Business: Marketing Basics

Business 5: Marketing Basics
Some of the basic marketing tools that you should create:
Resume: List exhibitions, shows, gallery representation, awards, publications, and schooling if appropriate. Include an image or two of your work. This should be different that a job resume. Don’t forget your contact info!
Business Cards: A great tool for artists is to print best known images on the front of your card, and all of your information on the back. This helps people connect a visual image of your work to your contact information. Hand customers the card image side up. This helps to fix the visual in their mind before they turn it over to look at the contact info. I strongly suggest renting a post office box for security. As a jeweler, it is smart not to give people your physical address. Once you have established a relationship with a client, then you can give them your street address if you wish.
A great place for business cards and also mini-cards is http://us.moo.com/
Moo offers an option to upload several images so you don’t have to pick just one for your card.
Postcards/ Photos: Good photographs of your work are a must! You should have both high resolution and low resolution digital images. High res images are used for advertisements and postcards. Low res images are used for websites and email messages. You may want to consider getting a couple of black and white prints of a favorite piece. Some newspapers prefer them. Get a nice photo taken of you as well. You should have one of you at work and one head shot. The headshot can be casual or formal.
Letterhead: Should contain your logo, and all of your contact information. You can also have envelopes printed up if you wish, although it is easy to simply print these at home.
Website: Don’t go for too many bells and whistles. Keep it simple and easy to navigate. Make sure that it will load correctly on all the main browsers. There are many WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors out there. If you are familiar with computers, you will do fine with one of those. If you are apprehensive, hire someone. There are many people out there, so prices are competitive- talk to graphic design and web design students!
Whether or not you sell work directly from your website is up to you. If you don’t sell direct from your site, I would recommend linking to places where customers can purchase your work- galleries or an online store like Etsy.
Press Kit: A standard press kit includes a bio of you, black and white as well as color images of you and your work, business card, and a written statement of 1-2 paragraphs conveying the news or information that you are looking to have the publication print. For example, if you are exhibiting your work at a local gallery, let the local newspapers know. Keep it simple, to the point, and give them an angle that makes it unique. Highlight your connection to the area, an interest of yours, or something else to give the story a human element. Make sure to include digital copies of images, bio, and release.