Pick me for a free brief Arlo!!

[clairemackaness]

To take us up on this offer, post the answers to the following questions under a new thread in "PR and Marketing":

1) Describe your product in no more than 50 words (provide links to further info / website)

Corporate art and commissioned work for private buyers www.clairemackaness.co.uk

2) What is the target audience for the product or service (as much detail as possible e.g. age / socio-economic group / geographical location.)

Mainly businesses with blank walls but art lovers too

3) What is your objective in communicating with this target audience? (Sure, increase sales. Any other objectives?)

Make money, larger scale contracts

4) Do you have a preferred method of communication? (Internet / Public Relations / Events / Direct Mail) Or would you like us to recommend the most cost-effective for your marketing brief?

Any with No budget.

5) What budget do you have available for this project?

Next to none

6) Any other information.

I need to re-word my website mainly and get nice chunks of text to entice the buyers in. Once I have them in my grasp I can sell to them via phone or e-mail etc.

[Ozzy]

Can someone please enlighten me as to what these posts/questionaires are about? :)

[clairemackaness]

I cant find the original thread but Arlo offered a freee consultation to the first person to start a new thread answering his questions. It was only after I posted that I realised the original thread was a week old so I was probably a bit slow on the up take there LOL

[Arlo]

Hi Ozzy, just to expand on that, my company has launched a new completely online marketing consultancy - link below.

We've got together a team of creatives with big agency experience, and made them available to offer tailor-made marketing ideas and tactics in response to a brief you complete at our website.

The service costs a fraction of what you'd get charged for marketing consultancy offline, but (and we have tested this), you get exactly the same quality of tactics and ideas as you might get from a leading offline marketing agency.

Advice is, of course, subjective. I thought it would be helpful for people using this site to see some examples of what we do, and offered two free consultations on the proviso that both the marketing brief, and the results of the consultation could be published in this forum.

Claire, unfortunately the offer was limited to the first 2 people to consult. Also, we are already offering our services at a substantial discount until such time as we have a well-established online reputation. Feedback from people who have used our paid service is that it is worth £200-£300 and this would certainly reflect the time and effort that goes into each consultation.

For the moment though, it is £130, which is less than the price of a business lunch.

Giving the occasional free consultation is proving to be an excellent way to show people what we do, so we'll probably come and offer some more, from time to time. But for the moment, I'm afraid the offer is closed.

[directmarketingadvice]

Hi Claire

If I were you, I'd re-write your home page. Having it written in the 3rd person does nothing other than make it less personal.

People like to know the story behind the art – the person, the process and the inspiration.

So, I'd recommend writing it in the 1st person and also talking about the creative process - what inspires you and how you turn the inspiration into a piece of art - this would personalise and dimensionalise you in the eyes of the reader. It would also be an opportunity for you to write about your passion for your work and that would rub-off.

Secondly, I’d revamp your menu. For example, you have a page where people can buy paintings online. The menu should convey this. The current title (“showcase”) doesn’t. I don’t know about other people, but if I was a casual visitor, something like “Buy A Painting Online” would have been a page I would have gone to.

Finally, here’s some questions I have for you:

How are you bringing people to your site at the moment?

How have you promoted your work in the past? Has it only been through your website and exhibitions (including any public space), or have you used other methods of getting your work noticed?

Do you cross-promote between your wedding business and your painting business?

Have you tried any PR?

Steve

[Dread]

For the moment though, it is £130, which is less than the price of a business lunch.

Where the hell do you goto lunch? Pot noodle x 2 = £1.36 :P

[Arlo]

Yeah, but what about the wine? :wink:

[clairemackaness]

1st - My local chamber of commerce offers a business lunch for £28.00 you must have very exclusive clients who sting you good and proper Arlo! Thanks for the info, I did mention I thought I was too late!

Steve - Thanks for the feedback I'll bear it in mind when I revamp next week. I currently just get as many lisintgs in directories as possible and a few reciprocal links. I'm on a few boards like this as well. The site is new so I havn't done much outside marketing yet. I do exhibit occasionally and when I do a piece of corporate art in a bar I like to have a launch night (see SLug & Lettuce) The wedding stuff is a sideline and I dont really activly market it. I am listed on a few wedding directories but it's the art I'm really looking to do well with.

[Arlo]

Hi Claire, well I was thinking that a business lunch involved more than 2 people. And at £28 a head, you've only got to take 3 to your chamber of commerce and you're just about at the price of a consultation with us (which is inclusive of VAT).

I did see that you'd said you thought you were too late. All the same, I am genuinely sorry to disappoint (if I have). But I'm sure you can understand that our team has to make a living too!

All the best

Arlo

[directmarketingadvice]

Claire

(1) In my city, there are lots of shops that sell art. Have you approached similar shops in your area?

(2) Is there anything that stops you offering your local council the opportunity to hang your paintings in their public buildings free of charge for 60 days? If you get them hung in places where the public visit, that would get you exposure.

(3) You could run a free draw where the winner wins a painting. Collect the email addresses of all the entrants and offer all the losers a discount on a painting. This'll beef up your mailing list. You could run this in conjunction with local businesses or local media.

(4) How's the ebay thing going? If you've been selling pieces through it, you could write a short article for the media on selling art via ebay and how it's an opportunity for up-coming artists to sell their work to a large market. That could get people curious about you and checking out your site.

Just a few ideas.

Steve