Marketing A Specific Program

One of the things I learned along the way as a storyteller was a hard lesson that not all of us have picked up on.  I have to admit that I didn't follow the advice I am about to give for a good while.  It took me several years as a working storyteller to learn this lesson.

You've seen the promotional material, or maybe even have some materials similar to what I used years ago.  Beautiful, thoughtful, artistic even, promoting Stephen Hollen, Storyteller.  Trifold brochures that pack every program I had onto the six panels.  Plenty of photos to show that I was not hideous to look at, brilliant descriptions and lots of bullet points to summarize my experience.

In my enthusiasm I sent hundreds out, yet didn't get the return I hoped for.

In my other life, the "REAL" job, I went to a number of sales training events and had this "EUREKA" moment.  Sales pieces in "the real world" limit the number of items they market.  Many pieces only marketed one, two or three items at the most.  Most of the sales pieces we were trained on only marketed ONE item.  When I asked the professionals about this I was amazed to hear their answers...

"SELL ONE THING AT A TIME"  and  "SELL AROUND EVENTS, SEASONS, HOLIDAYS OR CALENDAR DATES"

It was a revelation.  I was concerned about cost and loaded up my brochures with everything.  So, I experimented.  For example; to try to fill my calendar with gigs in February, I developed a program of stories, humorous, some warm and some bittersweet.  I sent out postcards to all sorts of venues promoting a program ideal for Valentines Day - Marriage Enrichment events, Church Youth events, Senior Citizen events.  One postcard suggesting I had a program for Valentines Day, but suggesting other events that the program was suitable for.

For the test I did not do any phone call follow ups.  I just mailed 200 postcards (yes, from my personal favorite - Vistaprint!) and waited.  (It has been a couple years, so i don't remember costs, but it was less than $70)

The result?  Not only did I get plenty of gigs for February, but I scheduled a number of gigs for other months as well.  I do the same for July 4th, New Years, Halloween as well as camp and summer programs, libraries and even topical programs.