I think it’s obvious when you are making something for which you have no passion. When you are creating your work straight from your original spirit, it shows and that is part of what makes the work so attractive to others. If some of you is not imbued in what you are creating, what is the point?

I used to make these garden Faerie doors—they were solar powered resin cast doors with one-of-a-kind embellishments whose windows would light up in your garden when the sun went down. People loved them! I sold more of those than anything else at the art shows. And at first they were fun but they were more of a gimmick than a passion. After a while I got rather tired of making them and took no pride in the compliments I would get. They were just things I felt I had to make because it guaranteed that every art show would be monetarily worthwhile.

Then suddenly they stopped selling or at least they wouldn’t go for quite as much as they used to. It seemed rather odd to me until the day I looked at the pictures of the first ones I had made and then at the ones I had done most recently. They weren’t the same. The newer ones were comparatively dull, just churned out with no real design to them. It was obvious that I just wasn’t doing them very well any more.

Now I could have simply bucked up and worked on the designs and improved where I had been lagging but the thing is, I really didn’t want to make the faerie doors anymore. My heart wasn’t in it and I think it was obvious to the buyers. So I stopped making them and reevaluated my whole line. I scraped any design that made me cringe or that I knew I wouldn’t wear or display in my own place, anything I didn’t feel excited about selling. And you know, I am not only a happier artist for doing that but my newer work gets far more attention and compliments and goes for higher prices than my older work. And all I had to do was make what I felt was good art. Not what the market might have led me to believe was wanted.

Even if the work you do is under contract for a client and they have specific ways they want you to do things, they hired you based on something in your personality or your portfolio that made them feel you could create the look or feel they want. So put yourself into your work, be true to who you are as an original creator. Not everyone will love what you do, but do what you love and you will draw those who taste parallel yours.

1. Never true.
2. Representative of a marketing plan that is doomed to fail

Your market is always a very specific set of people. Take the website designer who says his market is anyone who wants a website. As one guy, is a big corporation who wants a 1000 page catalog site done in 2 months even possible for him to take on? Or is the hobbyist who will only spend $100 on a 5 page site, really the kind of client he wants to work with all the time? Is he going to be able to do a site for a hard-core gangsta rapper and still get the contract for that conservative local church?

The point is, you don’t market to a wide variety, or the fringe and oddball possibilities. You market to your specific core of people which may incidentally get you buyers or clients in other market segments but you don’t waste time chasing that. If you aim for too broad a market, you spread your efforts too thin to be effective with any one section of your market.

But who is your market? You probably already know, you’ve just never defined them. Take some time to do so now. Sit down and write out what your ideal, mostly likely to return for more, individual or company client or buyer is like. Characteristics should include:

1. Economic level (income for individuals, profit range for business)
2. Size of family or business (single, married, young family, empty nest; solopreneurs, small business, mid-size, large corporation)
3. Age (age range for individuals; start-up, established, or generational for business)
4. Ethnicity/Culture
5. Social &/or political leanings (conservative/liberal, primary social activity type, amount of social interaction, subcultures)
6. Interests and/or hobbies
7. The individual’s or company’s goals/concerns
8. Geographic location (local, state, national, international)
9. Type of location (urban, suburban, metropolitan, etc.)
10. Where they get general information (newspapers, TV, internet, networking, gossip, etc.)
11. Where they shop or go to find services
12. And whatever else you can think of …

Answering these questions will draw for you a picture of your typical buyer/client that you should keep in mind when making every marketing decision. If you have the talent, drawing an actual picture of your ideal person or business can help tremendously. I had a client who printed pictures off the internet and cut out photos from magazines of the particular type of people he was marketing to. It’s kind of like when you go to buy a birthday gift, you keep the person you are buying for in mind, usually visually. Do the same when planning your marketing (also when developing your product).

When planning your marketing, act like you’re shopping for a gift, and ask yourself what kind of gift they would like most (what products to focus on), what they need right now (how your product can solve their problems or fulfill a desire), how they will respond to different types of gifts (marketing materials), and how to wrap it (method of delivery).

Or you can just do something general like so many businesses do—kind of like spending you Christmas gift budget on sending everyone you have ever known a generic Christmas card. Many may read it but then it gets tossed and forgotten. Wouldn’t it have been better to spend your money on a few stunning gifts for the key people you want to impress so they’ll go around and talk about what you gave them?

Aim for impressing your key market. If your product is that good, they will tell others and expand your market for you.

Say what?

Yep, the end result of actually paying someone else can quite often put more money in your pocket than it would if you tried to do it yourself. Why is that?

Because when you are not creating your primary work you are not building your portfolio, you are not honing your skills, and you are not able to take on as many contracts or produce as much inventory to sell. Simply put, you could be stunting the growth of your business and missing out on money making opportunities.

So how do you know when to contract out the work you need done?

Well, let’s say you spend 20 hours building a website but your business is making custom clothing. What is the value of the clothes you could have created in that 20 hours? Maybe $400 or $500 worth? Wouldn’t it be better to pay someone else to build a website for $400 while you make that money doing what you do best? Chances are you’ll end up with a better website done in less time because you’re paying another creative to do what they do best.

Even if you don’t have a lot of cash to work with you can still employ others to do what needs to be done. Send out an offer to barter to your network, mailing list, or on a Craigslist ad. Look for students or new entrepreneurs trying to build a business who would be willing to do it on the cheap. Offer to do a write up on your blog or put a link on your site in exchange for a discount.

Bottom line–never do it yourself if you can pay someone the same or less than it would cost if you had to pay yourself for the time you would spend on the task. I know this idea seems foreign but if you can spend more time creating, you build your reputation, portfolio, and client base that much faster. Which in the end means more business and more money.

When aiming to gain new sources of income from your market, one of the first things you will need to do is put your ego in a tightly sealed container and put it far out of reach. I think this is particularly hard for creatives to do this because what we’re selling is ourselves, our vision, our talent, and sometimes even our personalities. But you won’t reach many people by simply saying, “Hey I’m great and I have great stuff to offer you—come see!”

Draw new clients and customers in by appealing directly to their egos. Make it all about them getting the attention and giving the opportunity to feed their egos. Here are some basic ideas to get you thinking about your customers focused campaign:

Give ‘em something to talk about: People love to laugh, be surprised, and be shocked and they love to share sources of such entertainment. Remember the big, hairy biker dude who modeled the wedding dress on Ebay? That dress sold for 30x what he hoped to get plus all the attention (he got radio and TV time!) and marriage proposals. Why? Because the picture of him in that dress was both hilarious and a little shocking. Stuff like that is the online version of gossip and people like to talk about what they’ve found. So give them something to talk about and whole sections of the market you weren’t directly tied into will come to you.

Get an opinion: You know what they say about opinions and it’s true. Everyone has one and most people love the opportunity to share it. Perhaps you can ASK your Tweeple to tell you what they think about your latest website templates instead of just announcing you posted them in your store. This gets people going to your site as well as giving you valuable input for future work. Or post a blog about an issue that the industry you write for would get fired up about, asking for feedback so you can start a conversation with new people. Having a conversation means you are building a relationship that you can use to directly and personally access your potential new clients.

Get their story: Yep, people do like to talk about themselves, so go ahead and ask them to do so on your site or blog or even your Twitter page as a start. If you’re writing a book about fly fishing, ask for comical fly fishing stories to draw them to the site where you sell your book. Or better yet, ask before you even write it to gain more fodder for the book and an instant street team when the book comes out as people will tell their friends and networks about the book their story is in.

How you will appeal to potential clients/customers will differ greatly depending on your market. Just consider what gets the riled up, how they like to be entertained, what they talk about most, and where they congregate both on and off line. And then get creative. It’s what you do best. And just keep chanting the mantra “It’s all about them.”