Stephen Mitchell

It’s not sales and marketing, it’s marketing and sales. How can you sell something before you’ve marketed it?
Anyhow, for those who thought this was going to be an expose on how to market and sell your redbubble art, you might be slightly dismayed. I say slightly because the message is surprisingly simple.

This is marketing . I plurked about my recent befriending of a fellow train-catcher that resulted in a discussion that enabled me to promote my photo-hobby.

This is sales: I sold a framed image from my RB gallery today. This is Naked Porcupine , medium, black frame, bright white matte.

For the tech-nerds at Redbubble headquarters who are saying ‘Hang on, hang on, our records show that YOU bought this from your own gallery!’: Yes, you are right, I purchased it myself. Let me explain why:

I told a handful of friends earlier today that I’d be ordering a heap of cards and shirts this weekend, and that if they wanted anything in particular to tell me the names (and style) ASAP so I could include them. Within 10 minutes, a request for the aforementioned frame was asked of me, plus a request on how it could be paid for quickly and easily without using online facilities.
I agreed to pay for it myself and deliver to its new home … whereupon payment will be made.

In closing, this is for those readers who’ve been hanging out for my usual marketing tips that bring in the sales, here they are:

1. Promote your work wherever you are:
... Including public transport, family events, football stadiums, your local pub’, and online social networking (and in this circumstance, plurk.com) .
2. When introducing yourself to new friends, tell them you are a photographer/artist/etc.
... Don’t be embarrassed to tell people what you enjoy. Even if it’s only a hobby now, a little bit of exposure might be all the push you need to make your time and energy into a career.
3. When asked to see your artwork, have it available.
... Finally having an Apple Touch is worthwhile for something more than getting email and free wifi !
4. Be prepared to buy your own work if that’s what it takes to sell your artwork.
... I have two boxes of my own cards, plus an online list available for people to choose which photographs they’d like to buy as card from me .
... I also keep a handful of cards (protected by individual plastic bags to include the white envelope within the card) in my day-bag for letting people see and feel them. Everyone wants to know about the quality of the paper, the gloss of the image and to see them in-detail.

Hope this helps you, because it all works very well for me!