Starting your mailing list

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="05bfd5a3.jpg"> <div> <B>Starting your mailing list</B></div> <div> <B>347-LOVE-ART  (347-568-3278)   Toll Free 1-877-512-3333</B><B>    Email: </B><A HREF="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com"><U><B>mike@mikealbin.com</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="05cd2043.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mike Albin.Com "><U>Mike Albin.Com </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="wd.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Web design"><U>Web design</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="ma.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marketing Articles"><U>Marketing Articles</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="sr.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Show Reviews"><U>Show Reviews</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mt.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marketing Tools"><U>Marketing Tools</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="l.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U>Links</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#777777" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B>Starting your mailing list</B></div> <div> I talk with so many artists that are starting out doing art shows.  They've bought a tent, rigged up some sort of display and are ready to make a fortune selling their creations.  I remember back when we did our first few shows.  People were coming into our tent telling us how unique our artwork was and how much they loved it.  BUT THEY WEREN'T BUYING IT!  I kept thinking "what are we doing wrong?"  </div> <div> The fact is, we weren't doing anything wrong.  It just takes time to acquire a following of people that will buy your artwork.  The more you know about marketing yourself and your artwork, the faster that following will grow.  You'll meet tens of thousands of people that love what you do but will never buy from you.  </div> <bR> <div> The second you bought your tent and decided to art shows you changed your career from artist to sales person.  The faster you can make the switch, the faster you will be successful.  Some artists you meet are not trying to be successful.  Their husband or wife has a good job that pays the bills and their art career is a hobby or a way to sell off some of the artwork that's accumulating around the house.  This article is not for those people.  This article is for the artists that want to make a living, a good living, selling their artwork.  You're going to have to make the change <B>mentally</B> from artist to sales person.  <B>Now you have two jobs!  </B>You have to spend time creating your artwork which is what we all love to do and you're going to have to put it aside either several hours a day or one day a week and become a marketer.  Set aside two hours of every day for implementing your marketing plan or one or two days a week, whatever works best for you.  </div> <bR> <div> Good marketing just means getting your name in front of people that can and will buy whatever you are selling.  The first step is figuring out who to market to, then how to get your message in front of them.  Most of us don't have thousands of dollars for marketing and if we did we wouldn't need to do art shows.  I'm going to explain in a series of articles just how to find the people that will BUY your artwork and keep them coming back for more.  We're going to cultivate a list of potential customers to build a following and do it on a shoe-string budget.   These articles are geared toward artists selling medium to high end artwork.</div> <bR> <div> You're doing art shows already so your potential customers are right in front of you.  You're going to have to put down your book or your newspaper and go to work for the hours of the show.  Become the sales person.  So many artists have the frame of mind that doing an art show is a day off .  Once the booth is set up, ( I know, some day off!), they sit quietly reading and waiting for people to come ask them a question.  Their artwork is priced, cards are laying on the table and they wait for someone to say ,  "I'll take it."  </div> <bR> <div> You do not have to become a pushy used car salesman to sell your artwork.  What you need to do is concentrate on the people that do walk into your booth and evaluate them as being a potential customer or not.  I do not mean will they buy from you today but, is it possible that this person will ever buy from you, today, next month or three years from now.  If the answer to that question is yes then you need them to be able to find you when they are ready.  How many stories have you heard about patrons that saw an artist last year and they can't find them now.  </div> <bR> <div> The way you prevent this scenario from happing to you is with a mailing list.  It's going to be your most important marketing tool.  You're going to cultivate it, tend to it and get it to grow!  As it grows, so will your business and your success at art shows.  </div> <bR> <div> It's very easy to do.  The first thing you need is a small table or stand in your booth to place your sign up sheet on.  A simple piece of paper on a clip board with the words "Sign up for my Free Newsletter" across the top.  Name, Address, City and Zip. Email address and phone number are also great to have.  Email newsletters are much easier to send out and can announce all kinds of things and you can include full color pictures of your newest pieces.  Another good point for email is that there is no cost to you.</div> <bR> <div> Next, I want you to hide your business cards.  Put them in your pocket or inside your work desk where you write up your receipts.  If someone is really interested in your work they will ask you for a card.  When they do, as you are getting the card mention your newsletter/ mailing list.  Tell them all information is kept confidential and the only time they will hear from you is when you are coming to do a show in their area or you are announcing something new about your work.  Make it a quick little sentence, no big deal.  </div> <bR> <div> Set your goal at 20 new POTENTIAL CUSTOMER addresses for every day of the show.  Remember you are going to evaluate and qualify them!  If you hear the sentence, " If I win the lottery I'm coming back to buy one.",  this is not a potential customer.  There are many criteria for qualifying potential buyers or disqualifying non-potential buyers.  If you hear lines like "we live in a small a condo and have no more wall space,"  these people may never buy from you.  Don't be too quick to disqualify though.  <B>Listen to them</B>, they may have an older son or daughter that's getting married or buying a house and loves your work.  If they get your mailing as they're looking for a gift, bingo, you just made a sale!  </div> <div> Teenage girls love to sign up for mailing list, I think they just want mail that's addressed to them but they are not potential customers.   Another criteria I use is looking at their clothes, shoes or jewelry to see if this is a person that could actually afford a piece of my artwork.  Again, don't be too quick to disqualify.  After one long show day I came very close to asking someone not dressed very well to put our portfolio down.  She spent 30 minutes looking at it, it had been a very long day, I was very tired.  I know you've been there.  She ended up ordering three pieces for a total of $1500.00.  A lot of very wealthy people just don't dress very well.  Talk to them, listen to what they are saying.  You miss all of this if you're outside your booth reading a book.  </div> <div>  If a person that's not a potential customer does sign your mailing list wait for them to leave and place a small pen mark/dot next to their name.  Try to encourage this person to give their email address and add them to your email list only.  No expense for printing or postage. When you get home to enter names into your computer look for your dots and do not add their name to your hard mailing list.  Remember, you qualify them and if they cannot afford your work they're not going to buy from you.  Don't spend money for printing and postage on people that are never going to buy from you.  You'll only get frustrated that you're mailing list is not working and quit doing it. </div> <div> The best way to qualify a person for your mailing list is to listen for specific questions like " Does this piece come in a different size" or "Can I get a discount for multiple pieces?" or " Do you take credit cards?"  Also listen for comments like "we're buying a house next month" or " we're remodeling and it will be done in a few months."  You can also just come right out and ask " are looking to purchase something from me in the future?"  Followed by "I have a mailing list."    </div> <bR> <div> There are some simple and inexpensive mailing programs.  I use "My Mail List" and "My Labels" works well, too.  These are available at Office Depot or Best Buy and are produced by My Software Co.  Add your customer's names and the people you qualify into your hard mailing list.  If you get their email address put a small "x " next to their name in the hard mail list so you don't send them email <U>and</U> hard mail.  This will come in handy later on when you send out emails and some of them come back with "permanent fatal errors".  As you remove the fatal error names from your email list go over to the hard mail list and remove the "x" from beside their name.  This would be a great time to write that person a little note saying, "I was trying to email you but it came back.  Are you still interested in buying a piece of my artwork.  I have ___ new pieces that you might like."  </div> <div> Remember keep your name in front of them and they will eventually buy from you.  </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>