Like everything else in your business, postcard usage needs
to have a plan. You need to take the time to make this marketing plan. We
have talked about how business cards can open doors for you. Postcards can
hold those doors open and help you work your product. And how you work that
product is in your marketing plan.
Let's look at several different examples. Hopefully, you will get enough
ideas from these examples to start your own program.
Example #1: Perhaps you are a portrait artist whose
specialty is children. How could you use your cards to good advantage? Why
not create a card with one of your portraits on the front and on the back
is name, phone, address and a little paragraph about yourself and what you
do. Now, where to market them? Could be in high-end children¹s clothing
stores. Ask the owner if you could place a small stack on her check out counter
for patrons to pick up when they are purchasing products. Why there? Who
usually has the money to buy custom portraits of children? Grandma. Who usually
goes into high end children¹s stores to buy products? Grandma. Where
else does Grandma go? Maybe she hangs out in the pro shop at the golf course
while waiting for the "boys" to finish up their game. Maybe she spends time
in the beauty parlor getting her hair done. Maybe she loiters in the lobby
of hotels they are staying at looking at those racks of brochures of places
to go in the area. Wherever she spends time, should be where you try and
place some of your postcards for her to see.
Example #2: If your work leans more toward a graphics
influence, where would you go to market that work? You could do a mailing
to all of the local advertising agencies letting them know you could do freelance
work for them when needed. You could do a mailing to magazines around the
country because they buy art usage from outside sources for articles each
month. And did you know that some of them pay from $200.00 to $500.00 just
to use an image for an article? And they don¹t even want the original
for that - it¹s just a usage fee! One artist I have worked with for
years has made a living just this way. He does a new card every few months
and then mails them out to all of his contacts to show the newest work available.
Example #3: Tired of the same old grind? Why not
develop an entire line of postcards that you can sell to other businesses,
which they can use to advertise their company. Remember that all businesses
need to be in front of their customers too. Perhaps you could try doctors,
dentists, any kind of business that needs reminder cards for patients. Or
to welcome new people into the neighborhood. A dentist would be more professional
if they had a follow-up appointment card with a lovely painting on the front
rather than one of those silly cards of teeth in red and green. If these
businesses want to buy images from you, sell them in lots of 300 and up at
a time. This way, you could sell them to several professional businesses
around, and move a thousand cards in no time. You could have the companies
business information imprinted on the back along with the appropriate message.
For instance, "It¹s time for your next appointment." And - don¹t
forget to have your name and copyright info appear somewhere on that card
as well.
If you decide to walk this road, be sure to have your price structures well
thought out before you approach a business. There is nothing worse than having
them get all excited about your line, then having to stammer and stutter
because you were not prepared.
Selling to other businesses takes a little more effort than other kinds
of sales because you have to put together the program and make the approach
to them first. And, you need to be able to explain to them why your idea
will increase their business and image. Have your presentation well in mind.
It needs to explain why art makes a better impact on their customers than
any other type of card. Show them one of your cards that might represent
that type of business and discuss your prices, method of payment and delivery
dates.
Example 4: Along these same lines, I worked with
one artist for several years that made his living painting Bed & Breakfast
buildings. He would approach the owners (who usually had spent big bucks
to refurbish the building) and discuss with them the option of an original
portrait of their own to hang in the lobby, and then cards in all of the
guests rooms for use instead of stationary. This way, their clients could
have a card to remember them and their stay in the quaint building. It was
very profitable for him, and gained him clients as well. He could have even
taken it one step further and discussed with them (after developing a relationship
with them, of course) an option of having a show there to sell his other
originals. A win-win situation – the artist has a nice place to have an art
show of works and the Bed & Breakfast owners have the opportunity to
have lots of people come to their establishment to see how wonderful it is
on the inside.
By now, you probably have a few great ideas of your own about how you could
increase your own business with the help of other businesses. Postcards are
a valuable tool to use for many purposes - they do the work for you. They
are convenient and they require a lot less time than trying to be in many
places at one time. Let postcards be your "sales force," let them be the
"workhorses" and work them to their best advantage.
Next time, greeting cards.....the money-makers.
