Back in the Old Days of the internet, you could pretty much sign up for an Ebay or Etsy account and be selling by the end of the day. Last year my "Hey! Maybe I should take this Art Thing seriously" foray into gallery representation wasn't quite what I expected so THIS year, I decided to try and sell my work myself. Turns out Build it and They Will Come? doesn't work anymore. Which means I need to y'know actually think about marketing and audience and ...oh lord help me... consistent presentation.
Luckily I have a secret weapon. Tom. My husband. Aka Marketing Guru. He's been trying to help me work through my shit (read: self-deprecation and aversion to self-promotion) and present a cohesive, maybe not quite professional (we ARE talking about *me* after all), sales strategy.
Cue the newsletter re-vamp:
Every ecomm/online marketing webinar will tell you Your Email Subscribers Are Your Lifeblood. Doh! Failed THAT Marketing 101 class. I've had an email update list for a very long time. I trashed it when I deleted my original domain (I won't even get into how dumb THAT move was!) then dabbled with a newsletter for a bit. And let THAT languish. Now I'm trying to regain the trust of those poor souls who've stuck with me so I made a planned posting list, added it to my calendar. Old school paper, hung in my studio with Prep and Send dates written in BIG letters.Sell the Sizzle:
Or Presentation is Everything. And while I inherently *know* this ...who doesn't love pretty pictures ... I haven't put it into practice. I happened upon someone who was using all these cool props to sell her work and I thought, "I could do that!" Well DUH! I have a ton of interesting things in my studio that have been sitting for years waiting for me to figure it out. And did I mention... it's FUN!How Much is Too Much:
Or what's the correct artmaking to marketing ratio that will work for me. I have a tendency to slip into design/marketing background at the expense of the actual making ...ask Tom how many times I've said, "I'll just re-do my website. It won't take long." and not resurface for weeks... and because the Making is what keeps me sane it definitely needs to be the priority. Those lines are hard to draw. But I'm working on it.What You'll Notice:
- Smaller works geared specifically for online sales. Lighter and easier to mail.
- Friday's are Web Post days. I like writing. I have opinions. This shouldn't be difficult.
- Once a month Newsletter. Exclusive content. Including offers and giveaways.
- Styled photos.
- Daily Instagram posts.
Stay tuned. Let's see how I do. Oh! And please SIGN UP for my newsletter. Exclusive offerings coming SOON! (see what I did there?!?😃 Nailed it!)