Marketing for the Creative.

Being a creative can mean different things. From being a model, photographer, musician, artist and so much more. We work with hundreds of creatives and we speak to them every day. We see what works and what doesn’t when it comes down to marketing your creative business.
If you are working on developing your business, these are great goals to add to your overall plan.

Part 1: Audience.

Marketing your business starts with knowing exactly who your perfect customer or client is. Are they a model, parent, newly engaged, a professional, what music do they love?

Basically knowing every part of who this person gets you closer to knowing what makes them happy and how to get them to be interested in your product. If you know what your customer likes, you can show them exactly what they want to see.

These are all things you need to think about.

If I was a new and upcoming house music producer, I would need to know where my audience is spending their time in order to show them my work.

I wouldn’t want to speak to radio stations to have them play my music, so where would I want my music?

Where does every person like to listen to their music? Well, they probably follow Instagram pages and playlists on music streaming services that release new music. So with this new found knowledge, I would be dedicating my time to reaching out to all relevant pages or playlists that are in my niche and getting them to start showing my music. This would put me in a great position to have thousands of people start listening to my content and share it with their friends.

I know not everyone reading is a music producer but regardless of what you do, understanding that having to do the research on your audience is necessary and being where they are spending their time is important.

 

Part 2: Become an Expert in your field.

So many people decide they will do every niche at once. All to see what one works out best and put everything on their website so they can get the most customers. This is totally at the discretion of the creative and everyone is different but in our experience becoming an expert in one area versus a jack of all trades has helped our creatives grow quickly! Try focusing on one niche and if you want to branch out later, create separate social profiles or sections on your website. If you want to be a fashion photographer, focus on that until you feel you’re an expert in that field.

Ultimately the goal is that you don’t want to turn people off of your work and content you are producing. A little bit of variety is good but switching between diverse niches each week is challenging for your audience.

Example: A wedding/family Photographer posting bourdoir work on the same page often will push some of the audience away as it might be something they don't relate to.

 

Part 3: Kindness is Queen.

Kindness is always good business. As a professional in any industry, be kind and help others as much as you can. Being kind pushes your brand and word of mouth referrals above and beyond traditional marketing. Help other creatives grow, host workshops and start collaborating. The mindset of it’s “me” against everyone, leads to a bad reputation. You want to be the person everyone in your industry loves to work with.

After boiling down what we do on a daily basis and how we make business decisions at Creators Magazine, it all comes down to these three steps. Knowing your true audience, becoming an expert in your field and being relatable and fun with your clients, students or partners. These are key to having a thriving business in 2019.

Keep on Creating.

- Mathieu