Newsletters: So Easy, An Artist Could Do It

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photo courtesy xiaming

Newsletters for artists are a bit of a rarity. How many times have you had someone tell you that they love your work but can’t buy it right now. What do you usually do? Tear off a piece of paper and give them your email address & phone number? Give them a flyer & a business card?

I would imagine that a lot of artists have the same experience, many times each week.

If you want to remind all of those people who loved you at one time to buy your work when they have some extra cash, you need to a do a few things. A newsletter can be your secret weapon for creating long-term residual sales and building a fan base around your work that sells your art for you.

1. Collect names, email & physical addresses.When your work is shown at art fairs, craft fairs, galleries, and other places, put out a sign up sheet for people to opt-in to your mailing list. Write something like this on the top of the page, “Sign up to find out more about my upcoming work and studio process. You’ll get an email newsletter once each month.” Then divide the paper up into three columns labeled First & Last Name, Email, and Address.

You should also collect names and addresses on your Web site. Notice on this site there is a big sign up box on each page. Next to that box there’s a link to a blog post about what people get when they sign up for the mailing list.

Develop a lead magnet. We’re getting into really useful, advanced marketing strategies here. Give something away to the people who sign up for your mailing list. I give away two recordings of interviews I did with Ann Rea and Jim Hart, two successful artist entrepreneurs. These interviews provide some really great, specific information on how to run a creative business. As soon as you sign up for the list, you get a link to the recordings. Musicians can offer a free mp3. Painters can offer a free postcard, or high quality screensaver or desktop wallpaper. Artists could offer a clip of voice-over work you’ve done. The ideas are endless. Give them something they’ll really like, and you’ll get people signing up for your list.

2. Use a mail management service. It’s easy to email from your Yahoo or Outlook email service. Don’t make this mistake. Email management services will integrate your Web sign up forms with your list for you, track the number of people who open your emails, and the number of clicks your email generates. That way you know whether the things you are writing about are generating interest. I recommend MailChimp.com as a free email management service for artists with a list under 500. It’s easy to use and creates high quality emails that really stand out. Plus, the creators of MailChimp have a great sense of humor.

Whatever email management service you use, you should make sure that you can generate a series of auto-responders. Auto-response emails go out whenever someone signs up for your list, making further offers, reminding people what you have for sale, or any other message that you might want them to have.

3. Start digital, go physical. If you have some money to put into a physical mailing, these are great. Put together a 2 – 4 page glossy magazine that will show off your beautiful work in all its glory. Add in some personal notes describing your experience with creating each piece and you’ve got an easy to create newsletter that lets your buyers know you have new work and how they can get it. Plus, they have something beautiful to put on their coffee table or in their office lobby.

4. Frequency. How often should you write? It depends on how good of a writer you are, and how much you have to say. Some artists write weekly. Some write a couple of times per month. I would recommend never going more than a month without writing your newsletter, and you should set it so that it comes out at the same time ever time. My newsletter goes out every Monday at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. As a rule of thumb, if people are reading your newsletter, responding well to it, and you are having fun, then you are probably at the right frequency.

5. What to talk about. This could be its own blog post. There are so many things you can write about. I hear a lot of artists saying they have no idea what they would write about, but then I start asking them about their work, what they’re doing, how they do it, and why they do it. They’ll talk forever, and it’s really interesting. That’s exactly what you should talk about in your newsletter. Talk about our work and how it affects you, your friends & family, and your community. Talk about your passion and your inspiration. Artists are inherently interesting. All of us have a little kid inside that says, “I wish I could do that.” It’s where our cult of celebrity comes from. I’ll talk more about this later this week.

So, do you have a newsletter? Post a link to it in the comments and lets share ideas!

Tagged as: email marketing, newsletters, sell art online