Everything To Everyone

Hello Artist,

Has this happened to you?

You go to a branding expert or consultant and they want to define you into a very specific product. So you do your homework and think:

"So am I mainly an actor, or am I a writer? I paint some too. Shit!"

This is the hardest part of marketing yourself as an artist. Artistic people like to create stuff, and almost none of them think "I am an oil painter who does evening landscapes on wood panelling and Nothing else"

To make art is to explore, and that often means that it is really hard to define yourself in three words, or even a 30 second elevator pitch.

I'll go:

"I am an actor who got into producing and writing. I also enjoy oil painting landscapes in my free time. I do heavy drama and character based comedies with a hint of the observe. Most of my work has been in horror or Sci Fi. Noticing a lack of resources for artists to self promote, I decided to study marketing. I have a digital marketing certificate and am going back to school for my bachelors and an MBA; but I still make art: I studied at The London Academy Of Music & Dramatic Art as well as South Coast Repertory via their professional conservatory. My mission in business is to get talented artists seen. Oh yeah, and I play guitar. As a filmmaker I like to explore the downside of progress despite being very progressive and into biohacking. As an actor I love to play relatable bad guys who have some redeemi........

Yeah, that is a great slogan for a business card.

After learning marketing, I know I could make a killing selling waffle irons on amazon; but trying to encapsulate any human into an easily pitchable product is fucking difficult.

So great. I'm the marketing expert. What's my solution?

Well, here is what I'm trying:

I think it is important to create a hub for everything you do.

However; as my run-on paragraph above illustrates; you probably don't want everything on the same page.

For me, I am revamping my website www.edwardgusts.com and linking from there to everything I do.

See what works best for you: Separate pages for each medium, links to other sites, or a mix of both.

For me this means creating a separate Instagram for visual art, filmmaking, and marketing.

Separate YouTube channels and blogs.

And multiple websites.

This also means creating an ironclad schedule for all of my posts. If I don't, it is far too easy to post a bunch of oil paintings, but totally neglect my filmmaking. Scheduling services like Hootsuite or Hellowoofy (my go to) make this task far easier; but you still need to do the setup work and maintenance.

My personal plan is to check my homepage at least once a week, look at my links, and see if there is any one I am neglecting.

Now I'm going to try it and see if it's feasible to maintain. Wish me luck.

And as always,

Thanks for making art.

E

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