Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Marsh Palms
2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
acrylic on index paper
Mounted on 4x6 inch mat board

See my paintings HERE

Painters Tip

I wanted to share excerpts from this excellent article written by Larry Fredricks, contributor to the Early To Rise Newsletter. I changed a few of the words to relate to artists and left out some things which were not relevant to artists. Early To Rise is an excellent resource for business and marketing.


Postcards Are Not Only for Travelers

By Larry Fredericks

One of the most common reasons that people give for not trying to start a new business is the fear of losing a lot of money. This reason is not foolish. When you're playing with your financial survival or that of your family, you've got to act responsibly. Yet, as you probably know, starting your own business is one of the best ways to become wealthy.

So how do you get past that fear of losing money? Easy. Start the business by doing postcard mailings.

I've used this technique to start several profitable small businesses, so I know from personal experience that it works. And - besides being very inexpensive - one of the best things about this technique is that it's so versatile. Almost any service and quite a few products can be marketed by mailing postcards.

There are some distinct advantages to using postcards to market your art or services:

• Postcards are much cheaper to print and mail than full-size sales letters in envelopes.

• Postcards don't have to be opened to be read by your potential customer.

• Postcards are small and easy to handle, so you can do a test mailing with a few thousand of them yourself.

You can print and mail out 1,000 postcards for about $300 to $350. A small test mailing like this to people in your target market will give you a good idea of whether your ideas will be successful. If you get a two percent response rate, which is not crazy at all, you could have 20 new customers. In the direct-response marketing business, a two percent response rate is generally considered good. (Note: Your response is partially dependent on how well you identify your target market.)


Once you see that your postcard marketing effort is working, you can mail out more. If you get the same response rate, now you've got another 100 new clients - and the foundation of a thriving business. And the great thing is that you only risked a few hundred dollars to test it. Plus, to keep building your business, you can stop doing the mailings yourself and use a mailing house to get you bulk-mail rates and volume-based discounts.
If you want to try a postcard mailing to test your art market, these are the basic steps:


• Write some strong marketing copy for your postcard.
Most important is to have a powerful headline that offers a desirable benefit. In the body copy, support the claim made in your headline, and then close with information on exactly how you can be reached. (For a local business, providing a phone number is usually best.)

Don't clutter up the postcard with too much copy. Four or five bullet points stating the most important benefits of purchasing your art or service is plenty. Most of the time, you shouldn't have more than 100 words on your postcard.

• Format the copy so it looks good.
Either use an inexpensive software program to do it yourself or hire a graphic artist. Any office supply store will have several programs for under $50 that can help you design a postcard that looks professional. Once you have it designed, save it as a PDF or Word file. Then you and someone you trust should proofread it carefully - several times, because it's easy to miss minor typos.

• Hire a printer.

As long as you live in a well populated place, you won't have any trouble finding plenty of options for printing, though you'll probably want to use a place like Kinko's or Office Depot that specializes in small printing jobs. It's good to shop around a little, because prices can vary greatly.

It's customary to make a deposit when you place the order and pay the balance when you pick it up. Since the printer doesn't make a profit until you pay in full, you're unlikely to have any problem getting your job done quickly.

Before the postcards are printed, make sure you review a proof of the final copy to make sure they're going to look exactly the way you want them to look.

• Drop your postcards in the mail.

Keep in mind that the reason you're doing it yourself is because you want to do a very inexpensive test of your business idea. Once you know it works, you'll be able to hire someone else to take care of the stamping and labeling so you can spend your time painting.

A postcard campaign can be a very effective and low-cost way to sell paintings. With only a few hundred dollars at risk, almost anyone can afford to test the waters.