This post is about marketing. I just thought I'd get that out of the way.
I am sure some of you think I am jumping the gun here:
"How on earth can marketing be number two on this list???" You demand.
"I thought this series was about doing virtual storytelling! Where is all the info about cameras and stuff! Why are you starting here?"
There is a good reason why we are starting here.
We are not actually talking about the marketing piece itself, we are talking about the plan for the marketing: These are two different things.
For the last however many years you have been a storyteller/performer, your job has been pretty straightforward...
1. I will show up at your event.
2. I will do a live show of a certain length
3. You will pay me for this experience
4. I will put the money in the bank
5. Lather rinse repeat
You probably have some idea how to market that.
Contact schools
Contact libraries
Contact venues
Contact senior centers
Contact hospitals
Contact park services
etc, etc, etc
If you never got to the marketing, or you had issues with it, click here to read the long, in-depth series I did on marketing!
Traditionally, our marketing is like this, "Hey, I am a storyteller/puppeteer/singer/poet (you get the drift), and I would like to come and tell/sing/perform for your clientele.
What they expect is some form of this:
Yes, lots of touching, gathering, shouting, laughing, moving about, and generally having a fabulous, loud, communal time.
There is no way on the Flat Earth that you could sell something like this to any venue in the world right now.
So, what can you sell? What is going to be the new marketing strategy?
Well, in our current circumstances there are some options:
1. - You can do "live" virtual.
2. - You can go pre-recorded
3. - You can do a mix of both of the above
4. - You could offer in-person shows with some very strict guidelines to protect the health and well being of the audience, the venue, and yourself
Each of those things has its own challenges. So, you need to decide what you want to do.
Do I want to do all pre-recorded?
Am I more comfortable with Live virtual?
Do I want to mix the two?
Am I determined to do in-person gigs?
Will I do it all?
I'll wait while you answer those questions.
Okay, now you have the beginnings of a plan.
What are you going to offer?
Performances?
Residencies?
Workshops?
Q&A events?
Hour length performances?
New material?
Old material?
What are you going to do?
At each stage of this questioning phase, stop and imagine how that affects the market that you want to tap. Each and every decision you make will impact the changes you are about to make. It will also decide how you are going to make them.
For example:
I knew I wanted to do performances
I want most of them to be pre-recorded
I will do live zoom, but it is not my preference
I will not be doing any in person shows anywhere until at least May of 2021. I will reassess at that point
Having made those decisions, I had to decide what I was going to offer, and could I either tap a market or create one.
I committed to marketing to my traditional markets and offering them a version of the normalcy that we all crave.
That was my hook. See, we can still share stories just as we always have. It will look a little different, but we will get that warm, happy, fun experience that we have come to know and love.
If that is what we were going to offer, then I had to figure out how to make that happen.
Up Next:
The Learning Curve
The other posts in this series
Part 2: The Virtual Storyteller - You Need A Cunning Plan
This is so interesting! Thank you for putting your thoughts out there and the decisions you have made. This prompted a discussion within my own group of what type of storytelling we are into at this time. I know I have made the switch of producing in person shows to virtual shows. All of them have been live on Zoom. We all think that we are willing to watch pre-recorded shows if they are available on a on-demand format. If we are sitting down to watch a live show, at a predetermined time, we like to know the storytellers are also live. And for all the new concerns that Zoom storytelling brings, I know I like the excitement of live storytelling and all the possible great things and problems that are always part of it. It's great to hear about your thoughts. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. Thank you for sharing your thoughts as weel!
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