Tips and Tools for Promotion of our Shows
Why do members need to help promote the Shows? After all, the Club does paid advertising; it promotes the Show through electronic noticeboards, the Club’s website and Facebook pages, posters and signage.
All true. But that is just the start. As a non-profit, volunteer Club, we have limited resources for costly paid promotion, and rely on the commitment of ALL Members to get the word out about the Shows, and broaden the reach of our message to attract more new buyers and new Members to our Club.
The more we can promote the Shows, especially to an expanded and younger audience, the more art sells, the bigger and better the reputation of DVAC and its artists, and the more good artists are attracted to the Club.
Whether Members are in a Show or not, they benefit.
The Club has put together a comprehensive package of information and support for Members to make it easy and effective for you to promote the Shows. The following is packed with tips and tools to help YOU help the Club to sell YOUR art.
1.Invitations: The number one way to get people to the Show is to ask them!!! Invite people by email, snail mail, personal visits. Click here for a sample invitation for the upcoming show.
2.Your Home and Community: The Club produces a limited number of eye catching lawn signs for every show, which our research shows are valuable tools to promote the show. If you have a sign, watch for announcements by the Show Committee about getting the “topper” for the upcoming Show with the correct dates, to attach to the sign. If additional signs are available for a show, the Club will let Members know how to get one.
The Club also produces colourful posters and cards to help Members promote the show. Take them into your own community and ask the businesses and groups that you visit to put the poster in their window, on their bulletin boards or at their cash desks.
Think of all the places you go every month — your hairdresser, green grocer, car garage, restaurants, community centers, gyms and coffee shops. If you live in, or near, an apartment complex, ask if you can put the poster on the notice boards. Getting the posters out into the community is one of the best ways of advertising the Shows, so try to get as many out in your part of town as possible. Click here to see the poster for the upcoming Show. Professionally printed copies of the poster and smaller cards are available at the Club. Get them out there!!
3.Facebook/ Social Media: Are you on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter? Do you have your own website? If you don’t already have a link on your website to the Club’s excellent site, see #4 below to find out how to do that.
If you are not on Facebook yet, consider signing up. Facebook is one of the most powerful communication tools ever devised! Millions —- yes, millions — of people use it every day to talk to their friends, and to find out what is happening in their world that is of interest. Like a new art show, perhaps!!!
The Club has produced an excellent tutorial to help you get on Facebook. It’s easy to join, and it is an increasingly important way to help the Club promote the sale of Members’ art at the Shows. The full video of this tutorial can be seen on our Facebook page, under the video heading. Click here to get to our Facebook page.
If you are on Facebook, make sure you SHARE our Facebook posts with your friends, and also create an EVENT on your page for the upcoming show. The tutorial explains how to do this.
4.Link to the Club from your Website: If you have a Website, you can set up a link to the DVAC website. If you have the technical knowledge to edit your website, add a link onto your website using the following html code snippet:
<a href=”http://www.donvalleyartclub.com”>Don Valley Art Club</a>
Or, if you have a website administrator, just send him/her the above code snippet along with instructions of where you would like to see the link, as well as any extra text such as ‘I have been a member of the Don Valley Art Club for xx years’.
5.Newsletters: You likely know people who regularly produce newsletters — real estate agents; your church; your school associations; professional groups etc. They are always looking for ideas and content, and have a reach to new audiences who may not know about the Club and our shows —- but are interested in art, and have blank walls! Click here for a suggested notice that you can send to newsletter writers you know. It includes all the information on the show in a graphic, ready to print form. Plus— there is a link to the blog pieces on our website which cover topics like “5 Ways to Build an Art Collection”. You can also send a copy of the show’s poster.
Remember — our Club is a volunteer, non-profit group. The Show Committee and the Publicity Committee work very hard to promote every Show and to showcase and sell our artists and their art. But we do not have unlimited resources. Members must help promote the Club and the Shows in the community if we are to continue to have the kinds of successful Shows that we love.