One Solution to Your Marketing Questions.

I've been telling you of the new and exciting things we've been
doing and have planned for this our 10th anniversary year at
Storyteller.net.

I'm happy to (finally) be able to tell you about our newest project,
the "Outside In Storytelling Boot Camp."

The OISBCamp is "The Artist-View Marketing Training Event for All Working Artists and Those Who Want to Be."

http://www.outsideinstorytelling.com

In addition to my presentations, we'll be joined for the February
2008 event by our invited associate presenter, Priscilla Howe. Many
of you on this list know of her and her success as an independent,
self-sustaining artist.

I've spent scads of time and a whole bunch of money researching and
preparing this event. I've distilled down many years of marketing and business research and decades of experience to make this new process laser-focused on what working artists need to know. I hope you can join us.

"Outside In Storytelling" is a new way to look what excellence as an artist consists of, focusing on three circles of excellence as our base. Through the "Outside In" process you'll explore excellence, mind-shifting and marketing in an audience-centered and "no shiny-poofy language" environment. I am excited to finally be launching this.

Visit the website for details and possibly get one of the limited Early Bird registrations.

http://www.outsideinstorytelling.com

There will only be 20 -- Just 20! -- registrations accepted in total for the three-day session.

"The Outside in Storytelling Boot Camp:"
The Artist-View Marketing Training Event for All Working Artists and
Those Who Want to Be.

Limited to just 20 students! There's a limit on Early Bird registrations so go look now at what we're offering. Thanks.

I Had Forgotten How Good You Are.

"I had forgotten how good you are," they both said.

And it was my fault that they forgot.

Okay, let me see if I can put in writing what I learned this weekend.

Over the weekend, I had a chance to do multiple presentations for an organization. Back in the day, about 10 years ago, I used to work as a storyteller with this group every week, sometimes multiple times per week. For many reasons such as their staff (read that: decision makers) and location change for their group, I had lost touch with many of the members of that organization. I had gotten lazy with my mailing list and dropped people off the list under the assumption that they would not be interested.

Ah, did you see that word in there....assumption....assume "means that you make..." Oh, you know the rest of that one.

Now, this weekend, after many years of not working with this group, I now had a major event with them, primarily because one of my regular sponsors (who is now based at this location) called me and said, "why aren't you coming up to this place anymore?" That put things in motion, contracts were signed and there I was again.

Afterwards, two different people who had seen me work with them "way back when" came up to me separately and said, "I had forgotten how good you are." Although flattered by the evaluations, I asked how come they hadn't been in contact with me for their needs. The both replied that they had lost track of me and that "i stopped getting your mailings so I assumed you weren't doing this anymore."

EEEK!

Yes, I know. They might have used the Internet to find me. A reality check here calls us to remember that not everyone (yet) thinks about the Internet when searching for people they know. And 8-10 years ago folks were barely using Email to communicate let alone Googling storytellers.

Postal mailing still work. These two people judged my availability based on my mailings. How many bookings and good events had I missed because I stopped sending monthly mailings to these two people?

Let's do the math. Let's average a post card, mailed out, to 50 cents each. That's probably too high. Ten years of mailings, 12 months per year gets us 120 mailings. That's $60 each or $120 to both folks over the last 10 years.

How many bookings had I missed in ten years with these potential sponsors because I took them off my mailing list? $120 is a fraction of a single booking. I saved myself $1 per month not mailing to these folks who knew "how good you are" but probably lost several thousand dollars in bookings, coaching and performances. There are also lost relationships and lost chances to promote the Art of Storytelling.

Sigh.

Remember, they did not ask to be removed. I will always remove someone who asks. Rather, I assumed they wouldn't want to hear from me based on the actions of their leadership.

Am I making sense here? Some marketing gurus say that you need at least 50 contacts a year with customers to keep yourself at the top of their minds. I urge my clients to do at least monthly mailings.

And now, I'll urge them to never take a potential sponsor off a list unless asked.

"I had forgotten how good you are," they said.

It was my fault that they forgot.