Promotional Materials for Pencil Portrait Artists

Business cards
I recommend: Vertical Printing & Graphics, Encinitas California; Colson Printing Company, Valdosta GA, or PsPrint


Postcards - probably the most useful for an artist, because they are large enough to show a few examples of your work, and you can mail them less expensively than a first class letter. I use mine more than I use my business cards. Try Printing 4 Less; Vertical Printing, or Colson Printing as mentioned above.

Magnets - Magnets are great giveaways and something that people will keep, which is an important thing to keep in mind when you think about promotional materials.

To get new customers - I created some notecards that read on the front: "I read something nice about you today" and in the inside of the card, it says "& I thought you might like the clipping!" I clip announcements of new babies, job promotions, engagements, etc from the newspaper, and insert the clipping into the card. Using a people seach site like http://www.anywho.com , I locate the mailing address and mail it to the family. I enclose a business card, but the notecard also has my website information. The cards should prove successful, because it shows personal caring, and the recipient will most likely keep the notecard as a way to store the keepsake.

To get prior clients to return:
I send out note cards that offer half off one future custom pencil portrait commission. I send these to clients who were wonderful to work with -
you know the type, the ones that communicate efficiently and clearly, those who paid fast, basically they are the folks who are just a joy to
draw portraits for, because they were so easy to deal with. I find I can easily give them half off and still make a profit.

Gift certificates are an easy way to bring more portrait business to you. One good use is as donations/giveaways to good causes.
Although many of the donated gift certificates are often not redeemed, you get free advertising at the group's event. If the gift certificate is redeemed, then you have a new client and a way for more people to see your portrait art.

Gift Certificates are great for site visitors who want to get a unique gift for someone - for instance, a new baby gift, but they don't have access to the photos of the baby or person to be drawn. The gift certificates give them an additional gift giving option.

Recently, having gift certificates available saved a $450 portrait job for me. The client paid me half the payment, and when he sent the photos, we discovered that he only has 'thumbnail' photos - very small...only about 8k in size each. Because time was limited, this caused a major bump for this gift idea for his girlfriend's birthday. The largest I could get the photo to work as a reference was 5"x6". I gave him the option of a miniature portrait, or a gift certificate, or I'd be glad to refund his money. He decided to get the gift certificate, and they will send me a larger photo later. The portrait commission was saved by a simple gift certificate.

Where can you buy gift certificates? There are several sources online, but I bought mine from Veripak.com (now bagsandbowsonline.com) - the gift certificates are on parchment paper with gold-tone printing on them. I can do calligraphy, so I can hand-letter the names on them for customers. A good basic calligraphy set is nice for any artist to have on hand. If you don't know how to write in a pretty script style, the book Italics the Easy Way by Fred Eager is excellent!

Copyright 2007-2008 Darla Dixon
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