Email marketing 

8 creative works found

• so, how are we going to....
  by stevewellsphoto

  well, again, this place is great. a cool community of talented artists. but the thing that we have here, unlike flickr, myspace etc, is t…

  well, again, this place is great. a cool community of talented artists. but the thing that we have here, unlike flickr, myspace etc, is that there is the real possibility of putting food on the tables of these talented artists here. / so, how are we going to do that? / how do we do more, than pat each other on the back, and say well done? i think most of us here are not the ones with the money to actually buy this stuff. / so, what’s the plan? / how do we invite the people out there that actually have the money to buy art, to come play with us? / maybe it’s a matter of sending that email to your friend, who runs that construction company that has 400 new offices to decorate, or the bell hop who lives next door who works at the new fancy hotel that needs some real art in it’s $3000 per night suits, or coding redbubble so that every time someone looks for porn they end up here? or talking to that girl that runs that tee shirt shop who is always looking for new stock? i don’t know, just some ideas, and i’d love to hear yours. excuse the rant, it’s 5.45 am, i work in a couple hours, you know, that 8 bucks per hour job that supports my habit of making photos. take it easy / steve

• Suggestion to RB Marketing and Code Teams
  by Stephen Mitchell

  Idea for RB team: Multiple choice email-types for sending photographs to friends, family and clients – from both portfolio owners (_hereo…

  Idea for RB team: Multiple choice email-types for sending photographs to friends, family and clients – from both portfolio owners (hereon known as “Artists”) and people who want to advertise work that is not their own. (hereon known as “Advertisers”) Currently the only option is for Advertisers. It would be great to have an option for Artists to use to send a particular work from their portfolio to announce a new arrival into their gallery. I’ve spend a few moments to compose some emails that might be suitable. / ie / Yep, that’s right: I uploaded this photograph to my RedBubble photo-gallery – and just had to share it with all my close friends. Take a look, buy what you like! / (OK, a bit presumptuous with the suggestion to ‘buy what you like’, but hey, sometimes that’s what it takes!) Another suggestion for an email-type that we’ve uploaded myself, with a bit more pizazz! RedBubble. Australian. Artists. Sharing. Showing. Selling. / You are invited to take a look through everyone’s gallery. / See what you like, Buy it, Delivered to your door! / Here is one example of one of the many great artists… Anyhow, you get my point. / Step01 has two radio-buttons to tick one if you are an artist or an advertisement for an artist, Step02 is both sections of Step01 having 3 radio-buttons for different types of emails. / Etc… DISCLAIMER / I hereby hand over all words from this post to the RB Team to use as they please. I do not ask for payment should the words of the posting above be used in further advertising of RB. But if they were to buy a few of my photographs, framed, that would be nice.

• A copy of the email I sent today
  by Jo O'Brien

  Hello to Ears Wide Open! After reading a lot of discussion in the forums I would like to present my proposal to you. I am based in Mel…

  Hello to Ears Wide Open! After reading a lot of discussion in the forums I would like to present my proposal to you. I am based in Melbourne and am very seriously committed to renting a stall at a couple of markets to sell RedBubble Artists’ work and promote the site. I currently manage an art gallery that sells prints and originals on commission and have a strong understanding of what is involved to make this idea work. Rather than just throwing it up as a suggestion, I have included a suggested plan so that you have something tangible to discuss. I think the market stall idea has a lot of merit and could potentially grow into quite a lucrative endevour as well as being a huge promotional tool. It is a way of tapping into Melbourne’s art culture which is heavily concentrated in street stalls, markets, garage sales and small independent galleries. The benefits include increased membership on the site through being visible to Melbourne artists at their predominant place of work and increased sales through order taking on site at the stalls and through increased online patronage. Anyway, on to the plan! BubbleMarket Plan Interested artists will complete a form through the RedBubble website to register their interest in participating and agree to the consignment and payment terms. I will agree to sell their work on consignment only. All care (in fact heaps of care) but no responsibility will be taken for artists work at the stall or in transit. In the interests of keeping it simple and reasonable for a 1-2 person stall, I’d suggest a standard mark up that all submitted work will be sold at. We would have to keep prices competitive with “market” prices. I would add a small surcharge to all sales to cover my time and labor to be negotiated. Artists’ biographies, catalogues or portfolios are more than welcome if artists will post them to me. I would like to promote the individuals along with their art. If you can give me a catalogue with order codes/numbers and a cordless EFTPOS machine (even an old Click Clack one) I will take orders on behalf of RedBubble.com. If taking orders to be posted I will need all relevant info regarding postage costs to add to the order price. If I am using a Click Clack machine I will not use it for ‘on the day’ sales where the artwork is taken. Stolen cards will be declined long after the customer has gone and you are trying to deposit into the RedBubble bank account. Artists would order their own work at the base price. It would be really awesome if we could arrange to have it all end up at RedBubble Fitzroy and I’d pick it up in one go. On the day I’ll keep a meticulous list of sales and stock so I can track who is owed what money and generally account for the whereabouts of all stock. I do a fair bit of bookkeeping for our three galleries and am competent in tracking dollars and cents! At the end of the day or on the next business day I would return all unsold stock to RedBubble along with the cash. It would be great if you could pay people via the usual method. Unsold stock could be posted back to artists or kept for future markets. Expenses Summary : / -Renting the stall and perhaps a display table / -Posting unsold artworks back to artists ( I will make neat piles for you) / -Appropriate display equipment such as clear, hard backed, display files/slips to prevent damage / -Carbon Invoice book for recording sales and providing receipts / -Promotional material –lots please / -Labor to organise artwork prior to market day / -Labor to organise payments and postage after market day / -Labor associated with creating and printing a catalogue I’d be asking RedBubble Admin to help out with: / -Letting me collect artwork from Fitzroy in one go instead of 50 people posting stuff to me / -Pay artists and deposit cash (I will provide sales lists) / -Supply a click-clack or other portable Credit Card/EFT machine for catalogue orders / -Provide postage price information for catalogue orders. Contingency Planning: / -Select a market with under cover areas because artwork and rain do not mix and bad or windy weather would equal cancelling / -Have 1-2 other people available on the day in case I get hit by a bus, my car is stolen etc. / -Ensuring all artwork available for sale complies with copyright laws I have tried to cover all the main bases here but have probably missed a few things that will be blaringly obvious to others. Perhaps lets discuss it properly because I am really prepared to back this idea and make it happen with a bit of your support. BubbleMarket could become a regular event and a HUGE promotional tool for RedBubble and all the great artists we are so lucky to have on here. Do not hesitate to give me a call in or outside of business hours to discuss this idea further. Jo O’Brien / jo.obrien@hotmail.com

• 

  .com
  by Lisann

  Twelve little computer-internet designs.

• Post me some comments please
  by Thomas Proszowsky

  See my blog http://artandfaith-john.blogspot.com/

• Creating a Subscription E-Mail List with Burnt Feeds - (Pt. 2)
  by mingtees

  Or – Why Blogger and not MySpace, Content, and other ways to make money with your feed. So you have your nice burnt feed, and you have…

  Or – Why Blogger and not MySpace, Content, and other ways to make money with your feed. So you have your nice burnt feed, and you have it plastered everywhere you can. But there’s more, what about content? Why Blogger? etc. Well, MySpace is maybe fine for MySpace. But first off Blogger gives you a bigger reach than you may have with just your sites and networks, via blog groups, pings, blogrolls, linkbacks, etc. Any blog book can explain this stuff for those who don’t already know about it. But there’s more. Ads: / One thing that makes MySpace blogs look crappy is all of the ads on the page, especially at the top. Anytime anyone clicks on that ad on your blog page, the advertiser pays a price per click, which goes right to MySpace, not to you. On Blogger, you have the option to sign up for AdSense, which is content driven (ads are triggered by keywords), and there are plenty of other ad providers you can sign up with as well, many where you can pick and choose the ads you want on. I have actually opted not to do this for now, as i’m trying to focus on content sales, ie t shirts, not have people click out on ads. But another option – you can keep the ads off of the front page, and instead run ads on just your archive posts. Just wrap these tags around the code snippet AdSense gives you – < ItemPage > </ ItemPage > . Good enough. Content – Affiliate t shirt and other sales / One reason i resisted Blogger for so long, other than the fact that I’m no writer, is that i didn’t want the pressure of posting on a frequent schedule. Because you do have to post with some regularity to not drop off the radar. And if i posted primarily new designs, well, i’ve done around 4 over the past 3 or 4 months. And 2 or 3 of them sucked and were just site filler. But it’s an ideal situation to post other people’s shirts and stuff to generate content, reviews, and make a few bucks from other people’s stuff. It’s easy with Zazzle, you don’t even have to have a shop there, just an associate’s account. They pay 15% = volume bonuses, and there’s cut and paste code. RedBubble – Please an affiliate program! There’s such great work on here! Amazon.com / This is the thing about MySpace that really gets stuck in my craw. If you have a blog there, of have seen anyone else’s blog posts, often you see those thumbnail icons with “currently reading” or “listening to” of “watching” or whatever. (I read a lot, like a book a day, and not Barbara Cartland. And i have lots of other books to recommend, photography and art books for design references, poetry, literature, etc.) Click on that link, and it takes you to the Amazon.com page for that item. If someone actually buys it, Amazon pays a comission (i think around 4%). But, that comission goes to MySpace, but on your blog content, and your recommendation. Tacky, sleazy, low rent, cheesy. (sound familiar?) / But with Blogger, you can sign up for an Amazon account yourself, and any book, DVD, CD, or whatever you blog and recommend, you just add your code that they give to the end of the item page link url, and if anything you recommend sells, you get the comission. You probably won’t get rich, it will most likely be a pittance, but better you than MySpace getting it. / You can also get associate accounts from Ebay, Imagekind, Art.com (who i refuse to promote as they gouge to pay their artists too small a comission). / Please RB – affiliate program! If anyone is interested in ths sort of thing, i have lots of other info and tidbits about feeds, For example, Zazzle allows tailored feeds, so i created a category in each of my shops there called “New and Featured”, i have a feed for that category on my Facebook pages, and everytime i make a new shirt and put it that category, it shows up on that feed, and people can subscribe to it (but not by email).

• Creating Subscription Email Lists with Burnt Feeds (Pt. 1)
  by mingtees

  I’ve been doing a lot of research on using rss feeds and blogs lately, because marketing degree notwithstanding, i hate marketing. Espec…

  I’ve been doing a lot of research on using rss feeds and blogs lately, because marketing degree notwithstanding, i hate marketing. Especially the obnoxious spam and invasive type, i hate getting it and i hate to put it out. But i have weird niche markets, so i can’t really scratch my butt and wait for people to find my stuff on MP’s or find my website either, the type of people that like my kind of stuff don’t really shop at the big POD’s, so i have to either find them myself, or put my stuff in a place where they can find it. So i have been looking for some ways to reach them via non-invasive marketing techniques. E mail marketing is kind of great for busy people that like your stuff, but don’t have time to check out your site every few days to see what’s new. And there are problems with the usual ways of using email marketing. / One way is to use the email function like the one that CafePress offers. Problems – brand spam, content control. And one for me – i have a shop there, but i don’t have them on my website, in fact, at CP I have all outward bound links to my sites spammed all over my header on all pages. / Building your own email list is another option because you have control over content, but it’s a LOT of work, cgi scripts or a paid service, people have to visit your site to opt in, and more importantly, a lot of people probably don’t want to provide their e-mail due to privacy and spam fears. / Which leaves a better option. What if you have a lot of sites, a lot of shops, and in addition to designing t shirts or artwork, you have decks and shoes and posters at Zazzle, you’re in a band, you’re a writer or a photographer or a website designer,you run marathons, and you support a favorite charity? So you want to include a lot of this info in your mailing list as well. / A blog with a burnt feed is ideal for this. You just start a blog where you post your content, new designs, sales and promos, and any other info you see fit. Burn your feed, then you have the html generated to post anywhere you like, not just your site. Profiles, myspace, facebook, other shops, even in your email or posting signature. So if someone suscribes to your feed by email, they simply get an email everytime you make a new post. Simple as that. / And it’s pretty simple to set up too. You’ll have to get an account at either Blogger or MySpace, unfortunately those are the only 2 options. I very highly do NOT recommend Myspace for this purpose, for many reasons. The blog looks like crap, you may not want to send people outside of MS there, and most importantly, MS makes money on your content that should by rights be yours. More on that later. / So first thing is to get an account at Blogger and set up your blog. (It’s free and simple.) Then make your first post or two, maybe an intro post, and then one of maybe a new shirt design or new artwork, or a sale or promotion that you have going on now. Good enough! Then click on the feed suscribe button to get the feed url. (it will say “feeds” in the url there somewhere). Copy that from your browser, and hold onto it, you’ll paste it elsewhere. / Then go over to Feedburner to burn your feed. Paste the feed in the place provided on the home page. Then create an account, and claim your feed. If successful, click on the “Promote” tab, and select the options of publishing a chiclet for subscription, and then on the offer e mail subscription. The html is cut and paste, and there you go! But one more thing – go back to Blogger click on “settings” and then on the “feeds” tab. Here you’ll have to enter the url that Feedburner will give you to redirect your subscriptions there. So this is what it looks like – I have to give you my MySpace page, as that’s the only place i’ve pasted it so far. And yes, my blog looks like crap too, i just set it up like 2 hours ago. Asian Tees on MySpace Look for the links on the right under that blob of text under the Asian Tees banner, and right before all of the images.

• Using Email Marketing to Sell Your Art
  by selling

  Email marketing is a powerful tool that should leverage your existing relationships with family, friends, previous customers, clients, an…

  Email marketing is a powerful tool that should leverage your existing relationships with family, friends, previous customers, clients, and acquaintances to create awareness and sales. You can also purchase email lists that are targeted to people that are apt to buy art or apparel (corporate art buyers, retail shop owners), however, the fastest way to lose credibility is to send a bulk email to strangers without providing context, purpose, and pointing out an immediate benefit to the recipient. Always ask yourself what job the email is doing for the recipient. What’s the benefit? OK, you’ve decided to send a mass (aka bulk) email. Now what? 1. Identify your mailing list / Your list can be your webmail contact list, an export of your computer’s address book, Apple or Outlook Address Book, Palm Contacts, etc. Members interested in buying lists should ping me via Bubblemail. Don’t be dissuaded by a small list of just a few people; email marketing works based on list quality and not the total size of the list. Email marketing can be as simple as sending an email to previous customers from your Gmail account. 2. Segment your list / Divide your list in order to test several groups. You can segment the list by sales potential, e.g., purchased from you in the past six months, inactive for six-plus months, new prospects (new to your list and never purchased art from you), etc. You could add a second qualifier if you have the patience, e.g., purchased a t-shirt from you in the past six months… or you could just go the full monty. 3. How will you mail? / This is the juncture at which you will decide if you’re going to send the email from your webmail, personal mail, or if you’ll send email using a bulk email tool. There are many free and pay-per-use bulk email tools online. A few names include Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Master, SubscriberMail, ExactTarget, etc. Look for a service that does not charge an up-front fee, little or no monthly fee, and that charges less than a cent/penny/pence per email sent. Why use a third-party email tool? a. You preserve your personal email address’ white label status (favorable view) with Internet Service Providers – making it unlikely that your address will be blocked due to an email blast. b. These tools provide templates that make email creation very easy. Some tools make adding content to an email as simple as “drag-and-drop.” c. The third-party will manage your unsubscribe and spam lists, so you won’t need to remember who wanted off the distribution list. Similarly, some services allow you and interested parties to add subscribers using a form; you won’t need to manually add subscribers. d. Third-party tools often include reports that will show you how many people opened your email, how many clicked through (and on which links), as well as unsubscribe and “spam” rates. 4. What to write? / Perhaps you dislike the “hard sell” and choose to send an editorial email that targets everyone in your list. The content of this newsletter could focus on: a. New work / b. Artwork in process – a behind the scenes peek at upcoming work / c. News about you and your work, e.g., recent shows, groups, charity work / d. Photos of you and your studio – or other personal images / e. A short, witty anecdote, etc. lead-in If you’re interested in creating a merchandised (sales-y) email, consider: a. Keeping the copy short and the calls to action obvious. Don’t make clicking through to your RedBubble page hard for the reader. / b. Capitalize on seasonal trends or life cycle events. Holidays are a great reason to talk about your work. / c. Readers love of collections, e.g., art for shared spaces, pop culture t-shirts, landscapes, etc. / d. Show lots of pictures, but keep the file sizes small. If you use Photoshop, use the “Save for Web” function and tweak the JPG quality so that images are small yet attractive. / e. Make any incentives obvious and put them in both the Subject line and at the top of the email newsletter. E.g., if you’re having a sale, offering a free item with purchase (free digital downloads are nice; e.g., wallpaper, printout), etc. 5. Subject line time / Subject lines make or break the number of people opening your email. You can get crazy and send the same email content – using different subject lines – to similar audiences and then measure the different open rates (the number of people that opened each email). My best advice is to include an offer in the subject line (if an offer exists). Otherwise, keep the subject line short and to the point. Humor and personality helps if it’s not obscure. Want to know if your email subject line is too obscure? Send a test to a few friends in the target audience and ask for their opinion. 6. Prepare and test / You’ve got your list, created your email message, and chose a distribution method. Next, paste your message into your email client. If you’re using a third-party tool, load your content into the template you’ve chosen. The only other note I have here is to send a test email to multiple email clients. For example, open a Gmail account, employ Apple Mail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc. if possible. Send your test email to make sure that you like the way it looks in each email client. Some third-party tools will show you a preview of your email in multiple email clients (for a small fee). Here are the email clients used by RedBubble members: 25.0% use Yahoo! Mail / 15.0% use Outlook 2000, 2003, Express / 13.0% use Apple Mail 3 / 10.9% use Hotmail / 9.6% use Gmail / 5.8% use iPhone 2.0 / 3.1% use Apple Mail 2 / 17.5% use All others combined 7. Time to send / Good luck. Spell check, recheck, and check your copy again. Then push that send button and be sure to record the results. Basic stats include: / a. Emails sent / b. Emails opened / c. Clicks from the email to your artwork / d. Number of sales – both transactions and total dollars A next step would be to monitor the lifetime value of the customer, e.g., how many sales, dollars, etc. started with that one email. I’ve probably rambled on far too much, but I hope that this article got you started and provided a few new thoughts, tips, and tricks that you’ll test in the near future. If you use email marketing to sell your art, please Bubblemail me or add your anecdotes or pointers below. Oh, one last thing. If you have blog, you might want to look at FeedBurner.com as way to automatically email people each time you post a new blog entry. Feedburner provides the opt-in (sign up) form and automatically distributes the email for you. I can see that many members also use Feedburner through Blogger.com, and feature a link to these feeds and newsletters on their RedBubble Profile Pages and personal blogs, e.g., Jordan Clarke / thickblackoutline / and Stephen Mitchell among others. If you already create articles about selling art, please point us to them below. More information about selling your art can be found under the Selling member name. Regards, / Jason