Mailing List Tips

<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>Marketing Articles</B></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"> <div> The how-to’s</div> <div> of mailing lists<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> Patty and I continue to send out e-mail newsletters before each show. There are no costs involved, they take up very little time, and they are really easy to create. I simply type up a letter explaining our new work, give show details such as dates, times, place, and booth location, and e-mail them to people who have purchased from us in the past or signed up to receive our information at a past show in that area. However, our success with them is like everything else in this business: It can vary greatly from show to show.</div> <div> At some events, not one person shows up and mentions the newsletter, let alone purchases anything. At others, people who receive the newsletters can account for as much as 50-75 percent of our sales. We never know exactly how people are going to react to them. I’ve tried reusing letters that have worked really well in the past at one show, only to have little or no success with the same letter at another show. There’s no rhyme or reason or way to predict how effectively our newsletters will work at any given show in any given year.</div> <div> So why keep doing them? Because when they do work, they can change a mediocre show into a five-figure show. In fact, they’ve even saved us from having quite a few zero-total shows! I still get a lot of questions from new artists on how to get a mailing list started, how to organize all of the names and addresses, when to send them out and what to say. With expenses going up and revenues getting harder and harder to come by, we really have started relying heavily on our newsletters. So this article will serve as a quick tutorial on getting started and keeping it going. </div> <div> I am assuming that most if not all of you have a computer. I know there are still a few of you I have spoken to recently who don’t own one, don’t want one and will probably never get one. You guys have your own way of doing things and probably don’t want or need my advice. So this article will be geared toward those of you who do own computers and have access to the Internet and a working e-mail address. Let’s get started!</div> <div> Where do you get contact information for potential buyers? First, you should be collecting the following information from every person who purchases from you, regardless of how large the sale is: name, mailing address, e-mail address, phone number, city, state and ZIP code. If you sell a lot of very small items, hand your clients a clipboard while they are paying or waiting to pay and ask them to fill out the top part of their receipt with their contact info. If you sell more expensive items, you should be writing all the information yourself to make sure you can read it once you get home. This way, you are mailing to everyone who has bought from you in the past.</div> <div> What about people at shows who love your work but are not ready to purchase anything today? They’ll usually pick up one of your cards and never call you again. I’ve lost count of how many tens of thousands of business cards we have handed out in 10 years with very little return. The easiest way to get people to sign up for your newsletters, at least in the case of our high-end work, is to put your business cards, bios or handouts in your pocket or in a drawer. Make people ask YOU for one. As you are reaching into your pocket or drawer for a card, ask them if they would like to receive information on your upcoming shows and latest work. Follow that up with a statement such as, “You will hear from me only two or three times a year, and I will never sell or give out your information.”</div> <div> Have a clipboard handy with 3x5-inch note cards that ask for the same information I spoke of previously. Patty and I have added to the bottom of our cards questions asking show-goers when they expect to purchase (in the next month, year or later) and what type of scene they prefer. If they write down beaches and we end up creating new beach scenes, guess who’s getting an e-mail? If they check the “in the next month” box, we usually send them an e-mail about a month later asking if they are ready to purchase. If they check the “next year” one, we still send them an immediate an e-mail thanking them for taking the time to sign up.</div> <div> To collect the information, I prefer using the note cards. Each person fills out a single card, and after each is filled out, you can remove the card. That means the person’s contact info is safe with you. If you have every name in a book, one after the other, someone at a busy show could potentially copy the info on your list and use it for his or her list. If that happens, the person who just left his or her info in your booth might start getting calls to buy timeshares — and they won’t be in any hurry to sign up for more lists in the future.</div> <div> Now that you have all of the names and contact information, what do you do with them? I keep two lists, one for e-mail newsletters and one for hard-mail newsletters. I watch very carefully whose info I use for the hard-mail list. If that list grows too fast, it can get very expensive to send them out by regular post. For us to send out a regular letter, a person must have purchased a picture worth at least $1,000 or be very interested in and able to afford one of our medium-sized or large pictures. Everyone else gets just an e-mail newsletter.</div> <div> To help you create your hard-mail newsletters, there are several software mailing programs under $100. I use a program called “My Mail List,” which is easy to learn and very inexpensive. (Google “My Mail List program” for the best purchase options.) I recommend making separate folders for each geographic region or city you do a show in: Cincinnati, Chicago, Dallas, etc. Then every time you do a show in that area, send the people on your list a letter or postcard letting them know you are coming. </div> <div> So, the next great question is: Do you send a letter or a postcard? They both have advantages and disadvantages, so choose which you prefer. Letters can contain much more information and are a bit more personal, the downside being they cost more to mail and can be a bit more time consuming to get out. Postcards usually have color pictures and are less expensive to send, but they are also easily discarded with the junk mail. For that reason, I usually use letters. I type up one letter in Microsoft Word and just change the name at the top of each letter as I print each out. It takes a bit more time but is much more personal. (If you know someone who’s particularly computer-savvy, they may be able to show you how to allow Word or whatever program you use to automatically change the name on each letter.) And if you already have postcards, try sending one inside the envelope with the letter.</div> <div> It’s very easy to buy mailing labels, print them out and stick one on each envelope or postcard. I get way too much junk mail with computer-generated mailing labels, so I’d suggest keeping your hard-mail list very exclusive and taking the extra time to handwrite each address. People are much more likely to open a letter that has been addressed by hand. I also recommend sending out hard-mail letters about 7-10 days before a show. This gives people enough time to make plans, but it’s still close enough to the event that they won’t forget.</div> <div> E-mail newsletters are much easier and cost nothing to send out. They arrive immediately, and you can include links back to your Web site and the show’s Web site. You can even make pages on your Web site with special offers and put links in your e-mail newsletters back to those pages. When things are going really well for us, we simply send out e-mail newsletters and go! It’s sooo easy! </div> <div> The downside to e-mails is that because people get way too much spam and unsolicited mail, they may disregard your newsletter. Also, there are spam filters that may filter out your e-mail. For those reasons, e-mail may be less effective, so I highly recommend using a combination of both types of mail.</div> <div> Once you have your e-mail addresses and are ready to enter them in the “to” box, do the same thing you did with the hard-mail letters: Organize them in folders or groups by city or region. Sometimes we group cities that are close to each other in one folder. For instance, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami are all grouped together. You can use programs such as Outlook or Outlook Express, but here’s a quick, really good hint: Get a Gmail account (<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="ITC-NewBaskerville" ><U>www.gmail.com</U></FONT>)! It’s free to sign up for through Google, and it allows you to store all of your addresses online. On top of that, it has a great spam filter, and you get tons of free space to store lots of e-mails. I used to have a Hotmail account, and I felt limited as to what I could do with it. With Gmail, Google has thought of everything, and it’s really helped me get more done. As your list starts to grow, you’ll have to limit the number of contacts in each group to 98. (Google and other e-mail services, in an attempt to cut down on spam, limit the number of e-mails you can send out at a time.) </div> <div> Pay attention here: Learn to use blind carbon copying! It’s the BCC button in your Google and Hotmail interface. Always address your newsletters to yourself first, so your e-mail address will be at the top of every e-mail. Then click the “add BCC” button, and a new window will appear. Type in the name of the group you want to mail to (for instance, Cincinnati) in the BCC window. Everyone whose address is in that group will now get a copy of the newsletter, and there won’t be a bunch of e-mail addresses at the top of the page that everyone has to scroll through just to read your newsletter. And everyone’s address stays private. It’s the courteous thing to do.</div> <div> When composing your newsletters for e-mail, keep it simple. I usually do not include pictures or attachments. If you have pictures of new work, put them on your Web site and put a link to that page in the newsletter. This gets your potential customers to your site! Plus, some people are so virus weary that they will not open e-mails that contain attachments, especially if they don’t immediately recognize the sender of the e-mail.</div> <div> Quite a few e-mail services have templates for newsletters with or without pictures. You can store your address on their site and send out 1,000 or more e-mails with the touch of one button. You will pay a premium, though, as these companies charge for their services. I tried using a company called Vertical Response (<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="ITC-NewBaskerville" ><U>www.verticalresponse.com</U></FONT>) but went back to doing it myself. However, VR does have some great advantages if you care to try them. For instance, you can track how many of your newsletters were actually opened.</div> <div> I have found that sending e-mail newsletters works best if I send them on Monday morning, five or six days before a show. If you send them sooner, someone may mistake the dates and show up a week early. We actually had that happen, so we changed the dates on which we sent out the e-mails. But if you wait any later, people don’t have time to make plans. Plus, some people do not check their e-mail every day.</div> <div> Creating your mailing list takes time, but the harder you work at shows, the faster you can grow your list and the more successful you will be. Don’t get frustrated in the early going when you are sending out 20-25 e-mails per show and not getting a great response. You’ll be much more successful once you start sending out several hundred for each show. A good return for Patty and me is usually three to six sales of original pieces from a couple of hundred letters. I know that sounds low, but our average sale is usually $1,500-$2,000, so it really pays off sometimes. As I mentioned earlier, we do still have shows where we send out newsletters and get no response, but we always send them!</div> <div> Good luck out there. Sell your artwork for what it’s worth, not what others are charging for theirs.</div> <div> <I>Editor’s note: For a discussion of how to word your e-mails and newsletters, see the “Marketing Maneuvers” column in the November 2006 issue of </I><I><B>SA</B></I><I>. </I></div> <bR> <div> 6260 N.W. 19 Street, Sunrise, Fl. 33313 Toll Free 1-877-512-3333    Email: <A HREF="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com"><U>mike@mikealbin.com</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>