Why Creating a Website Will Benefit Your Printmaking Business

Welcome to my blog on printmaking and all things related.

Creating a website to promote your printmaking products and services will increase your exposure and allow the following to occur;

• Constant access-from anywhere, anytime.
• Keeps your audience updated with the latest information
• Increases knowledge and awareness
• Builds buyer confidence
• Gives confidence to the prospective customer
• Direct sales provision for customers to buy your printmaking products
• Promotional provision to present background information to clients, curators and journalists

The most common type of artist website is a brochure type site that talks about who, what, where, when and why. If you choose this option make sure you have an autoresponder to capture the name and email address of the person visiting your site. Offer a free newsletter or report in exchange for their contact details. This way you can market to them for future exhibitions, a new product range, artist workshops etc.

Once your website is created and offering a range of benefits to visitors there are a few points to continually monitor and evaluate,

• Make sure you are getting the correct message across at all times
• Your website  is easy to navigate through
• Your  home page is quick to download/open
• Your website is kept up to date with the latest news and product information

Creating a website will benefit your printmaking business and can be a fun and playful way to promote your art.There is no need to spend ridiculous amounts of money for an effect website. 

To your printmaking success,

Warmly,

Jo Lankester

Creative Income Coach

P.S Get a FREE report of the 7 Secrets to Building a Sustainable Printmaking Business.
www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you.
Jim Rohn

Effective Websites for Artists and Art Groups: Second Edition

How to Understand Your Printmaking Audience

Welcome to my blog on printmaking.

Understanding the arts audience will allow you to identify your target audiences easier. People engage and become interested with art for all sorts of reasons and bring varying levels of experience, knowledge and expectations to their engagement.

People engage with art because it offers them real benefits. Focusing on the benefits that your printmaking products offer will help you to identify and clarify who might be your target audiences. Highlighting the benefits within your marketing mix will help sell your printmaking products from the onset, establishing a relationship with your target audiences and influencing their thinking.

Think about what benefits your printmaking products could give to audiences, some benefits could include:

• pleasure
• investment value and commercial profit
• decoration
• interest
• life style association
• work place enjoyment
• status
• entertainment
• commemoration
• passion
• cultural identity

The art world also offers some barriers to engaging with art which can lead to people buying non-legitimised art, such as furniture, design objects and mass produced prints to satisfy their needs for aesthetic stimulation. Some of the barriers of engagement may include:

• exclusiveness
• elitism
• feelings of inferiority
• feelings of feeling intellectually or financially inadequate
• money

By applying these benefits and possible barriers to your printmaking products, you will be able to identify new target audiences and develop creative ways of reaching them

To your printmaking success,

Warmly,

Jo Lankester

P.P.S Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.

William Wirt

I'd Rather Be in the Studio!

Who Else Could be Your Target Audience?

Hello, thanks for reading my blog on printmaking.

This post is a continuation into the discovery of reaching your target audience and I pose a question; who else could be your target audience?

As artists we need to start thinking like marketers when reading the local paper. Look for what is going on in our community for special events, markets, trade fairs, open days etc and identify different customer segments for each event. Find a niche customer interest base and within these segments focus right down on it.

Think through what you have to offer and identify customer segments. For e.g. Townsville will be hosting a V8 Super Cars race in a couple of weeks offering a niche market of car enthusiasts, I am looking at what prints I have in stock that relate to this clientele base and make these prints available at art and craft markets during this time. The limited edition prints could be of a variety of subjects for e.g. cars, landscape and city scenes of Townsville and Magnetic Island or I could make something specific for the occasion.

You may find other target audiences through making your printmaking products available through,

• Commercial Galleries
• Retail outlets
• Public or regional galleries
• Hotel  & Motel lobbies
• Art Critics
• Art magazines

To your printmaking success,
Warmly,
Jo Lankester

P.S Unearth more profits you deserve www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
William James

Jo Lankester
Stone lX, 2010
Sugarlift, Aquatint
12 x12.5cm
$90.00 AUD



© Jo Lankester 2010

Progressive: 7 Ps of Marketing

Hello and welcome to my blog on printmaking.

This is the final post about the 7 Ps of Marketing; Progressive.

Continuous improvement is essential to building a sustainable printmaking business. Apply the X10 upshot to everything you do, from you printmaking to your marketing and everything in between.

Always ask yourself;

•  How can I make this ten time more effective? 

Applying the X10 upshot to everything you do provokes you to think about the 'what if's'. It forces you to think of alternative options which may even be ludicrous at first.  The X10 upshot may even be a springboard into a profitable outcome.

The X10 upshot helps you ask yourself how I can improve this by 1000% which is very important to your success.

The best time to ask the X10 question is in the conception state of your artwork and imagining the outcome. This will help you identify your target audience right from the start.

The X10 upshot can become a habit of its own; apply it to any part of your life. Challenge yourself to a 30 day challenge and ask it 100 times a day, repeat X10 100 times a day for 30 days. Where ever you are apply it to whatever you are doing, and it will happen.

Keep asking the X10 question; install this way of thinking (software) into your brain for incredible results.

To your printmaking success,

Warmly,

Jo Lankester

P.S At Last....Make Money Doing What You Love www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

Jo Lankester, Echlin St Quarry 2.40pm, 2010, Etching Aquatint, 60 x 80 cm $270.00 AUD
© Jo Lankester 2010

People: 7 Ps of Markting

Welcome to my blog.

People are a critical component within the 7 Ps of Marketing.

Who are the people involved with your printmaking products of services?

Take the time to answer this question and list all the people who are involved in producing your work or are recipients of your services. for e.g. Commercial gallery owners, public gallery directors, gallery staff, collectors, art curators, art lovers, workshop attendees, friends, fellow artists, art supply shops, and graphic designers.

All the people that come into contact with you during the production of your work are people who potentially can be creative partners to help promote your exhibition, products or services. The more people you creative partner with will increase your audience.

Creative partnering is a fabulous way to promote your products or services with another persons database. This exchange can give you positioning, as discussed in an earlier post, and exposure to brand new audiences.

Happy printmaking,
Warmly,
Jo Lankester

P.S Are you wanting to know how to get started in printmaking? Go to www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Earl of Chesterfield

Jo Lankester, Echlin St Quarry 2.25pm, 2010, Etching Aquatint, 60 x 80 cm $270.00
© Jo Lankester 2010

5 Key Elements to Position: 7 Ps to Marketing

Welcome to my blog about printmaking for a discussion on marketing.

Position is the 5th element to the 7 Ps of Marketing for printmaking success.

How do you think you are perceived in the marketplace and within your community?

Positioning is a perceptual place where your artwork and services fits into the market place. Effective positioning will put your printmaking products and services in the minds of your potential customers first.

Positioning is a powerful tool that allows you to create a perception of how you want to be perceived in your reputation as an artist and for the quality of your work. Positioning yourself can lead to personal fulfilment. Being positioned by someone else restricts your choices and limits your opportunities.

That's why it is important for artists to transform their passion into a market position. if you don't define your printmaking products and services, your contemporary printmaker will do it for you. Your position in the market place evolves from the defining characteristics of your printmaking product. The primary elements of positioning are:

• Pricing: Do you price your printmaking products to reflect the place in which they are available?
• Quality: Is your printmaking product well produced? Are your editions consistent in print, labelling and do you guarantee the edition number is limited to a specified number?
• Service: Do you supply your customer with a certificate of authenticity and an artist biography and statement? This will increase the long term benefit for the investor and to contextualize of your work historically.  
• Distribution: How do your customers receive your printmaking products? Is the artwork delivered in an appropriate time frame? Your distribution is an important part of your positioning.
• Packaging: How well have you packaged your printmaking product. Can you guarantee it's safe arrival damage free? 

I have de-constructed the term positioning into the key 5 elements for you to employ in your marketing strategy.

To your printmaking success,
Warmly,
Jo Lankester

P.S For a free report on building a sustainable printmaking business go to www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S At least three times every day take a moment and ask yourself what is really important. Have the wisdom and the courage to build your life around your answer.
Lee Jampolsky

Jo Lankester, Echlin St Quarry 2.10pm, 2010, Etching Aquatint, 60 x 80 $270.00 Edition 10
© Jo Lankester 2010

5 Low Costs Ways to Promote Your Printmaking: The 7 Ps of Marketing

Hello, thank to taking the time to read my blog on Printmaking.

Today's post is about the 4th P in the 7 Ps of Marketing, Promotion.

Where do you promote your products and/or services? This is a critical question for you to answer in your success to building a sustainable printmaking business.

Promotion can be a costly exercise for any artist especially if you are on a low budget living off the smell of an oily rag. That's why thinking creatively and using a promotion mix to suit your budget will increase your exposure and profile giving you credibility and respect as a successful artist in your local and online communities.

Step 1. Elevator Statement
I have discussed in an earlier post, to more detail, the importance of having an elevator statement. This is a business term given to describe a short concise and compelling statement about you and your printmaking business in the time that it takes for an imaginary elevator ride of two floors.
Personal Networking is another free way to promote your printmaking business, exhibitions, services and products. Take advantage and use your elevator statement at exhibition openings, artist talks, parties, functions and any time your are mingling with people in a social situation.

Step 2. Press Release
Write a press release and email it to your local and national media groups and if written well could result in great media coverage. Here are some suggestions for places you could send your press release to.

• Local TV stations
• Local Radio Stations
• Newspapers
• Local Art Groups
• Creative Free Lance Writers
• Magazines

Step 3. Social Network Sites

Using your online social networks to promote your exhibitions, workshops and latest printmaking achievements can work in a vial marketing effect creating amazing results for the very low cost of your Internet connection.

Step 4. Database

Emailing you database regularly is another fantastic tool for promotion. Emails keep you in contact with your target audience educating and nurturing the existing relationship you have with them. Sustaining a thoughtful relationship with your target audience creates trust and increases the possibility of future sales.

Step 5. Business Cards

Business cards are a great low cost way to promote your printmaking business by exchange of physical information. Your business card can increase your sales and professional opportunities at art fairs, seminars, and for other business opportunities including commissions.

These five hot low cost tips for promoting your printmaking will get you closer to achieving your financial and printmaking goals.

To Your Printmaking Success,

Warmly,

Jo Lankester

P.S How to build a sustainable printmaking business today www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com 

P.P.S Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Penland Book of Handmade Books: Master Classes in Bookmaking Techniques [PENLAND BK OF HANDMADE BKS]

Place & Distribution - The 7 Ps of Marketing

Welcome to my third post for the 7 Ps of Marketing, Place.

So far, in the previous posts on the 7 Ps of Marketing you have been given valuable tips to clearly define your product and tips to help you price your work. Today you will discover Place and ideas of distribution for your printmaking products.

Where are you products or services available from? Write down your answers and try to think of all the additional places your work could be available for sale.

By increasing the amount of places you have your printmaking products available you increase your opportunities for income getting you closer to your goal of running a sustainable printmaking business sooner.

Think outside the box to come up with creative partners who could help you sell your work. Listed below are a few suggestions to get you thinking.

• Your own Internet Website 
• Facebook
• Public Gallery-exhibition
• Commercial Galleries-on consignment
• Art & Craft Markets
• Retail Sector
• Development Sector
• Architect Firms

I have shared with you my thoughts on the importance of distributing your work in as many places as possible so you can build on this list for your own financial freedom.

To your printmaking success.

Warmly,

Jo Lankester

P.S Discover the secrets to running a sustainable printmaking business from your home studio at www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.

Socrates

Simple Printmaking: A Beginner's Guide to Making Relief Prints with Rubber Stamps, Linoleum Blocks, Wood Blocks, Found Objects

7 tips for Pricing your Printmaking Products and Services: The 7 Ps of Marketing

Hello, thank you for joining me in my second post revealing the secrets to the 7 P's of Marketing.

Today you will discover 7 easy tips for pricing your prints and services,

First of all what do your products or services currently cost? Write your costs down to give yourself a clear break down of what you are spending and need to recoup in the effort to making a profit from your printmaking.

Every printmaking artists is faced with the challenge of pricing their work either for exhibition, website, eBay or the local market, to mention just a few. All of these environmental factors need to be considered as each location will be priced differently, you will need to adapt your product range accordingly. For e.g you would not take the same work from the gallery to the market with the price reflecting the galleries commission. You should think about creating works that are suitable to the market audience and price it accordingly as your costs to present the work will be considerably different.

The limited edition print when sold out has an overall figure so the individual print prices should reflect this in comparison to a painting which is priced indicative of only one painting of its kind ever made.

Consider the following 7 tips when pricing your work

• What is the current circumstances and economic environment?
• Consider how strong the economic environment is when pricing your work as the current situation may demand lower prices due to the current economic state. Your prices can be higher to reflect a stronger economy when things pick up.
• How much are your current market costs?
• What does it cost you to produce, display, and market your printmaking products?
• What are the lawful recommended artist fees in your state to cost out your services for workshops, artist talks etc.?
• Check with your local or national government arts organisation for the award recommendations.
• Where is the margin for you, the nebulous between your production costs and your profit margin?
• Sometimes we need to look at what we consider to be our hourly rate and what is a reasonable price for the sale of our art work. 
• Location, e.g gallery, art & craft market, retail outlet, eBay, website, art fair
• Your prices should reflect the location of your audience. 
• Who is your audience?
• Determining who your audience is will help you price your work. The audience who goes to a art & craft market will most likely be different to that of a gallery.
• What are your production costs
• Factor into your price what it has cost you to produce your work to ensure you recoup this money when a sale occurs. 

During my time as an arts industry worker I was often asked by artists how to price their work. I always encouraged them to consider the 7 tips which I just gave you and in particular asked them to consider what the work cost to produce, the gallery commission and what amount of money they want after the sale. Ultimately you have to be happy with the amount of money you get in the hand at the end of the day.

Happy Printmaking!
Warmly,
Jo Lankester

P.S Go to www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com  to get your free report on building a sustainable printmaking business
P.P.S Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world--making the most of one's best.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Pricing Your Artwork with Confidence: An Extensive Step-By-Step Guide to Pricing Artwork and Fine Craftwork

5 Steps to Understanding Your Printmaking Product: The 7 Ps of Marketing

Hello, today I am going to discuss one component to the 7 Ps of marketing and that is your Product.

Your product is what you distribute to your audience. To identify your printmaking product and services you will need to disassemble what you have to offer your audience. Think outside the square to gain an understanding of your printmaking product and services.

• What printmaking products or services do you currently offer? 
• List everything you can think of.
• What is your current product range? 
• List the full extent of your product range.
• What is your core product? 
• Your core product is not just what you produce for sale, it is selling a service or an experience the audience wants. It is about what the person will experience when visiting your exhibition or website. The atmosphere which is created. Think about the intangible feelings you can provoke when promoting your work and how this will influence the audience experience. The buyer wants to take that experience with them to their personal space. They are not buying the artwork but the experience or feeling it brings with it.
• What is your formal product?
• The formal product is your prints. The composition and the organisation of the constituent elements in the work. 
• What is your augmentable product? 
• What can you add in value to your what you already offer. You can offer extended knowledge to your audience by including an artist statement and biography to view for the duration of your exhibition. 
• Think about what your offering beyond the tangible artwork. By offering intangible products within the gallery setting such as an exhibition opening,  artist talks, Q & A session, and workshops you offer social networking opportunities and optimize and contribute to the experience of the audience adding value to your artwork. 
• Additional augmented products to accompany your exhibition within the gallery setting such as a catalogue and post cards  

I have shared with you 5 steps to understanding your printmaking product. These steps will not only give you a greater understanding of your printmaking products and services, it will get you closer to your goals.

Happy Printmaking!
To your success.
Warmly,
Jo Lankester

P.S For your free printmaking report go to www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com
P.P.S Remember, happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think.
Dale Carnegie


Making Monotypes Using a Gelatin Plate

Printmaking: The 7 Ps of Marketing

Hello, welcome to my blog about printmaking and identifying your target audience.

In my recent posts I have discussed marketing principle to help you achieve financial freedom earning 100% of your income from your printmaking practice. Today I am going to teach you the 7 Ps of marketing to help you identify your target audience and reach your financial goals.

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• Position
• People
• Progressive

What I have taught you today is powerful but simple. The 7 Ps of marketing will give you confidence to market your printmaking in a contemporary art world which is a complex system. There are many paths an artist can traverse to make a sustainable living in the art world. In the coming blog posts I will break down each point to give you an even deeper understanding of the 7 Ps of marketing to help you choose the right marketing mix for your target audience.

Happy printmaking!

To your success,

Warmly,

Jo Lankester

P.S How would you like to discover the secrets to building a sustainable printmaking business, simply go to www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com

P.P.S If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

Abraham H. Maslow

Printmaking in America

Building a Sustainable Printmaking Business: Marketing

Hello, thank you for reading my blog on building a sustainable printmaking business.

Today I will discuss marketing and the relationship between you and your customer.
Some artists think marketing is selling out.....but is it? The Arts Marketing Centre of Chicago website defines marketing as the: ....the process by which you come to understand the relationship between your product and your customer.

Marketing is a sequence of processes and steps defining what you want to achieve in your printmaking business. This is achieved through knowing what you have to offer and also knowing your buyer. Building a relationship with your customer to satisfy their needs and wants by exchanging goods, services (or ideas) for something of value, a neutral exchange.

To know and understand your customer's needs you need to continually ask yourself, how can I help you? This places the emphasis on the customer's needs as the starting point. By placing particular attention on your customer you are bridging the gap between an under confident potential buyer, who most likely will not buy, and  a confident recurring customer.

A contribution to the sequence of processes and steps for marketing your printmaking business is thinking outside the square to see what else of value you have to offer and how you can create an income, e.g. post cards, workshops, market stalls, boutique shops, retail outlets etc. Through creative marketing your printmaking business will generate a steady income, build a sustainable business and satisfy the needs of your customers.

Remember: Selling focuses on the needs of sellers' and marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer.

Happy Printmaking!
To your success,
Warmly,
Jo Lankester
P.S To discover more about reaching your target audience go to www.howtogetstartedinprintmaking.com
P.P.S Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.
Wayne Dyer

Handmade Prints: An Introduction to Creative Printmaking without a Press