Entries from August 2007 ↓

Why do you do what you do? What is your intention? Is your intention only to make money? I’m not sure if I know anyone who only wants money. Most people want what money can buy. So skip the money step in your mind and go directly to what it is you want. What DO you want? Only you can answer this question. Do it. Take the time today to think about what you really want. I’ll tell you what I really want in terms of what money can buy. I want to be able to work at home or wherever I happen to be traveling. I want to work on my own schedule, not somebody else’s. If I wake up at 5am and want to start working on a new website then quit at 7am to have coffee and talk with my partner for two hours… I can do that. I want a few “toys” that are fun for me. A GPS receiver, a nice laptop, or a video camera. I use these to give me more purpose on my hikes or connect with people on the internet or see the world in a new way. That is what I am really buying. The money buys the toys which provide a way to achieve these things. So money buys me freedom and time and entertainment.

So what is your intention? Why do you do what you do? If you have the wrong intentions, your life will never seem complete or happy or full. You will always be searching for that “something” to make it right. The answer doesn’t lie with somethings, it lies within your intentions. Do you seek to be free of empty desires? Do you seek to do good for others? Do you seek to do no harm? What DO you seek?

Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

Right view is the ability to see things as they really are. It is also about making the decision to keep an open mind and continue to refine or redefine your view when necessary. There are many times when we think we see a situation clearly and then later find out that we were mistaken or only partly correct. At this point, many people, often out of pride, will not allow themselves to even see that they were wrong, let alone make changes. Recognizing your own faults and mistakes is a sign of wisdom.

What is marketing, really? What is it’s true purpose and why do we engage in it? Marketing at its most basic level is the buying and selling of goods and services. But that is not at all what we have come to think of marketing as. We more often think of marketing as telling people what we have to offer and why they might want to purchase it. It is about showing people the value of our product or service and establishing a relationship with them. It’s not the selling, but everything that leads up to the selling.

I think the best application of right view is to understand what you are really in business for and what you are really selling. I have heard this before as applied to selling drills. They really aren’t selling drills, they’re selling holes. The hole is what the buyer really wants. So ask yourself what they buyer is really buying from you. Are they buying a painting or are they buying something to fill that blank space on their wall? Or are they buying an image that they want to portray to their friends and guests? Or are they buying what they think is an investment? When I sell my marketing book, am I really just selling a book or am I selling new customers to the person who buys it? Or are they buying the security that comes from thinking they have covered all of their bases? This question has to be answered as thoroughly as possible and the answers will provide you with a much clearer view of what you are selling. Be honest with yourself about what you are really providing. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers you get, then maybe it’s time to think about why you are selling what you are selling.

Next up… Right Intention.

Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

Online marketing has to go. How many of us are sick to death of all the shallow, mindless marketing we see online today? You know the kind, the headlines that are ripped off time after time and start with phrases like “How Many People Want to Earn $1000/day…” or “7 Proven Methods…” and so on and so on. Or the long page sales letter that keeps you scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and contains more and more outrageous claims the further down the page you read and then throws testimonial after testimonial at you and then when you finally get to the bottom… you have to click on BUY NOW to even see how much it costs! What is even more disheartening, these methods have been tested time and again and seem to be the proven way to get the most results. And who doesn‘t want to make more money?

I have tried these methods and used them over and over again. At the end of the day, I felt terrible. I knew I had wasted my time and my client’s time. I may have had results, but at what cost? I decided to tone things down. I cut back on the hype, I cut back on the promises. I tried to deliver the best product possible at a reasonable cost.

It wasn’t enough.

Over the course of my life, I have tried to live a good life. I have determined what values are important to me and I have tried to draw a line that I don’t cross. Some of these values are honesty, humility, understanding, and trying to give more than I take. I realized that I was not doing that with my approach to marketing. I was still using the same methods that everyone else was, just toning things down a bit and fooling myself into thinking I was somehow following a higher path. I have not been following a higher path, only deluding myself.

I have had enough. I am cleaning house. Everything is getting set outside while I sweep the place out and I will then approach marketing from a clean and grounded perspective, a beginner’s mind. Only those marketing principles, ideas, and techniques that fit into this perspective will be allowed back into the house. The rest will be taken to the dump and left to rot. Hopefully, several new ideas will come along to replace the old ones. At this point, I do not know for sure. I am eagerly looking forward to this blending of my spiritual and business lives. In the end, they cannot be separated anyway. Tomorrow I will start posting the outline of my ideas.

I also want to thank all of you who read my little blog and share your thoughts with me. An especially big “thank you” goes to Diane Clancy for sharing all of her conversations and insights over the past few weeks. I feel blessed to be part of this online arts marketing community and look forward to our new conversations.

Peace my friends,
Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

Tomorrow I leave on a two-week road trip back to Minnesota and I may not get many chances to add to this blog. I will have daily internet access, but will be on a fairly busy and tight schedule. Since I also keep a personal blog at peacefulbirder.com, I may send you over there for updates unless I have something specifically related to marketing to share.

The changes afoot are related to my thoughts about marketing as a whole and about the more spiritual aspects. At first it may seem like those two have nothing in common, but there is and should be a stronger connection. These ideas have to do with “right” marketing and will apply the Eightfold Path to marketing. This will not be an attempt to push Buddhism on anyone, but rather a way of applying the wisdom of Buddhist thought to our marketing efforts. After years of hype-filled and pushy marketing efforts, I am ready for a change… are you?

Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

The biggest mistake that most people and businesses commit is to make a sale and then move on to the next customer, never attempting to maintain a relationship. The person most likely to buy from you is a former customer. Think about it. You spent a lot of time and energy wooing that customer and establishing a relationship of trust. They went on to buy from you and have even more trust because of how you handled the sale and because of the quality of the product. Do you really want to just throw that all away?

You still have the customer’s contact information and you would be surprised by how many want to be kept in the loop. Continue to send them information about you and what you have to offer. Offer them incentives or even a percentage of the sale if they refer another customer to you. Help them help you to spread the word about you. Offer them additional solutions to the same problem or other problems that might have. Never assume that you are done with that customer and that you can leave them behind.

Make sure you keep track of each and every customer and all of their contact information. Stay in touch!

Read the book!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog

Please do not confuse the kind of website that I have just talked about with a gallery website. Having simple websites that address specific customer problems with a clear call to action are important, but do not replace a well-designed gallery-style website. It is important that you have a tasteful website to send certain customers, galleries, and journalists to.

If you need an outstanding website go to www.chrisobyrne.com

I take on very few new clients and my prices are a reflection of the quality of work and service that you will receive. My special for readers of this book is $75/month which includes a complete customized design, unlimited service, and my full marketing program. (My normal fee is $100/month.)

Another great option is by programmer and former national art gallery owner, Clint Watson. Clint Watson and his company have a website service called FineArtStudioOnline that does everything you can think of for an online gallery. He makes it extremely easy to put up the typical pages and features (Bio, Contact, Links, Articles, Galleries, Portfolio, Books, Exhibits, Workshops), plus allows easy uploading and resizing of pictures. You can then arrange these into galleries and the number of pictures you can upload is determined by which monthly plan you are on. Even better (in my opinion) are all the marketing tools available. You can integrate a blog, have a signup for your own newsletter, view your site’s analytics, and, well, tons more that you have to see to believe.

Normally, you get a free 30-day trial period when you sign up. If you are reading this post, I have a special deal for you that I arranged directly with Clint. If you click on this link to go directly to FineArtStudioOnline, you will receive a 120-day free trial period AND he will throw in a copy of a teleseminar he did with Alyson Stanfield called “How to Be an Online Art Magnet” which also includes a 19-page ebook that goes into even more detail than what was covered on the teleseminar. I listened to this seminar live and it was worth every penny I paid for it. Now, just by signing up for a free 120-day trial of FineArtStudioOnline, you can get it for free.

Read the book!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog

Unless you are dealing with high-ticket items that require several points of interaction between you and your potential customer, you should have your product online and easy to purchase. What constitutes a high-ticket item? That varies depending on the individual, but a good rule of thumb is any price starting at $200 and up.

If your product is of a relatively low cost ($19.99 or less) and that is all you are offering, then you can probably have a direct link to purchase your product. I would bypass the pink spoon (free sample) altogether and go straight for the sale. You do not, however, want to have only a brief description of your product and then expect them to buy. Include your whole sales letter and make it as long as possible (at least one full page). It has been tested time after time and long sales copy always sells more than short sales copy. Beef up your presentation with an audio clip. Better yet, include a video clip where you can talk directly to your customer. Remember that you are educating your potential customer, not trying to sell them. Yes, you want to sell them your product or service, but you want to do this through educating them and solving their most pressing problems and needs.

If your product or service costs more than $19.99, include the pink spoon. This adds one more step in the trust-building process and greatly improves your odds of making the sale.

This is also a good time to talk about the funnel process of selling. The basic idea is that you provide a series of steps, each of increasing committment, that helps the client build trust in you and your products. The first step is to entice your customer with a free taste, something that has perceived value to them. Next, offer them a product of lower cost, anything up to around $29. And so on and so on. There is a lot of leeway with the number of steps and the price points of the products, depending on what you are eventually hoping to sell.

There is not much more to add to this because this is supposed to be a simple process. Have a direct link to purchase your product or service and do not send them to another web page or make them call you first. On the other hand, many customers prefer to talk directly to you, so have a phone number that they can call if they want to. Even in this age where more and more people are buying directly online, there are still a huge number of people that prefer to talk to you directly. Remember, you want to make it as easy to buy from you as possible and that means being available by phone.

Read the book!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog

The following advice applies to eBay auctions, your eBay store, your Etsy store or any other online art venue. Your title is your headline, make it a compelling “grab ‘em” offer. If you have a subtitle, load it up with your niche’s keywords. Make your content more than just a bland description of your product. Use the keywords and phrases that your niche is looking for and make it clear how their problem will be solved by buying your product. Use the same considerations as you would for your website.

For example, if I wanted to sell photographs on eBay, I would not just list some of my better prints. Even using the extras, such as the gallery picture and a border, they are probably not going to sell. When I do a little research, I see that most of the photographs selling are either vintage photos or photos from photographers with an established name. The others are a mix of erotica (which always seems to sell) and informational photos. I found a listing for a photobook of pictures of the Mississippi coast, before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Photography is every bit as much an art form as painting, but for some reason you see far more paintings in personal art collections than you do photographs. Since we are focusing on selling our art, let’s talk about what will sell. People are hungry for information. I would research and define a niche that had a specific problem or need and then create a product to fill that niche (sound familiar?). The photobook of the before and after photos of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction definitely targeted a niche. Most of the people buying these photobooks are people that were displaced from their homes and felt the destruction on a personal level. Sure, they lived every day with memories of before and after, but they had a psychological need to have that documentation in their hands.

Erotica fills another psychological need. One example I found was a man selling photographs of his wife’s feet in black fishnet stockings and stiletto heels. I’m sure this would offend the sensibilities of some people, but that’s not who his niche is. The people in his niche are buying these up!

The possiblities for niches and needs are endless. Look at your current work and think about what you might create and think about possible problems and needs that you can satisfy. Spend a day brainstorming and writing ideas down and then sift through those ideas for what you connect with. Research what is selling on eBay and all the other venues. Stay creative and several possibilities will come to you.

Read the book!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog

One question that I have been asked is how to stand out from the crowd when you are dealing with an extremely crowded venue like eBay or Etsy. Accomplishing this is not much different from standing out in the crowd of artist websites that exist out there. There are thousands and thousands and you need to do something or you will sink in mediocrity. What will save you is your ability to target niches and market directly to them. Even if the customer is browsing from picture to picture, you can still stand out from the crowd.

eBay gives you several options for auctions that you should take advantage of. (This will make more sense if you are familiar with selling on eBay.) When setting up the description for your item, always use a gallery picture. This is the small picture that appears to the left of your item description when people are browsing categories or searching for items with your keywords. Also, always use Bold, and always use a Border! These two, along with using a gallery picture, really help your item to stand out from the crowd. The other options depend on the price of your item. A good rule of thumb is to stay at 50% of your profit or below for the total of your extras. (By extras, I mean things like the gallery picture and using a border and a bold font. There are others that you can purchase, but the price goes higher.) If paying $39 ensures that you sell an item for a $200 profit, it seems like a good deal to me.

Read the book!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog

Before you start the sixth step, wait one week. Give them time to read or listen to your message and absorb it. After a week, continue your role as a problem solver. Help them decide if your product or service is best for them. Sure, you could just tell them that your product is best, but all that accomplishes is to put up warning flags in their mind. You want them to view you as a problem solver, not a sales person.

Think of how you would feel if you were presented with an offer to solve a pressing problem, perhaps where to take your car to get the windshield fixed. You go to a website where they start out by relating to your problem and sharing a similar situation that they went through. Then they present a solution that you may never have thought about before. For example, they might ask “Have you ever thought about repairing your own windshield yourself?” Oh, now that’s intriguing. You send an email to [email protected] and receive a short report that talks about a product that you can use yourself to fix that ding in your windshield. It includes a list of testimonials from other people like you that have had success with this product and then offers a coupon for a 25% discount for first-time buyers.

Now let’s say a week goes by and the company still has not heard from you. Chances are, you either have not made up your mind yet or you have decided that this solution is probably not for you. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get a little more information to help you decide? You then receive a personal email from someone at the company who writes:

“Hi, Chris. I noticed that you received my report on how to fix your own windshield. I know this solution isn’t for everybody, but sometimes it’s hard to know. I might have missed something when I talked to you about it, so maybe you could help ME out. What is it about the product that you are not sure about? Better yet, what would be the ideal solution for YOU? Would it be better for you to have somebody else fix the windshield? Would it be best to have somebody come to you and fix the windshield right there in front of you? Please help me out and send me an email at [email protected] and let me know what your ideal solution would be. Thanks, Bob”

If you are interested enough, you will send that email. Bob has also set it up so that when you send that email, you are automatically sent a list of frequently asked questions and their solutions. Bob (or his assistant) will then go over those emails and get back to you personally. If he is not able to provide the solution you want or need, he then goes on to offer advice on who could, even going to far as to send you to another company’s website or give you their address and phone number. Now THAT is problem solving!

Read the book!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog