A Site for Emerging Artists
Posts tagged retail products
Holy Cow! How to Succeed at Selling to a Niche Market
Jan 10th
By Carolyn Edlund
Kathy Swift is a full-time mom, part-time cattle veterinarian and a jewelry artist – with a popular retail website specializing in cow art. She is a busy lady, which is why catching her for an interview means having a phone conversation with her while she is driving around in her truck (to the next farm, I believe.)
How did she get involved in all of these seemingly unrelated activities? She’s lived on farms all her life and loves the lifestyle and the people involved in “Ag” whom she describes as the best people on earth. At a friend’s barbecue, she met an artist and got into a conversation which intrigued her enough to start classes in jewelry making, which she fell in love with.
It seemed natural to make what she loved, which means cow-related jewelry for the most part. Her website Cow Art and More features the work of about 25 artists who also produce art and giftware for the bovine-inclined of the world. About half of those artists live on farms or ranches, so they have a direct connection with the theme.
Cow art is definitely a niche – and we love niche marketing! Kathy has great tips on how artists can grab more market share for their work by using some smart strategies to reach their targeted audience. Her opinion is that all artists have a niche, even though they may not realize it. Is your niche a theme, a medium, or a process? Then you have fans out there who are crazy about what you do. Your job is to find ways to reach out to them and promote your work.
Kathy recommends:
- Start with who you know. If you create work in a niche that you know and love well (like those cow artists who are living on farms and ranches), you are in a community of like-minded people. This is your first network. Let friends, relatives and neighbors know what you are doing, and reach out to them with your art, to help spread the word. And word-of-mouth is about the best recommendation you can get!
- Cross-promote with other artists. Yes, your niche has other people in it who create art and other wonderful things. Get to know them and create a strategic alliance where you can each refer business to the other. That’s one of the ideas behind Cow Art and More. Kathy’s frequent newsletters to her fans celebrate the gallery openings, awards and other news of her artists. They in turn direct traffic to her fun website which has everything a cow lover could ever want.
- Network like you’re trying to infiltrate the mob. Yes, that’s a quote. Kathy’s plan is to approach a group or organization within your niche in an authentic way. Show them that you are truly interested in what they care about. Build rapport and start relationships with those who respond to you. Eventually you can share your art with them, and since you are right up their alley, you will most likely get a very warm response. Which means you’ve successfully infiltrated!
- Give and you shall receive. She shared a story of how she spread the word about partnering with organizations which promote the future of farming. A big industry publication picked up on it and contacted her for an interview. Thousands of dollars in sales later, she is still raving about the tremendous boost in publicity and revenue that came due to her support of good causes.
Cow Art and More is currently seeking more work from artists in the US, Canada and the UK who are interested in joining her in offering a barn full of wonderful cow products to raving cow fans everywhere.
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Want to Rock Your Art Business This Year? Start with Your Collection
Jan 2nd
By Carolyn Edlund
Artists need a cohesive, signature body of work. Create a great collection for your targeted audience.
Artists often look for ways to increase business, such as better marketing techniques, creating more income streams, or licensing their work. Another major factor that can affect your bottom line is your product line – and thoughtful development of it.
As you consider how to grow your body of work, take a look at the big picture. Are you selling one-of-a-kind pieces only? Is your price spread limited, restricting your market? Do you want to break out this year, or even explode your business by tapping into ways of selling you haven’t tried before?
Courtesy Shawn Messenger
Many readers have their illustrations and artwork on products such as greeting cards, prints, handpainted clothing, and other retail items which can be produced in volume. If you can produce in multiples, such as pottery, jewelry, clothing or other handcrafted line, prints of your work, or using your art on self-produced products, you open yourself to the world of wholesaling. If this is your choice, make sure to crunch the numbers and price your work for profit at wholesale.
Selling wholesale not only creates a huge boost in volume, but helps stabilize your business as well. There is nothing like having orders from a repeat customer base of retailers to keep regular income flowing through the door of your studio year round.
In my own experience running a production ceramic studio for twenty years, I had about 150 retail stores at any given time as active wholesale customers. Although each account was different in the frequency and volume of their orders (and there was an expected turnover of about 20% each year), it brought enormous stability, which allowed me to hire assistants and make projections each year based on a known quantity.
An added bonus is that as you develop your own book of business, you will be able to show receivables and gain the credibility to successfully apply for a business loan to expand your operation if you wish. Bankers love hard numbers, and most businesses have this kind of data. You will too.
Back to focusing on developing your product line. Plan carefully so that as you ramp up to create a new, cohesive and exciting line for your business, you will be able to:
- Open new and broader markets for your work
- Spread your price points to appeal to more customers’ budgets
- Enhance your brand
- Increase repeat sales
- Put yourself in a position to cross-sell more of your line
- Rejuvenate your business by adding lots of exciting new items
As you consider new directions for your line, make sure you are designing what you enjoy doing and would be happy to stay with. After you come up with a core look for a collection, start branching off into more related products. Necklaces need earrings and bracelets to match – and pins, hair ornaments, even ankle bracelets. Tabletop items look great in groupings. Pottery is a natural for a collection. Working in themes offers endless opportunities for collections.
If you design more than one collection, you may want to make one higher-end and one with lower prices, to catch a wider audience. Name your collections. Give them life, make them memorable. Go into your design process knowing who your target customer is, what they buy and why your work will appeal to them.
Courtesy Shawn Messenger
Now, let’s increase the ticket. Think pairs or sets. If you can sell several of a product rather than one because they are in a set, each sale jumps immensely. Artwork in themes should be created in series to be displayed together for a bigger ticket price. Why would you sell one kitchen-related print when you can create a set of four to be hung together? You can stress this point by not offering them as singles. And if you license your images, all the better. Art publishers love artwork in a tightly cohesive series. They know and value the power of collections.
Collections make a statement. They look good when displayed. They create a buzz. Rockstar designers know this. Start looking at the websites of artists and craftspeople you know who are successful. They all started with good ideas and expanded on their signature styles.
What designers do you know with a well-made, popular collection? What inspires you to create your own?
See more of Shawn Messenger's glass art by visiting her website at www.shawnmessenger.com
Top 10 Articles on Artsy Shark for 2011
Dec 21st
By Carolyn Edlund
This year’s countdown of the ten most read and shared articles on Artsy Shark.
10. Making Art and Making a Living - Do you have to support yourself through your art to be an “artist?” Or does the financial pressure hurt your creative growth and your sanity?
9. “You’ll Never Make a Living as an Artist” - Are you surrounding yourself with supporters, or naysayers? Who is holding you back? Your family, your friends? Or is it you?
8. Matching Artists with Corporate Buyers - Joyce Creighton’s fascinating story of how she is connecting artists whose work is appropriate for corporate settings with clients looking for their work.
7. How to Make Your Customers Fall in Love with You - Want more business and repeat customers? That’s right – spread the love.
6. Do You Want to be a Childrens Book Illustrator? - Cherish Flieder discusses the steps in childrens book illustration, and how to get started in the business.
5. Creative Marketing for Artists - Think outside the box when it comes to promoting your work. Here’s some examples of how other artists did it.
4. 6 Ways to Improve Your Greeting Card Sales - Is your line balanced? Is it big enough? How often should you update? The basics on what you must do to have a successful greeting card business.
3. What’s Wrong with Your Art Website? – Artsy Shark asked the experts for their pet peeves when visiting art websites. Are you guilty of any of these sins?
2. A Guide to Pricing Your Artwork – Professor, TED speaker and entrepreneur Karen Atkinson gives great advice for artists on this perplexing but essential topic.
1. Are Your Prices Unrealistic? – Are your prices too high? Too low? How your competition affects your perspective. Lots of comments and opinions about pricing.
Scott Price: Writer, Digital Artist, Self-Publisher
Dec 17th
By Carolyn Edlund
As internet resources allow artists and writers to self-publish, they increase their independence and opportunities. Here’s how one author did it.
For the past five years, Scott Price has been working on Power to Awaken: Totality, a book which “explores spiritual human potential and the essence of life through providing personal retreat space for experiences in silence and self-reflection.” His photography is an integral part of this project, which has been published as a pdf, and is being formatted in editions for Kindle and other e-readers.
Born into a family of academics, Scott started writing in his teenage years. His current project has been distilled from an amazing amount of written material – about enough to fill seven volumes. Scott doesn’t describe himself as a writer, or as an artist, but as a “creator,” seeing no separation between the two, as his words paint intentions or feelings, and images express them. They work together seamlessly to share the experience of being present. Although his message is spiritual, it is not written from the point of view of any particular religion. Rather, its neutrality is meant to be inspirational and connective with people of all backgrounds.
The fascinating current technology for digital self-publishing gives artists more ability than ever to move beyond their medium and to interact with their audience. A digital book may contain writing and images, but could also include audio and video, all available at the turn of a virtual page. This gives the artist more options and the opportunity to work on collaborations with writers, poets, filmmakers and others in one easily published format. Or, consider using a pdf on your art website, which allows you to literally speak about each image of your work as the reader views your portfolio.
Scott has done the research himself to learn how to create ebooks. He suggests that others interested in producing them visit websites such as Smashwords or Lightning Source and Create Space, which offer Print on Demand and distribution services. Although self-publishing has allowed all types of books to enter the marketplace (some badly edited or of inferior quality), it opens up huge opportunities for authors who take advantage of this DIY approach, while maintaining a high quality product.
What’s next for Scott Price? His background includes being a professional competitive cyclist, and he feels that his spiritual message has impact on how people approach sport and competition. He is planning a book for the “awakened athlete.” We look forward to it!
Storytelling for Artists
Dec 13th
By Carolyn Edlund
As a tiny kitten, Lorenzo was tossed in a garbage can at birth and left for dead. Joann Biondi rescued him and brought him to her Florida home.
By the time Lorenzo was three months old, he was sitting up on command and jumping through hoops. When he heard her shout, “Hooray Lorenzo,” he preened like a proud lion. Although eager to please, he was also a self-contained spirit with plenty of spunk—he loved to sink his teeth into a bare ankle as it passed him by.
He had another bad habit as well, and that was stealing panties from the dirty laundry basket. One day Biondi got mad at him for this and decided to get even. She put a spandex tank top over his head and onto his body. Lorenzo was unfazed. He adjusted his shoulders, threw out his chest, and looked at her with an expression that said, “You think this bothers me? Well it doesn’t. In fact, I like it.” He walked around wearing that tank top for days.
These days, Lorenzo is an international online sensation, dressed in clothes for every occasion with a rockstar feline attitude. Biondi’s photos of him have become so popular that he has his own Facebook page, Twitter account and website.
That is Joann Biondi’s story. She clearly understands the power of storytelling as part of her photography and how it creates the appeal that Lorenzo has for his many fans. In fact, each photo of Lorenzo has a quirky caption expressing his personality as a proud metrosexual male with a clothes fetish and a very hip character.
Storytelling is crucial to an artist’s work as either an integral part of the piece itself, or as a way to understand the artist’s history, methods or inspiration. The creative process itself imbues each piece with a part of the artist’s creative soul. By sharing stories, artists add greater value to the purchase and ownership of their work. Collectors in turn share these stories with others; they become permanently linked in the mind of the owner along with the physical work, and add to the pleasure of ownership.
Right Brain/Left Brain
The written or oral story appeals to our left brains as explanation or clarification of the artist’s intent, and to define the art. Viewers search for meaning in art – witness how many people at a gallery will look for the title of an abstract painting. What is the artist portraying? The title alone can have a profound effect on the perception of the gallery visitor.
A recent article on the Real Clear Arts blog analyzes a study done by London’s Daily Mail at the Tate Britain, seeking to find out whether classical or contemporary art held the interest of visitors longer. The classics won, hands down. Author Judith H. Dobrzynski explains, “To me it says something about aesthetics and narrative. People are more engaged when they see something that is ‘beautiful’ and something that contains a discernable story. If an art work has both, all the better.”
Does your work tell a story? Or do you have a story to tell about yourself and your art? Think carefully about how you will tell your personal story of becoming an artist and developing your own style. Perhaps you have a fascinating story to tell about the process or materials you use. Does your subject matter have a deep meaning, or is it controversial? Sharing this with your potential collectors enhances the experience and the opportunity to sell your work.
Featured Artist Leah Jay
