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How To Build A National Print Business
By Laura Stamps
Art Marketing Consultant
Some fine artists and photographers live in large cities. And, some don’t. Many live in towns with a small art market or no art market at all. Maybe this is your situation, and you’d like to branch out and extend your print business regionally or nationally. You can accomplish this with direct mail, and it will cost less than you might imagine…if you do your homework!
First, you must determine your market. You need to know specific characteristics about the people most likely to buy your art, so you can find more of them. You can do this by paying close attention to your collectors and asking the right questions when they buy your art. Once you have determined your market, you can find more of these people by advertising in magazines read by your target market and by renting lists of qualified prospects.
Second, develop a mailing schedule. You will want to mail to your in-house list of customers and to rental lists. You can do this with a postcard specifically designed to sell your photographic or giclée prints to your market.
Let’s back up for a minute. When you exhibit at an art fair you should have two goals. Yes, you want to make money. But you also need to gather names for your in-house list. Of course, those people who buy your art will go on your list. But you will also encourage interested prospects to sign their names and addresses in your book, so they can receive regular mailings from you as well. This will help you turn one-time buyers and prospects into consistent print collectors.
Third, your goal as a print publisher is to publish two or three special editions (300-500 prints) each year, and to sell out each edition to your in-house list through direct mail within a few weeks. You can accomplish this with a postcard mailing. Design a 4x6 postcard with an image of your print on the front of the card and ordering information on the back: size, price, sales tax, shipping, etc. Mail a postcard like this to your in-house list three times a year. The best months to premiere new prints by mail are January, April and September. Keep in mind your photographic or giclée edition may be 300 or 500, but with these prints you can order a small amount at a time, keeping your costs low.
To help your in-house list grow, add names from art festivals and shows. Add the names of people who respond to your magazine ads and rented lists. Even if you only have 100 people on your in-house list right now, go ahead and design a postcard to sell one of your prints by mail. It’s never too early to begin training your collectors to buy prints from you through direct mail. One day your in-house list will be so large, you will sell most of your prints by mail to collectors all over the country. Won’t that be nice?
Give it a try. This strategy always works for my artist clients and helps them grow from local artists to national artists in no time!
If you’d like more information on ways to market your prints and notecards, I offer a free catalog of marketing books, reports and lists. To receive one, call or write Laura Stamps, Art Marketing Consultant, P.O. Box 212534, Columbia, S.C. 29221-2534 or call 803.749.8579.