Ten top things you shouldn't do when marketing your creative business. The presentation was given to the Dorset Centre for the Creative Arts on 27th January 2016.

1. Marketing for creatives 2016
or, ‘how not to do it’ if you want to succeed ………….

2. Don’t set goals
 It can be as simple or as complex as you want, but if you don’t know where you’re going any route
will take you there! Just make sure your goal is specific when you set it.

3. Have accounts EVERYWHERE
 You only have 24 hours in a day. Having too many accounts means spending time you don’t have
doing things that don’t work.

4. Rely on their portfolio
 Your portfolio is an essential piece of kit in your marketing toolbox but it’s not the only one. It
assumes your target audience already know who you are and where you hang out.

5. Host their own website
 Having a website is a little like owning a store in the middle of a field in Siberia that has no roads
going to it. To be visible you need to be on the virtual high street with passing traffic.

6. Blast out information about themselves
 Most people aren’t really interested in what other people say, unless they’re famous! But they are
interested in solving a problem they have. What problems can you solve?

7. Make it hard to engage
 If you have website, a leaflet or an article add your contact details EVERYWHERE. Don’t make it
difficult for people to contact you or buy from you. Lead them by the hand.

8. Focus on the ‘keywords’
 Keywords don’t matter, they haven’t for a long time. What matters is great content that people like
and link to time after time after time.

9. Have no mailing list
 The money is in the list. Not literally of course, but metaphorically. People don’t buy first time, they
may not buy second time round; but the more they get to know and like you the greater your
chance of making a sale, first time, second time, third time.

10. Don’t review
 It’s a process, it’s a creative process. We plan something, we do it, we review it, we amend it. It’s
circular and with every pass around the circle the process gets better.

11. What next?
 If you need more, visit me on my blog at www.womanontheedgeofreality.com