by Guest blogger Mckenna Hallett
Just how important is that direct personal contact with your prospective customers? Here’s the best way to connect and grow that relationship.
First a few definitions – Important Definitions
- Email – electronic mail that you send from your computer to other people’s computers at specific times with specific messages.
- Marketing – activities you pursue for sharing your creative business and creations to connect with all interested persons with a goal of sales.
- Campaign – A deliberate and intentionally designed series of steps created to maximize your marketing efforts. A single email can be its own campaign or part of a larger multi-media campaign or series of emails created for a laser-focused marketing message.
Marketing is a verb. In this “instant” information world, it’s vital that the tried and true “old fashioned” email is at the center of your outreach. It’s what replaces “door-to-door” sales of the bygone years! It’s as face-to-face as we can get in today’s online world. Nothing comes close to email for its potential intimacy.
In our frantic-paced, multi-channel, very noisy marketing environment, it is increasingly difficult to get a word in edgewise. Our attention span is in the single digit range. An email with a compelling subject line and a few other well-designed aspects of good marketing practices will have 40 times more customer gain then Facebook and Twitter combined.
Do you rely on a Facebook posting to get people to learn about your latest news, event, or creation? There are several reasons why this is ineffective:
- Did you know that Facebook proudly admits that when you log into your account you will have access to around 1,500 pieces of new content from the people and pages you follow. Can you say “distracting?”
- Did you know that Facebook changed its algorithm and now wants you to pay to boost your posts? For most people it means spending money if you want more than between 1 – 5 % of your fans to be notified. Hard to go viral with that low rate of notifications.
- How many people buy things directly on Facebook? Even if you have a business page, it’s never really an online business page, nor a long-term way to do business (hint: get a website with your own domain.)
- And with those 1,500 distracting bits of info lurking in every corner of the page, how quickly can they be lured away and not even remember what got them started on Facebook in the first place?
I am not saying that Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest aren’t worthy of some time spent getting some followers, but I am saying that those should be subsidiary activities.
Email marketing can be very direct. It can be honed to a very specific message. And it is always sent to a list of people who joined your list specifically to learn more about your art, your newest work, your latest award or upcoming open studio. It’s not a random click to”Like.” They are signing up for a reason. They are sharing their email address to have that direct contact.
Emails that go directly to their inboxes mean you have the power to direct people from that screen via a “Call To Action” button directly to your website. And it is on your website that, presumably, you will continue to entertain, inform, and hopefully create the bond and trust in order for you to make sales.
You keep the control. You keep the attention and focus on your art. And you are servicing a great need for a deeper connection to yourself and to your art.
Emails, when done on a regular schedule, have the ability to grow your relationships, your “brand” or recognition, and bring your clients into a more intimate sense of conversation.
People signup for emails all the time to “stay in touch” with companies or individuals they want to keep track of and you have an obligation to keep your side of the bargain.
Agree completely but another more compelling method is available as a lead in to better targeted emails and that is SMS. SMS marketing has been proven to be 5 time more effective than email marketing and with an immediacy that is unmatched in the marketing world. Ask youself this question. What are the three things you are most likely to take with you when you leave home tomorow? Your car keys, your purse or wallet and your mobile (cell) phone. If your marketing database contains the mobile numbers of your clients you have an extremely personal method to contact your clients No-one can resist opening a text message on their phone.
Unless SMS is forbidden and illegal
True enough, Al. Recent legislation makes it risky.
Effective Wednesday, October 15, 2013, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act passed a new rule that states any company (and that means you as an artist) that sends SMS marketing messages (texts to your cell phone) without prior written consent from recipients could potentially face fines of up to $1,500 per text. See full article here http://blog.halfabubbleout.com/blog/bid/343586/Text-Message-Marketing-SMS-is-Now-Illegal-Companies-May-Face-Fines
I wouldn’t give anybody written permission to text me about promotions. Would you?
Nice article, just starting on this online marketing/selling of my work online and emailing is my first thought , I do have a FB F T YT P S L accounts, and it can be quiet time consuming trying to link all of these up together as well as building my website, its all great fun learning new skills etc.
Thank you for your energy
Peace Size B
This is yet another informative article from Artsyshark. I have signed up to mailchimp for just this reason but it is so complicated and confusing. Has anyone else got a handle on it? Cheers Ivan
Hi Ivan, there is a learning curve to everything, but Mail Chimp has video tutorials that can make it bit easier. Once you put together a template and write your first email blast, I’m sure you will feel better about every subsequent campaign!
My contacts answer more of my text messages than emails.
Hi Sandra, Your response is interesting. Do you do “text marketing” to your clients? This was a thing a few years back, but I don’t see much of it today.
I send my text messages only to people who have bought my art or who have been introduced to my art in some way. I also send one or two images of new art. My emails get very little response.