The following in-depth analysis may be some of the most important advice we could ever bring you!
DOES AN ARTIST OR CRAFTER NEED A WEBSITE?
Is there a viable case to be made for needing a website?
Are there really that many people using the Internet for purchasing products?
Perhaps the real question is not, “Do I need a website?” but rather, “DO YOU WANT TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS?”
“Can a website be a benefical sales and marketing tool in addition to whatever else I may be doing to sell my art?”
Some of you may only desire the nice small part-time or weekend art or craft business where you don't really want to be too busy, nor do it all year round, and that's fine. But many of you want much more than that… You've chosen to make your living at it.
If you already have your own revenue-generating website that is doing all that you ever intended it to, and you're 100% confident that it's netting you a great return on your investment, then you don't need to read any further. You're doing fine! However, if it's not meeting your expectations, please read on...
But… if you don't have a website… and you're still content with how many customers you have and how much money you're making in your art or craft career or business, then you don't need to read any further either. You have it made already! You're financially set! You obviously couldn't stand to be any more successful at what you do. You're in the ranks of those select few who may have the perfect traditional formula 'down pat'. You're as well-known as you'll ever want to be and have no shortage of market for your art… You must have more than enough customers, and a never-ending revenue stream. Money may be no object nor great need for you. That's fantastic and we're very happy for you! Oh yah… and you're 100% confident that it's forever going to carry on like that for you? Good! You're all set for life, then!
Now… What about the rest of you?…the majority of you?
If you could stand some more customers, more biz, and to make more money at your art or craft, then please read on…
Obviously, I'm being a little facetious and maybe not, too.
Some of you haven't yet given much thought nor have any strong opinion about the need for a website. I'm about to give you some solid "food for thought" and a bit of a challenge… I do understand what the Internet is all about, what its dynamics are, and what it can do for an artist's business? I don't mean that arrogantly. It's not a matter of “What you don't know, can't hurt you...” It, in fact, can and may in the years to come. Inevitably, everyone has to face the future squarely. We live in a very dynamic and changing marketplace... Yes, even in our art and craft world here in Canada, selling and marketing your art is evolving.
We hear what many of you are voicing — "The big shows and galleries are great for some of you but not enough, for many of you." And.. "the local shows help many of you 'make ends meet' but you'd love it to be so much better than just that..." "Traditional advertising means are fine for some of you but just don't do enough for many of you, particularly those who are only starting out or don't yet have a name for themselves..." Perhaps the wisest advice is to consider ALL available means to market and sell your art. Not everyone does that... I dare say, MANY PEOPLE DO NOT DO THAT...
We're here to help you. A&CNet exists to encourage and serve you. We want to tell you how the Internet can be a tremendous help to your business. Some of you do know that. Many of you don't.
Some shy away from anything to do with the web or email... Maybe they've had their bad taste of spam and junk email and keep on hearing about viruses, and they figure it's all like that... Some are against having a website for some unspoken reason...maybe for someone else's reasons, who knows? Or maybe they've simply been talking to the wrong people and therefore getting a wrong picture…
Some are just "old school", too. They could care less about computers, and may never 'get their heads around' where the future is going and how the Internet will directly factor into it… even in the art and craft community… And they're of course entitled to that, too.
The reality is, there's simply a lot of people who have little or nothing to compare to as to what could be better for them and perhaps help them tremendously in their art or craft business. They may know about the traditional means to advertise and market their art, but the need of a website is for many, somehow still shrouded in mystery… For some, it's clouded with assumptions like… “I could never afford one…” or “My business is so small…why would I need a website?” or “My friend has one and it doesn't seem to be doing anything for her.” By the time you've finished reading this article, I'm hoping you'll have some good answers for all of these legitimate concerns as well as the falacies. It's wise to get the real facts minus all the emotion and other people's opinions before you spend any money on anything that's new to you, or that you don't perhaps know that much about just yet.
And of course, there's a growing multitude in the art and craft community who are the "seasoned veterans", the "internet-savy", who already have their own website and are netting the benefits it definitely can offer.
Every artist, artisan, and serious crafter who wants to grow their customer base and sell more of their art needs to discover what the "real" merits of a website could be for them and their own particular situation. You're all unique artists. It's always good to learn from others' experiences. But what someone else does that works or not for them, is only a very small part of the basis on which you should decide if this could be good for you.
DO I REALLY NEED A WEBSITE?
The answer is YES! Period. No question. Without a doubt.
Once you start to understand what the benefits can be, the real question changes to…
“Why wouldn't I want to capitalize on what a website can offer me?”
And I would add, “If anything can help, WHY WOULDN'T YOU take advantage of it?”
My purpose in this article isn't to present a quick overview of a few key benefits in a paragraph or two. It's to make a convincing case, present the facts, submit the challenge, and leave it for your serious consideration. Once you read this, you will KNOW whether the benefits of a website are some benefits you could use. You may acquire a whole new understanding of what a website can do for you.
THE STATISTICS
Let's first review a bit of the 'real' statistics. Then we'll look at some 'real' advantages…
Many Canadians have no idea just how many people are using the internet these days, nor how many multiplied thousands of us are starting to do a lot of purchasing on websites… Is this just a passing fad? Definitely not! This IS where the future is evolving to, whether we choose to be involved in it, or are later obliged to come on board once we realize it's definitely to our advantage.
Estimated # of Internet Users for 2005 —
It's projected that by 2005, Canada will have over 32 million people and over 20 million Canadians with Internet access. Almost 9 million of them will be regular or frequent users. (Computer Industry Almanac and Cia Factbook)
It's projected that by 2005, the United States, will have a population of over 290 million and 185 million Americans with Internet access. And of those, 135 million will be active online users. (Computer Industry Almanac and Cia Factbook)
That's a lot of people using the internet… the question is what are they all doing with it? Many are obviously browsing and seeking information, and many are 'shopping', too!
Let's break down some of the currently available stats a bit more… Unfortunately, no such Canadian data has ever been compiled for our Art and Craft Industry, or at least not yet. However, compared to other business sectors, we do know that the Art and Craft Industry is a bit of a "late starter" with regards to capitalizing on the inherent benefits of the Internet. Nonetheless, it's still very easy to see the incredible "customer potential" that lies waiting for Art and Craft Industry participants to take advantage of.
# of Internet Users in 2003 —
An estimated 7.9 million people, 64%, of the 12.3 million Canadian households in 2003, had at least one member who used the Internet regularly! (Stats Canada) Understandably, we don't have stats for 2004 yet, but based on where you see the estimates for 2005, 2004 is likely somewhere in between the two years.
Over 172 million people in the United States were using the internet in January 2003. This means that at the very least, 60% of Americans are Online! In the U.S., total online sales in 2003 were approximately $50 Billion. This is increasing by 25% to 35% every year. If you include ALL online transactions it was estimated to be closer to $100 Billion for 2003. (Nelson/Net Ratings)(BizRate)
Canadian E-Commerce Stats — How Many People Are Shopping Online?
In Canada, our population base is smaller. Households spent just over $3.0 billion shopping on the Internet according to the 2003 Household Internet Use Survey. During the year, an estimated 4.9 million households, or 40% of the total, were Internet shoppers. That is, they had at least one member who used the Internet to support purchasing decisions, either by "web-window-shopping" or by placing online orders directly. Of these 4.9 million households, an estimated 3.2 million, or 65%, participated in e-commerce in 2003, and went beyond window-shopping and placed orders online. This represents a 25% increase from $2.4 billion spent online in 2002. In total, they placed 21.1 million orders, up by 30% from 16.6 million the previous year. The percentage is increasing every year…
In terms of which provinces appear to love their online shopping the most — Households in Ontario contributed one-third of the increase in purchases last year, and represented nearly one-half of the $3.0 billion total e-commerce spending. They also placed 46% of all orders made online. Alberta recorded the highest provincial growth in e-commerce spending (+43%), followed by Quebec (+41%) with the Atlantic provinces close behind at 36% growth. Households in British Columbia were Canada's second largest market for e-commerce. They spent over half a billion dollars on Internet purchases.
Total e-commerce spending represents only a mere fraction of the $688 billion in total personal expenditures by Canadians last year. However, the stats every year confirm that households are increasingly using the Internet as a method of purchasing goods. It's surely on the rise. In the not-too-distant future it is estimated that the difference between the $3 billion and $688 billion will narrow quite significantly…time will tell.
So what does all this mean to your art or craft business?
The short and long of it is that the Internet is here to stay.
Both Canada and the U.S. are experiencing a similar ongoing explosion of new internet users and increasing e-commerce numbers every year. I dare say, the day will come in the near future when having some kind of online presence, such as a website, will be as crucial and important to the success of one's business as having one's business license… It will never be the 'be all and end all' but it surely contributes significantly to improving one's business…
If the stats keep climbing the way they are, and e-commerce popularity increases as it surely will, it will be foolhardy NOT to take advantage of marketing and selling your products on the net… It is inevitable to consider doing so if you want to access a broader market and maintain your customer base in the years ahead.
Those who jump in sooner than later, take early advantage of the Net's benefits versus those peers who are still using only the ole' traditional means of marketing, advertising, and selling their art works.
Ready For it or Not?
Like it or not, the Internet has become a new marketplace and an economic force that must be considered. Dollar for dollar, it has already proven itself to be one of the most cost-effective means of advertising, and sales and marketing for many businesses. When you comparatively put your calculater to it and 'do the numbers', it makes great "Dollars and Sense"!
If the Internet truly "IS" Information, as many say, then I humbly submit that the two biggest advantages in having a website are are "Accessibility" and "Cost-Effectiveness".
The Internet is rapidly becoming the "library" and "shopping center" of choice for finding information and products and services, particularly unusual or hard-to-find info or products and services, and especially for those living in small towns or out in the country. But no matter where you live, it's certainly easier and more cost-effective to locate most products on the Net than it is to spend hours traveling from place to place looking for exactly the right thing…
Almost 20 million Canadians have access to a computer and the Net these days… at work, at home, librairies… just about everywhere… 9 million of them do it FREQUENTLY! Did you know that 71% of computer users go online to search for information or research products and services for their area rather than using a local phone book?
If you want to access this growing base of online Canadian customers, YOU NEED TO BE ONLINE, too. The question isn't IF they'll find what they're looking for, but where it will be found and how much effort it's going to take to find it. Customers want the easy and quick answer… The convenience of going to one place to get those answers should not be underestimated.
If you don't have a website, you're losing potential sales to artists and crafters that do. Online shoppers don't first look for places to do their online shopping, in phone books… They search online… And, if they're not finding YOU, WHO are they finding instead? Your competitor who is showcasing all his products on his website?
Does that mean they won't ever look in a phone book or use some other means? Oh, they may… But they may not even need to, nor get to that point, as they're likely to find what they're looking for on the Net, long before thinking to look elsewhere…
Even if your art or craft business is small and you sell products or services you don't think can be sold online, you may want to reconsider. The beauty of the internet is that there is very little that can't be sold online. If you can imagine "it", there's always someone who will figure out how to sell "it" online… OR…you can wait till someone else does it and gets the customers first…
Let me clarify something — I'm NOT saying that you should put all your sales and marketing efforts ONLY into selling your art or craft on the Internet. However, if your product could be showcased and sold online, you certainly should be considering it as an additional means. You should, at the very least, have a presence on the web so that customers and Industry peers and acquaintances can quickly and easily find out more about your business and your creative talents and art work.
Making a good impression ALWAYS HELPS
Let me make a seemingly contradictory but qualifying statement… “It's not enough to just have a website.” There's no magic that automatically happens by owning one just cuz' it's a good thing to do… You must have an attention-getting, professionally designed, search-engine optimized website if you want to be taken seriously. A website will always speak volumes about your business and your creative heart. It either says, “Hey, look, we take our art and craft so seriously that we have created this wonderful website for our customers!” or it screams, “Hey, look, I let my 14-year-old nephew design my site and it cost me nothing!” Your website is personal and can say more about you than just about any other advertising or marketing medium. A website becomes a very important representation of your business and personal "reveal", and has to be treated as such.
Since many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase at a local retail store, your website may be the first chance you have at making a "best" impression on a potential buyer. If your website looks like it was designed by a 'one-style fits all', 'yester-year', so-called designer, who does this 'on the side' and whose biggest claim is that he'll save you all kinds of money, your chance at making a good first impression will likely be lost. There's a glut of those who claim to be web designers nowadays, but not everybody can create an excellent high-traffic, revenue-generating website for you that will net you a significant return on your investment dollars! You have to make sure you find a designer who can put your art and heart into a website that you'll be proud of.
One of the great things about the Internet is that it has “leveled the playing field” when it comes to competing with the big boys and girls… They've perhaps been around for awhile and you're maybe just beginning to 'catch your stride'. You have an excellent opportunity to make a great impression. With a well-designed website, even the smallest of art or craft businesses can project the image and professionalism of a much larger and experienced business. No matter what size your business may be, there are more than enough customers out there if you can only 'reach them', if you can only be some of the first names that come up when they're searching online for your kind of art or craft…
Making it easy for your customers to buy from you HELPS EVEN MORE!
Just as there are that many different kinds of businesses, websites can come in all styles and levels of design and functionality. As an artist, artisan, or craftsperson, you would have a lot of your own creative ideas for a graphic look and layout, and the content for your website. A good designer should be able to create exactly what you'd like. A website may be used to simply tell people about you or show them your art… But if you understand what the power of the Internet is all about, and you want to satisfy them once they like what they see on your site, you'd be wise to incorporate some e-commerce capability… It's a proven fact — Make it easy for customers to buy your art, and you will sell more!
The "Real" Benefits of Having Your Own Website
When I see web designers offering a short list of 10 main advantages or something to that effect, I understand why there's still so many people who have misconceptions or hesitancies about having their own website. Any list of "real" benefits would be surprisingly longer, not just a trite Top 10 bullet points… The following 25 Reasons are what easily comes to mind. I hope this gives you a more thorough overview of what a website could do for you. I sincerely hope it gets you thinking seriously about whether this could be a great way to grow your own art or craft business.
As you will see, web design and marketing go hand-in-hand... Ideally, you WANT to work with a web designer who doesn't just design sites... You want to work with someone who understands "your bigger picture" and who creates a site for you based on your particular customer demographics and your own unique marketing attributes. A website is only one key part in an overall marketing and business development strategy to help your art or craft business grow. The best designers will consider "everything" that should be considered in your "success equation".
25 KEY REASONS TO HAVE YOUR OWN WEBSITE
- To Help You Sell More of Your Art or Craft
You know 'how'and 'where' you already sell your art. Many of you would like to sell more or find some new ways to do so, some new venues or some new markets, and more customers. All of the following benefits of having a website contribute toward this. If your initial desire in a website is only to get some additional exposure, everything is still just as applicable and valuable, and prepares the way for the next obvious step. However, if you're not initially thinking it's yet necessary or beneficial to offer the ability for customers to directly purchase your art from you, you should consider doing so sooner than later. It's just going to make it that much easier for your customers, and that can only help you, if it helps them!
BETTER INDUSTRY EXPOSURE
- To Establish a Presence and Increase Your Customer Base
A website allows you to have your own unique identity and “home” on the web. It allows you to even have your own “shopping center”, in a new online market that previously may not have known you even existed. A website can be found via many more ways than just by someone knowing what your website address was beforehand… That's the beauty of what search engines can do for an effectively designed and optimized site… A dynamic website with regularly changing or added content of interest can reach out to as large or targeted a market as you desire.
If you are an artist, a craftsperson, own an art-related business or offer related services, having your own website gives you credibility and marks you as a serious and dedicated professional. A website usually indicates that you're not just doing this occasionally as a hobby on the side… It typically separates those that are the occasional crafter from the more serious craftsperson, artisan, or fine artist… an important distinction.
A website can enable you to promote your business utilizing many cost effective and free advertising avenues on the internet which can enhance your Industry presence locally and abroad, if you desire.
- To Increase Your Industry Exposure
Since the Internet is a place for both targeted and 'random' encounters from buyers and galleries and event promoters looking for new artists, a website can help an artist's career.
It can be an excellent means to alert collectors to new works you have completed.
It can be an ideal way to make yourself and your art portfolio known to galleries and/or stores.
A website can be used to network amongst your Industry peers, the general public, vendors, suppliers, galleries, and anyone in the art and craft Industry.
A website could include a community Forum that can serve as a virtual nexus or meeting place for creative people of like interests from all over the world, or any part of your art or craft circle. These people might not otherwise know each other or have any impact nor beneficial influence on one another if not for the Forum on your website which enables them to meet, talk, share information and experiences and help one another. A forum can generate a ton of traffic and exposure for your website, as well as create a 'community' of like-minded people and potential customers.
- To Showcase and Promote Your Business
A website can provide a 'showcase' of everything you want to offer the public, in one easy-to-navigate location. It can be home to your own personal gallery and permanent exhibition of your work.
A website is constantly "Open for Business" promoting your art, illiciting interest, and potentially generating direct sales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It can even be designed to handle orders without your direct involvement, so it truly can be meeting customers' needs at any time of the day or night.
- To Enhance Brand Awareness
Having your very own domain name and website address establishes strong online "brand identity"… meaning…YOUR identity, who YOU are… YOUR ART, and unique talents…
A website also allows you to set up email addresses specific to your own business. (Many people partake of the 'free' email services on the net… No wonder they receive never-ending spam and junk email…They've set themselves up for it…) With your own website, effective means can be integrated to ensure the minimum to complete elimination of this sort of nuisance. With email being the most common way to communicate efficiently with the rest of the world, you want to ensure that it doesn't become it's own monster. With your own website, you can communicate without the added intrusive 'nuisance baggage' of free email service providers or even your own internet service provider. You can have unlimited email addresses, unrestricted file transfer, and a host of other benefits that make the communication process much more effective and trouble-free.
Any other correspondence via your website and other 'offline' business commications can be likewise 'branded' with your own unique identity and logo, etc. You can also reiterate this in all your email communications, other correspondence and marketing materials, etc.
- To Reach A Highly Desirable Demographic Market
A website allows you to 'tailor' your 'sales pitch' and offering to your own particular target market in the best way possible. There's no limits to how much you can do with a website in meeting the unique needs of your customers.
Because it is a much more flexible medium, you can use it to showcase or purvey any other medium to better market your art. It allows for unlimited creativity in terms of how you might want to present your art or craft or anything else that interests you, via written materials, or perhaps e-books, online art lessons, images of your art, sound or video files, etc. There's very few limitations compared to traditional advertising media.
- To Reach The Media
A website can garner particular attention and lots of it! It all depends what you want, and what you have built into it, to do so. It can be a most effective tool in your arsenal to reach 'the media', at large. More credibility, a more well-known reputation, and increased Industry presence, can be realized, and seen by others more readily. A website is simply a great vehicle and online "Press Kit" for communication, presentation, and 'putting your best foot forward' in the most practical and highly visible way.
- To Provide the Ideal Platform For Your Own Personal Self-Expression
You're an artist...a creative individual. Customers don't just buy art, they like to understand and appreciate and "make the connection" with the artist and his creations...
A website is the perfect medium for self-expression. It can be totally unique and matched to your own personality and desires and mandate on behalf of your customers. You can have unlimited tools at your disposal to create exactly the kind of website and online presentation of your talents and art, that you'd like to.
It's a travesty when you see an incredible artist who's seemingly 'boxed in' by some limited small venue or gallery presentation that only gives a hint or sampling of who the artist really is and not their full scope and talents. A website won't limit you... You can do what you want in the best possible way to express your artistic passion and your own artistic world and 'frame of reference' that you want to draw others into.
A website can truly be a platform to "unleash the artist" and to market themselves without restraints. Some web designers will try to slot you into 'one style or one size fits all' kind of websites... But the best designers know how to create a site that can be an "open canvas" for you to express yourself online to the world at large, just as freely as you would in your own studio as you delve into a new creation.
- To Get An Edge On The Competition
Normally, the worst reason for doing anything is “because everyone else is...” or…“it's supposed to be a good thing to do.” However, if you're marketing or selling your art work and you are NOT advertising where your competition is advertising, (in this case, the internet) you'll find yourself missing some business (though you may not have realized it).
I always find it amusing to talk to an artist who says he's not concerned at all about the competition whilst on the other hand he tells me how he'd love to be having more customers and making more money… The fact is… YES, even in the art and craft realm there is always competition, whether you consciously acknowledge or directly compete with it, or whether it happens unbenouced to you. Anytime someone's looking for the kind of art you create and they buy from someone else, it means you've lost to a competitor (who are often those artists you're not necessarily even aware of).
If you do not yet have your own effective website, your competitors, other artists and serious crafters, may already be gaining substantial market share for the kind of art you create. They may be gaining the leading edge over your business due to their existing presence on the web.
I've said it before, many of you have had little to nothing to compare to as a reference point, but what you don't know or don't employ in your sales and marketing 'arsenal' can definitely hinder or harm you (if you only knew what business could have been yours but went to the other online artist…right?)
NO matter how large or small or how 'niche' your style of art may be, YOU may not be able to afford to be left behind or contented with your status quo.
Reality Check — The point is this, if you had a website you could at least access that ever-growing massive online market that you currently are not. Remember…they're shopping in some different places than where you art may be found. And, if you have no online presence you may not be paying attention to them. While you don't, others definitely are. I humbly submit, YOU DO HAVE LOTS OF COMPETITORS, you just may not be thinking you do, or that it matters…
BETTER ACCESSIBILITY — UTTER CONVENIENCE
- To Reach Your Local Market or Specialized Niche Markets OR To Open Broader Markets
A website can be tailored to reach a specialized market or smaller customer group. Some artists and crafters are content with a smaller business and catering to the local or seasonally-active market only…and that's fine, too. A website can still give you the greatest control and means to 'max that out' most effectively, too.
But… if you're looking to expand your market to the regional, national or international scene and have much greater sales potential, the internet knows no such boundaries. You can reach new customers who would not otherwise have had much chance to get to know about you.
You can attract a great deal of interest and site traffic through effective use of search engine optimization, links and other online promotional activities. A site can be designed to target a larger market or a specific niche one… The Internet has become a major market for "new business development" and those that want to grow their business are effectively harnessing its inherent power, accessibility, and lack of boundaries… It's truly the free market economy's "open season" "open doors" primary vehicle.
- To Offer a 24-Hour Service – No More Time Constraints
An online business can be 24/7 if you desire, and it can be automated in such a way that even without your personal intervention, customers can get the contact or product information they require or buy the art they want from you at anytime that is most convenient for them. They can learn about your art or craft or services, view samples of your art, and if you're set up for it, buy your product, even when you're asleep.
Common-Sense Check — What's better for the customer? …that they can only reach you and buy from you at a time when you want to be working and available? Or anytime best suited to the customer with their own busy schedule and life habits? A website allows a customer to potentially “have it on their terms”. If you offer online purchasing, they can buy your art at 4 a.m. if they want to… Do you see THEIR advantage which can translate into you making more money and even at surprising times when you're not even directly involved in the process?
- To Make You And Your Art Available All Year Round
This is a HUGE benefit… Customers can view your artistic creations outside of your usual show season. This allows people who have heard about you but never seen your art to view what you do at anytime that is convenient for them.
No longer does the weather or road conditions or distance have to factor into someone viewing your art and, hopefully, purchasing it. A website can make you accessible at anytime and by anyone anywhere, winter or summer, blocks away or on the other side of the world… Do you understand how significant of an advantage this can be for YOU? And of course, you can easily limit that if you desire… It's entirely up to you.. But the point is this: online, the public can readily find you and choose to visit you or buy from you, with the greatest of ease… A website eliminates so many of the variables and hindrances to sales that exist with most of the traditional sales and marketing means.
- To Offer a Convenient Shopping Solution — Increased Sales
At a minimum, as previously mentioned, a website makes it easy for you to showcase your art and any other creative services you offer. This will generate more leads from potential new customers and/or cause your present customers to buy more, (and perhaps all the more so if you're offering some additional valuable info resources or related services to them as a bit of bonus or extra).
With ‘"secure online payment" being a reality nowadays, an art or craft business can provide guaranteed safe and secure payment processing and utter convenience for their customers. Moreover, with the advances in 'shopping cart' technology, fully enabled e-commerce websites have never been easier to set up and maintain. Nor do they have to cost a lot to add to a website. In no time, you can create a virtual storefront or retail online studio that can be open twenty-four hours a day, all year long, if you desire.
- Lack of Sales Pressure — More Comfortable And Convenient Buying Environment
Remember that with a successful business “it's NOT all about you”… it's all about the customers you want to buy from you! “It's about what they want, and whether you have that!” So, a website can provide utter convenience for your customers… They can be viewing your website's gallery of art in their bathrobe if they want… And they didn't have to phone you long distance for more details nor spend gas to drive to your studio… They can do that later if they want, but they didn't have to, just to find out about you and see your art. Customers have options and choices nowadays. They appreciate this. They prefer what's easiest and most convenient for them. Never forget that or you'll lose customers…
From a customer's standpoint, a website has the benefit of allowing them to be initially, 'anonymous'. They can take as much or as little time as they want to make up their minds about buying a piece of art or craft work on your site. There's no one to pressure them or say anything to them while they're browsing. Put the text content and important support info there on the web page for them, but let them do with it as they please.
Websites can make for more informed and self-assured buyers on good sites where enough information is provided. Some people prefer to spend 'privately' and totally on their terms and their own good time… A website geared for e-commerce is the perfect vehicle to “let the customer have it their way”… You simply can't create as convenient a shopping environment as cost-effectively with any other means of sales and marketing.
BETTER COMMUNICATIONS — BETTER INFORMATION — BETTER SERVICE
- To Provide Something Better Than an Artist's Statement, Resume, or Business Card
In today's art career environment, it's an ongoing process of personal career enhancement and new business development. Your art isn't all that you require to "make room for your future" and a successful career. Many don 'the entrepreneur's hat' and start their own art or craft business. As such, a website where prospective customers and potential employers, and event promoters and gallery owners, can learn more about your experience and qualifications, and see samples of your art work, and contact you, is a huge advantage. A website can provide a comprehensive portfolio of your work and present you in a far better light than a resume, artist statement, or flyer about you. Use those means by all means, but get a website created for you as well. It can only help you.
- To Make Better and More Information Available
A key advantage of the Internet is that it allows for the instant distribution of information. It's residing there for any visitors to search and find. A properly designed website optimized for high search engine traffic can enable customers to quickly find your information, your website.
Contact Info/Pricing and Availability: Your site can of course provide customers with everything they need to know about you and your art in addition to basic contact information… Whether your customers be in your town or in another country, a website enables you to provide more information in a more relaxed environment than a traditional advertisement, or visit to your place of business. A website can provide much more valuable information than a yellow page ad with a picture, to be sure.
Event or Exhibit Information: A website provides a platform to publicize your upcoming and current exhibitions at galleries, or art or craft shows or events. Customers can check your schedule so they can know where in their area you might be showing, to meet you in person to perhaps discuss a custom order or buy a special piece, etc.
Related Information Resources: A website can provide an immediate way to give customers current news and promotional information about your art work and business. If you desire, it can be easily used to additionally provide educational/teaching or entertainment value material or other interesting and beneficial resources for your customers. It's a proven fact that customers come back to sites regularly when “they got far more there than they came for…” Information can be used to create "repeat" visitors and "loyal" customers. A website can be used to sell your art as well as as educate the public on your style of art, the history of it, or any other kind of additional information you might like to provide them, or 'cause' you'd like to speak about. If you offer them more than just the minimum, they'll invariably return for more of that great value…
Common-Sense Check — What serves the customer better? …a local phone book ad with only an address and phone number and perhaps a tiny graphic, where the customer still has 'everything to do' before deciding on the next step in locating and then buying a piece of art? Or a website that showcases your art, reveals who you are, and what your art is all about, as well as information to answer all the customer's questions to his heart's content? What's better for the customer? …to incur phone charges to find out more, and to have to drive somewhere to see if you even have what they like, before they can even consider buying it? Or to see everything on your website and, better yet, if you offer online payment processing, to buy it right then and there? What's easier, takes far less time and is more cost-effective and convenient for the customer?
Reality Check — The key to maintaining success is to never forget to think “from your customers' perspective”. If you do that, you've got an ear to your market… Unfortunately, some business owners don't market their wares according to the way customers want their needs easily and quickly met nowadays. They make it easy for themselves but don't pay enough attention to the choices and conveniences today's customers are offered, as well as their competition's ways and means. And then they wonder why they're not as successful as they'd like to be…
- To Service Your Customers Better
With your own website, personalized service can be made very evident. More than any other medium, you can reveal your creative personality and talents and 'why' you're doing what you're doing on behalf of your customers. On a website you're able to say more and offer more, to show your customers you care about them, and you have something for them.
It of course, depends upon how big or small your art or craft business may be, but, having someone to answer the phones and taking the time to do so, can be an expense that can be greatly reduced if you have a website.
For larger art or craft businesses, like large studios, galleries, or even art suppliers and larger retail art or craft stores, moving customer service to the website could save a bundle. Your website will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for service and answering any questions. The service area of your website can be as simple as a dedicated e-mail form and published answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), or as sophisticated as an interactive, online chat feature where you or someone on your staff can respond directly to customers in real time discussions. The ability to have answers for your customers, and to regularly update any site content that they are interested in, adds value to a business's service.
- To Educate or Offer Some Art or Craft Lessons
If desired, a website offers you a great platform and means by which to educate the public, offer specific helpful information or advice, or courses, lessons, workshops, etc. The web can take full advantage of numerous visual and aural web tools when teaching or providing educational resources or materials, or at events, etc.
- To Answer Frequently Asked Questions
People want information before they make decisions or take action. Understandably, customers want their concerns addressed or questions answered before they're willing to part with their money, or drive somewhere far to buy something 'if' they find that they like it. A website can answer everything they'd ever need to know to make them an informed, committed and assured buyer before they purchase your art.
Whoever answers the telephone in your business can tell you, a lot of their time is often spent answering the same inquiries over and over again. These are typically those questions customers want to have answered before they decide to do business with you. Posting these answers on an FAQ page of your website will not only be more convenient for the customer, but also mean you or your staff can devote more time to other tasks as opposed to answering the phone.
Reality Check — Posting such important info on a website instead of having a real person to talk to, DOES NOT make it more impersonal. You may personalize your website as much as you desire… However, talking to an answering machine or voicemail while you're out back in the studio, IS what customers hate… Or worse yet, having to phone long distance at their expense to find out something simple that they could more easily have just directly found on your website.
- To Make Changing Information Available Quickly
The internet is a "dynamic organism" of communication and interaction, information dissemination, entertainment, and everything in between. It is dynamic by its nature due to no boundaries, no hours, no ‘brick and mortar' kind of limitations. If you want to change some information or post some new images of your art or craft work it can appear instantly and be immediately available for the public to see and respond to.
A website is a prime vehicle for offering information quickly and effectively so that all the customer has to do is 'choose' and they can have access to it… It does not have the typical restraints that just about every other conceivable sales and marketing or advertising medium has.
Regularly altering the information contained within a website, as necessary, makes more financial sense than phoning, faxing, or mailing your customers every time new information regarding your art work or services or exhibitions schedule is released.
- To Allow Feedback From Customers — Listening to Your Customers — Querying the Market
A website gives you a quick and effective means to listen to your market and to respond to your customer in the name of service. This is key to creating and maintaining loyal customers… A web site gives you the ability to do surveys, solicit feedback, pose your own questions to your market, offer subscriptions, offer information resources, etc.
A website gives you a means of collecting email addresses of people interested in your art or craft. It can be a cost-effective way to qualify potential customers and get valuable feedback from existing ones. You can keep in touch with your customers through a mailing list or their visits to your website, or a multitude of other related web means to ensure they keep on returning to your website.
Because you have access to the entire online world if you choose, a website can be used to experiment with ideas and market tastes, to test a new art piece or style. You can check the market's interest by highlighting new artwork online and sampling visitor opinions. It gives you a quick means to learn from your market and to become better at what you do, and at least more service-oriented (and that always helps).
Whether it's for feedback, comments, constructive criticisms or complaints, or helpful advice or any kind of communications, a website is a great means to facilitate this kind of interaction and participation, and "network-building", if you desire it. It can have the anonimity or can be personallized.
Along this line, an Art or Craft Forum on a website can be created to take all this even farther if you desire. It can generate some tremendous networking, increased site traffic, and Industry presence.
LOWER OVERHEAD — REDUCED BUSINESS EXPENSES
- To Reduce Your Expenses
A website can greatly decrease your display and presentation costs. It can be anything from a basic 'business card' type of site presenting some basic contact info and your artist's statement with a few sample images. Or it could be an extensive online brochure hosting more information and many more images of your art or craft. It can be whatever you want it to be that provides what you feel your customers want. A retail store front or studio would be a lot more costly to create and operate than a website offering similar services. Your website could be an e-commerce-capable, database-driven gallery or online store for your artwork. Your display of works can stay current. Updating your web pages can be made very easy to do with some built-in content management. Overall, it can be far less costly than the brick and mortar alternative. It's also much faster than creating and publishing a new flyer, or new or additional marketing pieces for shows or events you may be in, etc.
All websites deliver information, immediately and internationally over the Web. You have no printing, handling, or mailing costs, plus you never get stuck with stacks of out-of-date literature. Of course, if you're selling your art abroad you will naturally have some shipping costs. (If you provide art lessons or write art or craft-related articles, you could create a whole new low-overhead revenue stream by doing these as online subscriptions or downloadable e-books that customers could buy… i.e. no shipping issues for this… only repeat orders from the one same info product… sent out over and over again!)
To reduce faxing and mailing costs, automated mailing lists can send the same email message to all your customers for next to nothing in cost. Email is obviously cheaper than courier services, postal mail, faxes or phone calls and faster than most.
If you have suppliers on the Internet you may also be able to do your purchasing cheaper and easier, and even set up direct secure links to them for any business you do.
Bottom-line — I haven't even touched the surface on cost savings…. ONLINE BUSINESSES TYPICALLY HAVE SUBSTANTIALLY LOWER OVERHEAD AND RELATED ADVERTISING AND MARKETING EXPENSES than brick and mortar business operations. It would be no different in the art and craft world. It all depends upon the kind or scope of art or craft business you have. It depends upon what you want to accomplish with your website.
The internet opens a whole new world for marketing and selling your art or craft. The kind of website you can have created for you is as unlimited as your imagination. And fortunately, there's enough technology and innovation out there nowadays to support just about anything you'd ever want to do... Nor does it cost an arm and a leg anymore like it once used to, which many of you may still think it does... The facts are – Notwithstanding the obvious variables of the kind of art you sell, who you sell it to, your pricing, and a score of other et ceteras, it's still accurate to say that a website can be a far less expensive means to sell and market you art than any other way you could choose to do it. At the very least, in addition to everything else you do, it can make a huge difference on numerous fronts to your ongoing success and Industry exposure.
BETTER ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
- To Display More of Your Art or Craft Work
After a short while, artists and crafts people will have many more works of art than can be exhibited in any one place. A website can be build to house an online portfolio or gallery that allows an artist to present a wide range of their work, and to change this easily without any real additional cost in time or money. You can't do that with other means of advertising and marketing exposure.
- To Enhance What You Already Do With Your Other Means of Advertising
An artist's website should be viewed as a means, not an end. It should be a tool. A website can effectively supplement and enhance any other advertising or marketing activities you may already be doing.
A website gives existing customers and potential new customers an additional way to find out about you and your products. It offers customers an additional and oftentimes more convenient and cost-effective way to purchase your products. A website need not replace anything else you are doing. It should complement all of it and employ those same sales and marketing principles, strategies, and tools, but now for more flexible use within a broader online market. Online and offline means should always go hand-in-hand and always support one another. You can have a business without a website but you'll lose access to a growing online market and new sales opportunities. And you can have a very low-overhead online business without an actual business location or studio or storefront and still have a successful business. But if you do the best that both offer you're giving yourself that much more opportunity and means to ensure your ongoing success and sustainability in our rapidly changing art and craft market
- Increase Marketing Exposure
A web site creates opportunities for additional marketing and joint marketing with other related organizations, too. There is no greater image builder for a business than a compelling and informative website that can be seen all over the world. Your website (i.e. your business) can be placed into dozens of online directories and search facilities, increasing your visibility and creating new markets by opening additional advertising channels. The best web designers have the expertise to capitalize on this and optimize websites to ensure inclusion in as many of these additional online advertising vehicles as possible.
When I first sat down to draft this article, I knew it would be a long one… and yet I've only scratched the surface. The point is… shed the mystery, allay your fears and undue concerns. Put aside what others may have said that may have given you a bad impression or incomplete picture. I've attempted to give you some good detail. I've told you what can be done with a website and of course it doesn't mean it all has to be done at once.
There's a lot of misinformation out there. Some web designers have caused some of it themselves by stereotyping and over simplifying and not telling 'everything' or doing everything they could have. But the fact is, you can get a website created for you that can be the best thing you've ever done to help your art or craft business grow. Some of you create your art for the sheer love of it. But most of you do it for that reason and to make enough money to make a good living of it, too. It doesn't need to cost you a lot to create a highly-visible high-traffic revenue-generating website.
If you're seriously interested and thinking that perhaps it's now time to "jump on board" and really consider a website, we humbly encourage you to inquire about A&CNet's Website Design & Hosting services. We don't offer it as an "on the side service". It's one of our primary services and core competancies. Give us a call. We believe you'll find our highly creative and functional designs, of exceptional value, and our pricing, very affordable, perhaps even irresistably affordable for what we can create for YOU.
We are trained professionals with considerable experience and a ton of creative passion! We will work with you "on your terms” and in relation to your precise needs and resources, without you having to spend a lot of time or money to have a website. Some people choose to hold off until they think they finally "have all their ducks in a row" and are ready. The reality however, oftentimes, is that it turns to procrastination and their peers create websites ever before they make their decision to finally do so, too. As I said before, a website is not a replacement to how you currently sell your products and services. But it IS a very significant additional means to enhance your image, broaden your market, and increase your revenues. It can potentially become the biggest contributor to your ongoing success and the best "change agent" of all. We'd love to help you.
If you're intrigued, seriously interested, or perhaps "convinced" and ready to consider a new website, or you want some enhancements or upgrades to one you already have, give us a phone call and let's talk further. I'm sure you may still have some questions.
We hope to hear from you soon!
Note: If you're interested in reprinting this article, contact A&CNet.
Courtesy of Daryl Stratichuk, President and Founder of A&CNet Inc.
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