If you’re trying to market your show, your service or yourself, chances are you want to read up on digital marketing. However, trends move so quickly that it’s sometimes tough to keep up.
Here we’ve rounded up four that don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, which will hopefully make your strategy a little easier to plan.
If you have a website for your work (or even for pleasure) chances are you’ve gone into your stats and sat there and thought: ‘why aren’t more people coming to my website?’
Well, there’s a long and a short answer to this.
The short answer is because you’re not showing up on Google for people to click through and come to your website.
The long answer is why you’re not showing up on Google, and that has something to do with your domain ranking (which is the numerical value that tells you how relevant and awesome Google thinks your website is), your search relevancy, and whether your site is SEO optimised.
Now, I know. You see the word ‘SEO’ and your eyes glaze over. All the fun has been sucked from the world.
But it doesn’t have to be hard. Let’s look at 5 super quick, super easy tips that will help you get more traffic to your website without having to delve too deeply into the scary world of SEO.
1. Get other (bigger) websites to link to you
If a big website links to your little one, Google sees this and goes “oh wow, there must be some great content on there.” This is especially easy if you have a blog on your website, or somewhere you put creative content.
Have a look at websites that accept guest posts, and see if they will include a link to you in the author bio. That way, you can piggyback off other websites’ successes!
2. Make sure your website is doing what it says on the tin
Google likes this to be simple. If you say your website is a website about your acting and then spent 89% of your time posting reviews of your local coffee shops, Google is going to get confused. And that will hurt your traffic numbers.
So check your meta-description, check your website name and make sure what your posting on your website fits with what you said you’d post.
Think of it like a book. If you pick up a book called Fairy Tales from Germany you expect the stories to be fairy tales from Germany. Not recipes for seventeen different types of casserole.
3. Shout about your website
Tell people about it! This works in person, as well as on social media. Make sure you have your website link in all your bios, and if you publish an awesome new post, make sure this goes on your Facebook, your Instagram, your Twitter. And don’t stop sharing it either. Schedule it back into your feeds in a month’s time so people that missed it the first time around can read it then.
4. Get clever with your keywords
Now, bear with me, I know this sounds marketing-y. And that’s because it is. Keywords are your book synopsis, they’re what your website (or your post) is about. So let’s say you have a page on your website to buy tickets to your latest shows. Write some content in there for Google so that it knows that this page is all about buying tickets. Use the phrase buy tickets as often as possible without forcing it down your reader’s throats. Then Google will know what’s going on with that page and move it up the rankings.
5. Make sure your website is easy to use
If people click on your website and it takes 50 minutes to load up, chances are they won’t click again. And Google has the memory of an elephant. So make sure your images are small and aren’t holding you back (this is a great tool for making them smaller) and do a little walkthrough of your website from the point of view of your audience. Do you have something for them to click on at the end of every page that’ll keep them on your website? If the answer is no, try and make a little journey for them.
Think of it as a treasure map, with you leaving little bits of treasure all over your site.
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
photo credit: vancouverfilmschool via photopin cc
So you are a Casting Director in Film/TV/Commericals and you are interested in social media, you might even have a Facebook or twitter profile but what social media channels should you be using?
You should be present on these 4 : Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and LinkedIn
1. Twitter – over 500 million members and the one every one is obsessed with. Great for people on the go – you can tweet anywhere if you have a smart phone. Perfect for finding opportunities, networking with potential clients, promoting your work and sharing those casting calls that are a little bit harder to find.
2. Facebook – over a billion members! The Facebook membership is getting older so you will find more and more industry folk on there. Great for connecting, keeping tabs on your connections, finding opportunities and promoting your work. Images work better than text on Facebook so make each post visual (think of all those stills you can use from your projects)!
3. Vimeo – very popular in the industry particularly with film-makers so lots of networking possibilities. Vimeo also enables you to password protect your videos (YouTube doesn’t) so the public can’t see them – upload videos of your auditions and send the link and password to your director/client if they can’t be with you. Much better than downloads!
4. LinkedIn – widely known as the biggest lead generating social media network, which means that people get the most work from this one. Great for keeping tabs on your connections and promoting your CV. Take a look at What is LinkedIn? A Straightforward Guide for more info.
If thats not enough social media time for you then it’s definitely worth checking out Pinterest and popping your reel on Youtube – it’s the second biggest search engine after google don’t you know!
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is one penguin with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping my way into the arts industry and helping creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact me any time for penguin chats via email: info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to my website: www.penguinintheroom.com
So you thought you better join this twitter thing because you heard that people were getting castings from it and because directors and casting directors are on there. It was difficult at first because you weren’t too sure what you’re meant to actually say in your tweets… but now you feel like you are starting to get the hang of things. That sound about right? Well first things first: well done for taking the bull by the horns and being pro-active! Now it’s time to make sure that you aren’t making those common mistakes…..
No No’s
1. No holiday snaps as your profile picture! That should be your headshot. Show that you are a professional and make it easy for casters to match you to your spotlight page.
2. No confusing twitter blurbs (the bit of writing that explains who you are). Do show your personality but don’t forget to tell us your an actor first and foremost!
3. No random twitter names. Who will find you if your username is @dg4321 or @doglover …? Well maybe dog lovers! But if you are going on twitter as an actor or actress use your full name and maybe use the word actor as well for good measure. eg. @samanthabaines or @jamesgroomactor
4. No spamming industry people. Sending a tweet to all the casting directors, producers, agents and directors you can find on twitter and saying “Hey I am an actress please look at my spotlight page/website: http://www.actor.com” won’t glean the best results. Ask yourself the question, would that message make me click on the link? Start up conversations in more interesting ways by replying to something they have tweeted or talking about a common hobby/favourite film – people will always appreciate being talked to like a human being! Only tweet the link to a showreel/website in reply to a casting request.
5. No tweeting your lunch (unless its relevant) I say to all my clients don’t tweet “I just had a cheese sandwich” unless you are tweeting “I just had a cheese sandwich on set for my latest film [insert film name]”. Make your tweets relevant and interesting for your followers and you will find more people want to follow you!
So good luck and get out there and promote yourselves! Tweet me if you liked this post and let me know if you have any requests for future blogs 🙂
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is one penguin with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping my way into the arts industry and helping creatives flourish! Specialising in on-line marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact me any time for penguin chats via email: info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to my website:www.penguinintheroom.com
The Penguin in the Room Blog 