Image by Jason Hollinger

There’s an email in circulation. One of those slightly shrill messages that proclaim, “This is a true story!”

Usually they’re not true, and usually they contain a punch line with any combination of multiple exclamation marks, all caps, or a massive increase in point size, as if the emphasis makes up for the poor writing (not that I have an opinion or anything).

Often those emails are nothing but urban legends. This time, though, the story is true. The original version won a Pulitzer prize for Feature Writing, written by Gene Weingarten and published in the Washington Post (click here to read the full story). It was published almost four years ago, but since it’s making the rounds—and since the email got my hackles up—it’s worth a look from a marketing perspective.

The story—virtuoso incognito
Internationally renowned violinist Joshua Bell agreed to play his 18th Century Stradivarius violin (valued at $3.5 million) in a Washington, DC, subway station. He wore jeans, a t-shirt, and ball cap. Approximately 1,100 people passed him during the morning rush hour. Bell played classical masterpieces for the passing crowd, most of them civil servants.

The impromptu performance was arranged by the Washington Post as “an experiment in context, perception and priorities—as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?”

You can imagine what happened.

Philosophy in marketing—set the stage
Weingarten draws to our attention the words of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who said to appreciate beauty, optimal conditions are required.

This is where the marketing monster that sits on my shoulder started jumping up and down, and where I depart from the Washington Post feature to focus on how Bell’s subway performance applies to how you showcase your work.

Kant was right on the money. I don’t pretend for a minute to measure up to his genius, but here’s my take on the experiment.

Lesson #1. Market like you mean it.
People are busy. Lives are complicated. Marketing must be grounded in how things are, not how you want them to be.

The world would be a wonderful place if everyone stopped in their tracks at the sound of beautiful music, no matter where it was played. But the reality is we have crowded lives. We’re overloaded with information, and it seems there are more people and businesses vying for our attention every day.

We have to filter some of that information out just to stay sane.

A little anecdote: I once walked within a few feet of an attractive, well-dressed blond man, twice within a few minutes. I only saw him in profile, but something tugged at the back of my mind. I dismissed the half-formed thought.

The following day while I was at work, a radio announcer reported that Sting and his partner Trudie Styler had to make an emergency stop in the city while they were travelling, because she had fallen ill.

Fortunately, no customers were in the store when I had my outburst in the middle of folding the Levi’s.

I did not recognize him when I saw him at the hospital. At the time of the encounter, I was in the death throes of a terrible relationship and I had been visiting a friend of my mother’s, who just had a hysterectomy. Rock stars weren’t exactly drifting through my consciousness.

Lesson #2. Strong visual associations make it easy for your customers to remember you. Use them consistently and use them well.
How likely would it be for Joshua Bell’s fans to recognize him in a t-shirt and ball cap? In my opinion, not very. People often look different in person than they do in photographs. One person did recognize him, a woman who had seen him live in concert three weeks before his appearance in the subway.

Here’s another real-life example that further illustrates the point: I wear a cap, with my hair up, when I walk my dogs. I meet a few people on our trail fairly regularly. Occasionally, I’ll bump into one of them in the city. My hair is down, I don’t have the dogs, and these people do not recognize me, not even when I begin speaking. I’m not a celebrity they only see at a distance, I’ve looked these people in the eye and had conversations with them. Would they know me if my appearance was the same? Maybe. If I had one or both of the dogs? That’s far more likely.

In this context, the dogs are my brand. If you’d like to extend the metaphor, they’re the company logo. When I change my appearance, the ability for people to recognize me drops drastically.

Associations are important—be true to your brand.

Lesson #3. Understand customer expectations.
Take a walk in your customer’s shoes. Try to see yourself and your business the way they see you.

Who expects to see a virtuoso violinist performing in a subway? What would you think if you saw a musician in that context? I’d think it was a busker, possibly a music student making some extra cash. I might be dead wrong, but there are plenty of buskers where I live, so it’s a logical conclusion.

Lesson #4. Your customers aren’t always experts
Hands up: how many of you would recognize the sound of a Stradivarius violin in a crowded subway? How many of you could do that in a concert hall?

Don’t expect every customer to be an expert in your medium. Many of them won’t be. Take advantage of the opportunity to let them know what you’re about. Tell them interesting things. People love to share stories. Give them something to talk about.

Lesson #5. Context matters
The lesson here is simple: if you present yourself like a busker, people will believe you are one.

I’ve walked past booths at high-end craft shows because of a poor display. Bad lighting, low tables, or a sulky exhibitor. I’ve clicked away from poorly-designed websites without even looking at the content.

I once said to a friend, “Don’t expect me to care about your work if you don’t.” (I was referring to the people I just mentioned, not criticizing her). That statement is harsh and ungracious, but it’s the dead honest truth.

Show your work the respect it deserves.

Lesson #6. Don’t expect your customers to just find you—marketing is your responsibility.
Imagine the crowd that would gather to see a free concert—not in a concert hall, but in a public space—by Joshua Bell if it was promoted. People who weren’t classical music fans would  likely go just out of curiosity, or to get a glimpse of that spectacular violin.

The result of Bell’s busking in the subway? $32.17, including the $20 left by the woman who recognized him.

Bonus lesson: good writing matters.
Multiple exclamation marks, all caps, or large print in website copy or a newsletter has a certain desperation about it. Save your large print for headlines and leave big exclamations to the comic book writers. (If you read the Washington Post feature, they use all caps—but I suspect it’s due to a straight copy and paste from their nicely formatted print version of the story.)

What do you think? Do you stop to listen to music? Have you ever walked past a famous person? Are there more lessons in this story?

I got an email in response to my call for your burning questions: how do you get the right people (curators, dealers, buyers) to find you on the web?

That’s the big one. How to find them, get their attention, and make them love you, plus conduct this apparent feat of magic without ever looking them in the eye.

Piece of cake. Throw a few pictures on Flickr, sign up for an Etsy shop, sit back and wait for the cash to roll in and the lovesick groupies to shower you with fan mail.

If you’re reading this, you already know that doesn’t cut it. When you set out to establish an online audience, you take the same basic steps as you would to build an audience offline. It requires time, energy, and smart decisions.

Find the right audience—do some detective work
You are not selling to anyone who spends money on art (or craft, or design). You sell to the people who love what you do. If you make raku sushi sets, you don’t go looking for thrift store treasure hunters. You look for the people who have the money to spend on handmade dinnerware as well as people who eat sushi.

That may sound painfully obvious, but there are countless numbers of people running businesses who don’t realize they shouldn’t try to please everyone.

So how do you find the right audience? Pretend you’re a customer. Where would you go to find yourself? Would you search on Google? An online shopping site like Etsy or Artful Home? Would you check out the arts or design organizations in your city to see work online and then buy it in person?

Test the theory. Do some searches on Google. Check online shopping sites to see who’s out there. If you’re a raku sushi set maker, look for blogs about Japanese cooking. Do a search on Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin for potters, ceramics or ceramic artists. You will find other artists, but you might also find people who are looking for artists.

If you’re still having trouble, or if you’re freaking out, back up and kick it old school.

Start local, go global
Never underestimate the power of starting small and starting where you live. Join your local arts organization. As in, the official, non-profit association that puts on shows, workshops, publishes newsletters and is under constant threat of having its meagre public funding slashed into nonexistence. Take advantage of any online member services they have (a curator from the UK found me that way. She planned most of the exhibition remotely and put the show together in person shortly before it opened).

Now that local news is online and small towns have their own websites, a small show, review, or article has the potential to help you connect with people half a world away. It’s often easier to get local press coverage, so use those opportunities to help you gain exposure and build your reputation. Don’t dismiss the little things—they can add up to big things, or garner some high quality attention.

Tell your friends and clients you’re online. Most people are happy to help spread the word, particularly if you’ve done a good job establishing a professional online presence. That way they feel smart about bragging you up, because their friends will be impressed by their good taste. Then their friends mention you to someone else. Word of mouth starts anywhere and can spread anywhere. Don’t limit your thinking or your marketing—good buzz knows no boundaries.

Show them your best stuff
Give your audience something they’ll love: high quality images, good copy, clean layout. Write a solid artist’s statement. Get a grammar geek to proofread it. Hire a designer if you can swing it (rumor has it Flash sites aren’t search engine-friendly, so be forewarned). If you have to go with a template, your content becomes even more important.

Make sure your site is easy to navigate and easy to read. Just an FYI—some people have trouble viewing websites that use black backgrounds. It is physically uncomfortable. I’m one of those people. If I really want to read the copy, I highlight it, but usually I just click away. I’ve found a few exceptions, and all have been designed by pros who know how to use type extremely well.

You don’t have to put your whole portfolio online. Sometimes less is more. That’s particularly true in the online world, where people are so overloaded with information they can’t take it all in. Be your own curator and show a good body of work.

Connect with your people
The easiest thing to do when networking online is to find people in your field and hang out with them. While it’s true that artists buy art, and that existing clients are more likely to buy from you again, limiting yourself to that audience isn’t the smartest way to do business. Artists have notoriously small budgets, and there’s only so much wall and shelf space in anyone’s home. Business cards and websites generally don’t need a twice-yearly redesign. There might be a long gap before that client buys from you again, so you need to reach a little further.

If you’re still fretting about finding potential buyers, connect with professional organizations and publications on social media. See who they’re following and who’s following them. You might be surprised at who you find on those lists.

(Speaking of publications, writer and painter Lori Woodward recently wrote an article about getting your work published. She has some good tips for painters that can also be applied to other media.)

Be real and well-rounded
If you follow me on Twitter you will quickly realize I don’t just talk about creativity. I’m also into garden design, wildlife preservation, food, and vicarious world travel. I talk about those things because I’m genuinely interested in them, and because constantly yapping about your own work is just as tedious online as it is in person. The online attention span is much shorter, and social media is far less tolerant of people who only show up to sell something, so if you do that, be prepared for the fallout.

Let’s go back to our sushi example. I suggested looking for blogs on Japanese cooking. If you make sushi plates, you might also be into Japanese cooking. Which means it’s entirely appropriate to make comments on a Japanese cooking blog. Not about the fact that you make sushi sets, but about Japanese cooking. Yes, I know. It’s obvious when you read it, but when the online marketing monster has you by the throat, you might be too distracted to notice.

Put the pieces together
I wish there was a magic formula for marketing, offline or online. There isn’t. You do the best work you can, learn what you need to know about promoting it, find the tools that work best for you, and apply them. That’s not magic. It’s thoughtful planning and a process that requires professionalism and persistence at the very least. It can be a creative project in itself, if you approach it the right way. If you think of your website as an evolving art/design exhibition, complete with a bio, descriptions of the pieces, and contact information, you might even start to enjoy it.

Which is the way it should be. It’s definitely a good experience when you come across somebody who’s doing it right.

When I retweet my friend Rachel’s garden design posts or comment on her blog, I do it because I’m into garden design, I think she does great work, and she’s fun to talk to. And now you know about her, too. I met her through an online community. Would I give her a shout out if I thought her work was crap, even though I like her? Nope. Would I tell you how great she is if her work was fabulous but she was an arrogant jerk? Not a chance.

(If you don’t know this already, a lot of artists are also into gardens. Not just looking at them as subject matter, but actually digging in the dirt. Gardeners also seem to be fond of books, both reading them and writing in them. At least, the ones I know. Just tossing that out there for your consideration.)

The power of the message
You may have noticed I flipped the question of how you get the right people to find you to how to find the right audience. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is the obvious problem of the wealth of information lurking on the Web. It’s usually not staring at you. What tends to land in your field of vision are those stupid, annoying ads that clutter your screen when you’re looking for something important. You have to dig a little for the good stuff. A website isn’t like a shop on the busiest street in town. People “just passing by” don’t find you the same way. Someone browsing an online shopping site or professional directory might stumble across you, but your chances are wildly better if you walk up to that person (literally or virtually) and introduce yourself.

(Which, by the way, can be highly effective. You want a curator to think of you when he’s gathering artists for his next exhibition? Send him an email. Tell him how much you liked the show you just saw—the one he curated. Tell him why you liked it. Make sure your contact information is in your email signature line. Is that sleazy or textbooky marketing? Only if you don’t mean it. When you come across something that delights you, take a minute and tell whoever created it. Forget about what connections they might make for you. Those random messages can mean a lot.)

The other reason I flipped the question is more important: marketing is not passive. I’m sure the person who wrote me doesn’t think of her website as an online lottery ticket. It’s well designed, so it’s clear she’s got her head in the right place.

But here’s the thing—words have power. How do I get someone to find me puts you in the wrong frame of mind. It steals your momentum. Don’t wait for them to find you. That will happen naturally through smart marketing, but your goal is to get your work in front of the right people. When you switch the message to match your intention, you put yourself in the right mindset to make that happen.

Over to you: what’s your favourite online marketing tool? What magic marketing solution turned into a pumpkin? What stops you from marketing online?