7 Lessons I learned from selling my art at Winter Markets
My table set up for my second winter market!
This winter I participated in three winter markets selling my art and these are the top lessons I learned. I went into this process extremely naive and learned a lot in the journey. Ultimately I am so so grateful for all the support I received and the positive feedback I heard from people. If you are getting ready to sell your art in person read my 7 tips below for an impressive set up and positive experience.
1. Do your homework on the market
I signed up for three markets this winter and I will be completely honest, I did no homework on the markets at all and just jumped in feet first and I do have some regrets lol. Once I had signed up for one market my overactive brain told me you might as well sign up for more, and so I started feverishly looking for opportunities online and signed up for the first one I found. Big mistake. While this market had the most vendors of the three I signed up for and was the 6th annual market giving me confidence it would be a good experience, very few people ended up attending the event and it turned out to be a long afternoon.
After some reflection I realized that I would do better in markets that were more focused on art and hand made goods, and that had a good reputation for getting crowds of people. There is nothing worse that doing all that work and not even making back the market fee.
2. Do not DIY your display
After looking online I found a tutorial to make your own card/print displays out of foam boards and for my first market I had two homemade displays that I was proud of. But once I set up everything and sat down to look around, I was embarrassed. Everyone else’s displays looked WAY MORE professional. I immediately went home and bought card displays, a peg board and plate displays for prints. I found every container in my house that would fit the display style and PRACTICED a new set up before market #2 and I was so happy with the results!
3. Lots and Lots of Signage
Another lesson I learned after my first market was to increase my signage-really never too much signage! For my first market I had made a “menu” of all my prices but it confused people and they still asked me how much everything was. For the second market I made a bunch of new signage (and even more for the third) and laminated the signs for durability. This cut down on confusion so much and led to more sales. It wasn’t until I individually labelled my sticker packs that I started selling those too, showing the power of clear labeling
4. Have a Sale Bin
While I do not bargain on my art prices, I have recently been warming up to the idea of getting rid of old stock with big sales. I created a bin with sale items and filled it with cards with old branding and surprise sticker packs. The idea was to give people different points of access to my table and merchandise, as well as offer many different price points on my art and the sale bin ended up being popular and I sold a handful of old things including a print!
Have a sale bin (tip #4) and give away freebies (tip #7) brought in lots of customers to browse!
5. Bring as much merchandise as possible
For my first market I brought 6 different kinds of holiday cards, and 6 different other card designs. My cards quickly became my best seller at the first market and several people asked me about more designs. For my next market I brought two bins and filled them with greeting cards, one specifically for birthday cards and the other for everything else. This again gave people another point of entry to the table where they can browse without pressure. I offered cards for $4 each or 3 for $10, and by having such a wide selection available most people went for the 3 for $10 deal.
6. Do your own advertising
This one is obvious but I failed miserably at this. As an artist it is now crucial for us to market ourselves and our art and the easiest way is through social media. Maybe if I had worked at all to bring people to the third market things would have turned out different, but hey, this is all a learning process.
7. Give away freebies!
I recently learned how to make my own bookmarks, but their quality isn’t high enough to sell and they are so cheap to make that I decided to give them as freebies. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of my table display and I think encouraged more people to interact. A lot of people that purchased something took a bookmark, but just as many that didn’t buy anything took a bookmark, and each time it felt like a little pat of encouragement that people liked my art. And of course the bookmarks had my information on them, so maybe I am not the worst at advertising after all.
Are you getting ready to sell at a market? Or are you a market veteran with some advice of your own? Either way I would love to hear from you!
XO,
Katie