How to get the Word Out
So, you started a business - YOUR PASSION - and you have a spankin new logo to slap on everything from stickers to hats to can coozies. That's how you market, right? Sort of... When I meet with small business owners, we start by having a conversation about their business, logo, website, photography and marketing. The latter, in my mind, are the elements of your Getting the Word Out Kit. Each has its own complexities and processes, and all work together to paint a complete picture for your audience and customers.
So, you started a business - YOUR PASSION - and you have a spankin new logo to slap on everything from stickers to hats to can coozies. That's how you market, right? Sort of... When I meet with small business owners, we start by having a conversation about their business, logo, website, photography and marketing. The latter, in my mind, are the elements of your Getting the Word Out Kit. Each has its own complexities and processes, and all work together to paint a complete picture for your audience and customers.
Where to Use the New Logo
Your designer worked hard to put together a logo that will both tell people about you but also stand the test of time. You should have a slew of different files - original vector files, JPEG, PNG, PDF.... All the files you will need to populate all of your marketing pieces.
Website - Most websites today have a long version of the company's logo in the upper left hand corner or the site (middle if you're looking on a mobile device). Use the longest version you have to free up space on your web layout. This will make it so your customers have to scroll through less introductory info.
Business cards - Business cards can be a lot of fun, so don't be shy and use ALL of the real estate on your cards. I usually design cards with one side as the logo only, and all names, titles, contact info on the "back." Allows people that moment to really connect with your logo and get a proper introduction to your brand.
Social media profile images - Another reason you need multiple versions of your logo - social media profile images. They tend to be square, and depending what platform you are using can be sized from 180 pixels all the way up to 600 pixels. A stacked version of your logo is recommended here. If you have a circle or square icon version of your logo, even better! Make sure you properly size your images! It makes a difference.
Signage - If you haven't looked into it yet, signs can be very pricey. You'll want to use the full color, vector, full version of your logo for this endeavor. As a tip, make sure you get to see proofs and that everything is spelled correctly.
What to Put on Your Website
This part will definitely depend on what your business is. You may be a small business with a brick and mortar store, so information on how to get there and up to date info about what you'll find in the store is pertinent.
Maybe you are an illustrator and your body of work is the most important thing to showcase on the homepage, followed by your about, contact page, and an active blog about what you are up to.
About - Your about page is really important to your sales. People love to buy from other people they relate to, so make sure you include a short bio and maybe a picture of yourself.
Testimonials - These are gold if you can extract some info from your customers on their experience with you.
Bio - Tell the people something about you that makes them trust you, relate to you, and ultimately makes them want to hire you.
Blog - A blog is an essential way to maintain an updated website.
Balance your sales posts with your education and other posts.
Pick a consistency that works for you and stick to it. The more consistent you are with your blog, the better it will be for you and your site.
Good photography - As overdone as good photography might seem (or as accessible as it might seem) - never take this for granted. Your website is sometimes the ONLY way people learn about your business. Getting good photos taken of your business and services will go a long way.
Do a shoot every year and add it to your marketing expenses. You will never regret it.
A professional photographer will take photos of interesting things and in ways you might not have thought to photograph something. Leave it to the professionals and allow them to work their magic.
Contact Information - This doesn't really need an explanation, but I would include ALL the places people can get in touch with you! Don't put your email address on the site, but DO provide a contact form for people on your site. Do add your phone number and physical address if you have one. Don't add your home phone if you don't want people calling you at it.
Where to promote your website
Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin - share your blog posts, photos and articles about what you are up to.
promote by having a business page where you post consistent and relevant information to your business.
Ads - Facebook and Google both have reasonable ad programs that allow you to set your own budgets.
How to Promote Yourself
Social media will truly only get you so far. Its really up to your blog and relationships to take it to the next level. If you are an artist, maybe you are teaching classes or workshops at other businesses. If you are a clothing store, maybe having events at your store with other artists will build relationships and help both of you. Opportunities are all around us, you just have to be creative and open to them.
Networking events - showing your face around town can't hurt! Get in front of other businesses at networking functions.
Email lists - people who visit your website willingly are already invested in you, so give them what they want - updates right in their inbox.
Direct Mail - Snail mail isn't dead yet - the USPS has some great direct mail programs that allow you to target specific zip codes for maximum ROI.
Events - Having an event at your business or in collaboration with other businesses is always a fun way to get customers to engage. Host an artist pop-up shop at your store and offer fun snacks, or if you are a craft brewery invite someone to do a tap takeover at your restaurant. There are lots of creative ways to interact with your community.
Volunteering your time - Time is so precious to all of us, but one of the BEST ways I have found to network myself was to volunteer for local non-profits. I volunteer for our local Craft Beer Fest, I sat on the board of our local historical society, I make concert posters for a local group that brings music to our town, and have volunteered my time at other events and for other causes as well. I can already see you rolling your eyes, who has time for that? Well it doesn't take as much of my time as you would think, and the connections I have made with all types of businesses in my community has been PRICELESS. I also like helping my community look good, so its really win win for everyone.
This isn't a comprehensive guide to how to market your business, but it does contain some tips and tricks that I have learned along the way. If you have any tips please share them in the comments!
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes to Facebook Look
No surprise here, folks. Facebook is constantly working to update their platform, and some changes may be coming down the line for you, as well. Staying current on these changes are essential for getting properly sized images that aren't poorly spaced or cut off by Facebook's cropping. There is a new cover photo size, that is 828 x 315 pixels - or just a slightly more square dimension. I imagine that scales better for mobile.
So it seems they are rolling this change out slowly, but the main things to note are:
1. Unobstructed cover photo.
You can now see the whole image without the title, buttons or anything else obstructing the view. Designers rejoice.
2. Compact Info bar: Goodbye tabs.
I'm totally in favor of this design update. They have cleaned up the information that has been lingering over the cover image into a compact bar that houses your immediate information needs. In my opinion the profile photo for a business page should be your logo anyway, so the fact that they made it much smaller is okay with me. So everyone, put a nice clean logo in that space and let your cover photo shine with all the personality your business encompasses. The former tabs of info have now moved into a responsive parallax right hand navigation.
3. Flip flop of left and right navigation for desktop.
So they redesigned the left and right page navigation for the better. I like that you have the minimal responsive (formerly "tab" info) menu on the left, and then photos, events, videos, reviews and more scrolling down the right side of the newsfeed. Makes more sense for our left-to-right reading and natural information separation, and for my OCD. This change isn't as noticeable on mobile, but you can tell that they have moved a lot more of the "right hand column content" and insight info to the top of the page, and you have to scroll further for the newsfeed.
Along with these visual changes, there are sure to be other less visible updates. But as your neighborhood designer, its my duty to keep you current on the visual changes! So update those profile pics to clean logos, and adapt your cover photo to fit the new sizes.
Social Media
I made Coyote Crossing Resort this social media share image for their annual kids snowmobile race. Coming up in January, 2016, our flyer uses an illustration I did last year for them.
I made Coyote Crossing Resort this social media share image for their annual kids snowmobile race. Coming up in January, 2016, our flyer uses an illustration I did last year for them.
Your Year-Long Guide to Marketing a Successful Music Festival
Marketing for a music festival is a huge ongoing task. Having been to a few and done marketing once or twice for a festival or other events like this, I am writing this guide as an educational piece for anyone crazy enough to get involved with a music festival.
Marketing for a music festival is a huge ongoing task. Having been to a few and done marketing once or twice for a festival or other events like this, I am writing this guide as an educational piece for anyone crazy enough to get involved with a music festival.
I got started in festival marketing by helping my friends with posters and graphic design for Hoxeyville Music Festival. I have worked with them on three festivals, taking on more responsibility each year I helped. I love music - my dad has been a drummer in bands his whole life, my brother and I grew up listening to him and then playing in band in school. I still play music (guitar, ukulele and can sing a tune when no ones watching) and love attending concerts, festivals and little tiny local shows and open mics.
I went from a simple poster design in 2011 to now running their Facebook fan page, designing merchandise, maps, programs, advertising and more. I also co-chair the marketing for Cadillac’s Craft Beer Festival for the second year in a row. Between these two events & my catering and food service knowledge - I try to provide help in organizing the events and getting people the information they so desperately need. In a beautifully designed and artful way ;).
Things you’ll need to begin
Awesome Musicians.
Good, professional art and branding for your posters, website, merch and marketing materials.
Awesome location with camping and water near by.
Marketing plan and overall vision for massive amount of pieces that will be required to properly get the word out to your precious patrons and fans. This will include social media calendars & blogging calendars.
Professional photography and video from years past
Community involvement and support
Great local vendors and beer.
A massive group of friends and family you can enslave to set-up and tear-down the festival.
A meat smoker, so you can eat smoked meat all weekend. Also good for bribing those friends and family members into helping you.
1 year out
Plan a festival marketing meeting to:
Download the festival’s past marketing fails and wins.
Commission poster artist for next year, so they can start concept.
Create social plan for next four months of good memories, continuing any philanthropy, and other related festival news so you can keep momentum going through the off season.
This is an important time to have and release:
Next year’s dates
Next year’s location
8 months out
Start talking to bands or their managers. Great bands will be booked many months ahead of time, so its good to get the conversation going as soon as you can. A good goal for 8 months out would be: a headliner band committed with 25% of supporting acts committed.
Locking in talent, both volunteer and musical is an early must do! Also, you’ve given your friends and family a couple of months to recoup, but nows a good time to start reminding them about next year. Weed out the ones you wanted to throat punch because they gave away a box of volunteer shirts to a group of cute girls. Line up those friends responsible enough to run your merch tent, etc.
Keep interest going on blogs and social. If everyone had a good time, they love being reminded of it. Post photos with countdowns, dance parties and general good times to keep your festival at the top of their list. Posting images that are shareable, branded with the festival logo and easy for people to engage with is very important. When people engage, other people see the activity. Building exposure and reminding people of events coming in the summer is important at this stage. Other good ways to keep interest high on social: show us your throwback merch, ask what other shows/bands people are seeing over the weekend, celebrate musician’s birthdays (local and international), plug local events, cool things that people involved with the festival are doing, etc.
Blog about bands (this years and last years) & festival happenings. Send this out on your social media to drive traffic to your site and sell tickets. Send with a Press Release to music marketers and other music blogs that fit your genre.
Artwork and theme should be ready, and released with the website and early bird ticket sale date. It needs to be applied to: website, ticket site, social media and events, map/program, tickets, shirts, poster, ads, merch, other social media. Branding all the imagery for social media with your logo is very important, especially if its getting shared by your fans.
6 months out
Release headliners and initial line-up via your website, blogs and social media. People will be excited and share this post so make sure you brand it and make it a shareable size that is easily read on mobile and computers. 1200 px X 1200 px is a nice, square shareable size for Instagram and Facebook.
Set up your online ticketing, and brand the page as you did for social media and your site with the new artwork.
Make a limited amount of early bird tickets available. When those run out, presale.
Request volunteers and vendors on social media, and send them to your site to sign up.
Vending, recycling, security, sponsorships should all be coordinated at this time as well. But this is an ongoing effort that will continue through the year.
4 months out
Release more bands.
Make sure ALL bands have been sent a branded image with the line up that they can share on their site and social media.
Begin slow burn of ramped up social and blogging engagement. Keep people interested, but find a balance between posting enough and not enough.
Continue presale.
Graphic collateral for marketing should be out. Some ads will be better served closer to the festival date (local and regional magazines).
Social media should have initial line up, event created with people invited, banner ads on Jam Base and other music/show calendar sites.
Newsletters to email subscribers when more bands are released.
2 months out
Posters circulating in major college towns, handbills, street teams at music and beer festivals.
Ads in other festival programs throughout the summer.
Merch designed. Plug on blogs.
Social causes pinpointed (can drive for posters, etc.).
Vendors fulfilled with some menu/merch options.
90% of lineup confirmed.
Presale.
Ticket giveaway.
1 month out
Daily posting of offerings from music, vendors, food, tips, camping, safety, social causes, gear, friends, past festivals, activities, etc.
Ads in local papers.
Posters circulating locally.
Bands all booked.
Production booked.
Volunteers filled.
Last ticket giveaway
Day/s of events
Posting all events on social:
Video of bands and activities
Photos of people, camping, bands, funny things, vendors, happiness, dancing
Fan photos
YouTube live/streaming
Rinse, repeat.
Do you have experience with music festivals? What have I forgotten? What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below.