Promotion

I am a typical ‘do-er'; quick, not very strategic, and full of ideas that I want to implement NOW. It gives me a lot of extra work, because I like planning ahead which means that very often I have to redo everything because I have prepared work but the circumstances have changed and I have to start all over..

Or I do stuff without thinking first. The amount of times I regret sending messages or that I wish I could turn back time because I said or did something that I could have done better, are plenty. It suits my personality and it took me far, but it can be a burden.

Luckily I’m open to learning new ways and I understand that I cannot always do what I like or want to do, so I’m improving and make less mistakes. I’m even more lucky that I work with someone like Jorien, who is very strategic and good at taking a step back to get an overview and look at the mission/vision and objectives.

I wanted a newsletter; wrote a message with 10 items and sent it to Jorien. “Good idea”, she wrote back, “but shouldn’t we think about a strategy first?”. Of course we should; that is what I teach my students!!! Your promotion is part of a marketing mix which comes from the marketing strategy that is inspired by the mission. Always ask what the goal is; why do we want to send a newsletter, what do we hope to achieve, to whom do we send it, how often, and what should be the content (to reach the goals). Jorien also wrote that a newsletter should have not have more than 3 items… so back to the drawing board, think of some good SMART objectives and try again. The ‘do-er’ in me could not resist to design a newsletter in Mailchimp though. I couldn’t stop myself, but thanks to Jorien, I wrote down the main objectives first and only included 3 items. And I sent it to Jorien to get feedback before sending it to the world.

What also might have been wasted time, is that I designed an online crowd funding project. It would be really good to get some extra money for our projects, but again I did start without desk research or thinking about a strategy. I’m sure I will get comments and feedback. I might even have to delete it if it does not suit our vision. Even I know I should take a step back and think about the what, why, how an whom! I can’t help it..

– I am who I am;

– I have been succesful in my career with my method of doing-before-thinking;

– And yes, many professionals in the creative industry do not always have a written mission, measurable objectives or a marketing strategy but are doing well;

BUT thinking about your strategy makes your business more efficient, more effective, less stressful (time), less overspending of budgets (is more profit), more visitors (again more profit) and happier customers :) So even though I do what I teach (preach) most of the time, I am still learning too and loving it! <3