Art Marketing Tips

[artistjillian]

Hopefully passing on some marketing ideas for art. Some ideas might be new. Others might cause you just think.. . Oh yes, that's right. I DO need to do that!

[artistjillian]

So ....... Improve your sales. Exhibit where people's wallets are already open. (fortunately ebay has heaps of buyers with wallets open) :) But for those of you that exhibit 'outside', this is well worth a reminder.

[artistjillian]

Another thing. The 3 foot rule .... Give a business card to anyone and everyone that comes within 3 feet of you. :) (Remember - not just name and phone number BUT ALSO your ebay store, and/or id)

[jmkmini]

Thanks Jillian! I never thought of adding my eBay id to my business card. You don't know how many times someone will ask me "do you have a website?" and even though I only have a Picturetrail (and that is good too) I always forget my business cards! This reminds me to make more and to carry them!! Judy K:x

[artistjillian]

There is a company on the web who will print free business cards vistaprint dot com I do my own so it's a long time since I've checked them out. I believe they print their company on the back or something. But they have lots of designs to choose from last I knew, and not sure if they include websites (ebay store or ebay search URLs) ~Jillian

[debcoart]

This info comes from Janelle Elms. I have mentioned her before...she sells info on eBay marketing. In the one book that I just bought, she says this: "Setting up your Store correctly to be picked up by the search engines... There are three main areas that are used for keywords on the search engines--Store Name, Description & Categories. Let's start with the Store Name. Your eBay User ID, from a marketing and branding perspective SHOULD be the name of your company. Mine is Jill.Of.All.Trades. Yet your Store Name should NOT be your business name. Jill Of All Trades does not contain any good 'search' words that a buyer would look for. You get 35 chracters to create your Store Name. These words should all be searchable words. My Store name is Auction Profit Education Consulting...I know, very boring as a Store Name, but fabulous as search words that a buyer would use to find my products." I don't know about you peeps, but I had no earthly idea that this information was used by the search engines. SO I am working on coming up with another name for my store, rather than using my User ID. One place to get keywords (and there are many) is inventory.overture.com/ This book that I bought from her is chock full of marketing ideas which I will be happy to share with you as I work (struggle) my way thru the book.

[artistjillian]

Thanks Deb. Much appreciated.

[vintage_like_me]

Thanks for the info Deb, guess I better do some thinking!

[debcoart]

As mentioned above, the next section Janelle refers to is the Store Description: "The next section of your Store you want to set up is the 300 character description of your Store. This is not the place to say, 'Hi. Welcome to our store. Please feel free to browse..." There is not a single good search word there. Instead your 300 characters should just be a list of really good keywords that your buyers will use to find your item. Your description should read more along the lines of, 'Kitchenaid blenders, Senseo coffee maker, Black & Decker juicer...' until you have reached your 300 character maximum." SO...I have now changed the name of my store to Modern Fine Art Painting Gallery after I looked up keywords on overture. And here is the new store description I am using: Deborah Company fine artist. Original. Oil painting.Acrylic artwork, Mixed Media, Watercolor, Collage, Pastel, Pen & Ink Drawings, Gouache, and Alkyd.Abstract, Realism, Illustration, Pop & Folk Art, Impressionism, Photography, Fantasy, Seascape,Landscape. Giclee prints. Paper, canvas, ceramic tiles. If you need any help with any of this, just EMAIL me and I will do the best that I can to help.

[artistjillian]

Super stuff Deb. Thank you.

[debcoart]

😉

[indooryardsales]

Vistaprint now has desk calendars; you can upload 13 pics and make a custom calendar. You could send these to your best previous customers for a New Years Present along with a custom card to encourage them to shop again. Existing clients often will collect your art.

[windy*paints]

I just wrote a guide on making your own business cards. If anyone is interested.. here is the link http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-print-your-own-business-cards-for-less-than-20_W0QQugidZ1000000000236...

[easybidness]

I think I was feeling this energy when I came in and started a thread...have an idea too about going with a piece of art that might be trendy or popular... like "Dancing with the Stars" While maybe mine isn't going high... many of yours certainly would!! I would love to see more. :) zJayne 😄

[isablue123]

Thanks for this thread and all the ideas! Deb, I just updated my store description and name according to your suggestion, thanks for the tip! While doing that, I noticed that only some of the store layouts had a preset box for your store description. Make sure your layout includes it to benefit most from the keywords in your description! There is also another area in the store (search engine keywords) where you can edit keywords for each store category. ebay will enter some keywords automatically from your listings, but you can customize them.You have up to 60 characters per category, so you can increase hits if you use strategic words there too. Isa