or other services you are selling, pricing, advertising, and promotion.

Effective marketing, planning and promotion begins with current information about the marketplace.

Talk to customers, peers, and study the advertising of other artists and small businesses in your community.

Make a list of all the events and show you have planned for the year, as well as prospective events and sales opportunities. Then create a simple plan based on the steps listed below.

The first page(s) of your plan can read like business plan. Subsequent pages might include target dates, month by month, for completing various objectives.

1: Define your business

  • Your brand
  • Your geographic marketing area — local, regional or national
  • Your competition
  • How you differ from the competition — what makes you special
  • Your price range
  • The competition’s promotion methods
  • Your promotion methods
  • Your distribution methods or business location

Effective marketing, planning and promotion begins with current information about the marketplace.

2: Define your customers

  • Your current client demographics
  • How your clients learn about your product or service — advertising, direct mail, word of mouth.
  • Patterns or interests your clients and potential clients share
  • Qualities your clients value most about your work or your product
  • Qualities your clients like least— can they be adjusted to serve them better?
  • Prospective clients whom you aren’t currently reaching

3: Define your plan and budget

  • Previous marketing methods you have used to communicate to your clients
  • Do you have a database of all your buyers, or should you create one?
  • Methods that have been most effective
  • Cost compared to sales
  • Possible future marketing methods to attract new customers
  • Percentage of profits you can allocate to your marketing campaign
  • Marketing tools you can implement within your budget —advertising; radio or television advertising; direct mail; public relations activities such as community involvement, sponsorship or press releases
  • Methods of testing your marketing ideas
  • Methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign
  • The marketing tool you can implement immediately

4:  Define your goals for the year

  • Your overall communication objectives and means to create an awareness of your work.
  • Desired shows or event
  • Desired number of new clients
  • Desired number of repeat clients
  • Desired amount of sales

Remember, everything from the way you speak with your customers, to your print materials, to the way you package your work impacts the image of your brand building in your clients’ minds.

A quick, hand written thank-you note in a package that you mail out to a buyer can go a long way to adding to the feeling of personal connection.

Over the course of running your business, you’ll make plenty of decisions. Some will seem monumental and some will seem meaningless.

All of them should be considered part of your marketing plan because they will all impact your  image in the minds of previous, current, and potential buyers.

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