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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

An End Leads to A New Beginning


  waiting for the webinar to begin

The last couple weeks have been a blur, but in a good way. I usually don't have too many irons in the fire, but lately, I am getting a little more involved in everything. Yesterday the first session of the 101010 Project came to a close. I had the opportunity to meet nine really special women and learn from their experiences in running their own creative business. If you haven't had a chance to check out the project, I highly recommend it and follow the second session as well! It starts June 15.

A couple days ago I signed up for the teleseminar given by Alyson B. Stanfield, the ArtBizCoach, and Carolyn Edlund of ArtsyShark. It was a valuable one hour session covering the secrets of retail selling for artists. They covered mistakes that most artists make such as following up on your sales. This one was huge for me. I have very few repeat customers and I've often wondered if the people that buy my work are happy with the end product and the buying experience, but I didn't pursue the follow up. Why not? How hard is it to shoot a customer an email and see if they received their package and if they are happy with it? In the last two days, since I've been following up on orders, I have received positive feedback on several sales, including a commission that was shipped off a couple months ago!

I can't tell you how valuable this tool is for my business. It gives me a boost in ego knowing that my customers actually like my work once they receive it AND it helps me develop that artist/client relationship that may lead to future sales.

Yesterday I listened in on an art marketing podcast called Blogging Tips for Artists. It was presented by Jason Horejs, the owner of Xanadu Gallery and Barney Davey of Art Print Issues. Again, another invaluable session for artists. I've been blogging for six years and have often wondered why I don't have many comments or followers. And again, did nothing about this. Just figured, "Hey, at least I'm blogging, right?" WRONG! As an artist, you want people to follow you and your work which hopefully will lead to sales. That's the point. A couple of the things I learned from this session was
  • Don't use large images
  •  Don't talk just about your work
  •  Use hyperlinks
  •  
I could make a list of everything I learned, but I'd rather you listen to it yourself. You can check in with Jason or Barney and see when it will be available to download.

Off to the studio now! I have some big projects brewing!!!

Have a wonderful day!

6 comments:

Amanda Makepeace said...

What a great post! Sounds like you learned a lot of invaluable tools. I'm going to add this to the EBSQ Friday Five this week. ;)

Stephanie Amos said...

Oh, thank you SO much Amanda! I learned a TON! Thanks again for posting it on the EBSQ Friday Five! I'm sure everyone could learn from all of these people. =)

Robin Norgren, M.A, R-YT, Spiritual Director said...

I need to get that podcast! Who knew that you should not use large images!

Stephanie Amos said...

I know, huh? It makes sense though. They take longer to upload, therefore making it harder for your page to appear AND apparently google analytics don't like large images.

Mary R said...

I'm sure you'll be successful. I just checked out your etsy stores and your pottery and art pieces are fantastic! I'm eyeing one of those butterfly pictures!

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Good points! Learned the large image one, a long time ago. If you go to someones page and it takes forever for the large images to load they will get frustrated and just leave and go elsewhere. I have experienced that as well.