Low Budget Productions!
Arts marketing and charity marketing are notoriously low budget affairs (although this is not set in stone). Having worked within these areas for a number of years, I am very familiar with the trials and tribulations of working within small budgets and take great pride in achieving success from very little.
The good thing about most creative and charitable organisations I have worked with is that many of them have had strong databases from which to work. This is certainly a good start as buying in data can be quite expensive. With mailing lists at hand (hopefully incorporating e-mail addresses), there are a number of inexpensive and effective solutions available including e-mail marketing and postal mail-outs. There are some great online and offline printers around offering terrific rates and don’t forget to use a mail-house for your larger campaigns as this will substantially decrease your postage costs.
For those with and without a solid database, social networking and search engine optimisation are key tools to use. You don’t need money just time! Ok, so time is money… Well, perhaps it would be a good idea to call in volunteers for assistance?
When working in the arts, I employed a number of people to work on a voluntary basis, setting up friend’s schemes, creating databases, link building and working on social networking. That’s one of the joys of working with such interesting companies! There are often people that would happily work for free in exchange for some friendly banter and perhaps the odd incentive such as theatre tickets, free lunch, invitation to product launches etc.
And there is so much more that can be done on a low budget. For a free consultation, contact Octopus today and we will be happy to meet up with you to chat through your options.