Sorry this post is so late, but I’ve been swamped as usual. New York Comic Con ended last week (booo!), but it was amazing and I had an awesome time! The only thing is… I came down with con flu! Lol, sucky, but a lesson well-learned. So in this post, not only am I going to drop tips on how you can sell your work, but also how you can sell your brand AND yourself, and things you should bring to protect yourself from epidemics, lol! Check it out below!
Sell & Promote Your Work and Selling Your Brand (cont.)
6. SELL YUMMIES! Having trouble getting people over to your booth? Beat out the competition by selling some homemade yummies! Two friends of mine, Regine Sawyer of Lockett Down Productions Publications and Jodi Tong of Kaiju Penguin always bring down the house with their delicious baked goods! It’s a great way to get folks to stop and talk to you, and it’s a nice way to hone your selling chops!
You can also get some marketing tips in remote jobs for your creative products. Here’s a tip. If you’re selling things like cookies that can be bagged, use cellophane bags, some pretty ribbons, and most importantly, sticker labels. Have TWO sets of stickers. The first set should be a sticker with the ingredients on it, so that people know what they’re eating. On the borders of the ingredients label, though, you can also include your website and information!
The other set of stickers should be big, gorgeous glossy graphics from your comic, novel, manga, or graphic novel. If you have amazing stills from the movie you’re working on, turn those into stickers too! You can have sheets of different stickers representing each one of your properties and stick them on the front of the cellophane wrapping with the ingredients labels on the back.
If you’re feeling REALLY creative, create your own “brand” of baked good! For example, if one of your sci-fi characters in your work is named Betty Bombshell, why not make some Buttercream cookies and call them “Betty Bombshell’s Buttercream Cookies” or just “Betty Bombshells”? It’s a cute way to pique interest from your audience and tweak your brand in an interesting and yummy way! 🙂
7. BAGS, SWAG, and FASHION! This is one of my favorite things to see at conventions. Folks are looking for new hot work, awesome T-shirts, hats, blouses, scarves, and bags, of course. They’ve got to carry their swag, right? So why not give them some fashionable options that will also up your brand reach? This is how the Rebel Ragdoll Fashion Line and Natural Beauty Care Line got started. Have things like bags, t-shirts, hats, and more. Brand them with your character pics, awesome graphics, or your label (if it’s cool enough to stamp on a blank canvas)! You can also design your own swag to make it look hot, so look into that as well.
8. VIP GIFT BAGS! Have gift bags for people who are really into your work or who want to connect with you professionally! You can also have a free raffle. In exchange for your clients’ email addresses, they have a chance to win some awesome prizes and V.I.P bags. You can feel free to have a grand prize and have first, second, and third place prizes. You can even have consolation prizes for those whose numbers weren’t drawn. This is an awesome way to build your email list as a creator and business owner, and in this way, you’re also giving all of your email subscribers a great reason to want to tune into your work and blog.
By the by, for next year’s New York Comic Con, Rebel Ragdoll is going to have a total of ten awesome VIP gift bags to raffle away! We’ll include some cute Rebel Ragdoll fashion gear, beauty products, signed copies of the books in our sci-fi & fantasy series, great posters, DVDs of our films, gift cards, and more!
9. BANNERS: Get your logo on point and choose the hottest graphics you’ve got going, because your banner is going to be your calling card at your booth. It’s one of the first things, aside from your colorful table display, that people are going to see. You MUST stand out at Comic Cons because they are so packed and so crazy, that it’s hard to catch folks’ eyes, especially with the bigger companies around! You should also use retail shelving to create an orderly and visually appealing display for your merchandise.
My suggestion? Get a graphic designer to put together an eye-catching kick ass banner and then invest the money in having it printed. Banners can hang from your display background or stand up behind your table or at the side of your table. Experiment with different designs, go to town, and don’t forget to get your awesome logo in there! 😉
Selling Yourself! (And Staying Healthy)
This post is going on a bit long, so I’ll give you a brief intro into this section. This’ll kick off the final post of this blog trilogy on how to “Prepare for a Convention”. As we know, it’s not enough to have a hott display with your work, your posters, swag, and snacks. YOU have to be on point as well! The product may be good, but people’s faith in it goes only as far as their faith in you! 🙂 So how do you prepare to “sell yourself” at a convention? The first step, actually, is to…
…stop judging me!!!
1. STAY HEALTHY. Ah the dreaded con flu. I was a victim of this only a week ago after New York Comic Con finished up, and trust me, it is NOT pleasant. Con flu isn’t the flu necessarily (it could be, but isn’t always). “Con flu” is the sickness and fatigue one feels from being over-extended, rushed, and exposed to tons of germs while one is crammed in a space with thousands of people.
You’ll be spending tons of time at your booth, walking around, picking up comics and merchandise, exchanging money, shaking hands, eating, and talking to folks in close proximity. Not to mention, you’ll be at those darned industry parties with those darned shots of tequila and glasses of Chardonnay! Lol! If you don’t protect yourself, you are bound to get worn down and sick, so here’s a bulleted list of supplies you should bring with you to conventions and use religiously to stay healthy:
Vitamins and Vitamin C supplements: Yeah, Flintstone vitamins are fantastic as well as those yummy Vitamin C pills. You actually should be taking these every day in general, but definitely start in on the Vitamin C boosters about a week before the con. You’ll thank me later!
Purell: DO NOT FORGET THIS! Purell about every 30 minutes to cleanse yourself of germs, and make sure to follow up regularly with washing your hands in hot water and soap. Get under those fingernails as well. Just don’t be rude and Purell yourself right after shaking your hands with someone. Do it later in privacy, lol.
Bottles of water: Stay hydrated! You don’t realize how little water you’ll be drinking at the con, but your body needs it. You’ll get sicker a lot quicker if you’re dehyrated, not to mention you’ll be more tired as well. So get that H2O!
Aspirin or other painkillers (or for the ladies, Midol): Pick your NSAID of choice, because you very well may need it during the con. You never know when a headache, migraine, or for the ladies, MONSTER cramps might drop in, and you’ll be wanting relief asap. There’s nothing worse than pain compounded with no place to sleep and the sounds of 100,000 people having a great time. So be prepared!
- Tissues, napkins, (and for the ladies, sanitary supplies): Self-explanatory. Great for if you have emergencies, or if someone else does.
A packed lunch: this isn’t absolutely necessary, but the bottom line is that you’ll KNOW where your food has been and how clean it is. In the crazed rush of the comic con, some merchants cut corners in order to get their food wares out faster. Don’t cut corners with your health! Or, if you’re hungry, go to a restaurant a few miles out from the con, where the traffic isn’t as insane and the cleaning standards are a bit better.
Phew! So that was a mouthful, but we still have one more post to get out there on preparing for a convention! Stay tuned for it! In the meantime, what about you? What are your tips on con preparation, selling, or staying healthy? Post your thoughts and comments below! 😉 And as always…
Keep it indie,
<3 Colby