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Congratulations. After months of impatient waiting, you finally received great news: your art fair application has been accepted. This major participation may well represent the crucial step towards international recognition. Reason enough to spread the news asap to your website's visitors.
At least, this is what a lot of galleries opt for.
They limit the news to a few discreet lines announcing their participation and their booth number.
To complete their announcement they insert the art fair's logo that forwards to the art fair's home page and that is it.
They presume that once on the art fair's site, their visitors will easily find all the information they need.
After all, isn't it up to the art fair organizers to promote the participating galleries?
First of all, no doubt the art fair organizers will be grateful if you link to their site. With 200+ galleries proudly announcing and sending traffic their way, they are guaranteed a load of extra traffic, a boost for their visibility on the web.
But, what about your gallery, your artists and visitors planning to come over?
For sure, the art fair organizers will not take the lead.
The initiative is yours only. And there's a lot you can do to facilitate your visitor's trip and turn it into a perfectly focused experience.
Everyone at an art fair is short of time.
And most people are short of memory overwhelmed as they are by all the art, friends or colleagues they bump into during their visit.
If you simply send your visitors to the welcome (or the home) page of the art fair you've just abandoned them.
And chances are you will lose them all together.
Do you really think they will look up your gallery straight away?
Let me tell you. Instead of looking for your gallery, they start 'visiting' the art fair.
Looking up a load of participating galleries but yours, seems a sound guess to me.
So, before they visit your gallery's page on the art fair's site, they are already submerged in the info load of other galleries.
You want to highlight your presence at the fair, don't you? Right now all you need is to keep all attention on your gallery and your gallery alone as long as possible. Your participation is crucial for your business. So it's well worth a little extra effort.
Instead of sending your visitors to the home page of the art fair, why not send them to a dedicated page on your gallery's site, where you document your presence at the art fair?
Nothing easier than to set up a dedicated temporary page focused exclusively on your participation.
Of course not. No extravaganza here. No need to display all the works you'll have at your booth.
The idea behind your 'art fair page' is to give your visitors a glimpse, a tiny peek. Just enough to arouse the curiosity of the people who plan to visit (and to keep informed those who aren't able to attend).
An overview of the artists presented with a concise description of one work of each artist will do. If you feel tempted to show more you can suggest that upon their request, you will be glad to send them extra information of the artists they are interested in. You do it for your existing collectors already, so...
Your 'art fair page' is an excellent occasion to remind your visitors how you position your gallery.
At a fair all galleries come in a uniform setting. This is the occasion to re-affirm your gallery's statement and program. Tell people why you participate and how your presence meshes with your program.
Unless you're in a privileged spot, there's nothing easier for your visitors then to walk right by your booth. If you indicate an easy to follow route from the main entry based on the plan most art fair organizers offer, your visitors will be grateful.
Seems a bit over the top?
I can tell you from experience: do not show only the easiest and most direct route, add the detailed coordinates of your booth too.
Even link-in a little pdf document which your visitors can print out, indicating the exact spot, coordinates and route to your booth on the fair's ground plan.
Ever thought of having a special temporary cell number? If you publish this number on your 'art fair page' and activate it only for the duration of the art fair it is a terrific tool.
You are sure that people calling you on this special number are looking for you. And you can keep your regular mobile free for your personal or other business calls.
All these are simple ideas that you can quickly put together on a special page.
The main objective is not to pre-sell - there are other strategies to this purpose - but to awake interest and attract as many of your website visitors to your booth.
More over, by offering them only these extras to prepare their visit at your booth, you create a great branding experience they will not easily forget.
If the art fair organisers offer you to link back to your site, be sure to obtain a link to your dedicated 'art fair' page instead of your home page. For people looking up the links on the art fair's site it is even a greater branding experience for their first time visit to your gallery's site.
Next step: enjoy more web marketing articles and start optimizing your gallery's site using these easy-to-implement tactics.
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Article written by Luuk Christiaens