Marketing 101: A Lesson From The Arts Festival
ByKay and I had a great time at the OKC Marathon this year! We stayed an extra night so we’d have more time to enjoy the Festival of Arts that occurs every year during the same week.
We spent quite a lot of time at the festival and purchased a few pieces of art. One booth we purchased at offered very cool clay art with motivational sayings. They had dozens of different sizes and sayings to choose from. We chose one for an upcoming graduation present for our daughter.
We realized these would make perfect birthday and even Christmas presents in the future. We asked them about their web site so we could shop later for presents. They told us they did not have a web site. It so happened that another person asked them the SAME question while we were completing our purchase!
The artists said they only sell at “shows” and they offered to give us their schedule for the upcoming year. No thanks. We really like their art but not well enough to travel to another state!
I wonder how many times they have been asked about their web site. I wonder if they have any clue as to how much money they are leaving on the table by not having a website. Collecting names, addresses, and email addresses from their buyers over the long term could double or triple their sales over time. With the types of products they offered, I can imagine their one-time customers turning into long term buyers for many years to come.
Remember this about your own business: Your current customers are your BEST prospects for future sales. It is FAR easier to market to a former customer than to always be recruiting new, first-time customers.
Would a web site require some effort on their part in the beginning? Sure it would. But a system could be designed that would maximize profits without too much effort after the system was set up and tweaked.
People who like what you offer enough to give you money should be treated like a FUTURE asset. Too many businesses spend far too much time in getting new customers instead of cultivating the gold mine of current customers they already have.
As a side note, we made a purchase at another booth also. Guess what? They did not have a website either!
A similar experience, not exactly though, occurred with one of the vendors I talked to. I had asked to take a photo of his ceramic art for my blog and he said no. I said “Oh, really? It would be like advertising.” and he replied “I don’t need any advertising.” Really? LOL
Another artist said yes and ended up with two of her links on my blog, along with pics. An artist does not a marketer make, I guess.
I imagine artists like this don’t really want the extra business that a web site might bring in. There is only so much art you can create and if they sell all they create at shows then a web site becomes an extra hassle.
If they had an easy way to scale their production to meet an increased demand it would become worth it. But then, is it art anymore?
Fabulous advice! Forwarding it on thanks Steve!
Kelly Crotts
I agree. But one strategy would be to simply increase the online prices to an acceptable point. There would still be a few people out there (like us) who would pay much more than their asking prices at the local shows.