Promotion in Motion: Equine Sympathy Cards

GCU Artist Stephanie Laird was interviewed for an article in Equine Enthusiast web magazine to talk about her Equine Sympathy cards (look for the article on page 21).

Stephanie has an impressive line of 107 Equine Sympathy Cards in her GCU storefront at the moment.
“I have horses and my friends have horses and when they lose a horse it’s kind of hard to show support. So that’s when I started thinking that it would be a good niche business.”

There is a lot of free publicity out there for us greeting card artists.  There are blogs, websites, publications, podcasts, you name it.  The great thing is that these folks are always looking for new content.  Another good thing for us is that our cards are visual and provide a high impact that way, so the interviewer not only gets an interview they get visual content as well.  

For my specialty, equine sympathy cards,  I try and target horse and veterinarian related websites, publications and blogs.  You can start with an internet search on the cards that you want to showcase, say for example, wedding invitations.  Just with a quick key word search “Wedding Blogs”  I found this.  There is usually contact information that you can submit your idea to, and sometimes they actually have a submission page.

It’s hard to put yourself out there, and don’t take it personally if they do not pick up your idea for an article about your cards.  Art, is always subjective, and it depends on personal preference a lot of times.  Just try another site.  I had actually contacted the Equine Enthusiast publication with my idea of an article on my cards, months and months ago. I never heard back, however one of my cards was quoted in the New York Breeders Magazine (inside cover) and then I won a best of show in an art competition that the local paper reported on and only then was I asked for an interview.   There is kind of a momentum that builds with this.  I have two more interviews scheduled now that are a direct spin off of this publication.  Just keep trying. I always think of it as a kind of game, that way it’s no biggie if they do not like my idea.  Someone will!

For the interview itself, as you can tell by this interview, I am still working on this! Being an introvert by nature, interviews are a bit painful for me, however I love creating cards and it’s really fun to see your work being featured.  I would say have an idea of what you would like to put out there or convey.  It’s hard because you never know what the questions are going to be and sometimes they seem very irrelevant but I do feel the interviewer wants you to sound good too.  And don’t worry about misquotes, I think that is just interview law.

So,  if I can get publicity for something as unusual as equine sympathy cards, just think of what your niche greeting cards can do!  There are publications just waiting to publish about you and your greeting cards!