You can now create a Special Showcase event, a Portfolio of your work. This event, which looks exactly like every Lifetime In Focus event and is created as if you were creating a normal event, is used to show potential clients examples of your work. It shows up on your personal page and is always the first event, at the top of the listing of your events. (It does not show up on the main event pages, only on your personal page.) Potential clients can easily share this portfolio with friends and family just like a normal LIF event, allowing others to see the quality of your work. As with any event, your email, contact info and website are shared whenever your event is shared and as with a normal LIF event, anytime anyone views the event or shares it with others, that information is stored in the marketing folder in your admin area, easily retrieved by clicking on the marketing icon in that event. As with all LIF events, a Portfolio Event is hosted for free for 90 days and can be extended indefinitely for $8.95 per 12 month period or you can create a new Portfolio Event and host it for free for 90 days. (When you create a new Portfolio Event it cancels out the old Portfolio. You can only have one live Portfolio Event at a time.) However, you can always add and delete images from an existing Portfolio Event keeping it fresh with new images without having to create a new event.
Create your Portfolio Event by checking the Portfolio box when you create your event. Other than clicking the Portfolio box, everything else about creating the event is the same. Upload pictures, create albums, add descriptions, designate album and event icons, send out emails inviting people to view your work. Note: we strongly recommend that you do not password protect this special event. The idea is to make it as accessible as possible and all a password does is add a hurdle to people seeing your work.
Check your event marketing folder periodically to see who has been viewing your event to see if you have any potential clients on whom who you may want to follow up. It's easy to do; you can send out an email from the event from within your admin area or you can use the share function within the live event. Offer an incentive to book with you by creating an LIF dollars-off coupon to send along or make up your own special offer.| Work Doesn’t Sell Itself |
| The idea that your work "sells itself" is a bad assumption and bad business strategy, as Business by Design reports this month. + Who are they kidding? Why, I asked, don't you market yourself? "Because I've won awards," the architect told me. "Because people know my work," the interior designer said. "Because my cabinets sell themselves," the showroom manager said. Gimme a break. If ever there was a career killer, it's this: the attitude that you need not promote yourself because you do good work and have nice stuff. Everyone does good work and has nice stuff. That goes for Dolly Decorator. And Tom Trunkslammer. And big box stores. And Under-A-Buck Blinds. You may not think so. But a whole lot of people with a whole lot of money do. Its never been easier for people to find good work and nice stuff elsewhere. The one thing they can't find elsewhere is you. But they won't get that unless you continue to market yourself. Moneysaving Marketing Never stop networking. Never stop promoting yourself. And never -- ever -- assume your work sells itself. That marketing myth will put you on a fast track to failure. Fortunately, some of the best marketing costs the least. In my recent tele-seminar on "Million Dollar Marketing on a Shoestring Budget," I shared numerous low cost, no cost promotion strategies. Some examples: + Write articles and columns + Present seminars + Network with allied professionals + Smile & dial -- call prospects, ex-clients and others + Offer yourself as a media interview source on design + Use your voicemail as a marketing tool. + Seek referrals and advice at client focus groups + Solicit additional business and leads through client feedback forms + Assemble a "brag book" of testimonial letters + Hire students to design marketing materials + Barter for promotional services |
