Your Marketing Plan

Instructors: Lisa L. Cyr and Von  Glitschka

YOUR MARKETING PLAN ASSIGNMENT

Before you can begin to put together a marketing plan for your work, you need to fully identify the unique vision that you bring to the world, articulating what makes you different from the competition.

A brand analysis is integral to establishing a clear picture of your work and determining its positioning in the marketplace. It will also guide me in assisting you in putting together the appropriate body of work and connecting it with the appropriate target market. Since it is always wise to channel your time and money resources wisely, it is best to focus on one key target market at a time.

If you have not yet established or identified an existing brand, it is best to start the process. The best way to begin is to take an honest look at not only your working process and approach, experience, capabilities, client relations and market preferences but also your core beliefs and values, creative interests and aspirations. They are what collectively make your offerings unique. By defining your brand from the inside out, you are setting a foundation from which to strategically position yourself in the marketplace.

Being selective in your approach to new business is essential to building your market value for the long term. By developing relationships with clientele that share your vision, you begin to build industry recognition and leverage to do like projects. Actively pursuing work under a synergistic approach is the best way to capitalize on what you do best. Listen to this podcast on Designing Your Life. 

By defining your brand in the marketplace, you are placing in the buyer’s mind a certain profile of what you have to uniquely offer. The profile that you create is very important in that it will aid in not only your strategic positioning but also your overall presentation and promotional messaging. 

PART ONE:  YOUR BRAND

Your Niche... your uniqueness. Define yourself as an artist and creative being. These qualities collectively make you and your work unique in the marketplace.

1. Creative Personality:
Describe your creative personality, include special interests, etc.

What are your creative business’s likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses? 
By identifying current problems in either the production or marketing of your art and begin to breakdown the barriers that are preventing you from reaching your goals. Analyzing your strengths will help to potential opportunities.

What are your creative business’s core beliefs and values? This can be incorporated into your brand as well as markets.

Be detailed and honest in your answers, as you are the one that needs to be happy in order for the business to thrive and to be truly authentic.

2. Working Habits & Environment:
Describe your creative business’s current working schedule and compare that to your ideal.

What habits do you do consistently?

Can you work within client parameters and deadlines or do you need to establish your own?

Describe your current working environment, strengths and weaknesses, and give ways to improve it. Give details to all points.

3. Creative Work:
Take a real hard look at your work as a collective whole. Look for things that you do repeatedly or enjoy doing. 

Any market, genre, stylistic preferences, or types of work that you tend to gravitate towards?

What are your current capabilities and experience and how do they match the work you really want to do? Be very descriptive in your responses to all points.

4. Creative Methods & Approach:
Analyze your development of concepts, methods and technique in detail. What is your creative process and approach? Be specific on all points.

5. Creative Potential:
Detail your vision for your creative work. Take some time with this one and really focus on what you really want to do and not what you think you, at this time, are capable of doing.

This will determine the direction for you and your work.


PART TWO: TARGET AUDIENCE

1. Define your Target Market: Helps to establish a valuable model for decision making while maintaining focus and clarity. You will have lots of lectures to assist you in this task.

Business-to-Business (you sell to businesses) or Business-to-Consumer (you sell direct to the consumer). Some will do both.

List the geographic, demographic, and psychographic profile of your desired market. Who are they, where are they located, and what do they buy and how do they buy. What publications or media do they look at? What organizations do they belong to? What events do they attend? Be as detailed as possible.

Develop a working knowledge of the markets(s) in which you want to establish yourself. Every market has its own "language".

Research buyers, influencers and major industry trade organizations and publications that showcase work in that market.

Seek mentors. Are there other artists that have already achieved success in this area?

List Practical Clients: Itemize a specific list of clients, companies, brands, products, or markets you think would benefit from your work. 

List Your Dream Clients: Once you have a practical list, push yourself further and develop another itemized list of potential dream clients or unorthodox genres you have never considered before. (This is how you'll grow your reach) 

PART THREE: STRATEGIC MARKETING

Establish a Strategy: Outline your strategy to market your work to the above targets. 

How will you position yourself, so people find you? How will you get your work in front of those who can potentially hire you?  

 

Website: Create and drive traffic to your website portfolio. 

Online Portfolios: Have secondary portfolios on established platforms like Behance.net, Adobe Portfolios, iSpot, Society of Illustrators, Hire an Illustrator, etc. 

Social Media: As much as possible, keep your social media accounts across the various platforms in line with your brand identity. The goal is to have each point back to your primary website. 

People Love Process: When posting on social media, don't just post your final work. Instead, share your process, how you think, and how you created your work. Don't limit this to just client work. Consider personal creative projects as well. 

Secondary Online Promotion: Itemize a specific list of sites associated with the industries, organizations, tools, curated services, and companies that would benefit from featuring or sponsoring your work. 

Be specific and include follow up procedures. 

Explore strategies that are multimedia: print, broadcast, online, interactive, public relations, social, etc. Targeting an audience on many fronts. Look to all the lectures during class to assist you in this task.

Establish professional contacts and network. Keep updated on what is going on in the field.

Educate yourself in the marketplace by signing up for free industry newsletters online, join groups on social media, etc.

Explore and be informed about all of your options including being open to venture out on your own ideas.

Developing a Game Plan… one step at a time.
By now, you've defined what it is that you are selling, determined who it is that you want to sell to and explored various promotional outlets that will put your work in the eyes of potential buyers and the media. It’s time to begin establishing an effective marketing plan.

Developing a game plan clearly defines your goals and establishes your objectives. There is great power when you are able to clarify, define and set direction to your efforts. Without a solid plan of attack, you can easily get side tracked into areas that will distract you from accomplishing your overall goals.

CLASS DELIVERABLES:

Your Marketing Plan should include the info below in a edited, designed format. Your final format should be an 8.5x11 optimized PDF file. (Horizontal) 

1. BRAND: convey your brand in a clear and concise way.

2. GOAL: What is your big career goal? What are you working towards? 
Vision Statement: List your short-term and long-term goals. Where do you want to be in ten years? What do you want to be doing? What new skills do you still need to learn and improve on?

3. TARGET MARKETS(s) that you plan to work in and how you will promote to such markets. List specifics and be aware of how they buy, when, how often, etc.

4. STRATEGY: Outline your strategy to market your work to the above targets. Be specific and include follow up procedures. Include strategies that are multimedia: print, broadcast, online, interactive, public relations, social, etc. Targeting an audience on many fronts. Look to all the lectures during class to assist you in this task.

5. WORK SAMPLES: Include samples of the work you want to promote even if it is just one or two pieces.

6. NEXT STEPS:  Talk about what are the next steps you are taking to move your career forward.

7. CLOSING: Your back cover should have a simple salutation thanking the viewers. It should also feature your  contact information and logo/name.  

PLEASE DROPBOX YOUR ASSIGNMENT AS A PDF to both your instructors