One of the most common questions I get around Try It & See in general and the Try It & See Planner, in particular, is “what counts as shipping?” If we’re supposed to be shipping every day, what do those actions look like?
So today, I thought I’d share a list of the key actions that I consider as shipping. But first, a definition and a caveat. I define shipping as anything that brings you or your work out into the world in direct contact with other people.
This could mean putting your art or products out into the real world, or it could mean hitting send on an email or publish on a blog post. The idea is that you’re getting something out into the world.
The caveat to this list is that these are the things I consider shipping for most artists and makers. Depending on your industry or business, some of these may not apply and there might be other actions that make your list that aren’t on mine. It’s ok to use your own judgment. I’m not the shipping police. If it feels like shipping to you, then it is.
That being said, one thing you won’t see on this list is “post to social media” as an action by itself, something I’ll explain more after I share the list. So without further ad0, here’s the list of key actions I consider to be shipping:
- Sending out art/product (as orders or to influencers)
- Emailing your list
- Publishing a blog post + pushing to at least one other platform (email, Pinterest, FB, IG, Twitter, etc.)
- Publishing a video on YouTube
- Sending a press pitch email (print press, online, TV, media, podcasts, etc.)
- Giving an interview or a talk
- Reaching out to a store (email, postcard, or other mailings)
- Sending an email/DM about a potential collaboration
- Applying to a show or exhibition
- Exhibiting your work in person (setting up a show, exhibiting at a show, sending work to a show, etc.)
- Publishing product(s) to your online shop AND sharing them somewhere (email, social, etc.)
- Turning on/running ads (FB/IG, Pinterest, Etsy, etc.)
And that’s it. Now, I understand this isn’t a very long list. And some of you might be thinking, “I already knew about all of those. I want MORE examples.”
But here’s the thing. When it comes to your business, there aren’t a thousand different things you could or should be doing.
Marketing is not one big action. It’s a series of small actions, repeated over time. That’s why the list is short. Your goal isn’t to try something different every day or every week. It’s to pick key activities and repeat them over and over again.
If selling to stores is a focus, then you need to be consistently reaching out to stores, both new prospects and your current accounts. If you want to get press coverage for your work, you need to pitch the press every single week. And one show, exhibition, or blog post isn’t going to suddenly catapult your business into the stratosphere. The people who successfully grow their businesses are the ones who constantly get their work out there (ie, ship) all the damn time.
Ok, so if it’s about constantly putting your work out there, then why doesn’t a social media post count as shipping?
The short answer is that it’s too easy. It’s too easy to publish a post on Instagram and feel like you’ve done your marketing work for the day. But the long answer is that social media by itself just doesn’t have enough of an ROI to move the needle on your business. Yes, some people get lucky on social and end up with a viral post that skyrockets their business. But this is the exception, not the rule, and I don’t want your marketing strategy to be based on luck.
If social media is part of your marketing strategy, that’s fine, but it shouldn’t be the only thing. That’s why I don’t count posting to social media alone as shipping. But you can certainly pair social media with the shipping activities on the list.
When I hit publish on a blog post, I don’t consider it shipped until I’ve also pinned the images to Pinterest and shared a link on Facebook. Depending on the post, I might also share it on Instagram. (Sometimes I’ve already shared the images I’m using in a post to Instagram, and if that’s the case, I’m less likely to post about it again on IG.) And when I write a blog post here on Designing an MBA, I also email it out to my list.
And while we’re on the subject of blogging and email, while I love both of these things, and consider email 100% essential to your business, it’s also important to devote some of your shipping tasks to leveraging OPAs. (That’s Other People’s Audiences, which you can read more about in this post and this post.) These are activities like reaching out to stores, applying to shows and exhibitions, or pitching the press. Sending products to influencers (and no, that doesn’t necessarily mean 20-something fashionistas) also counts as both shipping and leveraging OPAs.
But just like with any other marketing strategy, it’s in the repetition that these tasks actually work. You can’t just email one store or pitch one press outlet. So whatever you’re focusing on from the list of shipping, make sure you’re committed to doing it regularly.
That’s why Try It & See and the planner are built on the idea of shipping every day. Because it’s not the actions themselves, but the consistency, that’s the secret sauce of growing your business.