I find that I'm often too busy trying to make stuff to worry about marketing and I'm also pretty terrible at it. Does anyone have any thoughts on how you combat marketing? Do you outsource? Is it worth outsourcing?

We talk a lot about markets, stalls, youtube/facebook and other online marketing, flyers and business cards... but I'm wondering what people's thoughts are on having a long-term plan and if so, how they implement it?

Thanks!

I think many puppeteers or builders are not that great at marketing. In fact if truth be told most likely any small business owner struggles with it and for the most part I doubt they can afford to pay someone to do it for them. It is important but I think perhaps for the average puppeteer or builder the basics are the most important thing to remember. Social media and a box of business cards can take you a long way in this day and age. A mailing list can is a powerful tool whether it is snail mail or email but it can take time and the creative ability to write good copy.

The only time it is going to be profitable to outsource, is once your business has hit a certain point.  While time is money, when starting out you are more then likely going to have time on your hands which takes nothing out of your pocket book. When you come to the point where the time spent takes away from building or actual performance, then it is time to perhaps think about outsourcing.

Yeah, this is my issue. I really REALLY need to outsource it. But I also know I can't afford to do it. I figure if I could find some way to set aside like, 20 bucks a week, and then hand it over for an hour's worth of marketing that would help.

Social media is a non-issue, I can handle that (although I'd prefer not to think about it really). Business cards are a waste of time for me right now. I don't go anywhere or do anything that allows me to hand cards over - I'm serious about that, I'm currently trying to figure out what to do with 3 boxes of 500 cards (1500 total) from previous ventures that I'm not involved in anymore. A mailing list is a pointless waste of paper, most people just sign up via email, which again is basically a bot using RSS.

I'm not talking about the 5 minute stuff that people can do through out the day. I'm talking about organising press coverage, finding bloggers who will write about you or test your stuff or give it away, or finding events you can go and participate in. The continual grind of finding new possibilities, rather than holding on to those who already found you.

As an example, the guy I interviewed on my podcast way back at the start of the year (Brett Hansen, Larrikin Puppets) has told me of about 6 - 10 different marketing things he's got on the boil. I won't reveal what he told me because I don't know how much I can speak openly about someone else's business plans, but the point of it is that we're talking about organising bookings and appearing at events, getting press coverage, etc. It's the stuff that requires real hard time spent on it to get anywhere.

Perhaps it's easier with performers because you go the 'usual route' of marketing a show (only perhaps to teachers or whatever instead of venues). If I were a performer, heck I'd just worry about booking myself into a local festival, or getting a slot at a subsidised venue, or finding a children's agent who deals with puppeteers. Fairly 'easy' at least compared to making puppets, in my opinion. (But again, that's not exactly a long-term plan really)

When you come to the point where the time spent takes away from building or actual performance, then it is time to perhaps think about outsourcing

Hmm, then colour me at that point. In the past few years I have spent far more time doing admin than anything else, to the point where I've stopped actually doing anything useful.

More than that, I find that doing these tasks absolutely KILLS any creativity that I have and in actual fact part of why I haven't done anything useful is because I've not been in the right mind to do so.

I haven't said this so far but: if I am to go forward at all, I have to get marketing or admin help in some shape or form. (For many personal reasons I haven't expounded here... but which I'm guessing you will get the subtext of) This is especially true if I am putting more energy into finding a market base offline than I currently have. If this means paying someone for a bit of help every fortnight, then so be it. -- Of course, that then becomes an issue of finding marketeers who are going to understand the difficulties of marketing this particular set of products. But one hill at a time

I've been thinking about this a lot since I posted initially, and I guess my terminology is wrong.

I posted about "marketing" but I don't mean the short-term stuff you do by handing out business cards. I guess what I'm referring to is the actual business plan, whereby you have a long-term strategy of what/when/where/how; and then combined with some sort of marketing that is based on more than having a Facebook page. Does anyone actually have long-term marketing strategies? Or is it all a bit fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants?

In the end I think I'll be writing up a proper business plan myself, and then paying for some feedback from an actual marketing professional. That way I'm doing the majority of the work - which is cheaper even if I don't actually want to have to worry about it myself - but then still get the benefit of an outside voice to make sure I stay on the right track. This is probably even a better version of just relying on someone else because then I don't have to spend hours explaining to someone else how I work, what I am capable of, what I won't do, etc etc. A plan actually tailored to me, but still ending up properly tweaked by a professional.

Hi Na,
I am not sure if I am qualified to speak here as we do not get that much funding directly from puppets, but we do sell some occasionally and sometimes get donations for seminars, with which to keep our 'ministry' going. We do run our puppetry accounts separate from personal accounts , so in a way I do do some  sort of  business planning. First We  have a large  plan , one that may or may not even happen, but is where we would like to be in say 5 or 10 years. There then has to be some  sort of loose plan of action based on that so that you know where you are headed, and when people ask you  you  can tell them roughly. Then there is  a yearly thing. Usually over the new year break I do a summary of what we have  achieved through the year, and think about what I would like to achieve the coming year. Certain things therefore come to mind that need to be achieved, and in a rough time line.Seminars, workshops and certain events  help to set dates , and therefore also help to define what you need to do and by when. Of course all of this is loose, but you try to get some sort of idea to help point you in a direction and keep you on that direction. A lot depends on where you would like to head.

Thanks pagestep. I already know about long- and short-term goals as part of a business plan. I'm talking more in terms of marketing, so rather than saying "in five years, we will offer X and have made X amount of money" it will be more like "research what markets arecsuitable for stalls", "figure out way to tap into target market without spending money on ads", etc. I guess thats a bit of a combination of both, but business planning to me is goal planning, not marketing. I dont need goals, i need some ideas of how to market my stuff without having the time/money/expertise to do so.

I guess my point is that i can say "my goal in five years is to have a successful, regular stall at a market", but that kind of plan in no way informs me about what market best suits my products, whether or not i'm missing a better/cheaper way of marketing, what other marketing i should do to complement it (ie local media?), etc. i'm no good at marketing and need an outside eye; which is why i'm going to build my own 'plan' that is less goal-oriented and more marketing-oriented, and have that looked over by a marketing professional.

Hope that makes sense, there's a difference in my mind between what you're suggesting and what i'm talking about, but i'm not sure if i'm being very clear about what i mean. For instance, in my mind you can have a goal that says book 5 stalls a year or whatever, but my problem is that's all i'd end doing. Obviously marketing is about more than handing out an occasional business card and hoping people like what they see on the day. How do you get from the little things to having a broad plan is what i'd like to know. - ad agencies dont plant a bunch of ads in a magazine or two every time a new product is launched and hope for the best, they have an overall strategy and the ads fit within it. That's what i'm looking for.

Ah yes, I see a little more what you mean. ( I still think that marketing does have a certain amount of goal setting). I think, first you have to  study your market, potential market, or develop-able market. For us it  would be the TV  scene. Know who the players are, what is being done, who the competition is, what they do well , what they do not do well, what you do well , what you  don't do well, what  is the market likely to want, how do I get  into that  market. What would I need to do to get there. Is it a mass market or nich. The number of TV players, particularly with puppets is  relatively small. Children's TV larger, and  competitive. how do I get the buyers interested in my product, For us in TV a small brochure sized booklet was a really good  marketing tool. No-one took us seriously until we had something to show. The booklet was our business card , with our details in the back of the story booklet. We also had to do a lot of visiting and talking with people, eg it was usually a 6 month process each new channel we transmitted on. The booklet was a 9 month process. A trip to Cuba a year process,  went to children's television conferences to try and  meet buyers and distributors (like 600 in one conference)and after about 2 years of this, we are still  getting  the people with the power on good speaking terms for when we get back , and try and   push for  some concrete trial project to  hopefully proove ourselves, and get a commitment  established on both sides.It is something that takes a lot of effort....

Yeah, i would also stick competitor research in with the 'business plan' side of things. That to me is also not a strategy, but rather retrospective research. I'm not really interested in doing that, because my plans are a lot more complex than just going 'oh, that shadow puppeteer is doing x, i must copy that too'.

Thanks for the advice, but i think for the time being i'll just do things my own way - there are other, more personal reasons for doing so - and hope i stumble onto an idea that wont have me spending 3 months just on stuff i could do with a basic business plan template.

I guess like most things, there is no real answer and most people are just figuring it out as they go along - which is fine to a certain extent for me, but right now i need real concrete answers and not so much experimentation and hope. (sorry, i've had a pretty shit couple of weeks and its about to get worse so whilst i appreciate the advice its not really useful to me right now)

Sad to hear you're going through a hard patch. Hope it improves. Yes, I agree,  maybe each  has to find their way as they go along.

Sad to hear you're going through a hard patch. Hope it improves. Yes, I agree,  maybe each  has to find their way as they go along.

Thanks. Whether it improves or not is out of my hands at the moment - although once the builders leave the house and we have our kitchen back I'll certainly be feeling better - but the need to do things a bit differently will help a lot I think in making improvements. The issue with this plan is not so much that it needs to be all business, but that it needs to mould to my particular long-term issues. Which makes it complicated.

At this point in time, I'm actually 90% unsure that I'll even have a business to go on with.