Test Market
Test, test, test.
Test everything thing you do to see what brings in the most sales and visits to your website.
Test new headlines on your e-mails, blogs, Tweets, or product descriptions to see if they bring in more sales.Test bigger photos of your art; show more than one picture of the painting -3, 5, 7 or more? Does more photos sell your art better? Test it.
Test free shipping. Offer it for a day or week or month and see if it brings in more sales.
Test a new social networking service to see if it brings in more sales or opportunities.
Test a new design on your website: Change where you put the link to your shop on the page: top left, top right, middle or where best does it get the most clicks.
When exhibiting your art, test if framing sells more or test different types of frames or sell your art with no frames at all. Does one way help sales?
One time I was showing art at a restaurant; no sales. So I put little signs on each painting: “You can buy this art and take it home with you. Please ask your waiter”. Suddenly the art started selling. Test new things, you would be surprised what suddenly heats up sales.
At our art show booth, we would stand in the booth and wondered why no one was coming closer to see the art, so we stood outside of the booth to the side and people suddenly started coming in. We realized people saw us as a gate blocking the entrance and felt intimidated. If things aren’t working, try something new.
Most blogs and webs services offer statistics on your website; use them to check how many people are visiting your website before and after your testing.
Always test everything you do to see what brings in more traffic and more sales.
Do you have an example of trying something new and it helping your business?
May 15, 2009 at 1:21 am
Great advice and it just so happens that I have spent all my spare time in the past few days doing just that. BTW I’m not your typical artist, I do paint and love that but have branched off to aeronautical; design to create a “flying mobile”…a “ring-wing glider” called Skyaak.
That is my real passion project and I would appreciate a visit to http://www.skyaak.com Let me know what you think.