Its three AM. I awaken and my mind is racing. Things to do, business to conduct. In the old days I’d awaken, make my list and return to sleep because I could not implement my work until morning. Today I awaken, delegate some projects by email and return to bed. Sometimes I use this time to focus on things I need to do, which I cannot accomplish during the day. On-line travel, purchases, etc.

A few weeks ago I was told of a product I wanted to purchase. I went to the website, which said "download a pdf of our catalog." They did not have an on-line catalog to view the products, they did not have an interactive pdf so I could click to purchase. The site said, "Once you determine the items you wish to purchase call our 800 number and we’ll take your order. CLICK. I’m gone.

Sorry to be so impatient. Weeks have passed and I have not purchased the product. Once I returned to the web in hopes something had changed. It had not. Of course I Googled the product in hopes of finding it elsewhere, but I did not. If I wanted this product I was forced to buy from them… by picking up the phone. No such luck. Time passed, I forgot.

I’m sorry to admit I have become impatient with anyone who cannot fulfill my needs via the web. I have become so accustomed to purchasing on line, gathering research, finding needed information that when I encounter someone who does business the old fashioned way I don’t like it. AND because my life seems so busy and complicated, I often don’t buy. Maybe I intend to eventually but picking up the phone has become a major inconvenience.

OK..so how does this relate to you? Dealers tell me they still expect the phone to ring, yet it is happening less in less in response to advertising (in any publication). Advertising is not less effective, people are simply less interested in the encounter.

Start your timer…now.

– Look up the number: 20 seconds
– Ring: -20 seconds
– "Hello, welcome to XYZ Gallery. My name is Melissa, how may I help you." 25 seconds.
-"Hi Melissa, how are you today? My name is Eric and I saw a painting in a magazine and I would like to find out a little about the painting." 25 seconds.
– "Sure Eric, let me connect you with someone who can answer your question." 20 seconds.
– Hold music. 3 minutes.
– "Hi, how may I help you. My name is Patrick." 10 seconds.
– "Hi Patrick, how are you today? My name is Eric and I am interested in a painting I saw featured in a magazine. Can you help me?"- 20 seconds
– "Sure, I’d be glad to Eric. Can I ask you what magazine and the date of the magazine so I know what painting you’re referring to?" 20 seconds.
– "Of course, it’s Fine Art Connoisseur, page 45, the August Issue. Its a painting by John Singer Sergent. 20 seconds.
– "One moment please. Shuffling of papers. 2 minutes."
– "Oh, here it is. That painting is called "Mountain Fog." it was painted in 1866 and it is a 30×40 in oil. It came from the collection of the collector William Harris." 2 minutes.
– Great, Patrick. How much is it? 10 seconds.
– Eric that painting is $1 million dollars." But, hmmm, let me see, oh that painting is sold. 20 seconds
– OK, thanks Patrick.  5 seconds.
– Yes, Eric. Are you interested in this artist? I can take your name and address and call you if I get another. 20 seconds.
– That would be nice. My name and address are….. 30 seconds.

Whew. Compare that dialog with going to the website, clicking on the image, gathering the information, seeing the price, finding out its sold or not, entering my info (one click with auto fill) and I’m in and out in 1 minute. Compare.

Many dealers tell me they force people to call. Of course they wish to capture the lead and try to sell the prospect. That makes perfect sense, but fewer people will call and therefore if your Internet strategy is not easy, fast, and does not require too much information you will get a lot of business. Plus they can browse at 3 am, like I do, point and click to own, and ship anywhere in the world.

I may be wrong but I know my own patience is tested by the phone and I need to save time. Many dealers do not list price. I personally think that may be a mistake. One dealer I know sold a $600,000 piece from his website because he listed the price. It was shipped outside of the US. Others insist on forcing a phone call. Time will tell what the right strategy is.

At 3am one night I found a painting I had to own. I clicked, purchased it, gave my paypal account and it arrived about two weeks later…from Russia, which was the only reason for the delay because it was too big (5ft x 6ft) to ship overnight and it had to pass customs. In another case I emailed offering a lower price, danced by email for a day and ended up purchasing the work at a reduced rate. Again, from Russia. 

We all have to tune into a revised strategy. My 80 year old parents are on-line and on email, shopping and not wanting to pick up the phone. Younger people who are the Internet generation will not buy unless you’re on-line and make it easy. If we’re not there for them we may loose their business, even if we have a one-of-a-kind painting. Therefore its time to adapt to these changes. Advertising works, exposes artworks and brands your gallery, and it is also an excellent tool to drive traffic to your site with qualified collectors. If you make it easy and let me shop on my schedule, even at 3am, I’ll buy from you.

Imagine being a collector, seeing a painting on ebay for $100,000 and bidding on it. In spite of the documentation demonstrated on the ebay page you find out that you’ve been sold a fraud.

Though web marketing is a powerful tool, which increases your reach and potential customer base, there are pitfalls. Trust is the biggest pitfall.

A collector spending a high price (or not a high price in many cases) needs to feel comfortable that they are dealing with a legitimate, known art dealer who will not sell them a fake, and who will stand behind a purchase. This is true whether buying in person, by phone or on the Internet. TRUST is a critical factor with buyers.

If a potential buyer sees your advertisement of a painting she wants to own she will not respond to the advertisement to buy the painting unless she is convinced you can be trusted. Its not unlike family and friends. You would not meet someone new and ask them to babysit your kids until you got to know them. It is not until several meetings and interactions that you form a bond of trust with an individual. To some extent the same is true with the collector-dealer relationship. Trust is built through multiple impressions. If they have seen you multiple times trust begins to build. A SOLID BRAND mostly represents trust. Do you trust Graff Diamonds more than XYZ Diamond company? I do. Its about brand, about hearsay (people talk), and its about frequent impressions.

I had this discussion with a dealer who had been in business for twenty years. He said, "Everyone in the art world knows who we are. We don’t need to build trust, we already have it." He was not wrong. Yet I was consulting a collector who wanted to purchase a specific painting. This man had been collecting for five years and when I took him to the gallery for a visit he told me he was not aware of them and wondered about their reputation. I assured him of their reputation and they ended up doing business.

I mentioned this story to the gallery owner and his response was, "I thought everybody knew us. This must be an exception." When I asked him how they had built their reputation he mentioned that they used to advertise consistently, however their business was doing well, so they stopped heavy advertising a few years back and only advertised for special events. Obviously this new collector had entered the market after their campaigns ended.

I remind dealers that an established brand can ultimately be diminished without consistent visibility. I also remind them that attrition is the enemy. Old collectors die and new collectors are always entering the market. Do the new collectors know their brand? Don’t assume they do. I have met scores of new collectors as a result of the magazine. Most lack history and knowledge of the art world.  I had a collector I consult recently ask me if I thought Warren Adelson was a good dealer. He was thinking of buying a painting. Of course I told him Warren was one of the world’s leading dealers yet this mega-millionaire had no clue and did not know if Warren could be trusted. I assured him he could. This man only recently had the free cash to begin his collecting and in his first year of collecting has spent about three million dollars on art works, yet he did not know about most of the dealers who had been established for generations.

I also tell dealers that each publication has some shared readership and some exclusive readership, meaning they have readers who do not read other publications. If you have been advertising in one place for 20 years then only the shared readership portion of the audience will know of your brand, the others may not. This is why I advocate frequency and consistency. Ultimately its about trust. Do they know you, do they trust you. If they cannot trust you they won’t buy. Of course once you get them on the phone you can probably give them testimonials or find ways to increase their trust, but if they don’t call because they don’t know you there may be no sale. 

A funny thing happened in my life. The Internet. I have become spoiled rotten by the Internet and as a result my behavior has changed. If I hear about something, I make a note and go to the web site or I try to remember the name and I do a Google search. When I go to a site I look through their product line and if there is nothing there for me…I move on. I may return another time to search for something new… or not. I do comparative shopping on line too. Oh, and if the website does not answer my questions and have a solution to anything I can think of that I want to know… I am annoyed. AND I am really irritated if the site MAKES me have a human interaction like "call for price." Guess what. I won’t. I want to see the price, I want to make a purchase decision at that moment, and if I cannot click to buy it I will try to find somewhere else that does have a price and purchase engine.

Of course in the gallery world you have UNIQUE pieces of art (unless you’re selling prints). Many gallery folks I know refuse to put the price on their site because they want to force someone to call… so they can up sell them or use their sales skill on the potential buyer. Makes sense, and maybe it works. But not for me. You see I do most of my shopping after the kids are in bed or on those nights when I cannot sleep and I’m on line. I want instant gratification. Having to phone does not offer this.

What does this have to do with response? Advertisers tell me that "response rates" for all of their advertising has gone down with all publications (not just mine thankfully!) The phone simply does not ring as much anymore. Why? People shop on line. Even people who have good relationships with your gallery. (And others of course). Your ads still get response. They PROMPT people to go on line to look at a show, a painting, an artist and if you’re a net-savvy marketer, they can see your entire inventory. Of course you’ll never know they were there looking through your inventory in the middle of the night… unless they found something they had to own. Then they clicked and bought it… or maybe if you’re lucky they phoned. But only after they saw that you had what they want.

Advertising is valid, continues to create awareness and it sells artwork. But, the phone does not ring like it used to. Its a fact of life.

What do I recommend?

1. Make sure your ads point to your website.
2. Make sure your website relates to the ads you are running. (For instance a featured painting).
3. Make it easy to look at the inventory, know the price and buy.

I believe that if you "make people call" some will and a lot more won’t.  If I were in your business I too would RATHER people call. But  the reality of all business has changed. Now you have a potential world audience 24 hours a day. You still need to advertise to make sure they stumble to your site. Just make sure your site can meet their needs and make it easy to buy.

Most people, including most business owners, do not spend their lives in advertising. So when faced with a need to increase business they often decide to try advertising. After a career in the advertising industry I’ve encountered these business owners numerous times. I’ll get the call…

"Yes, Eric, I’d like to try some advertising. How much is an ad?"

When the conversation continues, it goes something like this…

"We would like to try your magazine, so we thought we would place an ad."

When I ask what their expectations are they typically say something like…

"Well, we’re not sure, but I assume it will sell some paintings for us."

"How many paintings do you expect it to sell? What price point on the paintings?." I ask.

DEAD SILENCE. "We’ll we’re not sure."

When possible I try to direct an inquiry like this to a discussion about needs, objectives and goals. Most people have not thought about the outcome other than "selling some paintings" or boosting business. But different goals require different strategy.

I once ran an ad in a magazine. My goal was to build subscriptions. So, I placed an ad in a magazine, which reached people who were potential subscribers. I even inserted a subscription card. They had a circulation of 80,000. The result? We sold 12 subscriptions costing me $600+ to get each. Why did the ad fail? I did not follow my own advice. (Which we will get into in a minute.)

In another case I decided to run ads in a little inexpensive newspaper which reached potential advertisers. Since my goal was to create awareness and brand our name with potential advertisers I decided to take a long term approach. So I bought an ad to appear every issue for a year. One ad ran. No calls. But none we’re expected. A second, third and forth ran. No calls. None were expected. At this point my marketing assistant was saying, "Eric, do you really want to continue since you’re getting no results?" I told him, "Wait and see, we will see results."

After about eight months of impressions our phone started ringing from companies who said things like "we keep hearing about your magazine and want to explore some advertising." It was clear they were coming from these ads.

Intuition says… run and ad…get a call. Most ad experts will tell you intuition does not work. (Though sometimes you get lucky and it does work.) Frequency is the key to success in advertising. The repetition of message over and over again is what gets people to notice, build trust (yes, seeing you time and again builds trust if your ads look good) and eventually take action.

Even though I have spent my entire career in advertising I fell into the trap of being seduced to thinking I could sell something with a single ad. I was wrong. When I changed my strategy to consistent long term advertising I started seeing results. This will continue as we remain committed over the long haul. … against my intuition. 

We hear it all the time, "I’d like to advertise when there is a feature on an artist we sell, a style we sell, or a special feature that relates to our artwork." We encourage this, of course. But there is an upside and a down side.

Upside: If there is an article on an artist, a movement, a style that very artice can create interest from a reader in owning one of those works. It’s not uncommon for a gallery who has paintings by a particular artist to want to have their ad appear in that issue. Often people will pick up the phone, go to the web site and in some way respond to that ad. It often works. Sometimes it does not.

Why it sometimes does not work: Many things inpact the results of an ad. The image advertised might be an artist they love but might not be a painting they love. The ad design may not appeal to the particular reader, may not get their attention. Perhaps some element of the ad does not motivate the buyer to call. (OF course these days calls are more rare. People browse the website and if nothing interests them, you’ll never know they visited.)

One of the big issues hampering immediate response to an ad tied to editorial… they don’t know you.
Trust is a critical part of the buying process. It has always been an issue but its a bigger issue with internet scams at an all time high. Your gallery could be 50 years old and have an excellent reputation, but if it does not have a reputation with this individual, they are often reluctant to trust you right away. Lets say you’re known by an audience of another art publication, but lets say you decide to advertise in a publication that is new. Perhaps 10% of the audience is duplicated (meaning they receive the other publication too) and therefor they are comfortable with you. What about the 90% who readers who don’t know you? (We all get so close to our business that we believe everyone knows us. But there are new people coming into the market daily.)

The best way to build trust beyond word of mouth? Repetition. The more people notice you, see your ads, and become comfortable, the more they begin to trust you. Just like a new friend. Time builds relationships. If you rate low on their awareness scale, you probably rate low on the trust scale. So frequency of advertising builds trust.

DOWNSIDE: Most people who run art galleries are experts in art, but frequently are not marketers. Therefore they will run a single ad with high expectations. If they are not met, its usually considered our fault. Aside from the other elements that influence results (mentioned above) along with other issues like timing, economy, etc. the bigger issue is that single ads rarely work well. Campaigns work. In these days of political campaigns candidates work hard to be seen and heard over and over again. They try to get to crowds for speaking engagements, try to get quoted on television and radio, and they reinforce it with multiple ads? Why? Single impressions don’t work. Each impression has an impact and makes us like or trust them a little bit more (or less).

Single ads sometimes do work when all the stars align. But frankly, its rare. Campaigns work to build awareness, trust, reinforce the quality of your brand. Buyers cannot usually articulate that, however they know when they are comfortable and ready to call.

“I’ll buy and ad and see if it works. If it work’s I’ll buy more.”

These are words, which those of us in the advertising world hear frequently. I usually respond in the nicest possible way saying “keep your money. One ad usually does not work.” Though I love people to advertise my experience tells me that if the client’s expectations are not managed they will run one ad and then never be back if their expectations are not met.

It’s important to think about all the things which impact the success of an ad:

–         The design of the ad

–         The headline

–         The copy

–         The call to action (or lack of)

–         The artist featured in the ad

–         The painting featured in the ad

–         The audience reading the ad

–         The audience’s awareness of your gallery

–         The audience’s trust of your gallery

–         The timing of the ad

Any single element can impact whether or not someone responds to an ad.

Over many years I have had instances where one advertiser in an issue will tell me she had overwhelming success with an ad while another advertiser will tell me they had zero success. How can this be? It boils down to all the elements working in unison. You’ve seen it happen in other ways… one gallery on your street will have a great month or great traffic while another does not.

When “testing” an advertiser needs to understand how they measure success.

Is it number of phone calls? How many? Number of paintings sold? How many and at what price? Is it increased web site traffic? How much? Emails? How many?

“I’ll know if it’s working” is a typical response; however having a predetermined and reasonable expectation is an important starting point.

I believe it’s important to understand that tests also need to be equal. If you run an ad to test it in a new publication which has an audience which is unaware of your brand and you run another ad in a publication where the audience has an established trust of your brand you should see better result from the publication familiar with your brand. Yet if new audiences are important to your strategy of growing your business its important to invest in building trust with the new audience. (Building a brand is critical. People unfamiliar with your brand are less likely to do business with you until they are comfortable. Trust starts with repetition…being seen frequently.)

I once ran an ad in a magazine at great expense with a large audience. I received no evidence that I received any result. My instinct was to cancel, tell them it did not work and mark them off my list. However as I started thinking about it… I received no result because I was the new advertiser and they had no awareness of my brand. (Or maybe my ad was ineffective). My best strategy is to continue to advertise, build my brand and then after a couple of years if it does not work then perhaps I’ll reconsider.

Long term strategy building is difficult to do when running a business and wanting instant results. For some it’s not possible. For others it’s imperative to build new relationships, which take time. In any case it’s mission critical if you want to be known and trusted by an audience who does not know and trust you presently. (We all get close to our products and like to think everyone knows who we are.)

Think about a sales person who shows up to sell you something. They keep calling. You barely know their name. If they keep showing up, you keep seeing them at events and you eventually get to know their name, maybe you get acquainted with them… only then are you comfortable to start giving them your business. Advertising often works about the same way. It’s about showing up, being present at every possible opportunity.

In 1898 E. St.Elmo Lewis wrote of an advertising strategy, which he called AIDA. (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). The Journal of Marketing states that though this basic tenant of advertising seems to be important there are deeper psychological reasons such as memory, attitude toward brand, cognition, feelings which important to making a sale. However let’s touch on his AIDA strategy:

To create attention a consumer must see your message. Lewis believed the message needed to be seen 3.5 times before a consumer would react. That was 1898 when a fraction of advertising messaging was taking place. Today consumers are bombarded with advertising messages. In his book Cash Copy Dr. Jeffery Lant believes it requires 7.5 impressions before a consumer will respond to an advertisement. This does not mean you need to run 7.5 ads, it means the person reading must see that many ads. If you run 7 ads and they see five of them you have missed the target. This is why the world’s most successful companies advertise constantly. Its about reach, frequency and reinforcement to keep people coming back. Reaching your 7.5 response number may require ten or twenty ads before they see it 7.5 times or in the case of a magazine with long shelf life, which they may return to several times, it might be accomplished with fewer ad impressions. Since shelf life viewing cannot be easily measured advertisers typically focus on multiple impressions, sometimes in a single issue and usually by having a presence in multiple issues and multiple magazines (or media). It’s the combination of impressions, which are important. For instance if you are building a gallery brand to build trust it may be about impressions of your brand at art fairs, magazine ads, newspaper articles, show openings, etc. Just like the aforementioned salesperson, it’s about showing up and being seen until trust is established.

Of course frequency allows a consumer to see your ad, yet being there is not enough. Your ad needs to be noticed. This is where headlines, copy, ad design, images and graphics come into play. If your ad is not noticed, does not send a message the reader will respond to, does not build trust or send a message of quality (if quality is important to the reader) it will not get attention.

Interest is about the customer being interested. What does your ad say that makes me interested? This boils down to the copy. Once you get them to notice the ad and if you are fortunate to get the person to read it, the copy must create interest. It must also create desire.

What do you desire? When Lexus and Infinity were simultaneously launched no one knew the brands and though both were striving to capture the high end market, Lexus won the battle. People did not instantly desire the Lexus brand. Lexus out advertised Infinity one hundred to one. It also beat the drum of a single message… the utmost in luxury and quality. Word of mouth spread as people learned the brand lived up to its message. Time combined with word of mouth and frequent advertising built trust in the brand.

Action is the final point of Dr. Lewis theory. Consumers must take action. Your desire is to have them pick up the phone to buy a painting, email you, visit your web site or walk into your gallery. If your advertising does not make this easy, make the customer comfortable it is less likely to take place.

Advertising is a complex game of science, creativity and gut feel. I’ve spent a lifetime in the advertising world and cannot ever be sure anything I recommend will work. Sometimes it works well and sometimes not. The odds are with you if you dominate an audience with frequent messages, multiple ads, and prominent positions and if you have advertising which stands out above other advertisers. But even then, there are no guarantees. All the more reason a simple “test” is typically destined to failure.

I just returned from TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) in Maastricht Holland. One of the dealers chose to show up with a tiny booth… about 1/4 the size of their booth last year. (I don’t wish to mention their name because I mean no ill will). It created a buzz…. unfortunately it was gossip about how the gallery was experiencing serious financial trouble. It may or may not be true BUT in any case it sent the wrong message.

Roy Williams my marketing-author colleague once told me that "people remember you for the smallest thing you do, not the biggest. If you want to appear small you will be perceived as small."

Something to keep in mind if you’re doing art fairs in the future.

Eric: “What do you want to see tonight?” I asked my wife.

Laurie: “Let’s go see the new James Bond film. I heard it was great.”

Eric: “Where did you hear that,” I said, “Who did you talk to that saw it.”

Laurie: “No one,” said she. “I just heard it. Probably an ad or something.”

Advertising creates word of mouth.

I craved a painting from an artist I had seen advertised over and over for years. When my wife asked me about why this artist was so important I realized it was because I had seen her name for years and years and I assumed she was important.

Advertising creates word of mouth. Repetition builds Reputation.

As CEO of a tech firm in  Silicon Valley I was charged with raising money on a regular basis. I ended up raising $18 million for my firm and was once asked by the local press what I did that made me successful at raising money. Of course what I’m about to tell you is a marketing principal as well.

I told them I was probably just lucky. But one thing I did do was approach every “pitch” with one thing in mind… Everything is a Cocktail Party Story. When I was at networking events I noticed that venture capitalists conversations went like this:

“Seen any good deals lately?”

“Yes, I just invested in a company which makes neutron converters and I think it will make us billions when we go public.”

That is a cocktail story. These people like to brag about their deals… something interesting and unique and something that makes them look smart and something which will be a good investment.

So at a recent art event the conversation I overhead was like this….

“Bought any good art lately?”

“Why yes, I just snagged a painting for a great price. This artist is going places and his work is selling for about $100,000 already.”

Bragging rights are important to buyers. Sometimes is subtle (which is better). Subtle is to have people walk into your home and see a Monet hanging in view of the door. Sometimes it’s brash (more often than not, sadly). “This guy is selling for $X”

People love to brag about the paintings they buy. If they walk into a gallery and love a painting and buy it for $10,000… and it hangs next to a giant one by the same artist which is selling for $50,000. More often than not they will find a way to tell you the artist is selling for $50,000… maybe so you think he paid $50,000.

How can you use this?

1. Talk up how hot the artist is and what is happening with values.
2. Look for key phrases you can share about the artist that is worthy of a brag. “This artist just won the national OPA award which mean’s he was voted by the best as their best” or “Steven Spielberg (insert name of collector) just added this artist to his collection.” I guarantee you this will come out once it hangs in the collector’s home.

People love to brag. Load their lips with things they can brag about. It will help them emotionally connect to the art and for those who need a justification the story will help sell the artwork.

I got this question from a gallery start up recently. What would you do if you were new and wanted to get established?

1. You cannot leap frog time: Marketing a new business takes time. All the techniques you employ will make an impact but time is the most powerful tool. The longer you show up the more you are noticed.
2. Dominate What You Can Afford: New businesses want to spread their marketing to lots of places. OK if you’re cash supply is unlimited but… that’s rare. So it is best to dominate what you can afford. One impression does not do anything. You need multiple impressions over long periods of time to build trust. But pick an audience (a single magazine or perhaps two) and be in every issue with the largest ad you can afford. (If you cannot be in every issue, use one fewer publication and smaller ads.) Being seen consistently is critical.
3. Look Successful: How? Size, design (elegance) and what you are featuring (quality art).
4. Halo Effect: They may not know and trust you. Who do they trust? Hire that person as your spokesperson or at least offer a testimonial. It helps.
5. Put Customers to work: Those who love you should tell others. They won’t think of it on their own. Ask (graciously) for recommendations. “Is there a collector you know that might not be aware of us?
6. Be everywhere that matters. Be seen. (Tastefully)
7. Generate Publicity: Find something newsworthy you can do. Local press is a great place to start. Newspapers, Magazines (local), Radio and Television. Have a lecture series, a celebrity come to town, hold an event, make a major donation.
8. Don’t let up. You may think you’re everywhere and visible but it takes many impressions before people notice you. Meanwhile you think your message is getting old. It’s not. Be consistent in message and keep it visible.