Whether a creative entrepreneur has a marketing budget as big as the sky or as small as a gnat’s eyelash, technology provides several options with no upfront dollar costs.  Unfortunately, I’m not talking gifts from heaven; but if you have a vision in mind and a plan of action, 2011 affords you definite marketing options.

Thousands of articles have been written about Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And I support the consensus that they are vital to your marketing strategy. Anyone anywhere can become enamored with you and your product line, then follow your activities day by day. Set up and populate all three of them DAILY, or as often as you can.

This post, however, is to open a few other avenues of marketing not so familiar to everyone…

***DAILY DEALS: One of the most amazing ways to get your name out is to market to a huge group of buyers. Living Social, Groupon,  and Eversave, among others, offer fabulous (50% off or more) coupons for everything from cupcakes, zipline canopy tours, overnight stays at B&Bs to event admissions.

A week or two before the recent Kentucky Crafted: The Market, Groupon offered two-for-one admission to the show. 631 buyers in Louisville (where the show was held) and 17 buyers in Lexington (nearby) paid $8 for $16 worth of tickets.   Potentially, The Market attendance rose by 1300 patrons.

The Kentucky Arts Council, host of The Market, paid no money upfront. Groupon wrote the advertisement, marketed the two-for-one admission, and collected all the money. KAC paid Groupon 50% of the total  received.

Groupon paid KAC its money in three installments. The process was easy and worry free for KAC; visitors and exhibitors appreciated the event.

I’ve seen deals in Georgia for dance lessons, portrait sessions, food service, framing, and music festivals, to name only a few.

Remember the ad on TV a year or so ago where the small company puts a product online and watches the sales come in? Entities using these group buying deals do much the same. It’s a thrill. Especially if you don’t have a huge back end investment.

Obviously if you are selling two-for-one cupcakes, with the 50% commission, you’re barely paying for your ingredients. So before you call a group buying company, think it through. What do you have that you can sell and not worry about covering your costs? Event admissions, pet portraits, e-books, zip lines and classes may/may not be smart choices.

All the information about applying to be a deal and specific details are on each company’s website.

***FREE E-BROADCAST SERVICES to your peeps are a blessing for keeping them updated with your activities. Many who follow you do so on the social media; many do not. We send out a calendar of events every month to our mailing list. And that’s not enough. We need to start doing  an e-mailing more frequently.

MailChimp, Patron Mail and others have free accounts if your mailing list is small. As it grows, a fee is required.

MailChimp, an Atlanta-based company, is user-friendly with a wide array of templates and helpful videos, artist Anne Jenkins recently told me.

Anne is typical of a savvy marketer. She has several sets of people she sends e-broadcasts to – collectors, potential buyers, friends and colleagues… She may give her collectors first choice at new works, or want EVERYONE to know she’ll be doing a show.

***FUNDING A PROJECT Do you have an artscentric project you’re head over heels excited about, but don’t know how to get the funding for it? Have you beat your head against a wall looking at grant applications only to find they fund only nonprofit organizations?  If you search them out, you’ll find opportunities for your heart’s desire.

I’ll warn you upfront, however, you MUST have in writing your vision, a timeline, a budget and the story that sells it all. Alyson Stanfield has just posted her version of a Creativity Brief. Download it and get your project down on paper ASAP.

These two websites offer possibilities:

Pepsi Challenge: Arts & Culture has two 2011 grant cycles, but we’ve already missed one. Submissions for the second are due May 1.

USA Projects “welcomes a new era in personal philanthropy”. Artists present projects they would like to have funded, and web visitors can support them, thus helping transform their creative visions into reality. Current projects range from Creating china in China, submitted by ceramicist WA Ehren Tool to The Moth Project, submitted by Jeff Schmuki. Depending upon the percentage of the project funded, the Artists 2 Artists Fund may match donations dollar to dollar.

We are very much interested in learning more about Funding A Project. If you know of other websites, please let us know!