Ok, you've had a few months to build your organization, establish your support group and to reevaluate the community around you to ascertain the validity of your vision. Now it is time to really see what you are made of by attempting to split your focus and your energies into two equal parts. This will be necessary because even the strongest, most accessible programming will wither and die without a participatory audience. And you now have to provide for that too!

Up to this point you've been well served by the vision that pushed the organization beyond the conceptual phase into reality, but now, now, you will have to become something different. The task before you is to create the perception that is to be fulfilled, people in your area need to come to your classes and buy tickets to your workshops,  recitals and concerts. When I get to this part of the process, I always think of the age-old problem posed to all first year philosophy students: 

Now is not the time to debate the philosophical truth of this statement, there are volumes available in any university library devoted to the question. The point is you have: developed your organization, created your program and have trained your artists, to present a product to an audience.

I keep thinking about a classic film I've seen many times, "The Graduate", where Dustin Hoffman is exhorted by a party guest that the future is in plastics, plastics, plastics! Today that has changed, the future of your company lies in marketing, marketing, marketing! I've attended too many seminars on "Marketing Your Business" to believe the material you need can be adequately covered in an article such as this, but there is sufficient space to review the basic elements you'll require to create your well-designed marketing plan. 

First you must embrace the notion that you, an artist, can unite both halves of your brain to achieve a symbiosis that will allow you to become twice the person you are today:

• an artist
• an arts administrator

Marketing an organization is at once an art and a science. It requires a commitment from you to develop within your company an above average to advanced level of administrative skills necessary to execute it successfully. For some artists this skill development may appear impossible, to some it will be multi-tasking, and yet others still will simply see it as a necessary exploratory into the realm of schizophrenia. 

Think of it as just one more challenge, no worse really than facing an opening night with a sick stage manager and half the company's costumes incorrectly delivered to Bangor, Maine. Just think, where else could you thrust yourself onto the verge of becoming certifiable as a necessary component of building a successful organization? 

Now, we can do this the hard way or the easy way (I've always wanted to say that). Personally, I always prefer simple to complex and unless you're a masochist, you'll agree. So for expediency sake, let's examine the simple applications required to proceed:

These are the twelve commandments of marketing that you'll need to incorporate into your plan. I have been responsible for some or all of my own media contacts and coverage for more years than I'd like to remember. For the last ten years, I've been handling the marketing efforts for six arts organizations. My efforts have paid off with regular, front-page (arts section) coverage, organizational calendars set aside awaiting my input and many more published photographs than I care to count. In the interest of time and space I will briefly review the process for you. 

First, you must set aside the funds necessary to create collateral printed materials for your potential audience. You need to create a master plan for materials you'll create and distribute. It is strongly recommended that there exist continuity in all materials; this is more than just the use of your logo. Select colors, images and text that reappear on every item. You cannot reinforce, in your community's mind, too often the perception of what and who you are. 

If you have the required desktop publishing skills to create your own announcements and flyers then by all means, do so. If you do not, and most of you will not, then contact as many neighboring arts organizations or arts councils as you can find in your region and pick their brains. If you find them on a good day, they will welcome an opportunity to talk about themselves and their successes. You just have to take good notes on how they do it. Do they have someone they recommend, do they have assets or resources they can share?

Next, get out of your office and have a cup of coffee with your media representatives. This could take you many mornings, depending on the number of local publications and stations in your area. I suggest morning coffee rather than lunch because you are picking up the tab and eight or ten lunches can equal the cost of a couple of costumes! There is no sense wasting your resources -- your objective is to put a face to the byline and to create a partnership. Media reps search out information and local stories will serve their readers best. You want to be the one to supply them and in the format they desire. Media reps are as overworked as anyone else, so it's up to you to get to know how often they want their materials, in what format and how to focus the spin on the right flavor of the month. Then your job is all but done. 

Create the document and personalize it to each contact. Remember to put the proper spin on it (all papers or stations will have a particular focus that is unique to them, that's why you met with them early on, remember?), attach the appropriate artwork or photo and after you call your media contact, email the release. This way, you have all but completed the work for them. All they need do is cut and paste from one application to another on their computer. Save them time, give them quality work and you will have coverage -- it is that simple!

I've mentioned the personalizing thing a few times, but it bears further explanation. Say for example, you have the "Oxnard Business Times" in your area, who you know concentrates on providing information to subscribers about new businesses and their successes. It would behoove you to structure your press releases from a business development point of view, as opposed to sending the same story you send to the "Oxnard Weekly Sentinel". 

If you are importing guest performers, then for the "Business Times" it's a show of the business' strength and commitment to the community, but for the "Sentinel", it would be more about the company's artistic development. Same story, different spin, and more importantly the media know you took the time to make the story make sense to them, their editors and their readers. For this you will have their gratitude, your story in print and a media rep that will go to bat for you in the future. Having a media person slightly indebted to you is not a bad thing, now is it?

Always plan ahead to get your information in before, but just before, the deadlines. Delivery too early will compel the rep to find a place to save the information -- they won't. Delivery too late forces the media rep to rework a page they've put to bed -- they won't. There is a trend here, have you noticed? It is really no different than your reaction to a student or company member who is either always there for you or always pushing the limits of your patience. If you grasp the underlying fact that this is a people business, in every way, then you'll better understand the ramifications of each of your actions or inactions.

Press releases, the world over, follow an accepted formula. For readers outside the contiguous United States, you'll have to take me at my word for this. There are five (5) intrinsic elements -- all of which must appear within the first paragraph:

Now, most all cities have access to local or regional public radio stations. In four East Coast cities, the public radio has prepared and freely shared a basic template for Press Releases, Public Service Announcements (PSA's), and Calendar Releases. Contact your local station or arts council to have your name put onto a mailing list to receive the information and updates. Here's a link to writing press releases and another for PSA's.

Additionally, in almost every metropolitan city there is a published media guide available for a nominal price. Buy it! It will be your contact bible, so keep it safe and updated. Contact your local chamber of commerce if you do not know where to get your hands on one.

Lastly, the fact you are reading this tells me that you have a computer. Odds are you are running some version of Windows. If so, then you are at least vaguely familiar with the many built-in wizards, ostensibly created to assist users to set up and tweak applications. If you are a Mac or Linux user, you'll just have to take my word for this and go to your local library for the information everyone else already has on his or her systems. Suffice it to say that Wizards were created to be Bill Gates' great facilitators. 

Wizards, synonymous with ingenuous and efficient templates, when properly installed and utilized, can become an administrator's greatest friend. There are, within Microsoft Word and Corel Word Perfect (regardless of version) wizards to assist you in creating press documents. All elements are included, from graphics and lay out, to suggested fonts, and finally to hints: many, many hints. These tools are free but you have to search them out and possibly download them from an update site. No need to reinvent the wheel when most of your work has been laid out for you. Use the template wizards until you are comfortable with the process and only then, using individual components of different templates should you create your own format.

Please do not fool yourselves, though you may today consider yourselves directors or visionaries - to get beyond this point you are going to have to broaden your scope to include a complete acceptance of the administrative requirements of your organization. You may not be personally responsible for each task, but you had better be completely proficient in its execution if you are responsible for recruiting and training staff to complete tasks that you will have to ultimately approve!

The artist role is the easy part, it is what you expect of yourself: you create; you assemble and nurture talent; and you present your work to your audience. 

The more difficult but equally important, administrator role enures the organization is systematically governed, funded and properly exposed to the media whose coverage of your events will be especially crucial to your organization's early years.

Training and practice will make this possible -- remember what it was like when you were just a third year student? Like most of us, I am sure you have buried painful memories in the deep recesses of your consciousness. Well, it's time to bring them back out. Rewind and replay some of those early experiences to make these next steps that much easier, at the very least you'll have a benchmark ready to measure your level of pain and insecurity. At best you will have already identified many inappropriate choices and will successfully avoid them. 

Good luck, and I expect to read about your many successes in my next newspaper!

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