Chapter 6. Marketing: Getting Your Name Out There
The point of effective marketing has a two fold purpose. The first of course we’ve discussed in nauseating detail; getting hired. The good news is we’ve saved the fun part for last. The second purpose of marketing is to get your name out there and get recognized! There are many ways to do this, and we’re going to cover them in this chapter!
One of the easiest ways to market to people is via emails. Simply send them a quick message about your next show and build your fan base through a grass roots opt in email list. How do you get a list like that? Simple, you grow it. Each time you perform, you bring a notebook with you. You make an announcement after your show asking people to sign up for your mailing list so they can receive information about future shows. Do this for six months and wallah, you have an impressive list.
Privacy Notice: Most people don’t realize this but there is a huge market out there for your personal data. Companies will pay big dollars to get a list of warm clients who have asked to receive advertisements about a certain subject. What you are generating is in business known as an “Opt In” Email List. I’ve made good money before selling these very lists to companies on a whole range of hot subjects- Mortgages, Loan Modifications, etc. Most people are aware that their information can be sold, and the one thing you don’t want to do is give them the idea that you will do that. Make a special mention either while you are asking them to sign up for your mailing list, or make a notation on the list itself that you will NOT sell their information. That when you get it, it is for your use only.
Posting Flyers. When you have a show up and coming and you want to get the word out about it, but you don’t have the money to take out an add in the news paper consider buying a ream of white copy paper which has about 500 sheets to it, and going to Kinkos. Give them a USB jump drive with a word document advertising your up coming show. Have them print copies, and then post them on street poles in affluent parts of your town. You will also want to focus on posting them in areas around where your show will be located. If you have any friends that work for a pizza parlor see if they will deliver them for you when their take out orders come in. The nice thing about providing Kinkos with not only the paper but the word document is they usually cut you a bit of a price break on printing.
Note: Before you start posting flyers make sure that it is legal to do so in your city. I know a friend who got fined $250 dollars per flyer he posted about his free show at a local theater. His total bill was over two grand by the time all things were said and done. An alternative to posting on street poles would be to stuff mail boxes or hang on house doors. Yes, it’s as tedious as a paper route but at least you won’t get fined.
Post Card Spamming. This isn’t exactly a method to be used by the magician working on a shoelace budget but it’s an effective one. This marketing method also goes by another name- Direct Mail. Companies like Microsoft spend millions of dollars each year investing in this form of advertisement. I know, I’m friends with the person that handled their account. If Microsoft can make an effective use of this method, why can’t you? First you will need a piece to be mailed. I suggest a post card. Quick, dirty, can be easily read, and all the important information is delivered in one small but powerful package. Take my advice, unless you have a degree in graphic arts and design go to a graphic artist and pay them to design your piece. You’ll want this piece to look as professional as you can get it. Next you will need mailing addresses. You can generate these the easy or the expensive way. I’ll explain both. I’ll start with the easy way. Go back to your telemarketing list you generated by using Yahoo, Google, or Yellow Pages online searches. Chances are good that next to the phone number you will get an address. Hand pick a small handful of addresses you want to mail to. Make sure you select the most promising prospects. Don’t pick the ones that you think will make you a lot of money! Pick the ones you are sure you can close. Mail your postcard to those addresses. Be careful about how many addresses you mail to. The price of postage when you are looking at bulk mailing can be expensive. The technique that you are using does have a technical term. In marketing it’s called “cherry picking.” A lot of business professionals will frown on this method. They will tell you it doesn’t work. In a numbers game, in the overall long run maybe they are right. But from my personal experiences I’ve found it does pay off. Since you won’t have the same budget as Microsoft, you can’t afford to not be choosy! The second method is contacting a list broker and purchasing an opt in mail list. Kind of like the email list you’re going to create, however this one is of physical addresses. Most of the time you will pay a certain amount per address, and some higher end list brokers will want you to purchase lists in the thousands. The final price for a opt in direct mail list could range from 500 to 2000 dollars depending on the criteria. I don’t advise this option for everyone, but if you’ve got the money, it’s worth it.
For those of you who want to use a list broker, I’ll break down your target demographic for you. This list criteria is for a Consumer. The Consumer venues are Private Parties, or Special Events. Bear that in mind when designing the piece to send to them. You will want to highlight aspects of your act that appeal to that venue. Chances are good you won’t want to work too far abroad if you are just getting started so set your geography to 100 mile radius around your city zip code. You are looking for on the output the following details. Name and Address. You will want the output formatted as a Microsoft Excel file. The output is how the data file is delivered to you. The most common delivery method is email. Excel is the most common format. It is also the easiest to use. The selects you want are: Known Responders (people who have used a credit card to purchase items off home shopping networks, catalogs, or the internet. Why is because they are impulse buyers, and are likely to respond to a good mail add.) Ages between 18 – 65. Incomes over 25K. (that way you know they will at the least have some money in order to pay you with.) IF you can get a list of theater, magic, or entertainment enthusiasts from your broker even the better. Other wise you may have to model that data around hobby interests being cultural arts. Make sure that the data is scrubbed against the National Do Not Mail List, and updated frequently for accuracy.
For a business list you will want to focus on a different set of data. Business lists are slightly more expensive than consumer lists if for the only reason that business data isn’t likely to change as much, thus for guaranteeing a higher rate of accuracy. For business lists you will want the following demographics. Geography should stay the same, about a 100 mile radius around your city zip code. Again, if you are able to perform abroad then change the geography accordingly. Outputs you will want Name, and Address. Output should be Microsoft Excel file. Delivery method should be email. Your selects should be Event Coordinator where available. Business Owners, CEO, or General Manager. Multiple offices, annual sales over 1 million, with more than 15 employees. This will give you a list of businesses that will have the money to pay you to do a show for them. You may want to focus on a specific industry such as Food Service. If you don’t specify a specific industry you will get a list of EVERY business within your geographic area that fits that description until the order amount is filled. When you get your list, you may not what exactly their title is, but you will know they are one of the selects you chose from.
Note: You can also purchase email lists by using the same criteria. Emails are cheaper in bulk, but less effective due to common place, aggressive spam blockers.
(To Be Continued)
The point of effective marketing has a two fold purpose. The first of course we’ve discussed in nauseating detail; getting hired. The good news is we’ve saved the fun part for last. The second purpose of marketing is to get your name out there and get recognized! There are many ways to do this, and we’re going to cover them in this chapter!
One of the easiest ways to market to people is via emails. Simply send them a quick message about your next show and build your fan base through a grass roots opt in email list. How do you get a list like that? Simple, you grow it. Each time you perform, you bring a notebook with you. You make an announcement after your show asking people to sign up for your mailing list so they can receive information about future shows. Do this for six months and wallah, you have an impressive list.
Privacy Notice: Most people don’t realize this but there is a huge market out there for your personal data. Companies will pay big dollars to get a list of warm clients who have asked to receive advertisements about a certain subject. What you are generating is in business known as an “Opt In” Email List. I’ve made good money before selling these very lists to companies on a whole range of hot subjects- Mortgages, Loan Modifications, etc. Most people are aware that their information can be sold, and the one thing you don’t want to do is give them the idea that you will do that. Make a special mention either while you are asking them to sign up for your mailing list, or make a notation on the list itself that you will NOT sell their information. That when you get it, it is for your use only.
Posting Flyers. When you have a show up and coming and you want to get the word out about it, but you don’t have the money to take out an add in the news paper consider buying a ream of white copy paper which has about 500 sheets to it, and going to Kinkos. Give them a USB jump drive with a word document advertising your up coming show. Have them print copies, and then post them on street poles in affluent parts of your town. You will also want to focus on posting them in areas around where your show will be located. If you have any friends that work for a pizza parlor see if they will deliver them for you when their take out orders come in. The nice thing about providing Kinkos with not only the paper but the word document is they usually cut you a bit of a price break on printing.
Note: Before you start posting flyers make sure that it is legal to do so in your city. I know a friend who got fined $250 dollars per flyer he posted about his free show at a local theater. His total bill was over two grand by the time all things were said and done. An alternative to posting on street poles would be to stuff mail boxes or hang on house doors. Yes, it’s as tedious as a paper route but at least you won’t get fined.
Post Card Spamming. This isn’t exactly a method to be used by the magician working on a shoelace budget but it’s an effective one. This marketing method also goes by another name- Direct Mail. Companies like Microsoft spend millions of dollars each year investing in this form of advertisement. I know, I’m friends with the person that handled their account. If Microsoft can make an effective use of this method, why can’t you? First you will need a piece to be mailed. I suggest a post card. Quick, dirty, can be easily read, and all the important information is delivered in one small but powerful package. Take my advice, unless you have a degree in graphic arts and design go to a graphic artist and pay them to design your piece. You’ll want this piece to look as professional as you can get it. Next you will need mailing addresses. You can generate these the easy or the expensive way. I’ll explain both. I’ll start with the easy way. Go back to your telemarketing list you generated by using Yahoo, Google, or Yellow Pages online searches. Chances are good that next to the phone number you will get an address. Hand pick a small handful of addresses you want to mail to. Make sure you select the most promising prospects. Don’t pick the ones that you think will make you a lot of money! Pick the ones you are sure you can close. Mail your postcard to those addresses. Be careful about how many addresses you mail to. The price of postage when you are looking at bulk mailing can be expensive. The technique that you are using does have a technical term. In marketing it’s called “cherry picking.” A lot of business professionals will frown on this method. They will tell you it doesn’t work. In a numbers game, in the overall long run maybe they are right. But from my personal experiences I’ve found it does pay off. Since you won’t have the same budget as Microsoft, you can’t afford to not be choosy! The second method is contacting a list broker and purchasing an opt in mail list. Kind of like the email list you’re going to create, however this one is of physical addresses. Most of the time you will pay a certain amount per address, and some higher end list brokers will want you to purchase lists in the thousands. The final price for a opt in direct mail list could range from 500 to 2000 dollars depending on the criteria. I don’t advise this option for everyone, but if you’ve got the money, it’s worth it.
For those of you who want to use a list broker, I’ll break down your target demographic for you. This list criteria is for a Consumer. The Consumer venues are Private Parties, or Special Events. Bear that in mind when designing the piece to send to them. You will want to highlight aspects of your act that appeal to that venue. Chances are good you won’t want to work too far abroad if you are just getting started so set your geography to 100 mile radius around your city zip code. You are looking for on the output the following details. Name and Address. You will want the output formatted as a Microsoft Excel file. The output is how the data file is delivered to you. The most common delivery method is email. Excel is the most common format. It is also the easiest to use. The selects you want are: Known Responders (people who have used a credit card to purchase items off home shopping networks, catalogs, or the internet. Why is because they are impulse buyers, and are likely to respond to a good mail add.) Ages between 18 – 65. Incomes over 25K. (that way you know they will at the least have some money in order to pay you with.) IF you can get a list of theater, magic, or entertainment enthusiasts from your broker even the better. Other wise you may have to model that data around hobby interests being cultural arts. Make sure that the data is scrubbed against the National Do Not Mail List, and updated frequently for accuracy.
For a business list you will want to focus on a different set of data. Business lists are slightly more expensive than consumer lists if for the only reason that business data isn’t likely to change as much, thus for guaranteeing a higher rate of accuracy. For business lists you will want the following demographics. Geography should stay the same, about a 100 mile radius around your city zip code. Again, if you are able to perform abroad then change the geography accordingly. Outputs you will want Name, and Address. Output should be Microsoft Excel file. Delivery method should be email. Your selects should be Event Coordinator where available. Business Owners, CEO, or General Manager. Multiple offices, annual sales over 1 million, with more than 15 employees. This will give you a list of businesses that will have the money to pay you to do a show for them. You may want to focus on a specific industry such as Food Service. If you don’t specify a specific industry you will get a list of EVERY business within your geographic area that fits that description until the order amount is filled. When you get your list, you may not what exactly their title is, but you will know they are one of the selects you chose from.
Note: You can also purchase email lists by using the same criteria. Emails are cheaper in bulk, but less effective due to common place, aggressive spam blockers.
(To Be Continued)
