"Self-Marketing for Artists"
Bradley Sowash, Bradley Sowash Music

Recently, the Ohio Arts Council invited me to co-chair a workshop on marketing for performing artists. They asked me to speak from my own experience as a self-represented artist referring to what they called my "holistic" approach to a career. What they meant by "experience" is that as a veteran-performing artist, I've had plenty of time to make every conceivable marketing mistake! And by calling my approach holistic, I think they simply meant I do lots of stuff.

In fact, offering many different booking options is my first secret to filling up a performance schedule. For example in the last 12 months, my engagements have included solo piano concerts, educational appearances, guest speaker appearances, jazz worship services, benefit concerts, retail CD signings, concert CD signings, arts organization panelist, teacher training, master classes, private lessons, and conference workshop leader… A lengthy list to be sure but united under one consistent artistic and personal vision. If your schedule is scant, you might ask yourself, "What else can I do with these skills?"

My second secret is to find a niche for which you alone are suited. Find where people gather around your niche concept, and you have a new outlet for performing that can be in addition to your concert career. I know a guy who wrote and self-produced an instrumental recording of songs about flowers and herbs mentioned in Shakespeare. He could have named them Song #1 or Opus 43 but he hooked his notes to flowers through his titles. Do you know where he gigs and sells merchandise? Flower shows. Since jazz worship services are a part of my offerings, I go to church events to promote them. Think how many fellow artists are all around you all day at arts booking conferences. How many other touring performers do you think set up booths at flower shows and church conventions? With zero competition, it's easy to stand out among bud vase wholesalers and angel jewelry vendors.

Perhaps you are thinking, "Okay, I'll do more with my skills and find a niche but how do I reach bone fide arts presenters." I'll assume up front that you already have a marvelous and affordable show, outstanding credentials, and a reputation for being easy to work with but lack name recognition (I have to face the fact that Elton John will probably never read this). My best advice on self-marketing to art professionals: DON'T! Your efforts to reach them through promotions are so greatly diluted by the bombardment of materials they receive from other artists trying to do the same thing as to be almost irrelevant.

So how do you get the professional concert engagements if you don't market? BUILD RELATIONSHIPS! This has always been a business of "who you know." It's up to you to meet, listen to, and understand the perspective of everyone in the business. Go to every arts event, workshop, or conference you can afford. Visit the venues. Get involved. Be present. Contribute.

More and more, I come to understand that this is not a marketplace of Buyers/Arts Presenters and Sellers/Artists. Rather, we are all collectively involved in the daring act of preserving live performance. Think of presenters as partners whether they book you or not. Understand their needs, the pressures of time constraints, budget crunches, and the very real need to fill seats. Listen. Be a human being in conversation with another of your species, not a selling machine. Drop the desperate quality to your encounters and try to say the word "I" infrequently and only when asked. You see the artists who understand this at booking conferences. They are usually being hugged by somebody - presenters, fellow artists, hotel staff…

Here's a list of possible marketing approaches. In my experience, the left column doesn't work and, believe me, I've tried them all. There's no guarantee to the right column either. However, the reasonable and humane approaches represented there will, at least, lead to a higher opinion of you and your work in the arts community even when it may not directly lead to a booking.

Won't Work:	Might Work:
Marketing	Build relationships
Cold calls, Selling	Warm calls, Dialogue about presenters' needs and challenges
Blind ambition, Assuming you fit the venue	Win-win negotiating, Know or learn their profile/needs
Squeaky Wheel Marketing	Check in only when you have news or real questions - - listen!
Mass marketing - spam, direct mail	Encourage word-of-mouth referrals
Long shot marketing	Cultivate repeat business
Excessive marketing	Do something everyday for your career and watch the bottom line or you will burnout you and your budget.
Broadcast marketing	Work concentrically - local, regional, 2 regions...
Specialist - I am the best at this one thing only	Multiple offerings (i.e. residency activities, flexible ensemble size) plus at least one niche
Try to do everything - I can do anything they want.	Increase your offerings but be consistent in your personal and artistic vision and make your materials reflect this
Big splash as a newcomer	Solid reputation built over years
Short press quotes i.e. "Terrific"	Testimonials from satisfied presenters
Ivory tower existence	Constant involvement in the whole field
Have only a great show	Show touring readiness - PR materials, tech sheets, contracts, interviews, fee range, awareness of how the business works.
Gossip, complaints, jealousy, personal problems	Integrity all the time. Everyone knows and talks to each other - Give them only good things to say.

Here's my list of what I call Relationship Building Tools and more thumbnail advice:
· Contact Info - keep it prominent on everything.
· Freebies - give them something to remember you by - stickers, buttons, posters.
· Brochures - keep it simple, you can always send more later
· Demos - highlight tracks, remove shrink wrap, cue cassettes and videos.
· Have two publicity packets: A Pre Booking Packet - act description, demo, review quotes, testimonials, samples for committees and a Post Booking Packet - pre-written press release, photos, review quotes, PSAs, introduction to meet the presenters PR needs.
· Presenters - where to find them 1. Referrals 2. Arts Consortiums 3. Make your own - do a benefit concert at a church or school, self-produce...
· Making contacts - record and track your contacts, find out when to call them back and remember to do it.
· Conferences - booth must scream what you are and how you are different, network informally without selling.
· Showcasing - play your encore first and you're standing ovation second, make no apologies, show some range, slow down from all the adrenaline, be gracious.
· Internet - web page provides presenters with access to your electronic brochure or support materials but won't sell for you, provide a link on all your materials.

Here's a book that I've found to be useful: How To Be Your Own Booking Agent and Save Thousands of Dollars (A Performing Artist's Guide to A Successful Touring Career) By Jeri Goldstein, Published by The New Music Times, Inc.

Good luck. This is tough but important work. We all have good reasons for sticking it out. When I get bummed, I refer to this excerpt which is taped to the wall right under the shelf containing Relationship Building Tools.

When Obstacles Get You Down - Reprinted from Chicken Soup for the Soul

After Fred Astaire's first screen test, a 1933 memo from the MGM testing director said: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Astaire kept the memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.

An expert said of famous football coach Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks motivation."

Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was advised by her family to find work, as a servant or seamstress.

Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.

The teacher of famous opera singer Enrico Caruso said Caruso had no voice at all and could not sing.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas. He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disney land.

Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach's 100,000-word story about a soaring seagull before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, Jonathan Livingston Seagull had sold more than seven million copies in the U.S. alone.

Bradley Sowash is a contemporary jazz solo piano entertainer, critically acclaimed recording artist, educator, and public speaker known for his instant audience rapport. His concerts and jazz workshops have delighted listeners throughout Europe and the United States for over 15 years. His music has aired on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His newest recording project, We Gather Together, is a collection of Early American Hymns, Spirituals and Folk Songs reinterpreted for jazz piano.

For more information, please visit www.bradleysowash.com





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