In Business Part 4

 

As part of this on-going series, today I'm going to talk about 'marketing' and 'advertising'.

I took a marketing course in the late 1990s and while much has changed, much is the same.

For years I had struggled with advertising/marketing my work but one of the presenters gave a definition I could really get behind - marketing is simply sharing what you do.

While 'advertising' is buying space in media (be that radio, television or now, the internet) 'marketing' is simply sharing your 'story' with others.

Since I already identified as a 'storyteller', I found that concept much more agreeable than other definitions.

As part of my marketing, I had postcards made - remember this was pre-internet days when people still used snail mail - and handed them out when shops placed wholesale orders.  They could, in turn, give them to customers who purchased my work or use them, themselves.  I didn't much care - it was just another way to spread the 'word' about my work.

Once the internet started growing, I joined (in 1994, via a FreeNet portal run by the local university - remember the dial up 'handshake'?).  I found Usenet rec.crafts.textiles and started hanging out there.  But it was primarily educational, not commercial.  

As the internet grew and changed, I had to adapt as well.

By the 2000s, people were using snail mail less and less so I didn't bother getting more postcards made; instead I started relying more on sharing what I did on line.  Bearing in mind that I was not 'selling' anything, as such, my sharing took the form of 'stories' in most cases.  I have always tried to give factual information in a manner that people will find acceptable (even when they don't).

Given I was 'selling' myself as a teacher, at this point, not my textiles, I tried to make my posts relevant to any conversation that was happening, based on my experience, point out pitfalls, make suggestions that might bring people closer to the success they were seeking.  And try to do that with good humour.

The internet was being touted as the beginning of the information age.  And it was a way to reach people well beyond my immediate reach and to let a lot of people know I was available to teach.

As the 'net become ever more 'commercial' rather than 'educational', I tried various way of selling my products, none of which were very 'successful' but neither was I trying to reach masses of people.  Mostly it was a way for people who had already seen/felt my textiles (usually in person during workshops) to purchase my work.  Because trying to sell textiles online has the huge challenge of sensory limitation.  Even photos don't tell the whole story because some cameras really don't like to record the actual colours.

Over the years I joined (and left) various online groups.  Sometimes the groups just faded away.  Others seemed to not want to hear what I had to say, so I left.  There is always another group, somewhere.

In 2008 I started this blog and I have used it as a platform to say what I want to say, the way I want to say it.  People can come, read, agree with me, or disagree and leave.  But if someone really wants to know what I have to say, I am here, easy enough to find with a quick search.  

As social media becomes less 'sociable', I have joined and left several sites.  I still have an Instagram account although I haven't actually posted anything in about a year.  I haven't shut down my Twitter account but I never go on it.  I'm of two minds about that.  I was deleting my posts until Twitter stopped allowing me access to my posts.  I have joined a couple other platforms but none of them seem quite 'right' - yet.  Mastodon is the one I spend most time on, although I miss the people I used to follow on Twitter but can't seem to find elsewhere.  

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, but have my biggest personal 'following' there so I do not leave FB for the time being.  It is my most effective way to let people know what I'm doing.  Ko-fi makes it easy to link my posts there to FB, so I can load something and with a single click share to FB.

While I continue to write - here and Facebook, mostly - I honestly don't know how much longer actual books will be viable.  OTOH, vinyl records are making a comeback, so maybe I just need to be patient and wait until books come back, too?

So, this blog, which started out as a personal 'celebration' of having survived 2008, has now turned into my preferred platform for sharing what I am doing as a weaver/author/teacher.  It is where I post photos of what I am making - be that textiles or books.  It is, in fact, my primary 'marketing' tool.  In spite of blogs being declared dead/passe'/over and that everyone should be on Tik Tok or whatever, I am still a storyteller, and I do that by writing, not making videos.  

Instead I opened a You Tube channel and have posted videos there.

I remember when I first started posting my video clips, someone almost immediately commented something to the effect that 'finally, someone who gets it!'.  I wasn't sure what they meant until I went looking for a particular technique and started watching other people's videos and had to scroll through several minutes of 'chat' before they finally got to the point of the video.  Someone said that instead of a dusty old blog, I needed to do a vlog.  Um, no, I'm perfectly content here.  I'm not young and slim, I'm an old lady with triple chins and I don't much like seeing myself on camera.  So when I do post a video, it is generally my hands that I'm showing - because they are the 'business' and what I want to highlight.

Others have said I need to do a podcast, but again, I'm old and I really don't feel like doing all the work involved in producing a podcast.  

But all of these things are marketing tools in the 21st century.  It is my choice to stay rooted in what I know and what I feel comfortable doing, even if it means I don't reach as many people as I could if I just joined the crowd and did Tik Tok or whatever.

If marketing is 'telling your story', then we all get to choose how we do that.

The hope being that if others read my posts, they will share them with their friends.  And *that* is called 'word of mouth' marketing - when you are supported by people who like what you do and share it with their friends.

One other thing that I remember (I remember lots, but what is pertinent to today's post) is that a happy customer will share their good experience with a business 11 times.  An *un*happy customer will share their 'bad' experience 26 times.

In this day of the internet and 'social' media, unhappy people seem to take great delight in sharing their 'bad' experience with thousands, not just dozens.

So when you hear about someone's 'bad' experience, maybe check and see if the business has something to say about the episode.  Because as previously mentioned, the customer is NOT always right.