Art Cards and Why You Need Them

What I’m going to tell you in this article will vastly improve your online art or photography marketing strategy and eventually lead to many more sales and a group of dedicated collectors.

First of all what am I talking about when I say “art cards?” By this I mean a small print of your artwork, no more than 4”x6”, on art paper or thin card. They should only cost you a dollar or two to make and you should be able to buy them in bulk quantities, or make them yourself (of course, you can get them from us at PrintThatImage.com).

Art cards make excellent impulse buy items at your art shows, gallery exhibits, etc., but that’s not why I’m promoting them here.

The real power of the art card lies in your ability to give it away for free to interested potential clients - visitors to your website for example. It costs you very little, but it is something of value to your website visitors. And of course, you don’t give it away totally for free. You get email and contact information from each visitor who wants one.

By the very nature of giving away something that has to be mailed, you must collect all contact information from your site visitors - that’s a pretty good deal. You now have name, address, phone number, and email address of somebody who was looking at your art online and liked it enough to request a free print. That sounds like a qualified potential collector to me. Not only that, you’ve started things off on the right foot by giving them a gift - a great way to generate goodwill towards you and your website. And all for just a buck or two!

On the other side of things, people who visit your site and don’t request the free art card do so for only one reason: In their mind they have compared the benefit of receiving a free piece of your art in exchange for giving you their information and decided it wasn’t worth it. Don’t take it personally, not everybody will like your art, and it actually works in your favor. You will not waste resources marketing to people who would probably never buy your work anyway. That’s great news!

Of course there are always people who will take anything for free, but that’s life and as you continue to build rapport with your email list you’ll figure out which ones have no real interest. In fact most of them will probably drop off the list by themselves shortly after joining. Write it off as a necessary business expense.

A couple of things to remember before running off and making 100 art cards:

• Make sure that every single card has your name, website, and copyright prominently displayed (we can do all that for you at www.PrintThatImage.com/printcustomization.html)

• Make sure that you only make one or two of your prints available for free otherwise you’ll devalue your work. In fact, I would really stick to just one freebie, and make the rest of your work available for sale in the same size and format. That way you’re not only generating an email list, but giving sign-ups the first piece in their new collection of your art.

So, don’t waste anymore time without offering a free art card on your site. You’ll see your visitors turn into subscribers, and eventually those subscribers will turn into buyers. As your list grows, the key then is following up in a manner that will induce sales, which I’ll cover in another article.

Thanks for reading!

This article is copyright ©Chris Kennedy, 2009.

Chris Kennedy owns and maintains PrintThatImage.com, a specialty printing site for giclee prints, fine art printmaking, gallery wrap canvas prints, and promotional products for professional artists and photographers. His office is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.