Your email list is your biggest asset, because it is an owned channel. In other words you have control over what you say, and how often you say it. This article will delve into more detail about what the implications of this are.
The best thing that can happen from a single post, apart from a purchase of your work, is gaining email subscribers because they will get your email every single time you launch work in the future. Whether they open it or not, that is a different matter. The artists we work with have open rates running from 25-70% and more. With the best open rates you can get three quarters of your email list seeing your content every single time which is way more reliable than what happens with social media posts.
The conversion rate for a print sale from email is much higher than from an Instagram post. We have identified a reason for that. We don’t know where you are when you see the Instagram post which means you might not be in a place that’s convenient for you to go and think about buying a piece of art, and a social post might be forgotten once you scroll past it. But when you get an email and you open it, it doesn’t matter where you are because it’s in your inbox and you know where to go and find it again and you are likely to see it again when checking your email, and therefore be reminded of it.
Let’s say you see the social post when you’re on the bus, going to a party or something. You’re not going to be buying a piece of artwork at that point, are you? It’s highly unlikely. But if it’s an email that you saw, you will think of checking that on Monday morning when you’re back at your desk. Then on Monday morning you open your inbox and there’s the email reminding you that you really like that piece. And you decide that you’re going to buy it then and there. So email is more persistent in your field of view and therefore your email list is your biggest asset. You should be growing that relentlessly.
Giveaways help in building your email list. We’ve tested it and the data is in. We recommend giving away a print, a Polaroid or an original artwork or sketch. Basically it has to be something personal. And you say that you’ll select someone at random from your email list in the next week or 10 days to send the giveaway item so sign up to my email newsletter and you might win this amazing thing. And if you’re not lucky enough, you’ll get some great content from me. That’s how you do giveaways. The data is in and giveaways lead to really good sales.
