What does 'hand-to-hand combat' marketing mean and when should I use it?

Hand-to-hand combat refers to marketing activities that require your personal time and can’t be automated—things like handwritten thank-you notes, personal phone calls, text conversations, responding personally to every email and pertinent social media comment, and sending individual DMs to new followers. These tactics work 100% of the time but don’t scale. You should only stop doing them when your volume becomes so high you physically can’t keep up. Since most artists have relatively small customer bases and follower counts, hand-to-hand combat is extremely effective right now. It creates conversations, which are one step closer to a sale than just having followers.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-11-10