Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sharing my findings on advertising a printmaking studio


Having a small advertising budget, is hardly news to new businesses, how to spend it, is tricky, you want to get the most bang for your buck, and at the same time you know, that advertising is one of those things, that rarely shows itself straight away, it would be lovely if placing an ad meant that the phone rang of the hook, but that takes time..... In the past, when i have advertised, it has taken up to 6 months of advertising to actually see a tangible result, as in people telling me, "I saw your ad", the rest.... si kind of done on a prayer... that it works the way the ad guru's tell us......
Anyway, I found a couple of directories to be part of www.printmaker.com for example, Chris gives you a free listing. I also think that it was from this listing that Artists & Illustrators got in touch and I have placed 4 ads with them, after a very fruitful discussion about price. Another magazine that I have always enjoyed very much is Art of England , a magazine that seems to respond to me, a working artist....so I have placed 3 months ads with them in their directory.... hmmm, what else... oh, Lifestyle Magazine, an online magazine for different holidays and experiences... there seemed to be quite a bit of camel trekking..... something I always wanted to do!!
but I don't know about printmaking??? Anyway, Lynn, has been very helpful and is offering a great price for quite a bit of stuff, so I might try that..... I also listed my studio on http://www.travel-quest.co.uk , a search site for different holidays... you could either pay a bit, and be higher up in the search results or you can have it for free..... I paid, but quite frankly, there are not that many offering printmaking courses... so you would not get lost, being a freebie!
Other than that, there is of course a whole slew of local magazines here on the Costa del Sol, quite a few Scandinavian ones, and lots of English, so I have started with the Scandi mags, to see what happens, so far a couple of phone calls and e-mails.....
I have also listed myself in directories in Scandinavia, although many of them ask for websites in the language of the directory.... and of course, I don't have that, so we'll see if the approve my listing or not !
I have chosen to stick to the directory/classified kind of ad, as I know that the rest is too expensive for little me.... maybe later on, when I have recuperated from renovating the studio, there will be a bit more money.... but at least, I can keep up with the classified, and I think, that being consistently there is more important than size. If you are like me, you are reading the magazine, thinking, - gotta look that up... but do you, no, not the first time, not even the second, but third time around even I get around to having a look at websites..... so there... that's what I have been up to, and this is plenty long now, hope you find something useful in here! :o) Mariann

1 comment:

  1. Wow, you've worked very hard at this! You certainly deserve to have the phone ringing off the hook, Mariann! But I'm sure you'll be satisfied if it just brings in enough people to make the courses work out. Good luck!

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