Alyson Stanfield's Workshop

Spent yesterday in Bradenton at the Art Center Manatee attending Alyson Stanfield's workshop entitled "Shameless Self-Promotion for Artists". I jumped on the marketing bandwagon last year as a result of attending a Bruce Baker workshop. I loved Alyson's style - friendly yet no-nonsense. Some of the points she made relating to where I am in my career endeavors are:

• Create a "deadline" calendar. Ah, never thought of this obvious tool.
• Languaging - here's one I really need to work on. This includes defining my work to enable people to connect to it easier. She stresses using "colorful, meaningful and effective language". And here's the one that hit home for me: Define yourself before someone else does it for you. Wow.
  
• Alyson emphasized compiling and using an extensive mailing list. This is something I've made a weak attempt at. No more.
• Branding - which included a long list of effective marketing material. We've been discussing branding extensively in our salon.
• Ways to create a "buzz". This was particularly interesting as our salon is evolving into something powerful and electric. The buzz is beginning with very little effort even before we launch. Just imagine...
• Strategic Alliances. Getting out of the studio to network for a myriad of reasons. Alyson urges artists to organize a salon group and I emphasize that advice whole heartedly!
• Blogging. The Art Biz Blog and Newsletter available on Alyson's website is absolutely priceless. There's very little marketing information available specifically for artists so I urge you all to take advantage.

I also realized some mistakes I'm making with my website and business cards. The jury's still out on the business cards, however as a lot of people appreciate that Michael is on the back. As far as blogging is concerned, interesting, dynamic content is always what we should be striving for. But Alyson said a cute photo of your kitten now and then is okay...I present to you the infamous "Babush"!