Podcast with Karen Barbee–Build your studio business from scratch
Listen or download here: Links mentioned in this podcast: Just Call Me Uppity “You can’t make money with dance.” “You have to suffer for your art.” “You should do it because you love it, any other motivation is just wrong.” “You shouldn’t trade money for beauty. It should be free for the world to share and experience.” Well, pardon me for getting uppity, but WHO THE *#&@!! SAID SO? And WHY do we have to blindly follow stupid rules? It’s the same for writing and painting and live theater and composing and underwater basket weaving and just about any other “art” out there. The truth is… Basic Belly Dance Marketing, part 2: who are you selling to?So, how do you make sure your prospect chooses you over your competition? Let’s go back to our universal law of marketing…You’re not selling a drill, you’re selling holes. Pretend you’re looking for a drill because you need some holes. You flip through the pages of Drill Digest and come across this amazing advertisement. It’s got sexy pictures and a cute logo. The ad copy says it’s fast, easy to use, reliable, long-lasting and affordable. Everything you could ever want in a dream drill. Your heart is racing, it’s such a hot piece of drilling machinery! But you turn the page and keep looking. Why? Well, the ad was selling a tool for making tiny holes in sheet metal. But you’re an oil driller–you need to make big holes in dirt. What’s the point? The point is (more…) Basic Belly Dance Marketing, part 1: What are you really selling?
A Tale of Three Dancers–or why "marketing" is NOT a dirty word Meet Dancer A–Let’s call her Miz Diva. She’s all about the money, isn’t she? Her web site is just over the top, full of exaggerated claims about her classes (become a pro in 3 easy lessons!) and her experience–”I’ve been teaching for 47 years” (oh really, so why does your photo look like you’re in your 20’s–either the photo is reaaally old, or you haven’t been teaching that long.) Miz Diva doesn’t like competing with other teachers or other styles. She posts flyers all over town, even in places that make no sense. She is constantly name dropping all the famous dancers she knows. Her bio lists every show she’s performed in since 1967 (okay, maybe she has been teaching that long. Time for a new photo, sweetie!) She undercuts other performers in the area and basically treats people like dirt. No one wants to be like that. In an effort to NOT appear Diva-esque, many dancers subconsciously opt for the opposite extreme. Dancer B–Let’s call her Miss Shrinking Violet. She doesn’t advertise her classes, even though she’s an excellent teacher. She is afraid to tell people what she does because she thinks people will get the wrong idea. When she’s asked for a bio at a workshop performance, she downplays all her accomplishments. She has no website because people might see it and (gasp) actually contact her. Then what would she do? There are no deep-seated self esteem or confidence issues, really. She is a beautiful dancer, and she knows it. But she’s been brought up to be modest. Don’t brag. Don’t call attention to yourself. (I think most of us can relate to that.) Okay, these are both exaggerations, but do they sound at all familiar? And how’s this for unfair? Miz Diva uses obnoxious tactics. She reminds everyone of a stereotypical used car salesman–but her classes are full and her side businesses thrive. Not because they are better than Miss Violet’s…but because no one knows there’s anything else out there. Imagine for a moment you’ve never had a belly dance class in your life, but you are curious and would like to take a beginner’s lesson. Who are you going to go to? Miz Diva, of course, because her flyers are everywhere. You don’t know any better. Wouldn’t you be happier if you had a choice of several classes to try out? Maybe Miss Violet’s class would be a better fit for you. Maybe her studio is on your side of town, and she offers a lunchtime class. By not advertising your business, by not marketing, you’re depriving people of choice. If you’re a vendor and you don’t have a web site, you’re depriving someone halfway across the country from getting that perfect costume they’ve been searching for. If you’re a performer and you don’t market yourself, you’re depriving a restaurant owner of the opportunity to hire you and bring in more business for himself. So, what if there were another way? What if there were some middle ground in marketing? Meet Dancer C–Miss Dependable, Miss Excellence in Dance, Miss Confident in Her Own Abilities. She posts flyers in appropriate places. She has business cards available at her restaurant gigs. She has a web site with links to her eBay store. She runs a special Tribe page for dancers in her local area. In other words, she markets herself–but she does so with dignity. Unlike the pushy Miz Diva, she advertises in appropriate places (where her target market is likely to be.) She isn’t obnoxious. She doesn’t exaggerate her claims. She doesn’t badmouth other dancers or prevent her students from taking classes away from her school. She is well-loved in the community and around the region. In order to be successful in this (or any) business, you have to get over the idea that marketing and sales are sleazy or underhanded or undesirable. If you have a good product or service, you are doing the public harm by not getting the word out. You’re also doing the industry harm, because we all become better in the face of competition. Most people know they need to market. They know it’s important. They even know it can be done without the hype and bluster. But they put it off. It’s a mindset issue that every business owner has to overcome if she’s going to succeed. So how about you? Do you struggle with marketing because it’s uncomfortable in some way? Or have you figured out how to get over it? Leave a comment and share with the rest of us!
New Podcast with Sarah Skinner
Enjoy!
Links mentioned in this podcast: Free Blog Software: Old Word…New Meaning
So, what is it about these guys…they’re just words, after all. What do they represent to us that makes us not want to pay attention? This is going to sound a tad sexist, but I think some women find those words intimidating. Men love to talk about business strategies and marketing metrics. Even if they have no clue what they’re talking about, they can go on and on and on. Women would rather talk about anything else. (I realize I’m making a rash generalization here…I, for one, love talking about growing businesses. It’s why you’re reading this blog.) Let’s tackle the word Marketing for now. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya “I do not think it means what you think it means.” Years ago, way before the Internet or even cell-phones, marketing was something done with a warlike mentality. You hired a big expensive advertising agency where guys in thousand-dollar suits would convene in a “war room” and build “strategies” for your “campaign.” (Seriously, doesn’t that sound like someone about to take over a small innocent country?) The goal was to build an unforgettable Brand, establish a platform, and saturate the media with images. All this in hopes that with repeated exposure your name and image would be “Branded” on the public’s subconscious. So, when they felt like getting a cool refreshing drink…the image that immediately comes to mind is Coke. It worked really well in the days of three TV stations and captive audiences. It was called “interrupt marketing,” and it was really really expensive. That was then and this is now. Brand advertising via media saturation is dying a slow, tortured death for all but the largest companies. It’s not going out quietly…it’s kicking and screaming all the way. But people are just sick to death of interrupt marketing. We hate commercials, and now that we have Tivo, we don’t have to watch. We hate obnoxious radio jingles, and now that we have ipods, we don’t have to listen. We hate pop-ups–so we have pop-up blockers.Technology is constantly trying to figure out the next way to get around advertising. And old-school marketers are constantly fighting for new ways to get in front of the public eye (like mobile marketing–ads on your cell phone). The death of interrupt marketing is fabulous news for your belly dance business! Here’s why… The new meaning of the word marketing is Relevant information delivered to an interested audience. You can call it “social marketing” or “relationship marketing” or whatever you want, but it’s all about building communities of like-minded people and talking about what interests them (including your products.) How easy is that? Belly dancers have been doing this forever. It’s what we do. All the time. In our sleep. Do you have a newsletter? That’s marketing. Do you have a group on Tribe? That’s marketing. Do you talk to your students about what’s happening in their everyday lives? That’s marketing, too. When you build a community around your product (which most of the time is YOU), word of mouth just happens. And thanks to the Internet, you can build a community with members all around the world! There’s no limit to who will be interested in what you have to offer. When someone asks a friend where she got that gorgeous hip scarf, she’s going to say “I got it from this awesome vendor. I met the owner at a seminar, and she was so nice. She let me try on every scarf they had! They have a web site you can order from, here’s the address. Oh, and make sure you sign up for their newsletter–I got the best recipe from last month’s issue.” You can’t buy that kind of advertising! You have to build it…one customer at a time. Just by being a nice person. Just by making friends. Tribal Marketing. How cool is that?
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