Question
Topic: Strategy
Where To Begin? Never Marketed Before.
Related Discussions
- The Three Cs Of Successful Positioning
- Marketing Profs Viable For Brand Promotion?
- Go To Market For Two Divisions
- When To Give Up On B2c Efforts
- Assessing A New Market
- Innovative Marketing Campaign Ideas
- Innovative Marketing Campaign Ideas
- How To Classify A Competitor/manfacturer
- Real Estate Company Unique Value Proposition.
- Nps Strategy & Change Management
- Search more Know-How Exchange Q&A
Community Info
Top 25 Experts
(Strategy)
- Jay Hamilton-Roth 82,499 points
- mgoodman 77,301 points
- Chris Blackman 45,171 points
- Peter (henna gaijin) 32,342 points
- Gary Bloomer 31,540 points
- telemoxie 31,185 points
- Frank Hurtte 27,231 points
- wnelson 19,605 points
- SteveByrneMarketing 14,082 points
- steven.alker 14,021 points
- Blaine Wilkerson 10,495 points
- Deremiah *CPE 8,993 points
- SRyan ;] 8,117 points
- darcy.moen 7,754 points
- Pepper Blue 7,080 points
- koen.h.pauwels 6,085 points
- cookmarketing@gmail. 5,512 points
- saul.dobney 5,390 points
- Mushfique Manzoor 5,128 points
- ReadCopy 4,812 points
I work in the film industry as a sound mixer. The industry is very relationship driven. I imagine cold calls will get me a *little* work, but for the most part people work with you because they've worked with you before and they like working with you. That is how being a subcontractor before gave me a boost. When I went on my own, I had 2.5 years of relationship building to lean on.
Currently I have amassed a fairly decent number of contacts. I have a little over 300 connections on LinkedIn, over 350 followers on Twitter, my Facebook page has over 120 likes and my personal account has over 300 friends. In my address book I have well over 600 contacts with easily another 500+ spread out over emails and business cards waiting to be input into said book. I keep notes on most contacts about when I last worked with them and on which project.
What I would like is to start putting my name in peoples minds for when they need to hire a sound mixer. If you're unfamiliar with the industry, it is not unusual to work with someone only once every year or so. Sure there are many you see often, but then you risk putting all your eggs in one basket. I would like to make sure I am at least on the radar of people that I might not have seen in a few years.
So my question is: Where do I begin? I fear that if I send out a mass email to everyone I will have wasted my 'first impression'. I'd like to contact everyone individually so it feels more personal, but again I don't want to make a bad first impression. Yes I say first impression because even though I've worked with most of these people before, many of them it may have only been once years ago and they could have forgotten me by now.
So what should I do first? I'm happy to read any books you may think useful, and to do any legwork needed before even thinking of marketing to potential clients. In the end tho, I'd like this to be something I can do on my own, regularly, without it becoming a second job. I want to market myself without becoming a full time marketer - I still want to do sound.
To make the question a bit more concise: What steps should I take to let people know I'm out there, without coming off as pushy or needy? I still will have to negotiate rates when they come calling and don't want it to seem like I'm desperate for work. In an industry where we all seem to experience the slow season at the same time, how can I market during that time without having other's think "I'm slow too, good luck with that"?