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Following Up After You’ve Sold a Piece of Art

People who buy from you once are more likely to buy from you again than people who have never bought from you.

And … It’s less effort to nurture relationships with people who already know, like, and trust you than to find new people to share your art with. Acquiring customers, in marketing terms, is a long and costly process.

Therefore, it makes sense to take care of the people who have purchased from you. Show them you appreciate them now instead of contacting them later only when you want something from them.

One of the biggest mistakes artist-entrepreneurs make is not following up with people who have given them money.

If you’ve been lax in this area, you might be leaving money on the table.

If you sell art from your studio, rather than through a gallery, you have no excuses for not following up appropriately. You have the name and contact information of your collectors.

Here’s a plan to awe your collectors–not just once, but over the course of your relationship.

Within 1 Week of Sale: Express Gratitude

Send a thank-you note in the mail. Use notecards with images of your art on them for all of your handwritten notes.

This is yet another opportunity to put your art in front of people who appreciate it. The cards, of course, have your contact info or website on the back.

Don’t exploit this as an opportunity to ask for anything else. Thank-you notes are for expressing gratitude only, not for additional sales or requests.

Two Weeks Later: Ask to Connect

In this email, suggest to your collector that

Following Up After You’ve Sold a Piece of Art Read

Ann Cunningham printed six postcards at once with the intent to distribute them within the next year. That’s dedication!

8 (Other) Occasions To Send Postcards That Promote Your Art

Today we take time out to honor the humble, under-utilized, centuries-old, low-tech postcard.

Why spend virtual ink on such an old-fashioned method of communication? Because postcards can do what email cannot do.

Postcards can’t be targeted as spam by an aggressive filter.

Postcards can’t be accidentally (or purposefully) deleted by recipients.

Postcards are likely to be tacked to a refrigerator or kept as a memento.

Postcards are tactile. We can hold them in our hands and ponder them. They have the potential to delight, which is something we rarely say about email these days.

You, like the private clients I advise, would benefit from sending three or four postcards a year.

Postcards are most often used to invite people to an upcoming exhibition or open studio.

Some artists design a single postcard with a schedule of all upcoming shows they’re participating in.

But if you don’t have an upcoming exhibition, you might wonder what you’d say on a postcard or why you’d send one in the first place.

Here are 8 other occasions for using postcards to promote your art and build relationships with your list.

8 (Other) Occasions To Send Postcards That Promote Your Art Read

billboard-here i am

6 Ninja Tips for Getting Noticed

If you’re feeling a little like a wallflower or left out of the art conversation, here are six tips – short of renting billboard space – to get you back on the radar of the VIPs in the art world. Most of these actions work well with arts administrators, arts writers, gallery directors, or curators. Any one of them would be a step in the right direction.

6 Ninja Tips for Getting Noticed Read

Sign I came across in Black Eagle, Montana for the 3-D International Restaurant and Lounge. I was told the 3 Ds are “drinking, dining, and dancing,” but let’s pretend they are delight, differentiate, and depend.

The 3 Ds of Real Mail Marketing

Are you neglecting real mail (a.k.a. “snail mail”) as part of your marketing strategy? We’ve been so spoiled by the immediacy and low cost of email that many of us have forgotten about the advantages of real mail. In the season of holiday cards, gifts, and Christmas letters, let’s remember why it’s still valuable to your art business to use the post office.

The 3 Ds of Real Mail Marketing Read

5 Reasons to Use Real Mail

Are you one of the many artists who has given up on real mail in favor of using email to stay in touch? It’s time to rethink that strategy. 5 Reasons to Keep Sending Real Mail 1. Real mail is tactile. 2. Real mail shows you went the extra mile. 3. Real mail sets you

5 Reasons to Use Real Mail Read

Deborah Bollman O'Sullivan shares her holiday greeting card Wish. ©The Artist

Holiday Card Absolution

You are hereby absolved from sending any holiday greetings on behalf of your art business this year. Getting holiday cards from artists is wonderful. I love it! I hope you ignore my first sentence above and send me one. But you don’t have to. 

If you are planning on sending holiday cards this year, take

Holiday Card Absolution Read

Vala Ola, Sensuality

Implement a Postcard Strategy

Most artists have postcards printed from time to time, but very few consider a postcard strategy. Where do postcards fit in your marketing plan? Think about adding postcards to your regular self-promotion efforts. Email, Facebook, and Twitter are great, but you should mix things up a bit. Get offline from time to time and interact

Implement a Postcard Strategy Read

Send It Snail Mail

Last week The Wall Street Journal ran an article titled Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing. In a nutshell, businesses are finding that 1) email gets lost or is quickly deleted and 2) their customers miss some of the mail they used to receive regularly in their mailboxes. When I advise artists not to

Send It Snail Mail Read

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Your Artist Mailing List: Rethinking + Assessing

Get a transcript of episode 182 of The Art Biz (Rethinking Mailing Lists for Artists) followed by a 3-page worksheet to evaluate the overall health and usage of the 3 types of artist lists.

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