Five Keys to Profiting from Your Next Art Show

So you’ve tried the art show thing and it hasn’t been the leap to art stardom that you had imagined. In fact, it was downright hard work and poor sales.

I can’t whisk away the hard work, but if you follow the advice in this article you will sell more art, generate more leads, and leave the show with a great sense of achievement and money in your wallet. That’s the idea right?

Here are 5 things you must do to make your next show a success:

1. Maximize Opportunities:

Just like your website (if you have one), you will have numerous visitors to your booth who will simply walk in, look around, and leave. Why did they come into your booth? Well, they probably liked the look of some of your creations. Maximize this opportunity - engage every single person who walks into your booth and encourage them to sign up for your email newsletter. Make sure you have a notebook conveniently placed at the front of your booth for people to leave contact info - especially email addresses. Aside from actually making sales, getting visitor information for follow-up should be your priority.

It’s important to remember that only about one or two people out of ten will feel comfortable doing business with you on first contact. Most people require between five and seven “contacts” with you (email, direct mail, phone, newspaper ad, etc) before they will trust and buy from you. Keep that in mind and act accordingly to maximize your chances of long term results from every art show.

2. Diversify Your Product Offerings

A lot of artists seem to hesitate to do this because they fear it will decrease the value of their originals, but offering a variety of print sizes and editions of your work is one of the best ways to generate big sales at every show.

The segment of the general public who has a couple of thousand dollars to spare on buying art, never mind your art specifically, is very small. Respond by building a multi-tiered product offering with items available from $5 and up. Your low dollar items can be art cards, greeting cards, bookmarks, etc. You should also offer small prints of your work, limited editions on paper and canvas, framed and unframed giclees, and highly limited embellished giclees on canvas. You don’t have to do them all, just make sure you have items that anybody can buy as well as high end originals and giclees.

If you worry about decreasing the value of your work just take a look at artists who have done this very successfully - Guy Harvey and Thomas Kinkade. Try buying one of their originals, they’re not cheap. In fact, selling a lot of prints only increases the value of your originals. Be organized, honest, and effectively communicate the differing values of various editions of your work, and this strategy will be very rewarding.

The key here is having products that virtually anybody can buy. So if somebody loves a painting but can’t buy it, you can offer them a print edition, art card, or the like. You’ll be surprised how quickly small sales add up - at least you’ll have cash in hand to buy yourself dinner and pay for gas to get home (See my article “Structuring and Pricing Your Art Print Editions for More Sales” for a detailed explanation of this sales strategy).

3. Don’t Let Buyers Leave Without Leaving Information

This is an extension of point 1 above, but I felt it deserved its own segment.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of selling a piece of your work, no matter how small. But you MUST remember to request contact information from every single buyer. If they don’t feel comfortable giving it to you then tell them you’d like to send them a thank you card, complementary art card, or something else that will encourage them to give you at least a name and email address.

People who have purchased your work are far more likely to purchase again, so don’t lose them. You’ve heard it before - 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers. You need to get the information and stay in contact with these people. Once again, this will generate long term revenue.

4. Effectively Promote Yourself

This is one of the hardest things for many artists (and people in general) to do. A lot of people do not understand how to effectively promote themselves. They either come across as arrogant and pushy, or totally close up and sit in the corner. With a little practice it’s very easy.
Don’t try and sell your product immediately. Art is very personal, and therefore your immediate goal upon anybody entering your booth is to make a great first impression. Be friendly and welcoming, but don’t overdo it. Start up some conversation and genuinely get to know the people you’re talking with. Here’s the important thing - focus on your visitors, not yourself. Ask them questions rather than just telling them a pile of information about yourself, that’s boring. Once they ask you about your art (and they will) then feel free to elaborate and let your passion shine through.

People buy on emotion - give them reason to like you and you’ll greatly increase your chance of a sale. If you can make them laugh then that’s even better. And even if they don’t buy it’s easy to ask for an email address before they leave. You’ve made them feel good, so they’ll want to hear more from you.

Remember, you must take a long term attitude when building a valuable and responsive group of collectors for your work.

5. Follow-up Quickly

Your job isn’t complete when the art show is done. In fact, the work that will lead to serious long term sales is only just beginning. Within a couple of days of the art show make sure to follow up with every single contact you made - personally. Don’t send out a generic email blast, though you can send a newsletter along with your personal follow-up or shortly thereafter. I will write an entire article on the follow up strategy, but for now keep in mind that you are simply building genuine relationships.

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.