Today's Post is by Clint Watson,  founder of FineArtViews. Follow Clint on Twitter.

Making your marketing messages personal and relevant is really not all that hard....TIMELY is the hard part.

Not long ago, I wrote a blog post titled Personal, Timely, Relevant.  It was primarily about sending email newsletters to your fans and ensuring that those newsletters are personal, timely and relevant...otherwise your messages will be ignored.

Timely is the hard part.

I say timely is the hard part because it's fairly safe to assume that if someone visits your website and voluntarily signs up for your email newsletter, they will consider messages about your artwork and your career to be personal and relevant.  Otherwise, we would have to ask why did they sign up for your newsletter in the first place?  (One way to mess up on the personal and relevant issue is to start sending newsletters that are grossly off-topic such as who you support in political campaigns and your favorite animal shelters).  The key here is that people on your newsletter have voluntarily given you permission to put them on your email list.  If you start sending newsletters without permission, then you are a spammer and bad things will happen...but that's a different post.

The problem is that most people lead hectic lives are just too busy most of the time to pay attention to your messages.

So the question you have to ask yourself is, "How do I know when my prospect is in the mood to hear from me?  How do I know WHEN to send my message?"

The answer:  you don't.

So what's the solution?

The solution comes to us from.....Victoria's Secret.



Only 10 days worth of Victoria's Secret Catalogs

The Solution is Frequency

I started wondering just how many Victoria's Secret catalogs my wife receives in the mail because frankly, it seems like she gets one every single day (yes, the catalogs go to my wife...and, yes, Victoria's Secret sells regular clothes).

After 10 days of collecting, she received six catalogs.  Mind you these are 20+ page full color catalogs.  If we multiply that number out, it would seem that Victoria's Secret sends my wife over 200 catalogs a year.  In addition, she tells me she receives multiple weekly emails from them in addition to the print catalogs.

How can they afford to send her so much mail?  Aren't they bothering her?

So here's the story.  Victoria's Secret messages are personal and relevant to my wife because 1.  She likes their designs  2.  Their clothes are well made  3.  They carry sizes that fit her  4.  Ordering online/via catalogs is convenient  5. Other reasons I'm probably forgetting.  But, 90% of the time or more, the Victoria's Secret catalog goes right into the trash can recycle bin. Why?  Because 90% of the time the message isn't timely.

And this is the lesson - "Out of sight, Out of mind" is a true saying. 

In this day and age, you have to be there every time your customer turns around.

This is why I keep telling artists that they need to send an email newsletter at least twice a month.  Once every six months is woefully inadequate.

Start a newsletter list.  Send newsletters. Get started immediately.

Now, go change the world.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS - Still skeptical that being there every time your customer turns around works?  Think you'll be considered a nuisance?  Well, consider this:  I asked my wife a few days back how much of her wardrobe came from Victoria's Secret.  Her answer:  probably 90% 50%-60% (still a significant percentage :-)).   It's OK if most of your messages are deleted, if you're consistently there in front of your fans, they will buy when the time is right.