Hello all!
My name is Crystal and I am new here, and new to the world of shows! I had a little store front studio, but have moved it to a spare room in my house. My questions are marketing / promoting myself. I am not comfortable (yet) when it comes to compliments on my work, etc... I'd like to hear from all of you... how can I market myself, or promote myself without sounding "full of myself, or cocky?"
I took the plunge this summer and have been doing quite a few shows and have had excellent feedback. I have also been rejected by a few as well! I LOVE this site and I am so glad I stumbled upon it!
I am trying to jazz up my website, which is also fairly new to me.
Thank you all in advance and I look forward to any help!
~Crystal
undergroundartinplainwell.com
Replies
Good morning:
This is a great discussion thread. Michelle - wonderful advice; I especially liked the subtle nuance you provided for the different ways of telling about winning an award - making oneself the object vs. the subject of any discussion does that and it's great advice. Thanks.
Here are my two cents on the topic. I'm guessing there will be a lot of good advice yet to come.
First - no one knows you're there until you tell them. You may have the absolutely most fabulous product ever made, but if people don't know about it then it's up to you to get the word out. The thing I like is when we sell a particularly neat piece of jewelry at a show to a new customer and they bring back their friends - we've generated effective word-of-mouth. Doing that on a bigger scale is a mixture of art and science. Michelle addressed the social media as a means. She nailed all the good points in her post. Here are some other ideas.
Second - Direct Marketing. Millie and I do a lot of email promotion as we have a guest book in the booth and ask people for their email addresses so we can let them know about show schedule changes and promotions we are running. Millie just advised that we will be doing more of this for 2012. We're planning to send 10% off coupons to our mailing list members that will be good at a show or on our website for items over $50. We also urge our current customer base to "tell a friend" about us. We had a lady at St James Court who fell in love with a new necklace design that Millie had just finished. She came back with all her girlfriends and they all bought one. As a token of thanks we gave her a carved heart paperweight (something we do as a thank you when someone spends over $100 with us). You'd have thought we'd given her a car or something. She was so pleased with the gesture.
Third - It's all about the customer. I'm working on this skill, but Millie is so good at this subtlety that I just love to watch her in action. Whenever anyone compliments her on an item they've bought (we do high end jewelry), she makes it all about them and never about her. She'll say something like "it looks so great on you it's like it was made for you." Then she'll throw in, please show it to all your friends. She does this without even thinking because the experience belongs to the customer.
Fourth -- website promotions. I am so far behind with updating our website so this is as much for me as for other readers. We use Freewebstore.com as the host site for our business (nativetextures.com) and I need to link that with Etsy. Something we're planning is to have our coupon promotions on the website, not just sent by email. We're also looking to have New Products featured on the home page with a link back for more details. I can't stress enough the importance of having really high quality images on your website - folks are shopping on Amazon, overstock.com and everywhere else and these sites have a very professional look. Ours need to as well.
Fifth -- When they walk in your booth, make them feel so comfortable they won't want to leave. Millie has gone over-the-top with our booth. And here I need to thank Amy Amdur again for all her suggestions that helped get us there. We've invested in top of the line cabinetry; good lighting is a must, especially for jewelry; we have gold curtains on all closed sides with pictures of our best pieces; last year Millie bought a chandelier that hangs over her workstation (women love this and a few have tried to buy the fixture). Okay, now let's lower the bar. It took us 10 years to get to this level. It didn't happen overnight and we've tried some things that failed. You'll know what works because people will comment on it. In our 2012 design, Millie is redesigning our cabinets to have built in lights and a smaller footprint. Bottom line here: it's hard to match your products, personal style and brand but it can be done. AND it will change every year as you get better at it.
Finally. Smile a lot and always say thanks for any suggestion, even if the person giving it is mean spirited.
And welcome to the Art Fair world. It's a fun ride if you let it be.
Rod Richardson
Native Textures (dot com)
Hi Rod!
Thank you so much! Everyone has been so positive and helpful... and it is becoming a fun ride!!
~Crystal
Another good book is Maria Arango's "Artist's Guide to Selling in Art Festivals".
http://www.artfestivalguide.info
Thank you! (sounds good!!)
Crystal
Welcome to the site! I do know a thing or two about the topic (see my blog series www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com). The crazy thing with the way the world is ticking today is the buzz word, "branding". It basically tells your followers who you are and what your work is about. Part of that is "branding" yourself. I am not saying you are "Coca-cola" or "Ford", and try to be like them. No. But define who you are go from there. You need to convey who you are to the world - hence getting to the question of how to market yourself.
1. Get in touch with who you are. Where did you come from and how did you get to where you are today. Your likes (chocolate ice cream, Sean Connery, kittens?) and dislikes (spiders, lima beans, politics?). What is your art all about - how would you describe it in 5 words or less? But most importantly what are your passions? Passions is more than just art - but what are you passionate about in life. Take the time to learn what is going on in the world and doing your best to relate to all types of people albeit people from your neighbor, to college students (which all aren't 18-20 year olds anymore), to moms, to a sister who is trying to support their younger sister who is going through breast cancer treatments, to those who live in urban settings striving to live more eco-friendly, and so on. You never know who these people are connected to that might be apart of your target marketing audience. Target marketing audience is the group of people who are most likely going to buy your work.
2. Reaching out. Today you can reach out to people in many different ways - the easiest is word of mouth and social media. Word of mouth is literally that - spreading the word from one person to another orally. This can be done with face to face time with people at art fairs, at church, doctor's offices, a business card on a bulletin board in a local cafe, a once a month art council meeting, family reunions, high school reunions, block parties, PTA meeting, etc. The other is social media - Twitter, here on artfairinsiders.com, and most people's favorite - Facebook. Granted there is etsy forums and other places like that plus Linkedin. com and so on. Research 1-2 of them to figure out what you find may be easiest for you to do on your own and manage on a regular or semi-regular time frame. The key to any type of social media is posting good, valuable content that would make people want to follow and learn more about you and your work. Bad content is talking about mundane daily chores, inviting people harvest your farm on Farmville, or being too offensive (however it is great to be controversial - depending on the controversy you stir up). Actively participating in social media by contributing to groups, re-tweeting articles, liking things,adding your thoughts on hot news topics, funny quips or inspiring quotes you made up, adding photos of new work, or comments on something you are working on right now, reviewing a craft fair you just did, talk about someone else's work you just found and linking to their website, and so on. The best piece of content I think is... offer some help to someone seeking advice in a field you have some knowledge in.
3. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. Keep up talking. There is showing off an award... "I can't believe I got an award at a show this past weekend!!! I am still shocked and thankful at the same time." and then there is bragging... "Finally I got an award - I knew my work was better than everyone else at the show, now I am finally recognized for it." See the tone shift? As long as you can find a way to convey humility, you can toot your own horn. People do respond well to learning about a persons accomplishments - they take notice! It takes time to build up a list of followers and a lot - might I stress A LOT of hard work and long hours working not just in marketing, but at your own work, striving to be the best in your field, having a great website - always updating it with new info, better pictures, and making it easy for people to navigate through the site. I am not saying the site you have is lacking, but a person's website should always be evolving to something better - the same for each individuals work. No one ever gets ahead by doing the same thing over and over.
I wish you luck in your artistic ventures! Michelle, www.bythebaybotanicals.com www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com
WOW Michelle! Thank you! You have REALLY opened my eyes to some great ideas! I appreciate this. Sometimes I run in to folks who are so "guarded" with info. I am really glad that I happened upon this site, and I am beginning to believe that fate brought me here! EVERYONE I have communicated with has been wonderful!
I am trying to work on my website, and I did my very first indoor show this weekend, and my first out-of-state! It was amazing... and although my sales were not where I would have liked them, I learned a lot, and it was ALL POSITIVE!
I again thank you and I hope our art paths cross again!
~Crystal
Crystal, you are most welcome! It is my opinion that if you have something to say and it can help others, don't keep it to yourself. Karma IS good and come back to you in many different forms. There will always be some who are guarded, those are not the best to associate. I saw that because surrounding yourself by others who are open minded, have a thirst for knowledge, and see things from the view beyond their world will rub off on you. All the others will quickly find their way of doing things just won't cut it too much longer. Too many craft artists hide out in their studios and only surface at shows and that is the world they only want to associate with. You know and I know that by simply going outside on a stary night we as individuals are the ones who are tiny and the earth does not revolve around us. I might sound like I speak from experience, but honey, I am always learning and one of my favorite things to do, when in the car or in the studio is to listen to educational audiobooks and podcasts - in between some good musical playlists. On that note, if you ever have questions, this is the right place to ask them. Many people here have probably a thousand or more years of experience combined and more than willing to share that knowledge. - Michelle
Hi Crystal,
Welcome to the site and our crazy little world of Art fairs!! Bruce Baker's CD's are excellent. Troll through the various forums, ask questions, and join in!! All our various veterans are helpful, and the discussions can be very stimulating!! Use Facebook as a marketing tool. Come up with an elevator speech- what and how you do it in 5 minutes or less, also very helpful!! I took a business class to boost my confidence- learned a lot, and met some very excellent people.
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