Getting people to connect with your art

Another blog that I read on a regular basis is the one for Satsuma Press, written by letterpress designer, Lynn Russell. There’s one blog post she wrote a couple months ago that I’ve found particularly interesting:

Well, I don’t know if I should be telling you this because I’m not sure what it might indicate about the kind of person I might be … but faced with many stacks of paper waiting to be printed {see above}, I decided to do the math on just how many passes of the press these 2009 calendars are going to take. Let me tell you, it’s a lot. A LOT.

Here’s how to add it up. There are 14 pages in each calendar: 12 months + a front cover + a back cover. I am starting with stacks of 405 pages for each of those 14 pages. {Why 405? Well, it was going to be less, but I admit that my brain has been operating at a little less than 100% these days so I ended up ordering more paper than I needed … so I figured I’d just print what I had and this is the magic number.} Of those pages, there is yet another break-down according to how many colors per design.

Lynn goes on to figure out the total breakdown which comes out to a staggering 21,880 passes of the press!

In this post, Lynn does a couple of things:

1. She illustrates in pretty concrete terms, how much work is involved in the creation of her calendars.

2. She increases the value of her calendars in the minds of her current and potential customers.

While people might know “mentally” that handcrafted work takes a lot of effort, the idea really doesn’t connect unless people “see” it in a crystal-clear way. For some people, you need to provide concrete numbers, kind of like how Lynn broke down the work to the amount of “steps” it took. With other people, describing the process is enough to make the connection. With others, they have to actually see the process in action. And still others don’t truly appreciate it until they actually “experience” the process.

So how do you get people to make the connection for your work?

• Break the process down step by step. You don’t have to get into specifics like what your glaze recipe is or where you source your materials if that’s proprietary information. But describe what’s involved in your creative process and do it in quantitative terms.
• Make a video or a slideshow of you at work. Provide ongoing commentary and closeup detail shots of your works in progress. Post these photos, slide shows, or videos to Slideshare, Flickr, or YouTube
• Blog about your works in progress and provide media such as photos and video to illustrate milestones of your progress.
• Invite and answer questions about your work and your creative process and post them to your blog or a “Frequently Asked Questions” section on your website. If you get a lot of questions on a regular basis, you may consider creating a feature for reader’s questions on your blog. Getting people personally engaged with you is also a great way to get them more connected.
• Teach. The saying about walking a mile in a man’s shoes is true. Consider teaching some of your techniques by writing downloadable tutorials, making how to videos or slideshows, or by teaching a live class. Every year I teach a class on how to make these fairly “simple” beaded chain bracelets. Every year I get students who take the class with ambitions to learn how to make these items as gifts for their family and friends. And almost every year, I get a less crafty student that says, “You know, maybe I’ll just buy from you instead of trying to make this myself.” Even among my more handier students, they respect the process more once they learn how to do it, especially once I explain how many of these bracelets I average per year*.

  * Incidently I’ve also found this to be an interesting response to the irritating, “I could make that!” comment so frequently heard at craft shows. When someone says that, my response usually is, “Well, I make about X amount of these a year and I want to expand to more. I could use more help.” It’s a gentle reminder to these wanna-be artists that making 1 item and making 100 isn’t as easy as it seems. Most people seem to make the connection in that context. At least no one has taken me up on the offer yet!

• Have a story. People interested in art are interested in the artist. I wrote about how important it is to have story earlier this year, and it’s an important thing to remember because Lynn’s customers don’t buy from Satsuma Press, they buy from Lynn Russell. So even when you’re quantifying how much goes into your work, make it clear that there is a story behind it and that small part of you also goes into it. And that makes the ultimate connection.

You read the rest of Lynn’s post here. And be sure to visit here website at www.satsumapress.com.

Tagged as: art marketing, selling art online, selling crafts online, web site content