Use Databases to Track — and Increase — Sales of Your Work
by Carol Wissmann
hile spring still means the blessing of Gig Harbor's fishing fleet before it heads to Alaska for the summer, much else has changed in the old town on Washington's coast. A former shipbuilding site is now a public marina, a downtown mill has become the Beach Basket Gardens retail center, and the deserted Native American settlement is a public park.
Locals and tourists browse in the galleries, shops, festivals, bazaars, juried craft shows and farmer's markets that have replaced ship's chandlers, millwrights and other 19th-century industries. The new and ever-growing arts activity is wonderful, but artists and retailers also need up-to-date methods of using databases to track and increase their customers, products and profits.
Advertising artist's work
Christopher Mathie, a potter and painter in Gig Harbor, maintains an e-mail database of regional publications for sending periodic press releases about corporate commissions, upcoming classes, shows or openings, and other news of interest to his customers. "If I have a show and don't advertise, I might have 30-40 people in attendance," Mathie says. "But with e-mail advertising, I might get 200-300 people. I'm targeting interested parties, and it's free. E-mail is much more successful than a physical mailing."
Mathie also takes digital images of his work and includes that in his e-mail. "I shrink the size of the image, and therefore the megabytes, so it loads quickly and doesn't take a lot of space," Mathie explains. "That goes to either customers or galleries. I can travel to any town, pick up business cards from the galleries I'm interested in and then send them digital images of my work. That's how I landed my May exhibit at Connextions Gallery in Sausalito, Calif."
Mathie also contributes to a pooled, bulk mailing list of fliers, brochures and posters for a local Open Studio. The annual, self-guided tour features a dozen local artists who open their working studios to a weekend of art lovers. The large, foldout, color flier contains a map and depictions of each artist's work. "We all pay a $200 annual fee for advertising to about 1,200 people," Mathie says. "It's a valuable database. We limit it to those who have purchased from all of us, so it pretty much goes to all the art patrons in our area."
Some of Mathie's artist-friends question whether it's a valuable use of time to keep up-to-date databases. "If I take two to three hours and send 500 e-mails, and if even 10 attend people the show and one person spends $1,000, it's worth it," Mathie says. "Databases are one reason I've had some commercial success as an artist."
Tracking sales
Recently relocated to the waterfront's main drag, Gallery Row is Gig Harbor's oldest gallery. In business since the late 1980s, part of the store's success is due to its co-op status. Space, staffing, supplies, and rent currently are shared among 15 artists.
Linda Caspersen, a textile artist trained in Norway, displays pillows, throws, table toppers and handweaving at the gallery. "Costs are reasonable, it's low-risk, and since we've moved to this high-traffic location, and added the diversity of seven new artists, the growth in sales has been incredible," Caspersen says. "We've had a 20 percent increase since December 2003."
To maintain a mailing list of over 700 customers and bookkeeping for multiple artists, Gallery Row relies on a Quicken database to track sales. "If they agree to it, we collect the name, address, phone number and e-mail address of each purchaser," says Caspersen. "Each sale is coded to the correct artist. Our accountant comes at the end of each month and cuts our checks."
Karen Geiger and her husband show their original design, gemstone jewelry at Gallery Row. "We also use the Quicken database for postcard mailings for the gallery's special promotions," says Geiger. "For instance, each month, the gallery features one artist in conjunction with Art Walk. It brings a lot of business."
Participating galleries offer snacks and special demonstrations to shoppers who follow the footprints painted on the sidewalk. "Each month's featured artist does his or her own mailing in conjunction with Art Walk," Geiger says. "Our particular postcard showcases several of our pieces. Twice a year, at the holidays and for Gallery Row's May anniversary, we do a storewide postcard mailing. We usually offer a 10 percent discount."
Art Walk also brings a lot of first-time shoppers to Mathie's gallery and studio tucked in a less visible location than Gallery Row. The gallery features Mathie's paintings, raku pottery, and the work of other local artisans. But Mathie doesn't rely on the casual pedestrian to sell his work. "It's usually a new customer who buys my small things, but it tends to be those who've seen my work before that make the substantial $500-$1,000 purchases," he says.
Tracking customers
Both Caspersen and Geiger supplement Gallery Row's database with their own resources. Caspersen uses Quicken to produce a list of customers other than those she has at Gallery Row. During the holiday season, she mails about 700 invitations to her Norwegian Christmas Open House. The event features Scandinavian foods and textiles created from fabrics purchased on her trips to Norway.
Geiger uses Quicken to compile a customer list for her work and utilizes Excel to generate labels. "We give customers a heads-up regarding our upcoming shows, such as Gig Harbor's annual Summer Art Festival," says Geiger. "At home, we use our Excel database to track inventory, customer purchases, and totals for the year. I want to know if it's a repeat customer and I calculate percentage increases. It's important information that's not to be ignored."
Keeping the books
Mathie uses Quickbooks for his accounts. "It produces a receipt for my customers, makes my deposit slips, and tracks all my sales for quarterly and year-end taxes," he explains. "It can produce most anything with regard to income, though I don't use it for that."
But it's from his distribution lists, totaling about 800 customers, that Mathie receives his greatest return on this investment. "I enter e-mails into Outlook, and addresses for labels into Microsoft Word. I send anything from limited e-mail announcements to e-mail notifications for [the entire] database," Mathie says. "I invite them to special openings or shows, such as Art Walk or my annual Holiday Show."
With about 75-percent of his business being repeat, Mathie considers the effort spent amassing a database to be time well spent.
Carol Renee Wissmann is a free-lance writer who lives and works in Washington state.
