One of the more valuable but perhaps underutilized benefits of living and working in St. Petersburg is the city’s Business Assistance Center. Developed to provide local companies with counseling, training, workshops, and help getting access to capital and credit, the BAC is a great resource for start-ups and established companies poised for growth.
As St. Pete continues to polish it’s global reputation as the premier city for the arts, the BAC has established the St. Petersburg Artists Resource Collaborative (SPARC), a resource specifically for the unique challenges that face arts businesses. The SPARC Exchange serves as a forum to identify, discuss and resolve issues and challenges that artists encounter.
When the members requested a forum about marketing, the city came to Pinstripe.
Project manager, Lyndsey Shaw, provided an overview of developing a marketing plan with specific examples better suited for a small arts business, including:
- Executive summary
- SWOT analysis
- Target markets
- Goals
- Strategies
- Tactics
- Budget
- Measurements
She then joined creative director Jeff Zampino on a panel moderated by Bob Devin Jones of Studio @620 to discuss several finer points of promoting an artist or gallery, particularly when budgets are small.
We are proud to live, work and play in St. Petersburg and we’re committed to helping the arts community as we push to integrate commercial art as another element of what makes our city great.
And if you’re in the area, stop by to see on the fabulous artists’ haven, The 600 Block!
