Building your list off– line

How can you  develop an off line strat­egy that com­pli­ments and sup­ports your on-line efforts.There are three key ele­ments to this strategy:

• Your list
• Your list
• Your list

In the past we relied solely on one time mail­ings of our show sched­ule or post card to those on our mail­ing list fre­quently with lit­tle or no results. I know from my own expe­ri­ence how inef­fec­tive sin­gle  direct mail­ings were while at the same time help­ing me feel like I was “doing some­thing”.  How­ever, now that we have a very inter­ac­tive Inter­net it is pos­si­ble to com­bine off-line and on-line tac­tics to pro­duce an effec­tive strat­egy for draw­ing fol­low­ers to both your blog and your booth by using a com­bi­na­tion of off-line and on-line lists. This next series is designed to help you under­stand and develop such a strategy.

For an artist the foun­da­tion of this strat­egy is build­ing a list of rel­e­vant peo­ple, peo­ple who like art, will prob­a­bly buy it and are will­ing to give you infor­ma­tion that will keep you con­nected. The ques­tion has always been how to get that infor­ma­tion in a way that is not intru­sive or intim­i­dat­ing and time con­sum­ing espe­cially dur­ing a busy show.There are two basic ways to get that infor­ma­tion for artists:

1. Gather it at shows or galleries
2. Gather it through an opt in on your web site/blog

To work well you will need the fol­low­ing basic information:

• Name
• Address
• Zip
• E-mail

You will also need to have a Pri­vacy pol­icy  promi­nently placed on your list.

Later in this series we will address how you can use this infor­ma­tion in your marketing.

How to build a list and not offend your buyers

Regard­less of whether you are meet­ing peo­ple at a gallery open­ing or an art fair the process can be intim­i­dat­ing and awkward…remember the most impor­tant thing that can help you is that you are in the early stages of build­ing a rela­tion­ship. It is also about giv­ing them the the oppor­tu­nity to decide if indeed they want to con­nect with you.

Be a greeter
If you are at a gallery open­ing wel­come vis­i­tors in be gra­cious then let them wan­der.
At an art fair do the same min­gle with your vis­i­tors be approach­able, lis­ten and observe to find clues about them and their interest.

Make the con­ver­sa­tion about them
At an open­ing or an art fair reach out to vis­i­tors find out their inter­ests, why they are at the open­ing, look for com­mon threads that could con­nect the two of you. Once you find those threads find out the prob­lem they are look­ing to solve by vis­it­ing you. Every­one has a prob­lem look­ing for a solu­tion all you need to do is uncover the prob­lem then solve it. Your vis­i­tor may be look­ing for a paint­ing that works in a cer­tain space or some­thing that will con­nect to them spir­i­tu­ally. Your job is to show them how your work will help them.Ask them what drew them to visit your booth or gallery show. Lis­ten to find if they res­onate with your vision, if they do you then share some of your­self, describe in per­sonal terms what you are say­ing with your work.

Give them a rea­son to con­nect with you

• Tell them about your blog, and newslet­ter if you have one (and your should).
• Have an exam­ple to show them and tell them how you pro­tect privacy…show them your pri­vacy policy
• But most of all tell them why you want to stay con­nected with them and how doing so will help them, it could be sub­scriber only pro­mo­tions, or preshow vis­its etc.
• Don’t push..approach the sub­ject like you would do some­one you just met and thought you might like.

Make it easy and give them the choice
If after you have chat­ted with them and they still are not sure give them a card or other promo mate­r­ial with ALL of your con­tact infor­ma­tion on promi­nently dis­played.  Here are some more ways.

• Add a place on receipts for their e-mail address
• Have all of your con­tact info on your receipt
• Pro­vide a way for them to visu­al­ize your work in their home, have a hand out or some info on a hang tag
• Tell them you will want to fol­low up with them to help them find the best loca­tion or use for your work.
• Send them a thank you note when the buy and direct them to your blog
• Send them home with some­thing extra that says you want to stay con­nected and how impor­tant they are to you

Finally, remem­ber that the aver­age person/consumer needs to see some­thing from you 7–9 times before they actu­ally buy, at least that was the old way based on ran­dom sales. You greatly reduce that by build­ing a relationship.