Off-the-wall strategies

<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>Off-the-wall strategies</B></div> <div> <B>6260 N.W. 19 Street, Sunrise, Fl. 33313 Toll Free 1-877-512-3333    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="#DDDDDD" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Off-the-wall strategies to get your art out the door</div> <bR> <div> It's no secret that the economy is getting tighter. Discretionary spending on luxury items such as artwork is down. We artists are still getting lots of interest in our </div> <div> work, and people are still coming into our booth two or three times at a show to look at the same picture, but, lately, we just can't close sales like we did in the past. Patrons are afraid to buy or just don't have the money to spend as freely as they did in the past. So how do we make ends meet? Work, work, work! Simply put, the harder we work, the luckier we get. However, it's not enough to just do more art shows - we have to get creative in our approach to selling both at the shows themselves and on our trips to and from the shows.</div> <div> Patty and I have been trying several non-traditional selling techniques recently. We've also been talking to artists and show directors to see what creative suggestions they have. The following ideas just might help you make a few more sales on each trip.</div> <div> As I've mentioned in past columns, I've always been a big believer in newsletters and announcements. For every show Patty and I do, we send e-mails and regular letters to past and potential buyers. The e-mails always include links back to our Web site. But here's a new twist: I've recently started enclosing our mailed newsletters in very brightly colored envelopes, with the person's name handwritten on the front of the envelope. Patty and I get soooo much junk mail that we usually sort our mail over the garbage. We don't even bother to open anything that looks like junk mail - it goes straight in the can. So if your mail is brightly colored and not computer generated, there's a great chance someone will actually open and read it. This tip came from artist-turned-writer Jack White. He's been an artist for over 30 years and has written six books on marketing and selling art. I highly suggest reading some of his books or checking out his Web site, www.jackwhiteartist.com. He has lots of good ideas and is very willing to help, and his books contain chapters on selling art and closing sales.</div> <div> My next suggestion is for artists who already have a following in different cities: pre-show artist parties. That's right, Patty and I will soon have our first artist party, in the home of one of our previous customers. I sent out invitations to a select group of past customers, asking them if they had friends, neighbors or relatives who had seen the pictures they bought from us, and if they had, would these friends possibly want one for their own home. If they answered yes, I then asked these past customers if they would be interested in opening up their homes for a preview party.</div> <div> Everybody who comes to this party will get the first chance to purchase our work (before the public at the show), along with a discount. The couple hosting the party will get a special discount, plus a percentage of the sales. We set up a time that was convenient for Patty and me, and for our hosts, and I printed invitations and mailed them to past customers, asking them to mail them to their friends. Now we're all set to go. We're going to bring over a few bottles of wine, a cheese platter, some of our artwork and our portfolio. All that's required to do this is a little extra planning and an extra night's stay in a hotel the day before the show. If this works out well, we're planning on doing this in cities where we've done shows in the past, whether or not a show is going on.</div> <div> I received a twist on this idea from fellow artist Ruth Loveall. "The very best publicity is happy customers," she wrote me. "[So] what about sending them all a note just before the show and offering them first choice if they come to a hotel room a day early. (Think Embassy Suites.) Serve light food and lots of wine, and offer them a discount of, say, 10 or 15 percent if they bring a friend. The friend is also eligible for the discount. [This] makes the customer feel special and gives them a well-deserved first choice and only increases your expense by the cost of the room one extra night. [It] also gives you that extra day to get to the show in case of vehicle trouble. (Customers are far more understanding than committees.)"</div> <div> This can work not just before the show, but after as well. You can use your days at the show to set up appointments for Monday morning, afternoon and evening. If potential customers are seriously looking at a good-size purchase but cannot commit at the show, offer to drive the piece to their home so they can see how it looks there. When making your hotel reservations for the show, include Monday night as part of your stay. If by chance you don't make any appointments during the show, you can simply cancel that extra night, assuming you do not use Priceline or another service that requires payment up front with no refunds. Even if you use such a service, you can always add an additional night on the back end of your reservation.</div> <div> A third twist on this idea is booking appointments as you are traveling to and from shows. For instance, Patty and I are doing shows in Chicago and Atlanta. We have five empty days between because we don't want to drive all the back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and then turn around and drive to Atlanta. We've done the St. James Court Art Show in Louisville, Kentucky, for the past six years and have a good customer base there. We have to drive right through Louisville on our way to Atlanta, so why not sell a few pictures along the way? I e-mailed and snail mailed past clients, told them we'd be in Louisville for a few days with no art show to do and asked them if they would like a private viewing in their home. I offered to bring the artwork to them. That would mean no fighting huge crowds or dealing with parking headaches. Plus, we would get to know them on a more personal level, and they would get to see the artwork in their home before they purchased it. I even included the line about inviting a friend over while we were there and receiving a 10-percent discount for doing so. </div> <div> Press releases could be another unique way of attracting attention. Patty and I have made numerous attempts at sending releases to newspapers and magazines in cities where we were doing shows. We've had what I would call very limited success. And the few times we did manage to get mentioned in the paper, we didn't sell a single piece of art to anyone who had seen the notice. So if anyone has any tips on getting things published in newspapers or magazines and using those notices to make sales, please e-mail me!</div> <div> You think those suggestions are unique? I received several interesting ideas from artists and promoters, starting with veteran potter Jennifer Kerr-Marsch. "We picked up banners from www.soundwindz.com," she wrote, "and I have them out in front of our booth at the street shows. They really cause a buzz. Anything to get people to slow down a bit [is good]. Press releases are also the best! If you write them well enough, the paper just copies it straight in. [It] saves time and money as well as fill[ing] space. Photos of work - artist and studio - often make it in as well. And it's free!"</div> <div> Katrina Gallegos of Coconut Grove Arts Festival sent in this tip: "A </div> <div> few local artists that happen to have applied and exhibited at our show last year had a few pieces up on the walls of a local restaurant. I walked in and instantly recognized the work. I asked the owners for information on the pieces, and not only did they give me the artists' information, but the price of the pieces and description of the mediums. I was thrilled at how much the owners knew about each piece [and that] they were selling these pieces for the artists. So I contacted the artists to find out how they were doing with sales at this restaurant, and to my surprise, one artist actually sells more work at the restaurant than at their own gallery. The reason is obvious: more foot traffic through the restaurant on a daily basis. Obviously, you need to find a restaurant that matches the quality of your artwork. I would not recommend that a Coconut Grove Arts Festival artist ask the manager of a taco shop to allow them to showcase their work at their restaurant, but a small, fancy local Italian place may be the perfect little hole in the wall that brings in the extra bucks. And no work or cost from you! That's the best part. Just leave your work and let it sell itself - and you might just get a few free meals out of the deal as well."</div> <div> I've spoken with lots of artists who have hung their work in all kinds of places, such as banks, libraries, restaurants and bookstores, with no sales at all. The key here is finding an owner who is interested enough in you and your work to actually tell people about it. If your art is just hanging in the restaurant with no one talking about it, <I>it will not sell!</I> </div> <div> I figured promoter Howard Alan would have a few good stories, and I was right. "Joe Lapiere, a very flamboyant artist from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, rented an aerial-banner plane during my annual Artfest by the Sea in Juno Beach, Florida," Alan wrote. "Artfest runs for one mile along SR A1A, and Joe arranged for the plane to make numerous passes up and down the show route. Whether or not it helped, we do not know, [but] he claimed he broke records that weekend. It also probably boosted his ego."</div> <div> Alan has come across several other artists with unique approaches to marketing. "Michael Israel built a 35-foot metal sculpture [of a] flamingo and put it on Aventura Boulevard for exposure and to try to upset the city council to get extra PR for the show," wrote Alan. "Jerry Berta, who makes [miniature] ceramic diners, created two diners in our downtown Chicago show for the WGN radio station, which is on site of the art show. The diners went to two of the DJs to get them to talk about his work all weekend. And portrait photographer Dick Zimmerman shot a portrait of John Travolta and his wife for our Beaver Creek, [Colorado], show and presented [it] to him at the end of the show.</div> <div> "Sitar player Steve Mikas performs the Friday before each show on public radio to get publicity for his appearance that weekend at the art shows that he is in," continued Alan. "Sculptor Bob Wilfong brings a skirted trailer with a 20-foot-high bronze sculpture and parks the trailer along Military Trail in Boca [Raton, Florida], adjacent to our Boca Fest. And jeweler Bob Trisko has installed a room air conditioner in his booth to cool off his patrons."</div> <div> I leave you with one more unique idea, this time from promoter Richard Sullivan: "There was a young artist who sold paintings of olive trees (like a giant olive and martini glasses, etc.). No, she didn't serve them martinis - she had a chair in her booth, a recliner. It was her `tired-husband chair.' … She encouraged the men to have a seat and hang out with her for a bit while the wives [shopped]." It turns out the artist got a "bunch of sales from the men" while they were visiting with her in the comfort of her booth. </div> <div> Good luck out there, and if you have any suggestions to help your fellow artists, please e-mail them to me. I promise to pass them along. Remember, karma goes a long way! My previous marketing articles are archived on www.sunshineartist.com and on my own Web site, www.mikealbin.com. Just click on "marketing articles."</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>