Collectors and Relationships

Love Your List

©Dianna Poindexter, You & Me. Oil on masonite.

The people who give you their postal and email addresses are your secret marketing weapon. They have trusted you with their information and said they want to hear from you. They’re your Valentines! Pull an arrow from your quiver and aim some love in their direction. [...]

Structure a Sale to Unload an Oversized Inventory

How do you get rid of an inventory of reproductions, note cards, calendars, or anything else you no longer want to promote and sell? Have a sale! Here are some parameters for structuring your sale. Count your inventory. [...]

Gentle Persistence Pays Off

©Barbara Lee, Aspens - Hope Valley, California Sierras. Photograph.

Your contact list is your #1 asset, but you have to nurture it. You must grow it, feed it, and hold it precious. It is from your list that 80% of your sales will come, if you do the work. That’s why I have called the process of list-building “cultivating collectors” since 2002. It’s not “get collectors quick!” or “sell art right now!” [...]

Love for Your Collectors Starts with Empathy

Perhaps the most important “E” on the road to love for your collectors addresses a critical part of everyone’s buying and selling experience: Empathy. Those first moments of contact are fragile and involve complex emotions. [...]

When the Deal is Done You Have Only Begun

Your relationship with a collector doesn’t end when the work is purchased. It has just begun. Discuss. [...]

You Say Customer, I Say Collector

At one of my fall workshops, a woman said to me, “You know . . . you haven’t used the word ‘customer’ once.” She wondered aloud why I hadn’t used that word. She was surprised it wasn’t in my workshop vocabulary. [...]

The Art Collector Next Door

There will be times when you come across people attracted to your art that don’t conform to your notion of an ideal patron. Don’t wipe them off your radar because you think they’re not potential buyers. Embrace them! [...]

Contact Lists: The Basics

I haven’t said it in awhile, but remember that your contact list is your #1 asset. No one knows the same people you do and people are more likely to buy from you if they know and like you. [...]

After the Business Card Exchange

When people hand you their business cards, what do you do with them? What you DON’T do is add them to a bulk email list. Aside from that, you still want to keep in touch. Here’s a process that works for me. [...]

Blogging to attract art collectors

Collectors want to know you’re going places. Reveal–through your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.–that your art career is active. If your work is good and you present it well, we’ll be interested. If you have good content, you will gain readers. More readers=more people to refer you. [...]