Tip of the Day

So, after spending the last week searching for artists, and then searching even further for their email addresses to contact them, I find myself wondering, why is this so hard?

Finding artists isn't always that difficult, but to find a small handful of artists whose work I really like it does take the better part of the day.  I can't help but think of this from a buyer's perspective - I was just looking for general artists, nothing too specific, but I know from experience that when I am looking for a particular piece, it gets all the more complicated, and time consuming.   Anyway, more about that later, but after compiling my list of artists whose work I think would be an incredible fit for Alere, I went searching for their email addresses to send a quick hello and introduction to Alere Modern.

Out of the 243 artists that I wanted to contact, I was able to locate 143 email addresses - about 58%.  Not bad, but not great either.  And it really left me wondering why not put your email address in your blog? Somewhere in your shop announcement?  On your website (of all places!)?  

It's not that I don't understand the rationale  - I do. You don't want little bots sneaking into your website, getting your email address, and sending you information about Viagra. I understand this because I get more Viagra ads than I can count.  But there are ways around it.  One favorite seems to be to use [at] in place of @, so my email would become caitlin[at]aleremodern.com, or even caitlin[at]aleremodern[dot]com.  Another is to use an image with your email address, rather than putting it in the text itself.

And the reason to do it is simple - because if people have to work to hard to find your work, or to contact you about it, they're going to give up. I will defintiely contact the people that I found email addresses for to see if they are interested in selling through Alere Modern, and I may contact some of the people who I didn't find email addresses for (through their marketplace sites) but I only give that about a 50/50 chance, and to be honest that is generous.  Some buyers may give up more easily, if they don't want to create an account or be bothered with checking one more place to see if they have a response.

It's just my two cents.  In my experience, actually publishing your email address gives your potential buyers (whether they are retail, wholesale, or something else) a convenient and comfortable means to contact you.  It also sends the message that you are a legitimate artistic business, and that there is a real person behind the virtual shop curtain.

Happy Sunday - enjoy the sunshine (or snow, depending)!

Caitlin