A minute of your time from my business person's hat.....
I attended a fine art show yesterday with a lot of great vendors and artists present. I had fun looking over the new and innovative business concepts there.
One vendor I visited had been in business for 5 years and when I asked where their guestbook was so I could sign up for their mailing list, he gave me a blank look and said “Gosh, we don’t have one!”. Since it was the first day of a 3 day show, I suggested he get out some paper right now and start collecting names, and I was the first one on that list because I really liked his product.
I cannot stress how important keeping a list of contacts is and to add to that list continually and persistently. Even if people don’t buy something from you today, if they stopped to see you whether it’s online or in person- there was some sort of interest and they could very well buy something from you in the future.
My 10 plus years experience in consulting small businesses has shown me that if you persistently and consistently promote to existing publics (meaning people who have purchased anything from you in the past no matter how small), as well as constantly add new names of new publics and promote to them- you will get a return. The average good return is 1-2% from my experience, so if you want to get 20-40 reaches a month then you’d better have a list of at least 2000 names and keep the list maintained and consistently promote to it.
My motto this month is in fact “WE ALL NEED BIGGER LISTS!”
So, let’s all get out there and promote and flourish as business people who are artisans!
Michele Ross / Artist and Artist Advocate
