Exactly. I was hoping someone would bring this up. Thank you Danny for doing so. You really need to know your target audience and what market you are marketing to. Until you have figured out just who your market is and who your decision makers are in that market, you really can not tailor your marketing materials to meet their needs.

Kyle

Well I said I use my leaflets and brochures, one aimed at weddings, and one aimed at the corporate market. I have told you what I use, I was just interested in what others use, regardless of what market they are heading into.

You are asking a cook what ingrediants he uses. The question is way too vague.

If you can't properly formulate a question, how can ou expect anyone to answer it?

Well what do you use aside from business cards? do you use post cards? brochures? table tents? billboards? posters?

I'm done

The thing about "myspace" is that it is not just your space but you are sharing the space with advertisers.

Hi there Flec -

You might find some of the answers you are seeking on this previous thread:

Cafe thread titled... How Do You Market Your Act/Yourself?

- Donald

This is also great thread where you might get some wonderful advice....but you need to read it from the beginning:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......&137

Business cards, word of mouth, business cards, word of mouth, phone book advertisement, I am also working on a direct mailing system for my school shows... Business cards, and word of mouth haha. I want to get a circuit running within a year.


-John O'Bryant

A lot of folks think of marketing for their shows only through the process of word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth is certainly something you want to have working for you and it is an intrical part of seeking success. However most folks stop there when it comes to their own marketing endeavors.

Now it is great that you may be getting the work and that the gigs you have gets you word of mouth. However, there is so much more that you could be doing to make things work more effectively for you and even get you more work or even to climb up to a different and better paying market should you decide to do so.

The great part about effective marketing is that the principles cost you nothing and you really can apply them without breaking your budget. In a lot of ways it is just a change in your overall way of thinking from a passive form that many take, to a more active form where you are going out there and actively taking part in the sales process and actively involved in not just being the magic product to your client, but getting them to see you as a solutions provider for them. You are the one they go to, to have their problems solved.

As soon as you change your way of thinking (from perhaps a passive form to an active one), your perceived value to your clients change and this is a very powerful tool that can mean the client coming back to you year after year because to them you are worth more then any other magician they could hire. They do not care so much about your price or fee because they now know your worth to them.

So how do you get your prospects to notice you more effectively? How do you change your marketing approach from a passive form to a more active style? Good question and I would like to dive a bit further into it if I can.

The first step is realizing there is a difference between a passive form of marketing and an active one. In the passive approach, a marketer might do things such as hand out a business card, post up a flyer or place an ad in a magazine or newspaper. Now there is nothing wrong with doing any of these and a good marketer is one who will realize that a healthy combination of both active and passive can yield great results.

One thing to point out here is that posting a flyer or cards at any place is a very "passive" form of marketing. This is fine to do, but it means that you place something (ad, card, flyer) in the hopes that others will act upon it and take initiative to contact you. You lose control after the initial posting of the ad or handing out of the flyer. Your intentions are that a prospect will react positively to your ad etc. and then take action to seek you out.

Passive forms of marketing can be done successfully and should be used. However I find that "active" forms of marketing get me much better results and a bigger return on my investment of money and time.

In an active style, the marketer is always in control of the sales process. Instead of waiting for people to call, he or she goes out there and makes the calls and gets people to know who he or she is and the services they can provide. They take an active role in their marketing and getting the shows THEY want. They are always in control of the sales process every step of the way.

An ****ogy here would be a person going to a civic luncheon to network.

- A passive marketer would network, talk to folks and offer or give a business card to someone or as many as he or she can. They might even place an ad in the program or post a flyer at a table. They then go home and hope the person acts upon this action that they took.

- An active marketer is one who goes to the same meeting and also passes out a card to someone. However, they in return ask for a card back. This immediately puts them back in direct control of the sales process. An active marketer might even have a raffle to raffle off their free product to someone or something of value. This active marketer now can enter the data they receive from the business cards or the raffle forms into a database. They then would send the person an e-mail or letter thanking them for their time in talking with them at the event and offering to send them additional information.

This is only one small example, but I hope it shows the difference between the two ways of thinking. Passive and active forms of marketing are very different in their approach. Many do know about only passive forms as passive forms are the easiest and most common to do. There is nothing wrong with passive marketing.

However, it is my intentions to let people know that there exists an even powerful form called active style marketing. Use this active approach in your marketing and your thinking. There is great power in active style marketing because you take a much greater control and responsibility over the control of the sales process. You are much more in control of your business and its success.

It is a way of thinking that takes some time to get used to. But like any good habit, the more you do it, the better you get at it and soon you are doing it naturally. It is sometimes hard to think in active terms. I know it took me a while to remember to ask for business cards from people or to think of active forms when I am doing my theater shows or public performances. It takes time, but you can achieve a greater control over your marketing that you may not have had before.

So use a combination of both passive and active forms of marketing and use them to your best advantage. This gives you more control over your own success that you are seeking.

Just some thoughts and opinions.

Kyle

I attended a showcase day for all the recreation and park directors for my state today. I had a ten minute performing slot and a table with my marketing information and my Killer new business cards (Thanks Kyle!). I could have just sat at my table when not doing my showcase, but I chose to be more high energy. I made a conscious effort to be entertaining the entire time. I made balloon animals for kids that came by, used the touchable bubbles and turned them into solid glass marbles, did a few tricks and the result was more people coming to see me and more people coming back.

I also chatted up a lady in the lunch line, who seemed quite shy, but interested in my act. By being friendly and approaching her in a non-threatening manner, I was able to secure two library shows with her. I heartily agree with Kyle's notion of active marketing. I have a yellow pages ad, but I intend to go out and get business too, not just wait for it to find me. Sometimes I see those public bulletin boards littered with cards and flyers and they seem a little ineffective to me. Maybe they work for some though.

Bill,

You are most welcome my friend. Thank you also for the kind words about the new logo design, business card and stationary that I designed for you. It is most appreciated and I am glad the new designs are working so well for you.

It is also wonderful to see how active style marketing, when applied as you have, does indeed really make results and lead to your own success. Once you have tried it once and see for yourself the difference it can make, you then start to do more so that it becomes a habit. It is soemthing that has to be learned, tried and then constantly placed into your mind so that you continue to think in an active sense and not always so passive.

I am really glad everything is working out for you. Thanks again for the kind words about my designs.

Kyle

Most don't realise that "marketing" is a verb. It requires action.

Putting out ads and business cards and flyers and waiting for the phone to ring is not really THAT much action.

Marketing is really a symbiotic relationship. The more you give to it the more you get from it. Active Marketing to me has always been redundant. Kind of like "active eating".

Almost more important than the actual marketing "techniques" used is the formula used to "track results". Otherwise you are just throwing stuff out there and hoping it works. You have to track trends, see what kind of ROI you have from investment and so on. This is the part that most fall down on and leave money on the table.

My Top Five Marketing Techniques (no order)

1) Yellow pages
2) Website through search engines
3) Word of Mouth from previous clients
4) Strong agent relationships
5) Word of mouth from other clients

(plus a special bonus point to media appearances)