Hey all! Remember me? The gal who did a 40 Questions Blog Series? I had A LOT and I mean A LOT of fun doing the whole series here on artfairinsiders.com as well as on my own blog - www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com, but it wasn't until this summer a follower of the blog said - didn't you cover it all in 40 questions? What more can you talk about? After some thought, I realized it never ends - the advice, the experiences, etc. Information is always changing. Using the idea of the alphabet I thought why not do a blog series on The ABC's of doing Art Fairs. So, the best place to start is the very beginning at the A's.
Ahh! Let the knuckle cracks begin ...
1. A is for Advertising. Now I am not necessarily talking about billboards, t.v. commercials and news print ads, I am talking more about word of mouth advertising to get people to know you will be at a fair. Perhaps the goal is to gain people's attention via various internet sites. Most people have a blog, belong to Facebook or Twitter - take full advantage of this and let your followers know where you will be - do a count down each day until the event or let people know if they heard about you via one of these outlets - at a fair - you will give them 10% off their entire purchase that day (or something like that). The next step is to see if those fairs have social networks and post your info there, but not spam it. Try, "Can't wait for this show, looks like the weather will be great. I hope you all get a chance to visit my booth, #123, I make ____." With any luck people will check out your profile and maybe become a fan that day AND see you at the fair. At the same time don't forget to pass out fliers with upcoming events at fairs leading up to others and always keep in contact with those on your email contact list - whether that consists of fans, friends or family members, all generally like to know what you have been up to.
In addition, the latest craze (dad-e-o) is using videos to market yourself both on your website as well as on Youtube (or solely use Youtube if you don't have a website). Video is personal and raw, and might I add - fun! You can do nearly anything with it. Most digital cameras (even those around $75) have some video capabilities and with web cams built into new computers and sold as affordable accessories, it is worth looking into. Do a tour of your booth at an art fair or of your studio. Hold up a popular piece and talk about it on camera. Demonstrate how you make your work and then take this with you to shows and show how you demonstrate there especially if you physically can't at a show. Get customer testimonials on camera. Show off your latest creation. Do announcements of upcoming shows, studio tours you're participating in, etc. See where this is going. Today people are all about visual and using video to get the word out as even now, people don't have a ton of time to read things, but watch a 2-3 minute video - that is what makes for great advertising! There are many books and articles on the topic of using video to market yourself, I recommend taking a few minutes to check out those resources! I use video on my website with the help of two candle reviewers (I make handmade candles) and post their reviews on my website - www.bythebaybotanicals.com so the average person who happens to come across my website can get an even better idea of what a fragrance smells like as well as answer the question - do they really burn they way you say they do? It works!
2. A is also for Advantage. You always need to know who has the upper hand whether it is the high traffic booth spaces at an art fair or knowing what you competition is doing. How else will you get the sales that your competitors are getting? Go to shows and see what your competition is doing - how they price their work, display it, treat their customers, how are they promoting it, etc. Funny enough it is better to be friends with your competition than be enemies. The reason is pure and simple - usually your competition does something different than you and if they get a buyer that is looking for something you do and not what your competition does, you might get a referral. Reciprocate. You may find each of you have stories the other can benefit from, learn of different suppliers, join a guild in your medium that helps like minded artists in many ways, or even learn more about different art fairs - whether to stay away from shows they do to not compete with them or vice versa. The goal is to be different from your competition and if you know what they are doing and see loop holes then you can find your advantage over your competition. An example is when at shows you often see a lot of jewelry - how do you find the advantage here if you too sell jewelry? It isn't by branching off to another medium and still sell jewelry - it sends the wrong message to customers and irritates promoters who are trying to offer a wide variety of work for fair patrons. The answer is to show off how your work doesn't break, comes with a lifetime warranty, you offer resizing on the spot, will clean it for free or fix it if it gets damaged, talk and show off your new original designs that is so unique no two are a like, share knowledge about special properties of different gemstones, or better yet label yourself the fair's jewelry expert and make it known that you can answer any jewelry question anyone has (or at least the best you can) to win people's confidence thus getting customers to open their wallets a little wider.
Next up B's. Each week I will be running down the letters of the alphabet so stay tuned to what B words will be covered. In the meantime - have a productive week and for those doing a show this coming weekend - I hope it is successful!
- Michelle Sholund, www.bythebaybotanicals.com & www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com
P.S. My blog is in the F's, but will be posting here once a week from A-Z.
Comments