John T. Unger sent me this note.
I've been meaning to write for a while to tell you about a good, inexpensive promotion I discovered lately: The ubiquitous red, white and blue "Open" flag!
Simple, I know, but I put one on either side of the studio this summer and drop-in traffic has probably increased 500%. I don't really have a gallery space at my studio (it's more of a working studio) but there's usually work on display in the yard until it goes to galleries or sells online. Since buying the flags, I've sold twice as many of my fire bowls out of the yard. Not bad for a $15 investment! I think this would work for pretty much any artist who has at least some display space available.
If your studio is open to the public? What can you do to make it more inviting? To encourage more visitors?
Image: "Open" flag in front of John T. Unger's studio.
1 thought on “Do they know you’re open for business?”
By the way, I got my flags from Winter Brook Farm Antiques… they had great prices and were very forthcoming when I called to ask if there was a real advantage to the more expensive flags over the cheaper ones (they told me that they themselves used the cheaper $7.50 flags and were happy with them). I’ve been happy with mine as well. http://www.winterbrookfarmantiques.com/