Creative Business 101 – Check Yourself

by Linda | Jan 31, 2012 | my creative journal

When you need to check yourself and really get planning and organized, use a weekly planner printable page to start.

I’m sitting in my room and it’s the last day of January 2012. I try to ignore the feeling, but now and again I get that numbness of realizing how old I am, how much time has passed already, and how little time there is left. Yes, I know it’s a bit morbid, but those thoughts pop up every now and again.

Download Cute Bird Weekly Planner Page PDF

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I would like to blame it on the snow outside and how everyone is grumbling about the troubles of bad weather. I would blame it on hormones and some kind of biological funk I can’t control. Maybe it’s the winter blues? I could blame it on something, but what’s the point? I realize that it’s totally okay to freak out a bit and worry about things. The bright side is that it means I’m alive and thirsting for more. There’s energy, perhaps misdirected, but it’s there.

Last year I started blogging creative business 101 posts, sharing my progress of building a profitable business. I was happy with the general progress, the accountability, the momentum of it all. Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon when the holidays rolled around. I totally lost my momentum and it’s the last day of the first month of the following year now. Jeepers.

I’ve been watching videos, reading blogs and listening to podcasts (all under the guise of researching) and slowly, but surely, realizing that I am failing myself. It wasn’t a dramatic or sudden epiphany – it was a bonk on the head in slow motion, because it took me so long to  maybe, perhaps, snap out of it.

I have been avoiding those reality checks and simply brushing the surface with others, in attempts to avoid the truth. Total FAIL. This is when the Ice Cube song suddenly started to play in the soundtrack of my life, Check Yo Self.

No matter what the circumstances are in life, no matter what crazy huge mistakes I might have made, I always have the opportunity to check myself. That ultimately means I can change course and move forward in the right direction. And if you think about this rocky road of life, we always have to change course. Change with the times, because we never can predict how things will go.

The worse thing is stagnation and inaction. That’s how I’ve been feeling and it sucks. It’s about time to check myself out of this situation.

I’ll be taking some time to re-align, formulate a plan and actually use the resources that I have at hand.

Do you need to check yourself about something? I hope that by sharing the free printable, it might help spur some action in you as well. Sometimes you need someone to shake you to your senses, but sometimes it’s just a very slow and gradual realization. All that matters is that you want to move forward…

Creative Business 101 – Email Newsletter Subject Lines

by Linda | Aug 11, 2011 | my creative journal

When reading about email marketing, you often come across tips and tricks for creating catchy subject lines. Although I understand the importance of attracting readers…I also feel a bit odd using these so called “tricks.” Seems a bit too car saleman-like…and goes back to the issue of how creatives doing their own marketing feel a bit too shy. I’ve found that at times, I must remove myself from my normal role and think like a marketer would think – it’s their job to get folks to open the emails. We are all bombarded by messages daily and although we usually read those sent by people we love and businesses we have opted in for…there are still times when I just delete because I can’t take it all in.

So take a look at the email newsletters that you like to read and try to identify why. Besides wanting to get the information, is there something about the format? Is there something about the text size or organization? Do the subject lines capture you? I think there is a nice medium to creating catching subject lines and being authentic at the same time. The whole point of subject lines is to tell the reader a bit about what they are going to get inside. So I think it’s important to be truthful. However, you can also use some copywriting tips to make it sound nicer, to pique curiosity and grab people’s attention to take the action – click and read!

If you’ve already been doing some newsletters, definitely check your statistics to see what has worked in the past – or not worked. This is valuable information. And although the content and time of year have a lot to do with open rates, I think you can also get a lot of information by looking at past subject lines you have used. If you want to do some testing, certain service providers also let you split campaigns and try different subjects lines. That would give you even more information abotu your readers based on the same email blast.

I use MailChimp for my email newsletters and they even offer a research subject lines tool, to help you craft a better subject line. Although there is no sure-fire formula to creating a successful subject line, there are some rules to guard against looking like spam…or just being plain rude. I would definitely avoid:

• ALL CAPS
• !!!!!!????!?! Lots of exclamation points and punctuation
• spammy words like amazing, free, sexual terms or bad language
• too long of a subject line just looks a bit crazy and unnecessary and beside the point of summing up your email content

Instead, try to sum up your email content or pick the one thing you want to really highlight. Making some kind of offer, offering a benefit or pertinent information or use your authentic clever voice (you know your fans). Sometimes you can make it a question, so people want to know the answer within. It’s also okay to just write [Company Name] Newsletter. I know it seems boring, but if you have a relationship with your customers and send out emails regularly, it just makes sense.

My hope is to find a happy medium between overworked “businessy” marketing phrases and plain boring flat ones. Since everyone has a different audience, it also has a lot to do with what relationship you have with them. What reflects you authentically, communicates the point and gets attention? What subject lines do you like to use? Let me know what you think or if you have any tips in the comments below. Thanks for following along with this creative business 101 series…as I explore topics on my mind, through my own journey in starting a business.

Creative Business 101 – Email Marketing aka Permission Marketing

by Linda | Aug 4, 2011 | my creative journal

Do you want to share your passions, products and services with potential customers out there? I’ve come across many creatives who do not setup a newsletter or mailing list, because they feel it’s too early. They worry about not having content to send out…or that only a few people will sign up. What?! It is never too early to start and having a few dedicated fans is the beginning of something beautiful!

Email marketing is so powerful, because it is permission based. It gives you direct access to your fans and supporters and gives them an easy way to just reply and make contact with you in return. Your email listees are asking you to keep them updated…that’s why it’s called permission marketing. Realize what a huge opportunity it is for any business, but especially creatives and indie entrepreneurs. In fact, email marketing is considered one of the most important tools to drive sales. You know how often people check email right? 🙂

Sign-Up For An Email Marketing Service
There are many companies out there that do the job of collecting contact info and storing it into lists, keeping everything organized in a database. The service will ensure you abide by laws, have the unsubscribe links as necessary…all the boring stuff. I do recommend doing a bit of research to ensure you choose a service that makes the most sense for your business…because sometimes it can be a pain to transfer all your contacts into a new provider. Just take a look at the options and choose – many companies offer free service up to a certain number of subscribers and messages before pricing kicks in for high volume users. I personally use MailChimp and love it…but there’s also AWeber and Constant Contact to name just a few others. There’s no excuse not to set something up when your email list is so important and there are so many free options out there.

Tell Everyone About It
Once you have a list setup, not only do you have to put a sign-up box on your website and/or blog, but also ask people to sign up! There are so many opportunities to do so, in social media, online profiles, business cards, advertisements and during day to day interactions with customers. For example, I always send my Etsy buyers a post-sale message that provides them with direct links to Etsy feedback and my newsletter sign-up. It’s a natural progression and you need to make it easier for people to follow you and keep updated. They’ve already bought something from you, so chances are…they love your already! Don’t forget to include in email communications or mentioning it every so often. You do have to ask people to sign-up, because some people don’t pay attention to sidebars. There are interested people out there, they just might happen to be busy the first time you told them about it…so make it an option every so often.

Set Up Your First Message
It’s important to set up a template for your email communications, so that your messages look professional. Some businesses go for the minimal all-text messages, whereas visual artists usually opt for something more designed to show off their work as part of the email. Thankfully, there are many ready-to-go templates that can be selected once you sign up for a service. These days, it’s pretty darn easy to create newsletters with the tools available online.

Test, Manage and Plan
Remember to always send test messages, so you can check out how it looks and check all the links before sending it out. A no-brainer, but mistakes happen all the time and it can be quite annoying to find a broken link or typos here and there. Once you get the hang of it, sending our emails will be a snap and you can manage your statistics as well as plan out a schedule that works with your business within the service provider you have chosen. In my opinion, you don’t need to send messages all the time, but I would say at least every quarter at the least. You can to keep things fresh and alive in the mind of customers…but you must have something worth it to send at the same time. That’s why I don’t like having a forced schedule – although it really depends on your business. Here are some ideas and it’s probably not that difficult to come up with pertinent news to share once you get into it:

• New work! Your fans will definitely want to know about new products and services being offered.
• Offer a discount, sale or limited time offer…maybe for the holidays or a certain celebration.
• In the press – have you been published or interviewed somewhere?
• Show openings, marketplaces and such events to announce?
• Tutorial, tips, fabulous links to share to your audience?
• Class schedules, traveling/show plans?
• Offering your products in other shops? Licensed artwork? In a shop?
• Announcing something newsworthy?

Remember the Ultimate Goal
In the end, never forget that you are communicating with your fans. You should be providing them with something useful – something they would like to see in their inboxes. So don’t forget your audience and the ultimate goal of your email list. It’s a service you are providing to your fans, because they want to stay updated on you and your work. You never want to be forced to just go through the motions though… we are all busy people and no one wants to receive a robot message.

So are you ready? I hope you are inspired to go set up your email list right now. And if you already have one, I hope there’s some good information here for your email marketing effort in general. In the coming weeks, I’ll be delving into specific topics about getting the most out of your email marketing. Please let me know what you think and if you have any other tips to share below in the comments – ciao ciao!