Since researching and deciding my awards title, I have now been able to develop a set of questions that are relevant to it and my professional practice - Performing Arts Management.
I feel I possibly worked backwards but due to the diversity of my professional practice and running my company Manic Stage Productions, it seemed the right way to pin point the sort of questions i needed to be focusing on, in order to connect them with my chosen future career path and awards title.
Here are 6 questions that initially spring to mind. I am yet to discover the line of inquiry I wish to persue but am hoping that these starting points will develop into further thinking?
I would love any of you to answer any of them and also ask further questions you feel may follow on and I will be taking my video camera out and about this weekend to record the opinions of other practitioners. Watch this space!
1. How should I advertise my company to new clients?
*Currently I use several ways to try and attract new clients, but again because the company is so diverse I am unsure how much information to give people and the best methods to do so?
*Is it best to focus more money and attention on one form of advertising or spread finances thinly across many different projects?
2. Should my company consider sponsorship?
*With very little funds to spare would this be an appropriate advertising option
*Who should I consider sponsoring in order to successfully reach my target audience
3. Do testimonials influence prospective clients?
*We have a few on our website but how many should we showcase?
*Is it worth requesting testimonials from past clients?
4. Is networking more effective via the web or face to face?
*Going back to our findings and feelings on the topic of web 2 technologies. More and more companies are networking via the web using sources such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Time plays a big factor in this as using the web is so quick and easy but is it impersonal and miss informative?
*So much of my company is visual and personal that I find it hard to promote and network via the web
5. How do you keep current clients? and keep them happy?
*There are always new companies offering lower prices and new deals. Is it enough to just have experience and rely on your past good work for the client to expect their loyalty or should I be running loyalty schemes?
*Should I stay strong and believe that our professionalism is reflected in the price if clients opt for cheaper alternatives or consider dropping the cost of my services to compete with new companies in the area?
6. Once leaving the performance side of the industry to take on a management role, are you at a disadvantage when it comes to staying current?
*New styles, terminology and industry professionals are always emerging. It proves difficult to keep up to date with the fast moving elements of the industry, whilst sustaining the day to day running of the business. Any ideas?
I very much look forward to your thoughts and comments!!
Hi Nicole
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about your questions but have some first. Who do you see as your clients? What do your clients want from you? I think I need to know more about the clients before I could comment on the questions above. What sort of trust do your clients need, in order to feel comfortable with you? I think the kind of trust they need to take the leap of working with you indicates the kind of advertising you use. For instance if I am looking for a project manager I am trusting them with helping me with an idea that is very personal and I have had to put alot of myself into it to get it off the ground. An ad. in a paper is not personal to me, but a recommendation from a friend is. I would chose to look into the word of mouth recommendation. Do you see what I mean? Something like buying a book is not very personal but I need to trust that I get the book in good condition not find halfway through pages are missing. Here an ad. in the paper would be better because I feel it is very open; I want to feel that if something was wrong with the book I could complain and if lots of people use the bookshop I feel my complaint could have more impact. A personal recommendation is not so powerful here. I don't know if that makes sense?
Adesola
Hi Nicole - these are really good questions. And I would ask you to think about how would you go about answering them. And will they ever be answered? We had an interesting project just completed in Marketing a dance school and there is some overlap. The text books on marketing suggest the 4 Ps as essential for growing business
ReplyDeletePrice (how is the competition, what are the external factors? what's going on in the economy? What are fixed and operating costs below which prices cannot fall. And then how much profit should be added for your income).
Promotion (advertising/social media/radio, presence at fetes, word of mouth etc)
Product (what it is exactly you are "selling" - dance classes - are they up to date? Teachers up to date? how do you ensure up to dateness etc
Place - which is about location of business - both physical and in relation to the competition. And how effective is the location - clear signing, cleanliness, near public transport, near footfall etc.)
There are airport book shelves, digital stores and libraries creaking with tomes on marketing and ensuring business success. I hope this helps .... best regards