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Market and Promote Your Event: How to Build Buzz

Lesson 22 from: How to Make a Living Selling What You Make

Megan Auman

Market and Promote Your Event: How to Build Buzz

Lesson 22 from: How to Make a Living Selling What You Make

Megan Auman

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Lesson Info

22. Market and Promote Your Event: How to Build Buzz

Lessons

Class Trailer

Session 1

1

Class Introduction

19:47
2

Define Your Big Goals: What Gets You Out of Bed?

31:09
3

Finding YOUR Ideal Number

37:12
4

How Much Should You Pay Yourself an Hour?

32:03
5

Who is the Ideal Customer for Your Products?

30:33
6

What is Your Customer Willing to Pay?

38:34
7

Pricing Your Products for Profit

31:06
8

Where Does Your Brand Need Work?

51:31
9

What Are The Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Products?

40:07
10

What Makes You a Great Business Owner?

36:19
11

What Should Your Product Be Now?

43:38
12

Bonuses w/ Purchase

01:33
13

Bonus w/ Purchase: Your MAL # (ideal #) in Detail

05:50
14

Bonus with Purchase: Testing Customer Profiles using Facebook ads

16:27

Session 2

15

Live Check In

40:19
16

Shift Your Money Mindset

43:12
17

How To Finance Your Business

33:57
18

Are You Ready to Crowdfund?

52:51
19

Analyze Business Opportunities

35:12
20

Test the Market by Entering with a BANG

50:33
21

Plan Your First Big Sales Event

55:31
22

Market and Promote Your Event: How to Build Buzz

57:00
23

Make Your Event a Success

54:17
24

Analyze and Move Forward

33:18
25

Bonus with Purchase: Calculating ROI

20:10

Session 3

26

Evolve Your Product Line

59:42
27

Create a Production Strategy

52:12
28

Plan for Growth and Future Revenue Streams

35:47
29

Your Big Business Vision

41:23
30

Draft Your Daily and Monthly Action Plan

44:09
31

Keep the Momentum Going

19:48
32

Live Check-in - Finale

28:59
33

Bonus with Purchase: Adjusting your MAL # with employees and contractors

15:16
34

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Catherine Utschig

00:54
35

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Christine Herrin

01:35
36

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Holly Tanner Straus

01:17
37

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Joy Jenkins

01:03
38

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Leah Drapkin

01:08
39

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Lisa Jones

01:12
40

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Monica Jacquay

01:12
41

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Richelle

01:13

Lesson Info

Market and Promote Your Event: How to Build Buzz

Hello everyone say we are on lesson seventeen market and promote your event for how to build buzz right that's what we're doing here I know this is one than a lot of people have been waiting for because I know because I've worked a lot of you that everything's marketing is the biggest problem right? A lot of you guys said that in your bio video marketing is my problem and as we're learning it's not the only thing right? But it is really important and chances are you're probably doing it wrong right? So we're going to fix that today so today's goal is that we're going to get people excited about your products were getting people excited to buy your products by creating a pre test market event marketing plan we're just gonna throw the word market around all over the place, right? So that tammy is your test marketing event we're going to create a marketing plan for that because even though the point of the venice to test the market we want to market before the event to get people excited.

So in the last lesson we set the details and created an action plan for your test market event, right? So we've got everything worked out except for that marketing piece, which is super important let's take a look at where we are we're in session to generate revenue quickly we're working on making that money I'm wearing less than seventeen market and promote your event so I want to start with three mistakes you're making with your marketing and I want our in studio audience to kind of put up to it here any of you sound like you, right? Number one you don't want to bother people who they everyone immediate nods right? Chances are you're not marketing enough because you're worried about bothering people that's a huge mistake most people severely under market and under promote because they don't want to bother people and the reality is that there's so much happening in the world that you can't put one post one picture one to eat even one email and expect to get traction with that there's just too much going on right? The other one is you focus on unfollowed and un subscribes who gets worked up about that be honest, anyone you're like, I posted that and like three people on following me or I know some people who are like, oh well, I don't want to e mail my list because every time I do people unsubscribe what's the point of having a mailing list of your email them right? So when you get focused on not putting stuff out there because you might lose an audience, you missed the opportunity to talk to the people who actually want to hear you who cares if they own follower unsubscribe right who cares? They're not your customer they weren't gonna buy they don't like it hit the road, jack right plus at some point for me personally I like email on subscribes because I don't want to pay for people who aren't interested in my left I'm at a point now where I'm I I'm out of that free male chimp category man, which is a good thing right? That actually we're celebrating right? I am out of the free male chimp plan I am too many emails subscribers but I don't pay for once I don't want to be there, so I want him to go right? So that's another mistake. I see a lot of people making the last one we talked about this in a previous lesson is you wait until you've got something for people to buy in order to start marketing, right? You wait until the products done. You wait until it's already for sale and the real secret to marketing is to get people excited to buy before your product is for sale. Right before they ever have to think about forking over money. We want them to get excited about the possibility of having to fork over money, right, wanting to get so excited they don't even care how much it's gonna cost right that's what we really want so the real secret to marketing something I call strategic anticipation right we want to build that anticipation we want to get people excited we want to make people dream and drool and wait for our products right that's what that's what everybody wants right but we want to do it strategically we want to channel that anticipation so that at the moment they can buy they're ready right and of course we talked about last time the master when it comes to this idea of strategic anticipation is certainly apple right? They hold whole events to get you excited about products that you can't even buy yet you guys don't have to have apple's marketing budget to make this work for you it can work on any scale now I want to talk about something that's really really can marketing I think we don't think about enough and this is this idea of visceral behavioral and reflective now if you took my brand in class and creative live this is gonna look familiar to you because this is the way that we respond to products right? So the products that we buy that we experience the things in our lives we can react you in a couple of ways visceral is that gut immediate attraction and you know what without that it's really hard to sell products right lisa talked you talked about that how important is how you know you just want people to get that that's really key right if we could just get that visceral gut reaction we can make the other two work right but we want that visceral got first behavioral is how well it functions how easy and pleasant something is to use it's never the first peter you want to sell something on right? The first thing is we want that gut visceral reaction but behavioral can help justify the sale and then reflective is what you think of it right? How does it kind of tie into your couple upper level mental state I always think about toms is a good example of this right tom's is selling off of this idea that you buy a shoe they don't you buy a pair of shoes you don't buy a shoe thank you buy a pair of shoes and I don't need a pair of shoes to someone else right? So engaged that high level kind of upper part of your brain right and that can work as well too but it's a little harder I think it's hundreds takes a little longer tell that story right if we go back to our kind of master have strategic anticipation building one of the things apple does so well is that they combine all three of these elements right when they were doing the apple watch launch that is a visceral image if I have ever seen one right that is what they want you to say they want you to look at that and be like that's dreamy I can't live without it, right? That's like the first gut impact it once you see that and you think that then they're going to say, look at how it functions right? Look it's, how it's designed look at how lets you connect to other people write that's a reflective thing this ability to catch other people but it functions well it's got the design it's got this health and fitness aspect they want to sell you on that first because you know what? You know that visceral reaction we'll start to lose their heads right that's where people get excited that's where they get the checkbook out before they don't even realize it. Some people then want to justify it with those other two, but we want to go for that visceral reaction and that's really the key in your marketing you know, we talked about it, you have to educate my customers right? If you can hook them first with that visceral reaction, they're going to stay around for the story or the education much more than if you try to give them that piece first, right? Especially now that we live in this hyper visual world, right there's no room for crummy photography anymore everything is looks good, we're hanging out on instagram, we're looking up interest we're looking at those pretty images that visceral hook first especially in the types of products that were selling so even though people can't buy in the early stages of your pre vent marketing you should make it easy for people to take action right? We want to channel their energy this is where we're going teo diverge from the apple model right? Apple has these big events and then event some point down the road they let you preorder but there's kind of a whole big amount of time where they don't do anything and they can't away with that right because they are apple people are talking about them whatever you can't get away with that right? If you people have that immediate visceral reaction then you want them to take an action before they can buy so that you can get back to them later. Right mailing list mailing list to mailing list I don't care what you're doing in your business you must have an email list you must there is no exception go to male chimp they're awesome is free sign up is easy if you had a list with someone else you can import it over just do it don't add people without their permission for illegal but you have to have a mailing list and here's the thing this gives people something to dio that is more commitment than liking a post or maybe even sharing with a friend requires a little bit of commitment on the road to buying but then, you know, who was the most excited, right? You know exactly who was at least just thinking about the possibility of buying your product, and now you have the ability to reach out to them again and again and again. And you wont that list don't own instagrams that goes away, you know, on facebook, right? You go to male chimp and download your email list every night, if you want, if you're worried about that, you own that last, right? You on those names? So we've been talking about my launch of the contra collection, my new pieces that I was out on here as kind of a case study for this test marketing event. So I want to show you how exactly this plays out in our marketing. So as you can see, I put a lot of emphasis on that visceral thing happening, right that's a big goal of what I was doing, but I want to walk you through a few of the numbers here. So the marketing for this piece is I did a ten day launch. So from first announcement, you remember from our previous lesson, our first announcement was that minimum viable product of the stone in your hand, right? So from that first announcement, toe launch ten days, that's it not any longer. I didn't want to overwhelm people short, sweet to the point, let's go now, they mentioned a previous lessens the collection wasn't even done yet, right? It was still in the process, but in those ten days I did sixteen posts on instagram that were specific to the launch, right? There might have been a few other ones in there, too, but sixteen that were specific to the launch that's more than one a day, right? Sixteen on dh because of the strategy strategy that I use, I pushed those instagram post to twitter and they actually pushed pushed my personal facebook page because I've learned that I actually a lot of people on my personal facebook page, friends of mine who buy things funny, how that works, right? I also did seven additional post on my facebook page, most of those I paid to boot, I think I was running some like campaigns as well. So part of my marketing strategy is, I pay for likes, and then I boost to my new followers after that seems to work better for me and my higher price point, right? And I also sent three, e mails to my mailing list, so even though I was doing most of my anticipation building on social media a week before the launch, I sent email to my list with a couple of teaser images just those kind of behind the scenes thing that I was posting on instagram and I said, hey guys, this is coming up and then I believe the day before email my list with some of the model shots and I said get ready here's what's coming you can shop tomorrow so I didn't want to make the assumption that people who are already on my list were also following me on social media I wanted to get my list the most excited so is putting this out here it was emailing my list and I was combining some of the back story of the product collection this is actually me shopping for stones in india, right? So I was combining some of the back story with those gut visceral reaction images throughout my e mails, right? And then every post in the launch had a call to action called action was really simple go to my website and join the mailing list that was the whole thing but I gave them something to do right I wanted them to do more than just be like a new collection is coming and I gave them a reason why they should join the list it was a limited edition collection and the list gets to shop first I could not tell you the power of letting your mailing list shopping hour before everybody else online you know special that makes your mailing list no easy, it makes it to generate revenue in the first hour of a sail give your list of the first people how do you how do you set that up on your website so that they're the first to shop or how did you set that they were the first people to get the light oh, they got going first now got it that's really there's nothing like tio two for the launch of the contra collection I didn't put it in my navigation till after the first hour, so you could have maybe gone on and searched for it but really you just wanted to enlist? Yeah there's there's no magic secret there okay, you can see an image just in process and I've got the collection is coming arriving june fourth it's a small collection go to the website the links in the profile because it's instagram enjoying so you can shop before anyone else, right? And then I would do something similar on facebook. I didn't always post the same pictures to my face like this page, they don't always work right, so I was doing that and as I mentioned before I started marketing the new collection before I had a name for the collection I had no idea what I was going to call it I had no clue I could be like the new collection is coming are these stones pretty right? That was all wass and then I was using that arriving june fourth hashtag because that was the other thing is I wanted people to have a place where even though it wasn't online even though it wasn't for sale they could click on arriving june fourth and get a broader view as images were being posted right? So someone just came across one they could see more so we always think like, oh, you know, I should have put on the website right away so people can see everything there's other ways that you could do that right just by using that strategic hashtag people wanted to see the whole collection they could write so is that page on your this is just on instinct this is just a screen grab from history and has all those pictures that because all those pictures have that hashtag on it yeah and I personally haven't toe love instagrams new online web interface because it's so clean and modern and shows off my pictures so well um so then I just kept, you know, posting different types of images so how did this work? I sold fifty percent of the collection so half the pieces in the first six hours of the launch but more importantly my eighty s remember that's, my average dollars per sale, that is the number I live and die by on the day that the collection launched for those pieces, my a d s was three hundred eighty nine dollars. That was the average sale on my site my year to date average, before that was one hundred and twenty two. I tripled my a d s with that launch. That's pretty good, right on dh. This is why I say mailing, let's mailing less mailing list one hundred percent of the people who bought that collection clicked through from the email, every single person who bought beforehand was already on the list and said, I'm interested I want this product, I know that this is the place to be, they don't know buy in the first hour, this is something that people don't want to think about, but fifty percent of a high dollar collection in the first six hours. I'll take it right. All right, so now, let's, create your test market event marketing plan, and I know a lot of people in our in studio audience are planning in person events. This is also applicable right there ways to create the strategic anticipation, there are ways to get in touch with whoever you're trying to market teo so that's our first question who are you marketing to and you guys go ahead and follow along in your workbook make some notes start to form this plan because this is really the key to a marketing plan is answering all these questions not just who are you know not just what are you trying to say or what's your marketing but who were you trying to reach and all these other pieces so who are you marketing tio hint hint it's your ideal customer right? So make sure you really clear on them and if the event is geographically specific or only open to the trade make sure that you're really clear about that right? So they don't identify who your marketing to yeah were you able to tell from that because you were keeping check if it was this don's that made that collection go or the way you marketed that made it go to the well and past really matter it doesn't really matter you know what it I can tell you that you're not going to sell pieces of that price point without that kind of marketing push it had to be there because I have the type of product that people think about for a long time because I have the price point that people think about for a long time so yes I did have a nice added factor of each stone is one of a kind and I can use that to drive something but you can figure out what that element is and everything you're doing what makes a time sensitive and build that in, but I could not have just emailed my list on the day that I drop that collection and had that kind of sales results. I don't care how pretty the stones are, it wouldn't have happened, and I wouldn't have wanted to try right would have been worth it to all this effort get people excited really wasn't that hard a post in half a day on instagram and some pretty pictures. Why are you laughing? Liza really wasn't that hard was when you were talking about that, I was like, well, how many assistants do you have? Because you're making him and you're posting sixteen post in ten days and seven and the e mails I am the that's a good question, actually, so I have the production assistant who does all pre much all the production work for the whole cell line, but in those ten days I built every single piece in the collection. She did some of the chains, but I did everything I built the settings and denied everything I did the post I get the model photography, I am all that launch, I was pretty much a one woman show I'm not saying I didn't work hard for those ten days I did but it's doable because I had a plan if I knew what I was doing right, I knew what my target times were for posting I kind of knew what I wanted to show and then it was just a matter of in the studio pause for a couple of minutes, take the picture at it, put it out there right? Posting on posting on instagram does not have to be a four hour thing, right? You get comfortable I used the exact same I don't use a filter I use after light I going after light, I basically do the exact same thing every picture and I post it right? I've worked with that model before, so even though I had to plan that photo shoot her and I have a lover level of familiarity, right? And she knew it was coming she follows man instagram to write so she knew this was coming she knew what we were working towards. We kind of had a plan in place, but yeah, so I don't have a million people helping me that launch was me and you what people respond to that too because at no point did it sound like it came from megan's marketing team it always sounded like it was me behind the scenes hey guys, this is what's going on and right and that's what people respond to right? It wasn't you should buy this product it is the best thing in the world like haiti they're cool some of the post were like how these stones are so pretty I can't stop staring at them right now I don't even want to see but I was tying that in there's a gut visceral photos the photos were great and that's something that I have just honed over time and the only way to get there is practice right? I spent a lot of time just learning how to edit playing around you got to do it or you have to hire someone to do it right you really do that one other thing you mentioned was instagram me new one win teo post how do you figure out when I know like with facebook and stuff it shows you when people are responding doesn't you're gonna have something like that? I'm not yes though so there is a third party service that I use it sometimes for status is I kind of square eso it'll show you like a chart of your week and it shows you like which ones get the most engagement so it's another option there's a couple of third party once but I mostly pay attention to it anecdotally so you know I kind of look at certain times I'm like oh when I post that I don't get many likes when I posted nine o'clock tonight I got a ton of life right, so I start to just sort of feel out one works for me and also kind of just, you know, in the middle of day I usually get less like sons I post in the middle of the day because that's why I'm in the studio so I kind of balance it out but I said in an instagram class one time with susan petersen from freshly picked who is obviously like the instigator graham guru and she was like, you know what? She's like it's me that's what people respond to and I just set an alarm on my phone that says, susan, go post a picture now they have an editorial calendar, they do all that but the end of the day, you know, you can schedule and you could do all those things, but it has released feel spontaneous because that's what the medium is about, right? So if you start doing these very corporate market e sounding things without that human factor, people don't respond you know, I did the visceral image and kind of the human behind the scenes factor first and then put the call to action in right? Uh okay, so where will you reach your ideal customer? Is it through social media and which platforms is it through right? It's probably not all of them I don't have to be on all of them is that the media are you reaching out just some blog's help you promote are you doing some local media going on tv you know there's all kinds of options for that and maybe it's some advertising maybe it's online maybe it's print no you might advertising the show directory if you're doing a trade show we talked about the previous lesson with joy that her ideal customer might still read the paper on a sunday morning with their coffee and the local store she's partnering with might already be advertising there so that could be an option for you I also just want to kind of say that especially in the beginning I do think that facebook as our good part of your marketing strategy for this especially if you don't have many followers no I do not own stock in facebook I have no stake in telling you this other than I think that it is actually a wide on stalking facebook other head other than that it is actually the best way to target your customer based on those ideal profile customer ideal customer profiles we created right so if you don't have a big following you may need to do that you know my insurance policy isn't huge bits over two thousand right? So I've got some people I probably couldn't have done that contra collection launch a year ago because I wouldn't have had the online audience to support it or if I did. I would have had to run a lot more ads I still ran a few ads, right? I still did some things that were targeted it boosted my post to get out there again, driving people to my email last, so if you're really starting from zero with an audience, why not spend a little money to target the people you want to reach rather than putting stuff out there to crickets, right? So don't be afraid of spending a little bit of money on your marketing in the places that let you do it now you can also advertise on pinterest, but pinterest doesn't let you target closely by location and interest it's more about search terms so it's a better long term advertising strategy, I would say, because the other thing is that it doesn't quite get you that immediate reaction. I found that when you're doing something that I'm a huge, as you guys know huge bed of pinterest and it's a huge part of my marketing strategy, but it's part of my kind of big picture long term lead generation rather than that immediate sales generation because I found for me that's where it works better, so I didn't do much on pinterest with this launch after the launch, I had clearly thought about pinterest in my product photography, right? I used it to plan, I thought about it and after the launch now I've been seeding images on pinterest to start to get people excited for future pieces of the collection too have been thinking about maybe buying for holiday so that's part of my longer term but facebook and instagram we're really all about driving the revenue immediately right? So all right and then what is the message? What is the message that you're trying to reach your marketing plan so the message is really the product in the event right? What is the thing and when where? Why is it happening right and that's what you're telling people don't over think it right you don't just sell them on the world just given the details and kind of move on right and really the most important thing whether you're doing an online event in an in person event whether you are posting things on instagram or mailing stuff to stores focus on visuals with a strong visceral reaction spend your time your energy, your money on good product photography that is what is going to accelerate your business as long as you that make sure that you're putting that good product photography in front of your ideal customer right? So spend your money there but then don't let it just die on your computer or die in your studio right? Send the postcard out by the facebook ad put it out there right but make sure it's good and then support that with copy that has a strong called action that's a good visual visceral image right there right and then it's like a new collection launches in twenty four hours sure you're on the mailing list so you don't miss out right? And then why is it relevant to your customer what do they get out of it? Is it time sensitive? Is it limited edition? Is there some kind of special park is their holiday that they're shopping for what's in it for them and and don't over think it it's amazing how getting to shop an hour before everybody else turns out to be a really good incentive for the people who are actually willing to buy right? I know a lot of people are like ok, so I'm going to do this launch strategy meeting like you talked to out and so I need like a freebie right for my email us like doing anything no you don't I'm just gonna bust that one all your own information marketer yes, absolutely right that e book do that download whatever it is but that if you're a product person in no way indicates that someone is going to buy from you you want people on your mailing list it's okay to have a smaller list if the people on your list want to buy and if someone wants to buy and you say you get first pick, that is a much bigger incentive then download my pdf with five style tips right now about the five style tips they want the good stuff before everybody else right that's all the incentive you need okay and then what is the called action? What should they dio right now before they come by? Email list email list email list the one exception to that rule maybe if your marketing for a trade show and you're reaching out to stores but even then what I would say is you could do something like email us for the line sheet and then when they e mail you you can say, is it okay if I put you on my wholesale only mailing list because you should absolutely have a retail list and a wholesale list right? So you can give them a slightly different called action that eventually gets to the same result? We're going thing just sign up for our wholesale newsletter and I'll be sending out the line she I would I would make it a little more personal and just say email us to get a line sheet andi when they do, you can just be like hey, is it okay if usually they're gonna say yes? So it's because of the different kind of relationship that's usually a little bit better way to go all right, so your heaviest marketing should take place seven to ten days before your event they're a couple of exceptions to this, but for the most part, especially if you're reaching out to a retail customer seven to take ten days before the event any longer than that no one's going to remember right? No one puts a trunk show on their calendar hate to say it, but it's true right there not being like you can't wait to go to joy's trunk show four weeks from now I mean, mark that down, right? So we want to do it so that's top of mine, but we also don't want to create fatigue, right? Chances are you're not marketing enough right now to bother people, but if you start doing what I was talking about in this strategy, you know, two posts a day every day about a launch for, like, five weeks, you're going to stop doing that, their launch it or stop talking about it, right? So seven to ten days is a pretty good target. Now there are a few exceptions, right? If you are reaching out to local press, usually somewhere four to six weeks out, so again newspaper something like that and advertising gonna have their own budget just for the record, this is if you're actually reaching out for pr on and then follow up and if you're doing from like a local event and never hurts right, find her hook, find your angle if you've never done press before. Bridget lyons has some fantastic courses here in creative live that I would highly recommend she's a genius that that stuff on dh then you can follow up blogger outreach that say you're doing an online event anyone can generate some buzz in the blogosphere about three to four weeks before that and then follow up about a week before some of them are great have editorial calendars. Some of them are really fly by the seat of their pants, so better to start a little earlier just in caged in case store outreach, I usually recommend about three to four weeks before a show, but it depends on the buying season, so I have a tendency to do shows that fall a little later in the buying season. I do new york now, you know in the summer it's usually the last show summer show started early in july. I usually like to get my mailing out earlier if I can just to hit them say before they go to the atlanta show, so but three to four weeks is a pretty good target. It has to be at least a week if you're sending a postcard across the country write so I usually get it in their hands at least a week before they would leave to travel to the show and then if you're doing print advertising depending on you so you're julian in the show directory they usually have deadlines are one two three months before and for your test market event I would not worry about national media because you're usually looking at ah four to six month lead time so that's a little longer than we're dealing with so that's that's totally a strategy but it's kind of outside of this event now we're gonna do some hot seats and plan your marking actually yeah I was like I'm a little scared too because I think everyone jumps the joy you were quickest on the draw get up here all right so remind us what your test marketed that is then I'm doing a trunk show okay so you were doing a trunk show at a boston area store right? Okay, so let's get to our cheat sheet questions here so who are you marketing to and I want to be specific yeah so remarking tio married wives in their late thirties forties and then grandma's around in their sixties and they're in the boston area actually, um how far out do you think they are because you're talking about a summer event? So do you think you're going tourist traffic potentially too do you want to go slightly broader than this or you think just kind of stick with this is your target for now? Okay? With just the area and what else do we know about them? What are they interested in when they like what's important to that? They're interested in art there? Kids or grandkids, they take care of themselves. So health and wellness is important. What about our they food? People align. People line. They like wine. So is useful now. Uh, always good, right? Uh, anything else? Perfect. All right. Um, where you gonna reach them? I think for the older people probably doing the newspaper has well, and then I thought for the younger people going to the store and working if they have advertising working with them, because it'll be a store that they've already been in before. And I would also say to, um, how big is your your personals through your brand social media reach? You guys have a lot of followers. You're still kind of small, yet we're still pretty small. So one of the other things that you could maybe dio is if the store has a bigger social media presence, you could do a social media takeover on their account. So basically, you would be posting from their accounts safe week leading up to it, and there were lots of different ways to structure it, right? So you may give them the post with some copy and they can post it let's say that they have a more active instagram falling or very possibly even larger than yours or maybe it's facebook or whatever it is you would work with them you come up with a series of posts that would go up in the week leading up to the launch so in this case it probably something like some behind the scenes post and so you could still do the same thing on your own social media presence but now you've got the combined forces of both so I would definitely d'oh a social media takeover or some kind of collaborative social media piece for that then you're amplifying your power this wasn't what makes the trunk show so good when you're just starting out is because you can work with that man and amplify that anything else facebook at and so you know kind of who you want target, right? Yeah so what's the message in all of this marketing um I don't know it's weird to just go with so basic of come touch and feel come good acquainted with and kind of like an old world art form in a store near you I think that is totally fine right? So it's about this like touch experience try and I like that sort of idea get to know this this old world art for um and if you guys have a portable loom but that may be something that you can even think about bringing in some people get to understand a sense of the process and that's something that really draws people's attention right right so that could be a huge selling point for you well is thinking about bringing that in there on dso I think then because of that a decent amount of your social media marketing can sort of be focused on that behind the scenes you the trick here with all the behind the scenes stuff is that you never want to go to processing right you don't want to go into the jargon you don't want to go into the lingo you want to go into the like what's in it for the customer right so it's not like here's how we warp the loom like look at these pretty threads we bought in paris yet right? Because that's something that's getting at the customer excited you want to do the behind the scenes that you want to focus on the things that are really exciting too and they have no idea how things are woven so don't try tio don't try to educate them again you know that look pretty natural gut all that good stuff awesome um so then why is it relevant to the customer what's what's so important about it that they should have come to the trunk show right um uh because it gives them a chance to find because of a chance to find something beautiful that they aren't going to normally find in all the stores that they go teo it's something unique so so the selling point might also be right that this is now in any other boston area stores but if you can't get this somewhere else if you want to come shop in person this is your opportunity, right? Awesome okay and it's in your neighborhood and it's in your neighborhood right over right it's your neighbor you don't have to wait for it to be shipped to you you know what it feels like all of those things are really good right? So then in this marketing what's the call to action what you trying to get people to dio yes you want them to come to the trunk show but is there an intermediate step? What can you do it also be the mailing list getting people on the mailing list for future trunk shows and it shows the right so what's that called action exactly why should they join the mailing list? Um because then we could notify them um sales and so if they were thinking about a product and went away and didn't get it then they could so we want to tie the called action more amelia's what we're doing here right? So, you know, join the mailing list so we can remind you join the mailing list so you don't miss the trunk show or even also say oh busy during this one join our mailing list so we can tell you about future trying shows so what you always want to do is make the call to action feel relevant to the event so the called action is always the mailing list it's pretty much but it's the why they show here changes and why they should join it should relate to the event because it's that consistency that helps create the actual motivation for them to do it so you know join the list so you don't miss the trunk show that kind of thing now obviously in other places you could give them the reason we have sales or whatever right but in this case this case it's definitely leading back to the trunk show right we don't want teo on that or teacher events right? So that's what they want because the people because the ads they're focused on comets in person it's whatever so then that's the draw to get them on the list right? Yeah awesome perfect thank you alright let's do one more actually I'm going on christine because I like that we're doing kind of something a little bit fun and different for your test market event right? We're still on how the workshop right? Yeah all right so tell us about that okay so you're doing a workshop yeah so I was thinking um maybe uh after work okay so half day what define half day so that's a maybe like nine in the morning around one in the afternoon is that we're a little long I think for your audience and what you're trying to dio and early uh yeah so would it be better to do like an after work kind of workshop yes I think because I was thinking was it like on a thursday when you're more unwinding from mariah right maybe rises right yes maybe it's either thursday from like something or right it's like sunday for what like one two three two two forces okay people want to go to brunch first brunch right then okay so that's I think more so what you probably want to do that right keep it a little shorter you want you want people to leave excited and wanting mohr because when they want more that's when they're gonna buy your product then like I got everything I need and now we're all tired I'm gonna go home and never do this again because I did it once right yeah better to leave him wanting a little something so and where you're thinking about doing the first one in sandwiches yeah yeah coworking speak perfect yeah so who are you marketing too? Mm tell us about your customer twenty to forty somethings professional maybe right now mostly women um so yeah, this is something they can go to after work for, like, some creative, like a creative outlet single more free women craze in san francisco. Well, because I'm thinking of the initial, like, what? It looks like it's a scrapbook, so I don't know if guys I know plenty of twenty to forty something men that would be all over it and very fun tohave there, yeah, okay, so you might threat yet so it's possible, right? But I think also right, I think also to we did look at kind of your ideal customer profile that's where you seem to grab change for now, and I would also say that while they will probably be into it might require slightly different marketing tweak so right initially so I should probably keep it you know, you're clearly not saying this is an event only for when you're just holding this piece of information on your head so that you can picture who you're talking to right? So they're professional they're looking for that creative outlet. What are they? What do they like? What are some of their other interests? Um, they like wine to wail like wider, but, um stereotypes like go to yoga, okay, have they tried other crafty things because they needed have a go to calligraphy class aa aa yes which I happen to know happened and a lot of coordination they cleared right so they're already looking for those other kind of classes and creative outlet and they're big on instagram you haven't say love instagram yes they absolutely dio alright perfect so where you going to reach them this seems so easy it's not even funny right were you anywhere else? Um if I list the event with the corps working space they have their own network and I think years is a case where right there heavy here facebook has not going to get you bang for your buck so what can you do in terms of cross promotional instagram right can you do a take over with the co working space? Can you even do a strategic behind the scenes poster to can you partner with somebody else you know can you partner with that calligraphy person that they're already following right to see you get it who can you kind of work with to target and the other thing is to you know we have not talked about this strategy at all but if you're trying to grow your instagram following and you know some of these interests and because you know your audience is super active there you know behind the people who are teaching the calligraphy classes here in san francisco follow them go to their follower you good people who are following commenting it really active comment on those people's posts like things follow them, you know you can it takes a little more time, but you can really find that audience on there just by kind of following the bread crumbs of your people it's going to be and and you're are you comfortable in the platform? So this is gonna be really easy one for you to kind of think accelerate pretty quickly there anywhere else? You very much focused on that, right? Are you pushing your instagram, twitter or any of them still on there? Do you think there might be some of the older baby might skew people who were twitter early doctors? Maybe so I would maybe hood I mean it's one class, right? I was just gonna push this go to twitter to because it right, it can't hurt you never know who you might pick up, right? So just do that. Just push it over there, click that button and all right, so what's the message um, come well one do something fun and creative. Okay, get your instagram pictures off your phone and into something really one creative one creative hands on. Yeah, and then do something with all those photos. I was thinking of this event being after the salt lake, so maybe in september so it's, like you're done traveling what do you want to do those ah that's a perfect like if I seemed it right so like get those summer travel photos of those summer fun photos off of your phone and make something and make something I think that's a perfect angle awesome right? So that's why it's relevant so what's the call to action um so you think so here's I think what you are going to want to dio just like we talked about that strategic anticipation you want to build interest for this before they can sign up right now so I would say hey guys, I am planning this workshop so this is the case where you can stretch out the launch a little bit longer just to start to generate a little interest so hey guys, I'm working on planning this workshop it's gonna be a fun creative hands on way for you to take those summer photos off your phone do something awesome you can start to make a couple sample so that you could put the teaser images right on I g and then you can say like if you're interested in coming to this workshop, go sign up for my mailing list you want to get them on that mailing list so you've already got a list of people who are excited yeah before you even open registration especially because you're kind of waiting till the end of summer to do it do that? Get them on that list and then once you've got them on that list and this is really important for everyone, don't ignore the mailing list, right? So even though they're pretty heavy, I g people try to get them on that the email list and then every so often just sneak a quick peek in there, too. Like you guys are still working on plans for this workshop. I just want to give you a little sneak peek of what's coming, right, so don't let the first e mail you sent to that list be hey, go sign up, right? Yeah, I want to give him a least one or two e mails that say the sign up is coming and maybe you also like what the class will include, like, you know, a starter kids, we're not, like overwhelmed, right? You can start to feed some of those details out to them once you know them? Yeah, absolutely limited space, because then that's gonna create like you. I'm sure she's got, like, built this whole following already, and I really want to be one of the first, right? Absolutely and especially because you've got oh hi enough instagram following that right? People are going to a local there might be a lot of interesting that's what I do want to be one of the first because space is limited absolutely so it's interactive which you ever want them to like post if you have a fun summer picture some she could she could create a big hash tag in a campaign I heard that team challenge with that is that you lose a lot of brand voice with something that's that broad well right people right on the hash tag and you're just like oh posted on summer picture better to focus on like a hashtag that specific for what's going on at the workshops and then use that to continue to build buzz for future workshops. I think that's a better strategy than than the broader hashtag because people do they'll will take that over and it will just be and you have such a clear, specific aesthetic that when people are posting pictures with a hashtag aboutyou, you want to make it feel a little tighter so doing it at the workshop showing your product showing their product is better than just anything you've done this summer because you won't get a lot of like here's my half blurry drunk selfie way want to avoid that when you're trying to promote your piece so yeah hash aiken work but I think specific to the event you question my question was, do they need to bring the photos with them, or will there be a way to print photos at the event? So one of, like, a scenario is thinking of us maybe partnering with a photo printing company say, like, locally, like social ps, you have enough local one? Yeah, so it's like, can I partner with them and save you? Sign up for this workshop. You get twenty five dollars credit at this place to print your photo. So when you get it, you come in, you've got your photos to work. You have something to work on. Where were you? Maybe even build that sea into the workshop. And so after they signed up, they go in, they upload the photos, and then you just bring them in there, all ready to go write something like that. There's four options. And you can also I mean, there's so many, you know, one of your senses could just be one of those mate adorable, many tiny printers now that maybe you just invest in one of those, build it into your fee so that they don't have to do the prep work. Work is a barrier for people like, oh, I gotta go, but now I have my photo, yeah, and for me this is why I never photo subject like I wouldn't want to go through and have to decide there I kind of want to decide in the spur of the moment I like looking at your stamps looking at the cards looking at the funds out and so I think just investing in one of those little printers have won there you have it or even to teo right? Yeah, having that and just making it all kind of there and at the workshop is going to be so much less of a barrier right? Just so that then it's like just show up with your phone gonna not show up with their phone right? And that makes it so much easier because then it's like all you need true so all of them good ideas I think you are well on your way to plan a e I have a feeling that you're going to get a bunch of people I have to yeah where? What are you on instagram so that our online audience could just go follow you now so that they can all join join your class at underscore ch dot twenty one all right yeah so that way everyone who's listen was like I want to go to that workshop now they can all sign up right now all right? Awesome. So the last question that I kind of want to answer in this piece is do you need an editorial calendar dio how much do you have to plan out your posting? So I mentioned earlier, I think I was talking about susan petersen from freshly picked and how she kind of has that editorial calendar for her instagram. So what I want you guys to think about in terms of the answer to this and you're content marketing is how much structure do you need to make it happen? Right? For me, it was enough to know like up it's around that time better quick, take a picture and post it to instagram. That was enough for me. You might need a little more structure, in which case I would absolutely sit down and come up with a plan for that week. This's, how many posts I want todo this is what I want them to be. This is what I want to post them. If you need that structure, give it to yourself, right? We may even put space in the workbook for you guys to do that, right? Give yourself a plan because and then send out the alarm on your phone, schedule it out, whatever you want to dio if you know that you're going to get sucked into the studio, you're not going to remember just make the plan and commit to it right? That can really really help, all right. So in the next lesson, we're gonna learn how to make your event a success so we're doing it all of this pre marketing because that's going to make it so much easier, but there are some things that we can dio to give you a little bit more success in the event, but before we do that let's take a look at the homework from less seventeen so I want you to design the marketing campaign for your test market event and that should be complete with either an editorial calendar or daily posting schedule if you need that if not, it could just be sort of ah, this is kind of my target like one or two a day, but if wanted to a day means you're not going to do it, be specific, right? Create that plan, then I want you to create a landing page for email capture. Now this is one of those things that people get all hung up on. Mike oh my god, I need a landing page. What does that mean? Is that a whole big thing right? You can use the home page for your website if your email sign up is super super prominent this is my website that bar on the bottom that tells you to join now is responsive it's scrolls to the top it's the first thing you see on mobile I don't do a separate landing page because when I send people to my site is pretty freaking obvious on every platform that I want you to sign. Sign up for my email list that is always above the fold, so if you've got a great strong clear called action on your home page that's above the fold, then just send people to your website to sign up right? If you don't have a strong, clear email called action that's above the fold that happened right? That's probably the easier solution than creating the landing page, but you could also just do a page that's specific to your list like michelle, could you? What are you the red scorpio dot com you could do the red scorpio dot com slash join and send people there. I would not get any longer, especially if you're posting things like instagram where they actually type in the link or go in your profile, right? So keep it short and sweet that's why? If I could just some people to megan almond dot com, I will write that step to create a landing page or specific spot for email capture so you can send people to it and then I want you just start marketing your event post post more than you think you should, right? Don't worry about those un follows around subscribes don't worry about bothering people if the images, they're great. If they have a reason, they're not going to bother going like you pretty. I want right that's, not bothering people, that's showing him something good, right? And then tell your marketing with hash tag, make love cell, because we want to see what you're up to. So that's it, and I will see you guys in the next lesson.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Class Workbook
Private Facebook Group Invite
MAL in Detail - Numbers Template
Editable Bootcamp Workbook in Pages Format
Editable Bootcamp Workbook in Doc Format
Cost Plus Pricing Elements Bonus Video
How to Talk About Your Products Bonus Video
Trade Show Traffic Flow Bonus Video
Visual Branding Basics Bonus Video
MAL in Detail - Excel Template

Ratings and Reviews

user a03f28
 

Love the shorter and longer format to this class. It keeps me interested and I don't have to schedule a whole day at once, during the free play. Well worth the money if you pay for the class too. Megan is amazing! She really knows business, marketing and has strategies which apply to all kinds of businesses. The work book is 150 pages long and breaks everything down into small bits and teaches you to really think about all aspects of your business. Where you were, are now and best of all where you want to be and how to get there. Highly recommend any of her classes. Thank you so much Megan and Creative Live for bringing us such wonderful content!

user-e2bf69
 

This course was totally awesome!!! I cannot express enough how fantastic Megan Auman is, what a great teacher she is, and am so thankful she offered it for FREE!!! Wow!!! It was exactly where I was at, stuck and frustrated. Exactly what I needed to begin to get my business off the ground. I am currently implementing all I have learned from her. Rebranding my self, rebuilding my website, new product shots, model shots, list building, etc., etc. I am still connected with the Facebook group, and that is awesome we have that connection to continue helping each other out and using each other as a sounding board. I plan on purchasing the course as soon as I can. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this course to anyone who is struggling to get their business off the ground and going!!!

user-3f5a23
 

Thank you Megan for this opportunity. I really liked the first classes. You indicated interesting directions to think about. Even though life verifies the rest it is still worth to become smarter. Great Work! Best regards from Poland. Ewa

Student Work

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