Art Biz Blog

Drowning in postcards?

Was the printing bargain just too good to pass up? Did you really go and order THAT many postcards? I talked with an artist yesterday who was ordering 5,000 postcards (”because it was such a great deal”). Truly, there were no other options in this deal. As I understand it, it was 5,000 postcards or zippo. I’m guessing she’s going to have about 4,634 remaining.

Here are some ways to use up those extra postcards. Some are less serious than others, but you have to figure out which is which.

1. Put them in your portfolio.
2. Attach them to the front of a note card and make thank-you notes. I like the colorful choices at Paper Source. (Don’t forget matching envelopes!)
3. Mat and frame them inexpensively and give to your favorite businesses. Ask them to keep a supply of your business cards on hand for when someone inquires about their lovely framed art.
4. Pull a Kinkade. Embellish the pretty side and sell them for $1.97. Or $197. Or $1997.
5. Recycle them.
6. If you have at least five old postcard samples, create a mini-portfolio of them and send them to prospects. Read how Michael Shane Neal did this on page 142 of I'd Rather Be in the Studio!
7. Under the cover of darkness, put stacks in conspicuous locations where lots of people congregate.
8. Send one to ten artist-friends and ask each to make a new piece of art from their copy. Post the results on your blog and give a prize to “the winner.”
9. Leave them with (not in place of) your tips at restaurants.
10. Glue pairs together (pretty side facing out) and make a mobile for a friends’ baby nursery. Dismiss this idea if your postcards feature images of skulls, naked bodies, or clowns. Image ©Anita Brey, Transcendental Release.
11. Put them inside magazines at your doctor’s office, dentist office, or salon.
12. Slip one inside the crack of a car window you walk by on the in a parking lot. Or just leave them on windshields.
13. Put them on the floor and watch your cat attack the paper.
14. Cut them in half and add them to the spokes of your bicycle.
15. Wallpaper your bathroom.
16. Line the floor of your birdcage.
17. Use them in your own art:

• Four words: "The Postcard Collage Series."
• Shred them and weave the shreddings to create a lovely tapestry for over your mantle.
• Sew a bunch together to make a postcard quilt.
• Boil them, put them in a blender, then mold into a sculpture.
• Try your hand at performance art by passing them out on street corners. Or, better yet, send one a week to the gallery that turned you down. If you have enough, send one a day.

Podcast: Don't neglect old-fashioned mail

There is such a focus on email that we tend to neglect the value of regular mail and the role it should play in marketing efforts for your business. Listen to the following reasons for including mailings in your marketing strategy . . . then go out and replenish the supply of stamps in your office!

[2:54]

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More on This Topic

Art Marketing Action newsletter (a written version of this podcast)

I'd Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion (my book contains loads of information about using mail and email)

Summer Blast Off! Get clear on priorities, establish boundaries, and gain courage in this 28-day class that begins June 3.

→ Instructions for subscribing to the Art Marketing Action podcast on iTunes.

From the Vault: Your artist résumé

There’s a lot of content here and in past issues of the Art Marketing Action newsletter. Let me help you out! Welcome to my new weekly feature where I group things together for you and highlight the best of the Art Biz Blog, the Art Marketing Action newsletter, and my book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio!

Today, some articles and posts for your résumé.

from the ART BIZ BLOG

What to do with a gap in your artist resume

Format for your artist resume

What? No resume?

Exhibition records for your art

from the ART MARKETING ACTION NEWSLETTER
(Keep in mind these are older articles, so some of the links might be out of date.)

Update your resume

Keep a master resume

from my book, I’D RATHER BE IN THE STUDIO!
Pages 79-81

Idea for your invitations

I love this exhibit invitation I received from Ron White.

It's a note card with one of his beautiful images on the front and the reception information on a separate sheet of paper (along with his business card).

Because he didn't print on the note card, I can reuse the card and help him promote his art. Conveniently, it has his information and Web site on the back of the card--in probably a 14-point font--large enough so you can't ignore it.

So, I get a free card and he gets extra publicity. Win-win!

He might have considered adding at the bottom of the insert something along the lines of this: "Please send this note card with my photography on it to a friend who might enjoy it." Always be asking!

When others control your art marketing, part 2: Lessons learned

Check out Tuesday’s post on what happens when you’re not in control.

Now for the lessons of that post.

Philip Koch nailed the primary lesson in his comment (and these are my words): You won’t always have control over your marketing material.

If you’re showing at spaces other than your own, the venues are going to be the ones in control. Get Zen and release. You can give them as much input as they will listen to, but then you have to let go.

People who receive flyers and invitations from organizations understand completely that it’s the organization that hired the artist and it’s the organization that created the promotional piece.

Other comments suggested a remedy that’s spot on: When someone screws up, you take charge. In truth, you should be in charge from the start since you should never ever ever leave it up to any organization to do all of the marketing for you. They do their part and you do your part. Make sure your contacts get the promotional piece YOU want them to see. This means you build that expense into your budget.

No one can promote your work better than you, so don’t expect them to.

Having said that (and I certainly don't know what took place in this instance) I fully believe that face-to-face meetings and agreements can alleviate some of the problems that occur in artist-venue relationships. An article I wrote about building trust with galleries might help explain how this would work.

When others control your art marketing

In today’s post we’ll look at what happened to Lorrie Grainger Abdo when someone else controlled her marketing materials. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you WHAT you learned--or what you should have learned. Or you can guess by leaving your comments below.

Laura writes:

Boy, did your newsletter regarding brochures hit a nerve with me. I've had an experience lately with an art venue for which I will be teaching a workshop. I sent them digital samples of my work and copy for the class/bio. A flyer was done for mailing and website usage. Oh my, yuck!

1.  I believe that the main reason it looks terrible is that they used clip art, abbreviated throughout when there was room to spell things out (Sat. instead of Saturday, Jan. instead of January, etc.), and manipulated a background technique of mine into the shape of a cheesy-looking heart.
 
2.  They didn't have me proof it despite me asking specifically for that chance. After realizing this I did go through it with them and had them change copy-related issues but the "flavor" of the flyer really can't be altered much without a designer making the corrections rather than the eager and accommodating, but unqualified assistant, that did the work in the first place.
 
3.  The identical flyer was used on the website and for mailing. This doesn't always work because a flyer needs specifics like phone numbers and addresses whereas when going to a website the audience may already know those important identifiers.
 
4.  It looks terrible and now my name is on it.

 

Another way to share your art

I've always thought that every artist should have note cards printed up with images of their art on them. Add your contact info to the backside and voilà! It's a pretty picture and a subtle advertisement at the same time.

A number of artists have told me that they later see their note cards framed in people's homes and offices. What a nice compliment!

Last week I received a lovely Thank You note from New Mexico artist Paula Zima. It was on nice 8.5x11" résumé paper and on the top she had drawn and hand-colored a darling picture.

After questioning Paula, I received this response:

Yes, it was a drawing just for you. I've decided after years of using dip ink pens, that I truly love using a ball point pen best of all. So I researched archival ink, and bought a pen that uses it, and have been doing little drawings like that on all my letters, to Celebrate.

I was pretty sure it was an original, but I inquired to make sure the drawing wasn't printed before it was hand-colored. Paula wrote:

I used to do little originals, and hand color them, and then I had some of them printed, giclée on paper, but haven't done that for a while. People always seemed to think the originals were prints anyway, so it made sense. That's a good idea, and less costly, to print, and hand color them with simple color. 

So that's the idea: Come up with a great drawing and print it on nice paper that you can hand color in order to personalize each one. No, it's not a unique idea, but I haven't seen it done much.

Podcast: Create a brochure for your art

Think you might need a brochure? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Today's podcast tells you how to know and how to do it right.

[4 min. 58 sec.]

Click on the brochure cover at left to see a good example of an artist's brochure from David Castle. (Four-page PDF file, 668 KB)

Prefer reading to listening? Check out the Art Marketing Action newsletter.

Subscribe to the Art Marketing Action podcast at iTunes.
Instructions for subscribing to this podcast.

Great photos of your studio

If you have a terrific workspace, show it off! I love the photographs of Shirley Williams' studio on her Web site.

Sharing your workspace connects you with your community on a deeper level by taking away some of the mystery. And taking away some of the mystery is okay. People love to be let in on a secret! We realized this when I worked in museums and we offered "Behind the Scenes" tours, when we led museum members into storage and office areas that they weren't normally privy to. They even love seeing the shipping docks!

One more thing about the pics on Shirley's site: they show her artwork in situ. Having great photos of individual pieces is one thing, but showing how they look within a space helps people to better visualize their scale and how they relate to furniture and architectural elements.

Incidentally, Shirley is joining me as one of the guests for smARTist Telesummit, which begins in less than two weeks. Shirley will be presenting a session on putting together a winning portfolio. Check it out.

Give away your exhibit catalog

Janice Mason Steeves, a client of mine, is opening a solo exhibit of new work in Ontario tomorrow at Abbozzo Gallery.

She and the gallery produced a lovely, small catalog, which chronicles Jan's recent journey to Turkey for the 800th anniversary of the birth of the Sufi mystic, Rumi.

The catalog is available for sale through the gallery (about $7.80US), but Jan did something brilliant. She is offering it as a free download (PDF) on her Web site.

I suggested she have her webmaster put it in the menu column so that it appears on every page on the site. When you click on it, you're taken to a page that describes the contents and gives you a link for downloading it. Check it out for yourself.

Jan could have gone one step further and put a mailing list sign-up form on that download page. Might as well ask while you're giving away something free! But she is mostly interested in sharing this new work.