If you want to reach a broader audience and build your brand as an artist, there are some common marketing traps you want to avoid. Below are four common PR “don’ts” to steer clear of.
1) Don’t work on your art and then simply wait for your audience, buyers or market to appear. That approach generally results in rooms filled with your work that are being seen only by yourself, your family, friends and your pets.
2) Don’t think that by simply developing an online presence your work will reach its target audience. Do you want to develop an online presence? Yes. Picking a few strategic social media outlets to focus on and developing a blog that reflects your own district voice is incredibly important. But, as with anything in the marketing world, you need to know what you’re doing. Simply creating a blog and/or posting on various social media sites can lull you into a false sense of security. You can think you’re moving forward where in actuality, you’re simply spinning your wheels. You need a well-thought-out approach that is executed by someone who knows that world and can maximize your online efforts. There is quite a bit of noise on line. You don’t want to add to simply add to the racket; you want to develop a distinct voice that is listened to and sites that draw attention.
3) Don’t believe that placing a press release on a paid wire service is synonymous with launching a public relations campaign. There are quite a few wire services, some more expensive than others, that will distribute your release for you. If the release is written strategically, using a wire service can definitely help with your search engine optimization (SEO) but, from my experience, rarely will it lead to truly beneficial of PR coverage. Paid PR wire services generally work if you have a topical story, a bizarre story, or one that involves celebrities or star names. More often than not, you’ll end up with some online coverage that very few people read. As mentioned, that can help your SEO, but it will seldom result in mainstream coverage, nor will it generate the type of coverage you’re hoping for. For real PR results, you need a strategic traditional PR campaign.
4) Don’t hire a PR firm and think that you can now sit back and wait while they do their job. You need to do your part. You need to give your firm something that they can promote and seldom is the fact that you’ve created a piece of art enough of a story. Remember effective PR is effective storytelling. Without a compelling narrative there is no story. So work with your PR company to develop story ideas. Is there an event the media can be pointed to? Will you be appearing somewhere with your art? Will you be painting or filming somewhere that the media can cover? Get creative. Don’t just disappear and wait for your PR firm to find a pitch that works. Make it a team effort. If you work together it will work.
There are more than 4 marketing “don’ts,” but if you can avoid these, you’re headed in the right direction