How Regular Are You?
I know that asking how regular you are is a personal question...but the more regular your are, the better you feel? Why? Because it means things are working, there's a natural flow happening. The same is true with your art business. How regularly do you stay in contact with your audience, especially those on your mailing list?
I recently received an e-mail from an artist whose list I'm on but I haven't heard from the artist in months, at least four months. If I am wondering where the artist is and then they show up out of the blue I know they want one thing and one thing only, to try and sell me something. There's no sense of community, no sense of honoring the list, and no regard for their own business because out of sight equals out of mind.
Do you know how much it takes to catch up in the race once you've been out of the loop. In the mean time I've had plenty of time to come in contact with numerous artists who keep me in the loop and want me to know about their process, even if they don't have a show invitations to visit their studio during first Friday, or an event they will be at is always appreciated.
You can't afford not to honor your mailing list. It's kind of insulting as a potential collector to only be in contact when new pieces are available. If you want to do a newsletter and don't want to come up with the material there are lots of online article opportunities to use royalty free articles all you have to do is include the author's by-line. Use the list for good, don't use it only for sales or we the audience feel used.
I'm regular...look at the number of blog articles...
Greg
coaching artists to success
I recently received an e-mail from an artist whose list I'm on but I haven't heard from the artist in months, at least four months. If I am wondering where the artist is and then they show up out of the blue I know they want one thing and one thing only, to try and sell me something. There's no sense of community, no sense of honoring the list, and no regard for their own business because out of sight equals out of mind.
Do you know how much it takes to catch up in the race once you've been out of the loop. In the mean time I've had plenty of time to come in contact with numerous artists who keep me in the loop and want me to know about their process, even if they don't have a show invitations to visit their studio during first Friday, or an event they will be at is always appreciated.
You can't afford not to honor your mailing list. It's kind of insulting as a potential collector to only be in contact when new pieces are available. If you want to do a newsletter and don't want to come up with the material there are lots of online article opportunities to use royalty free articles all you have to do is include the author's by-line. Use the list for good, don't use it only for sales or we the audience feel used.
I'm regular...look at the number of blog articles...
Greg
coaching artists to success
Perhaps I am taking this entry too personally as I recently wrote my listserver for the first time since March, but I found your comments a little harsh.
I personally do not write my group of people with the thoughts of “what can I sell” and I certainly do not expect that of people on my list. I value their support regardless if they have bought a painting. I appreciate my group of people who follow my art. They are the reason I spend First Fridays in my basement studio rather than walking around the strip.
I think this brings up a larger topic: use and misuse of listservers. I am on many people’s lists some of which I don’t remember signing up for but somehow I am receiving emails. I often feel bombarded by emails that do not pertain to the artist’s art. It seems many people see their list as a means of promoting other events or their friend’s events. For instance, if I sign up for to receive emails from an artist, I do not want to hear about a new hair salon their friend opened or a yoga retreat. I do not give my email address away expecting the artist to use it as advertising for their friends.
I have some friends that often ask to trade mass emailings. If I send my list information about her yoga business, design work, etc, they will send an email promoting my art. While some may see this as collaboration, I see it as exploiting the email of those who are on my list. I always refuse this offer. I do not feel comfortable emailing my list about yoga. The people on my list did not give me their email to hear about yoga, they want to hear about my artwork.
I, for one, do not know what is acceptable to send my list. For instance, the reason I have been out of the loop with my list for a few months is that my wife and I celebrated the birth of our first child and I have been busy for months in preparation for the event. Should I have emailed my list saying: “I am MIA for a while, I’m a father”? I didn’t because I thought it was personal information that doesn’t fit the purpose of my listserver.
I am curious to hear other people’s policy on this. Is there an unwritten set of guidelines I do not know about? What is proper listserver etiquette?
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Before I begin first I want to congratulate you and your wife on the new family addition. You'll have lots of new inspiration for your art work with this new life force whirling around your home.
My hope is not for you to take the posting personally, but to awaken us as artists to the impact we have on our collectors, and the sustainability of our own businesses. Being a psychotherapist by training I've taken more developmental psychology courses than I'd like to admit, but Jean Piaget teaches us that as young children we develop "object constancy", the knowing that something exists even if we don't see it, if we've already seen it or experienced it. I wonder how we lose that ability as adults because when we are receiving over 7000 marketing messages a day the tendency is to store away in a big storage locker the things that don't continually catch our attention. The idea is to move from emerging to arrived to sustainable.
The listserv, mailing list issue is near and dear to my heart. Seth Godin wrote a book called "permission marketing". Basically the premise is you shouldn't be marketing to people who haven't consciously given you their permission. It's why on my opt-in I put that I never sell, share or rent my list to anyone...it's between me and the subscriber.
If you at any time offer your list to someone like a yoga instructor, and they e-mail me that is spam and spam is against the law, just ask the guy who was recently arrested. If you send out an e-mail to your list about the services of another that is not directly related to your business then you run a high risk of people asking to be removed from your list...don't dilute the power of your list.
If you co-host an event with someone please send out information to your lists independently. When I arrive at the event if I choose to subscribe to the other person's list I will, but give me that power. I hope you will treat your list like gold because it can be the source of all future success.
I was thinking about the issue of the time between communication and what came to the foreground was something the brain does called "confabulation". This is when the brain has a gap in information and to make things whole it fills in the gaps with whatever story it wants to create. Gaps in communication can be everything from a new baby, to living in your studio creating the next great masterpiece, to taking a trip to sit on a mountain top in Nepal. My hope is that my brain doesn't have to fill in the story...let us in. Can you think of anything greater than your subscriber base sharing in the birth of your first child? (not to mention the potential gifts)
I've studied human nature for over twenty years and have studied internet marketing for the past four with some of the premier internet marketers in the country. I know it sounds like I'm standing on a soap box, but I have gotten a lot of this information I'm sharing from some of the country's top gurus who help make the internet a powerful tool for building our business.
Good luck with all your endeavors, I'm one of your fans!
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