Sometimes going old school is just the ticket to getting the world out - illustration by @mhchipmunk

In Episode 22 of the podcast, we put Heather Travis to work and pick her PR and Communications brain to come up with some ideas of how you can do some low cost, DIY press and marketing around your creative business that don’t involve relying on social media!

That’s not to say social media isn’t important but, if you’re only relying on Facebook, Instagram and platforms like Snapchat and TikTok to promote your business, you’re leaving some good opportunities on the table!

Today we’re going to be talking about community marketing, grassroots marketing, networking and other tools that can be just as powerful, if not more so, than a social media post!

This episode is jam packed with ideas of how you can get your work in front of other people in your community without having to “sell” yourself. And digital content creators… this means you too!

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a direct link to Episode 22 - or you can listen via the players below:

We all tend to get caught up in the notion that social media marketing is the easy way to market our creative businesses. You can sit at home while you’re in front of the TV, while wearing your PJs and put your stuff out into the world without having to actually talk to a soul. And by the way… it’s free!

But is it really? Posting your latest handmade fabric pouch to Instagram doesn’t mean it’s going to get seen or that anyone is going to click the buy button. You have an algorithm to contend with, the audience can be fickle, - especially if you don’t interact with them when they leave comments and ask questions. You can’t quickly build a community on social media anymore and it doesn’t provide you with that instant return it once did. Unless you want to pay…

Sometimes it’s just easier to get up and go outside and say hi to somebody!

So, if you’re always relied on social media for your marketing, and maybe you’re a rather shy person who likes to stay behind their screen, what are some ways you can get started with marketing yourself outside of the internet?

Step #1: Research

This is a theme that comes up a lot in our discussion today: do your research.

You can stay behind your screen a little bit longer while you put your googling skills to work.

Start researching your immediate communities for:

art galleries
community artist guilds or groups in your field: painting, pottery, fibre arts, photography - whatever it is that you work on
artist studio crawls
local craft markets or farmer’s markets
local boutiques or businesses that sell items similar to what you make
the local chamber of commerce
community rec centres and parks and recreation programs (usually anything art related will fall under parks and rec)
your local school board’s night school or continuing education programming
your city’s name + whatever it is you do like “Vancouver painters”,“Halifax Etsy shop owners”, “Saskatoon wildlife photographers” or “Waterloo nanonwrimo participants”
look on sites like meetup.com to see if there are makers or crafters or writers in your area or who meet up in person regularly (in non-pandemic times of course) or virtually via zoom chats
look up real estate agents and home stagers who might want to hang your art on the walls of homes they’re selling or your hand tufted cushions on the couch or your beautiful hand made dishes and mugs on the dining room table. The same strategy could work with with interior designers.
find out if there are local stylists who might want to show your jewellery or handbags to their clients

When you find some things that look promising, dive deeper. Read their websites, find their social media profiles. Follow them and see what kinds of content they post and interact with it if it’s interesting to you.

Check out Episode 18 where Lisa shares all the out of the ordinary spots where books are sold to give you some ideas of where to look that you might not have considered before.

Look To Local Businesses You Regularly Support

Make a mental note of things while you’re out and about doing your daily routine. Maybe the coffee shop down the street sells cute handmade magnets from a local maker at the checkout. Maybe your favourite restaurant has paintings by local artists on the walls that are for sale. Perhaps your local library is doing a poetry reading by local authors. Or the local ice centre has a painting exhibition on the walls as you head down the halls to the different rinks. Maybe your local drugstore sells greeting cards or earrings made by locals. (these are all real life examples from my neighbourhood).

Ask the barista or the restaurant owner or the beauty advisor about the items you see and ask if they’re looking for new offerings as part of a conversation while you’re getting your latte or ordering your sushi or buying your mascara.

Tell Your Family and Friends

As Heather says, wear your artistic heart on your sleeve. Your family and friends can be your biggest supporters and your biggest marketers but they have to know what you’re doing!!! If you never tell them you’re have a gallery showing or that you just launched a line of stickers on Etsy or that you got a regular table at the summer farmer’s market, they can’t tell anyone! Give your mom a chance to brag about you.

Keep a List

Start making a list of all the people, places and businesses that could represent an opportunity. You might suddenly find you have 50 leads without even really trying!

Do Some Reconnaissance Missions

Do some reconnaissance missions to check out the businesses and spaces. See what they’re selling or showcasing. Do they carry local products? Who is the manager? When do they see people and when are they available?

Talk to to other vendors at the farmers market you’re interested in. Ask if they enjoy the market and which days are busiest? Do they see a lot of repeat customers.

Step #2: Relationships

A lot of us really struggle with the idea of selling ourselves. It can feel weird, icky and obnoxious. And that’s why step two is so important.

Of course it’s hard (and weird, icky and obnoxious) to walk into a room where you don’t know a soul and start telling everyone how you’re the bees knees. That’s why you start slowly and build relationships. And just like dating, you don’t head out on that first date and blurt out that you want to marry the person before they’ve even had a chance to say “hello, it’s nice to meet you.” or at least get a cocktail in their hand!

No, you start out by saying hi, maybe asking a few questions about what they do with some pleasant but harmless chit chat and then closing up with a “it was great to meet you, I’m looking forward to coming back soon”.

And then go back soon… have a few more conversations, buy a few more lattes, or get some more takout sashimi.

Feel out the situation and do a little more research - maybe it’s not a great fit and you don’t want your art on their walls or jewellery in their shop. But maybe it is a great fit and now, because you’ve invested that time in getting to know them and building a relationship, it’s a lot easier to walk in after a few months and inquire about whether or not there might be space on their walls for your art. Maybe casually mention that you’re an artist or you make cute keychains and you notice that they sell product from other local artists and would they be interested in having a look at your work?

How Not to Do It

Fun fact - in my early career I worked as a beauty advisor for a national retail drug chain. I also managed and did the purchasing for the cosmetics department (which also included jewellery and accessories). I remember one customer who I had never seen before come up to my counter with a lipstick she wanted to buy. As I rang her up, she chatted away - she was super friendly and outgoing and seemed really nice and I was hoping she would become a regular customer.

As I handed over her purchase she looked at my name badge and said “Melissa, it was so nice to meet you. I work for Mary Kay. Here’s my card, I’d LOVE to get you to experience our product line. Can I call you tomorrow about setting up time for a demo at your home?”

WHAM! I felt like I’d been totally blindsided! Not only was she putting me in a very awkward position professionally, (she was trying to recruit me at my place of work) but she also broke that tenuous, tiny strand of trust she had only started to build seconds earlier. It was waaaay too soon to start pushing herself and her products. Way to early for her ask to come to my home. And her friendliness suddenly felt fake and like she had come in with a hidden agenda from the get go. Even if she hadn’t tried to recruit me and was only trying to get me to look at her products, she was probably about 6 visits away from me being open to any kind of discussion about her business.

Read the room. Go slow. And build a genuine relationship. If your relationship comes from a place or authenticity, it will be easy to work your business into your conversation organically and then go from there.

In more formal situations like approaching a gallery or farmer’s market or chamber of commerce, start with an email. Introduce yourself and let them know you would like to be involved or would like to know the process to work with them. If they’re receptive, ask if you can make an appointment to talk on the phone or come and see them in person.

“Focus on the connections, not the transactions.”

Nobody is going to come to you. You’re going to have to be the one to do the outreach so it’s really important to actively nurture relationships all the time!

Step #3: Be Visible In Your Community

Sometimes, you have to go outside and make yourself visible. If you shop at that farmer’s market you’d like to sell at every weekend, people will start to recognize you. That makes it easier to introduce yourself down the road. Maybe you could volunteer to do facepainting for kids one weekend. Or offer to play a free gig while people shop.

Contact your local rec center and find out if they would be interested in you teaching a children’s workshop. Maybe you’re a furniture maker or wood worker and offer to teach a workshop on making birdhouses. You might not get paid much or at all… but parents have a tendency to pay attention to the people spending time with their kids.

Hand out your business cards at the end of the workshop or place them on a table where the kids pick up their finished pieces. That parent might check out your website and decide to buy that beautiful handcrafted wooden coffee table that you charge $800 for. And they will tell your friends about you every time somebody comments on their beautiful coffee table!

Partner up With Other Local Artists & Businesses

No craft market in your community? Connect with other artists and launch one! This is a great way to be seen and get to know other artists and makers in your neighbourhood.

Be involved in local fundraisers and charities - especially if they mean something to you. Offer up one of your creations for a silent auction.

Maybe you make jewellery and can team up with somebody who makes handbags and somebody who designs clothing to host a small local fashion show. Or approach a local fashion boutique about hosting a show (with your products featured of course).

Maybe you’re a chef who could team up with, again, the farmer’s market to produce meal ideas or meal prep ideas or do a menu special every week in your restaurant that features items from the market.

Have Conversations

Don’t be afraid to have conversations. You never know where they might lead or who that person knows. Ask people questions about themselves - people love to chat about themselves and feel valued when people genuinely listen to them. Treat people with kindness while being curious about who they are and what they do. Word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing tool we have.

What If You’re a Digital Content Creator?

Digital content creators really rely heavily on social media to promote their content and for good reason - it’s a digital sphere. But are their opportunities to promote your content offline? Absolutely!

Look to local businesses and publications who could be carriers of your content and get it in front of a different audience:

could the recipes in your food blog appear in the local newspaper?
what if your DIY kid craft tutorial videos were in your local YMCA’s kids programming newsletter?
team up with the local hardware store to host gardening workshops based on content from your gardening blog
do on-line live accessory styling tutorials for a local boutique’s facebook page
team up with your farmer’s market to create recipe cards that feature produce available at the market
if there’s a local blog about things to do in your town, reach out and see if there’s ways you can exchange content or team up to do some kind of live on-line activity
if you’re a travel blogger reach out to your local tourism board and talk about opportunities to work togehter to showcase your home town
host in person workshops based on your niche

Again, do your research and look for ways you can fill a need for local content or local events.

When your community gets to know you and finds you to be genuine and kind, when the work you create solves their problems or makes them smile or keeps them entertained, when their children learn from you, they will sing your praises. They will do the social media marketing for you on Instagram and in Facebook neighbourhood groups.

Maybe you won’t succeed every time with every interaction but every connection you make does help you move your business forward. Consider it “failing forward”. No, it didn’t work this time but it helped you keep your momentum going. You learn from each experience and you keep moving forward!

So, be courageous and get yourself out there. Be kind and curious when you’re meeting new people and most of all, be creative in both your work and in finding ways to connect with people who can help you get your work out to the world!