Archive for the ‘Marketing Communications’ Category

Buyers Test-Drive Artwork in Virtual Rooms

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

As much as artists would like to think that buyers chose their work based on the art alone, in most cases the buyer is also influenced by the setting in which the art will be hung.   I have heard stories of buyers using colour swatches from their living room couch and paint chips of their wall colour to help them decide what piece of art would be suitable for their room.  Buyers also want to know if the size of the artwork will “fit” properly in the space they have available.  Context matters.

Often artists will let a buyer test drive a painting by letting them hang it in their home for a period of time before making a buying decision.  However when you are selling online, this option is less practical.   Another option that is being used on art websites is to show the prospective buyer on their computer screen what the art would look like hanging in a variety of settings, be it a living room, bedroom or office.  The buyer would chose the artwork they are interested in and a sample room to “hang” it in.  The user is then able to drag the artwork to the desired position on the wall.  It’s probably better if you see for yourself.   Click  here to hang this Klimt print (above) in one of the rooms available at OverstockArt.com.

Generally the rooms you can chose from are not exactly what you have in your own home.  The furniture is different.  The wall colour is different, the lighting is different.  So to overcome this, some sites like OverstockArt.com allow a visitor to upload a picture of their own room!  Then the buyer has a much better appreciation for how the artwork would look in its desired location.  This is an impressive application.   It gives the purchaser more confidence that they are making the right decision to purchase the piece.

You will find this technique of allowing buyers to see the art in a virtual setting used on E-bay,  reproduction houses, and individual artist sites.  This is one way artists can distinguish themselves online and engage the customer in a different way.  Just imagine having your art in these pictures.

Left:  A Claude Monet hung virtually in my office.

Posted in Artist Websites, Marketing Communications, Your Art Offerings | 4 Comments »

I’d Like AdWord With You

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

One strategy to increase your visibility as an artist is to advertise online.  Some artists and galleries buy ads on Google to increase traffic to their websites.   When you perform a Google search, the search results page displays ads on the right side of the page.  The ads that appear relate to the search results you were looking for. For example, if you Google “Toronto artists” you could find an ad for Toronto artist David Crighton.

The advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the ad.  To place an ad, you select keywords appropriate to you and your art.  Google will provide you with keyword ideas and information, based on your website or a keyword you provide.  For example,  when I input  ”abstract collage” , Google suggested 100 keywords I could buy.  ”Abstract collage art” was one of them,  but only 210 people searched for that term in a month.  However there were 450,000 searches/month for “modern art”. Google will also tell you how much competition there is for a keyword and what the trends are in the popularity of that keyword.

Many galleries are now using Adwords for promoting their artists and their gallery.  The 6000  square foot  Crescent Hill Gallery in Mississagua believes strongly in using the Internet for marketing.  Owner Michael Havers spends half of his marketing budget on AdWords and they have used AdWords extensively for over 3 years. They continue to invest in this method of advertising because it has produced results for them.  I discovered the gallery searching for “Montreal Fine Art”.  I found an AdWord for artist Marie Claude Boucher, with a link to Cresent Hill who represent her.  The gallery usually buys keywords for artists who have developed a brand, but also bid on over 1000 keywords related to subject, style and geographic area.  The ads have attracted local visitors to the gallery, telephone calls and sales as far away as England and Kazakhstan.

The cost of the ads could vary from 10 cents/click to $1/click, depending on the popularity of the keyword.  One of the gallery’s artists shares the name of a famous musician.  As a result of the competition for the name, the bidding is high.  The gallery contracts with an expert in placing Google ads.  He has experience in how much to bid, and when to bid or not.  They learned quickly that choosing a geographic area for your ad is important.  You can limit your ads to your local area, your province, Canada, North America or the world. 

You can specify your daily/weekly/monthly budget to Google, so that you can control your costs.  Once your budget has been reached, the ads stop running automatically.  Kelowna, BC, artist Keyhan has been budgeting $150-$200/month for AdWords for the last 2 years.  He says, “If you’re are not out there, you are not available, so you can’t expect sales.”

Right: Work by Keyhan

 

Posted in Increasing Traffic, Marketing Communications, Marketing Venues | 3 Comments »

“The Internet Saved My A**!” -Sheila Norgate

Sunday, September 19th, 2010
 

It doesn’t take long to appreciate artist Sheila Norgate’ s sense of humour.  The photo to the right is from her home page.  On her website she offers a line of cards called Freudian Slips, “blank cards full of meaning- $5 each, or $20 for the full-blown complex”.  Visitors to her website are assured that “operators are standing by” to receive  their telephone call.  She gives talks:  I Never Met a Blank Canvas I didn’t like,  and Charm, Beauty and Poise: Timeless Tips for Girls Who Have Let Themselves Go. 

But one thing Sheila is serious about is that the “The Internet saved my a**”.

Sheila is a self-taught, self-supporting artist living in Gabriola Island, BC.  She left a banking career to be an artist full-time in 2001.  Gallery representation had always been her primary marketing channel and the galleries rewarded her with steady income.  But more recently the galleries have not generated the revenue she had enjoyed in the past.  Some galleries, she  says, are on “life support and others have closed altogether”.  But Sheila was able to bounce back by using the Internet to market her art.  “Without the Internet, I would need another job.”

Her Internet marketing is paying off.  She is selling about 2 or 3  paintings per week, mostly to people she has not met.  She always has a commission on the go.  Her commission sales have doubled since advertising them on the website a year ago.  Recently she received a commission from a stranger in Ottawa for $4,500.  

Sheila’s Internet marketing is straight-forward.  She has a brilliantly written and designed website which she has written in the first person.  Her website was developed for her by Kim Bruce  but she maintains it herself.  “Any outdated website”, she say, “is worse than no website at all.”  About 50 people have subscribed to news of her small works.  She had the website in place before the recession hit and she reports her online business is spreading “virally”.  Her site is refreshingly unpretentious, and I believe this is what endears her to her collectors. 

     

Dreams of Flying
24″ x 24″
Mixed Media
$2400

 When Sheila first considered marketing on the Internet she was skeptical.   She now laughs at at her concern about having her artwork copied.  It was.  She doesn’t care.  In fact, she is flattered.

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Posted in Artist Websites, Marketing Communications, Success Stories | No Comments »

Artists Use Wedding Registry to Sell Art

Monday, August 16th, 2010

 

Sometimes people buy art to commemorate a special occasion.  Artists Carol Currie and Stuart Leggett are a husband and wife team who have sold their art on the occasion of a husband’s 50th birthday,  a couple’s anniversary, and as a retirement gift.  In the past,  family members had gotten many people together to buy a gift certificate to purchase a piece of art.   Now Carol and Stuart are using their website to set up a gift registry for an upcoming wedding.  The bride is already a collector of their work, and she thought another work would be a wonderful wedding gift.  By promoting the registry on their website they are hoping that other visitors will consider doing the same thing for their special occasion.  The current registry is being promoted by the bride and groom, but Carol and Stuart have plans to market the concept to their client list.

Their website has been up for nearly 5 years and their blog, which is integrated into their website,  started about 7 months ago.  Sometimes having a website pays dividends in unexpected ways.  One collector thought it might be amusing to find an artist with the same last name.  He googled artists named Currie,  found Carol,  loved their art,  and purchased a piece for $4000 sight unseen.  Claustro have sold hundreds of paintings and most are to people who have seen their work in person.  However they have sold about a dozen paintings sight unseen from their website, which dispels the belief that customer must see a painting in person before they buy it.  Carol says they would allow a buyer to return a painting sold sight unseen if they requested it.

Most of their customers are in Toronto and Ontario, but they are now getting more momentum on the Internet and they finding more clients in the USA and the Canadian west coast as a result. 

” The Peak”  40″ x 60″  Sculpted Painting

Carol and Stuart  work in a self-developed medium they call ‘sculpted paintings’.   Stuart first sculpts a bas relief interpretation of landscapes onto a wood panel and then Carol paints the scene on the panel in acrylics.  Their process is unique and they highlight the process as a way to differentiate themselves on their website with words and images.  The collaborate artists call themselves Claustro,  an anagram containing the letters in their names Carol and Stu (It’s better than Orca Lust, they claim).  They own Claustro Gallery in Midland, Ontario where they show their work.

Posted in Artist Websites, Marketing Communications, Success Stories, Your Art Offerings | 1 Comment »

Maybe, We Be Spammin’

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Regular email communications to your contacts is a key element of marketing  art on the Internet.  However a new Canadian law has been introduced which ensures that those people you are emailing are willing recipients of your communications.  If you are not familiar with the new rules, this article will give you an overview.

It’s no wonder that the government has enacted legislation.  According to a Microsoft Security Intelligence report, (April 2010) spam is well over 90% of email!  As an online marketer you certainly do not want your emails regarded as spam.  In May the federal government introduced the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act (Bill C-28).  Section 7 of the Act provides rules for sending commercial electronic messages which have any semblance of commercial activity.  In other words, section 7 applies to you.  The act is not limited to email.  It also includes instant messaging, text messaging, social media communications and voice.

Here are the provisions of Section 7 in layman’s (my) words:

1. Consent is required before you send a commercial electronic message. (i.e. The recipient must opt-in.)

2. You need to clearly identify yourself and provide contact information in the message.

3. You need to provide an unsubscribe mechanism that will remove a recipient within 10 days of the request. (opt-out)

If you already have an existing business or non-business relationship with some one, or if the recipient has given you their electronic address, consent is deemed.    However, there is no implied consent for referrals.  In other words, if someone provides you the e-mail address of a friend who may be interested in your art, you cannot e-mail the friend without first receiving their consent.

The new law will be enforced by the CRTC, the Competition Bureau, and the Privacy Commissioner.

Please note that your ArtGoneGlobal newsletter subscription adheres to the new law.  At the bottom of the newsletter you will find my name and address and also the ability to unsubscribe.   If your email system does not provide recipients the ability to unsubscribe to your communications, you should look for an alternate system that will keep you in compliance with federal law.

For more information:

Full text of the Act
Powerpoint presentation by lawyer Shaun Brown

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Gallery Show About Art and Social Media

Monday, July 19th, 2010

It is refreshing to see galleries who “get it” when it comes to the Internet.  The Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver is one of those galleries. This spring they presented a month-long show, Twitter/Art+Social Media,  “a juried exhibition of work by artists using social media for inspiration, production and presentation of their work.”  The concept for the exhibit evolved from an idea by Mia Johnson, who completed a PhD on the emergence of the Internet as a vehicle for artists.  The show consisted of over 80 works from 43 unrepresented artists.  All works were priced under $1000.  The gallery also hosted a panel discussion titled How Is Social Media Changing the Practice of Visual Artists?

The call for entries was posted on “The Alliance for Arts and Culture” website, an artists resource in British Columbia.   The content of the show was  influenced by digital media in many ways.   In some cases the works themselves were influenced by content on the Internet. One artist sketched police photos of criminals who used the Internet to perpetrate crimes. Another artist who tells stories with her work, used blogging, email and Facebook as a way to collect stories.  A photograph hung beside an oil painting based on the photo, stirred the debate about copyright protection online. Other artists use social media as a way to conduct business by submitting work to designers, blogging and maintaining a social media presence.  Curator Lili Vieira de Carvalho sees social networking as a platform for collaboration and support among artists and as a way to organize shows.

Many of the artists promoted their participation in the show through their blogs or other social media in advance of the show, thus tapping into the social networks of many artists to promote the show. The Gallery also has a blog and they updated their blog throughout the show.  There are 7 pages of content about the show on the blog with details about how the artists’ life is changing because of social media.

Broken Window by Kristofir Dean
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

I spoke with artist Kristofir Dean  about his participation in the show.  He began blogging about the show about one week in advance. “The show was so eclectic, which was very much reflective of the artists who use social media to promote their work and talk about art that they like.  In that respect, the show was an accurate reflection of that diversity. Participating in this show on social media was a great opportunity that I came across unexpectedly.  I like how an emphasis on social media moved the materiality of visual arts into a more electronic realm.  For example, blogs can show imagery of art without using paper; invitations for the show were exclusively sent in electronic format; and there is a whole dimension out there in which artists are creating new dialogues about art with people who they would not have met other than via the Internet.  That’s pretty incredible!   I think in the end, like-minded artists connect in new ways that have never been experienced before through social media.”

Read more about the show at here.

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Posted in Art as a Business, Blogging, Marketing Communications, Social Networking | No Comments »

Your Process Stands Out in the Crowd

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Last weekend I attended the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, a massive show featuring 400 artists.  There was a wide diversity of art on display, as you can well imagine. With so many artists present, how does an artist stand out in a sea of white canopies?  Well one obvious way is to present a distinctive style of art.   Many artists  there presented works that were unique in some way.  Another way of distinguishing yourself is by the unique process that you use to create your work. 

There were no less than 15 printmakers at the show and I met most of them. Printmakers who work by hand see their work as very different from Giclée prints that are printed by “pressing start on a photocopier”.   Many buyers are not aware of the difference, so one printmaker, Vedi Djokich,  uses the Internet to clarify the matter.   He has created a  2-minute video called “Behind the Screen” that explains the difference between a hand-pulled screenprint and a machine-produced Giclée print.  The video is posted on his website and on YouTube where hundreds have viewed it.  The video also explains how the value of the art is impacted by the number of prints in the edition.   Vedi produced the video himself.  He does not begrudge the 30 hours it took to shoot and edit the video because he thinks of it as a piece of art in itself.

View the video here.  It’s raw, edgy, and profane,  all consistent with Vedi’s style of art. 

I know many of you are not printmakers and you may not produce Giclées of your work either.  However, you may be using a unique process to produce your work, and by letting the world know about it you can differentiate yourself in that sea of canopies.  The Internet offers new ways of letting people know about your how you produce your work.  Make a video. Post some photographs. Describe the process.  We would all love to hear about it!

Posted in Marketing Communications, Your Art Offerings | No Comments »

Open for E-mail Business

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Today e-mail is the preferred way to communicate for many people, including those who may be interested in buying your art.  The reason we provide people with our e-mail address is so that they can communicate with us that way.   An aware artist will make sure that avenue of communication is wide open, yet a surprising number of artists erect roadblocks on the information highway.  Surprised?   Let  me share my observations with you.

I have collected hundreds of artist business cards.  The majority provide, as you might expect,  a phone number, website address and e-mail addresses.  But for some reason, a percentage of those artists do not list their e-mail address on their business card.  It’s not that they don’t have one.  If you go to their website you can usually find it there.  Now you wouldn’t force people to go to your website to find your telephone number, so why force them to go to the website for your e-mail address?  The business card should make it easy to reach you in whatever method the card-holder prefers.

The ideal scenario, in my opinion, would be this:  You hand someone your card.  They take it home and immediately add you to their contacts list in their e-mail system.  Now it does not matter if your card gets lost, and it probably will.  You are registered in their e-mail system, but if you have not provided them with an e-mail address they can’t contact you that way.

Some artists do not provide an e-mail address on their website either.  The reason is to foil automated programs called spambots which scour websites looking for email addresses to add to their lists.  Instead, visitors fill in a form online which is sent to the artist and the sender will only know the artist’s e-mail address when the artist responds.    However spambots can’t read your business card and other promotional literature, so you can safely include it there.  :)

Another way artists can make it easy for people to e-mail them is to set up a simple and short e-mail address.  One artist I know has a 34-character e-mail address! That’s a lot of characters to ask your customers to key in. If you use a free service like Hotmail or Gmail you may have had to compromise on your preferred name because the one you really wanted was taken.  However if you register your own domain, you are normally given several e-mail accounts as part of the service and then you can get exactly the name you want.  If your real name is long and easily misspelled,  just use your first name, or initials and avoid special characters like “_” which can be misread as “-”.

By the way, you may have set up a separate e-mail account for your art business, but maintain another for everything else.  It can be cumbersome to check more than one inbox regularly.  However, it is usually possible to have your e-mail from one account forwarded to another account, so you only have to open one inbox for all your mail.

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Collectors Say the Nicest Things About You

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

You remember the superlative words that came out of the mouth of the collector when they bought your work.  They were so excited to be taking your painting home.  They told you why they had to own it. And while you may remember their enthusiasm for the piece, wouldn’t it be great if others could share in the reaction your work generated.  Collector testimonials can be a powerful influence in marketing your art.  If you have an enthusiastic buyer, why not ask them for a testimonial, maybe even right on the spot when their enthusiasm is at a peak? 

The use of testimonials is a common and effective way of marketing.  Just look through the newspaper at the ads for movies, books and live theatre.  Testimonials are front and centre with virtually every ad. So why not use the same approach with your art?

Well some may think that if you ask for a testimonial, that you could be perceived as needy, or that you need reassurance.  Nonsense!  If someone has chosen to buy your work, above the multitude of alternative  pieces, it makes you special.  They would be the first to acknowledge that and would welcome the opportunity to endorse you and your work.  Today an artist friend of mine told me that she has a collector who has virtually covered her walls with my friend’s work, to the exclusion of other artists.  What better person to ask for a testimonial to put on a website or blog!  Yet she had not ”gotten around to it” …..yet.  Go for it!

Another statement I see frequently online goes something like, “his works can be found in collections throughout North America and Europe.”  Think how effective it would be if you had testimonials from collectors in these locations.  For a great example of this, see the testimonial page  for veteran Canadian landscape painter Gordon Henschel.

Of course, positive testimonials from your art students will go a long way to encourage artists to sign up for your classes.

The alternative to not asking for testimonials is to boast about yourself.  This is not a very attractive alternative, yet some do it in subtle ways like, “my talent was recognized very early in life”.  Personally I find this kind of self-aggrandizement objectionable, and I suspect many others readers would too.  It is much better to let others do the talking for you.  There is more credibility from a third party. 

Since we are talking about it, thanks to my kind readers who have generously provided feedback on this blog.  You can see some of their comments here (scroll down).

Posted in Marketing Communications | 2 Comments »

Regular E-mail Communications Build Awareness

Monday, May 17th, 2010

At the heart of every effective art marketing strategy is list of contacts with whom you can communicate about your art.  The list of contacts may include previous buyers, possible new purchasers, or people who can refer you to possible new customers.   With complete contact information you can send them e-mails, postcards, brochures or letters.  However e-mail is the fastest and  least expensive way to keep you name front and centre.

Some artists I know have their contacts stored in a haphazard way on filing cards,  business cards, pieces of paper,  in their inbox etc. (OK, if you are feeling sheepish now you can stop.)  It will be worth your while to  collect all of these in one place and organize them in your e-mail contacts system.  It positions you to leverage what may be your most important marketing tool.

I was advising a small group of full-time artists this week and discovered that the majority of them had few contacts.  Why?  They had previously chosen galleries as their primary distribution channel and relied on them to generate and maintain the contacts necessary to sell the work.  Now they want to become more self-reliant, and they see the need to generate their own set of contacts.  I advised them to set a specific goal and include it in their 2010 business plans.

The concern I hear most from artists is that they do not want to bother people with unwanted e-mails.  As a result they e-mail people only occasionally, when they have a show coming up or special event.  We all are subjected to unwanted spam from time to time, so the concern has some merit.  However, as long as you are honest and set expectations with your contacts, they may be open to more regular communications.  I have a few guidelines for ethical e-mailing which I follow and you may want to consider too.

1. Do not e-mail a contact unless you have their permission to do so. Unsolicited e-mails are spam and could do more damage than good.

2. Tell people in advance how often they could expect to receive an e-mail from you (weekly, monthly, quarterly etc).

3. Let people know that they can opt out of the communications at any time (unsubscribe) and honour that request promptly when they exercise that option.

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