Artists Sunday is your opportunity to shout out about your art: What makes it interesting, unique, decorative, useful, playful, creative, and why people should purchase it during the holiday season? Also, think about you. What makes you interesting? As an artist you are unique. You are passionate about your vision, your work and what you create.

Devise A Promotion

The best way to leverage the Artists Sunday shop art message during the holidays is to devise a creative promotion or “event” to showcase your work. Since COVID-19 is still with us this year, we use the word “event” loosely since many regions around the country may not be able to support real world events due to social distancing and health considerations.

During the fall holiday shopping season consumers are conditioned to look for promotions. In fact, the Thanksgiving weekend is considered the largest shopping weekend of the year. So, we’re going to play into that and spread our message of shopping for art this holiday season, promoting that message.

Picking A Time Frame

This fall, we hope consumers will be able to interact with a range of art and craft specific promotional activities across the country, leading up to and through the Thanksgiving weekend.

With that in mind, don’t feel like your promotion has to just take place on November 29^th.

Events (or virtual events) and promotions can run for several days or even weeks during the holiday season. Just like Black Friday specials are not just on Black Friday any longer. Create something that works best for you and your customers. If need be, consider collaborating or hosting something with a partner or an established event.

Promotion and Event Strategies

Promotions can vary widely, from individual artists hosting specials during certain time periods to encourage consumer interaction, to an arts district promoting its artists in specific and unique ways, to an artist revealing new work at a specific time.

Feel free to think outside the box when it comes to the term “event” as a method of promoting art – especially in the era of COVID-19.

Suggestions of Artists Sunday Related Events and Promotions:

• An Artisan announces they will debut exciting new work for the first time on a specific date and time
• A County arts commission hosts a virtual art festival during Artists Sunday week or weekend.
• An individual Artist discounts select work on their web site on Artists Sunday until noon only.
• A Chamber of Commerce and City collaborate, creating a pop up store/gallery for a specific time period.
• An Artist holds appointment-only bookings at her studio at specific times and days.
• A City department starts a series of artist showcases in early Nov, leading up to November 29th.
• An Artisan or Craftsperson offers specialized commissions starting in October leading up to the holidays
• A City cross-markets Artists Sunday with Small Business Saturday© creating a dual message of Shop Local and Shop Art.

Remember these are just ideas. Create your own or talk to organizations or other artists in your community to see if there is an opportunity to collaborate. Look for more ideas in other areas of this Toolkit.

Now we’ll walk through key elements to consider when setting up an event or promotion. You can use these to fill out the Artists Sunday Event or Promotion Listing on our web site at https://artistssunday.com/listing/

Give your Promotion a Name

It’s a good idea to give your promotion a name. Be specific and unique so it stands out.

What is it you wish to achieve? Sell more of your work obviously but don’t be afraid to wrap something around that to achieve your goal. Play into a theme or leverage something in your community or local environment.

Of course, it could as simple as “Artists Sunday Showcase” or “Artists Sunday Sale”.

Describe Your Promotion

Tell people what’s going on and why. Discuss the theme and your objectives or who’s participating, if more than one individual. A sentence or a paragraph will do.

Set a Date and Time

You’ll want to set a date or range of dates for your promotion so people can market it on their calendar. A date implies a sense of urgency. It this could be a simple as reminding people to shop for art or shop with you during Artists Sunday. Or if you want to run a promotion for longer time period, that’s okay too. Provide an end date as well as a start date. You can always extend an end date, if the promotion/event is virtual.

Set a Location

A location could be anything from inviting customers to visit your web site (a virtual promotion or event) to inviting customers to visit you at a physical location (a physical event promotion).

You may have your own promo/event, or you may be working with an organization, or both.

• If you’re hosting a physical or virtual event or even a promotion. Please consult the Event Production Checklist in this Toolkit for tips and ideas.

• If you’re hosting an online or virtual event, you’ll want to consult the E-Commerce Holiday Best Practices Checklist elsewhere in this Toolkit.

IMPORTANT TIP:  Given current state of COVID-19 we encourage all artists to examine or re-examine their online presence. You may feel comfortable hosting or participating in a physical event this year but even with precautions put in place, consumers may not feel similarly, and may be more comfortable shopping online this holiday season.

Review the additional Guides, Checklists and Articles in this Toolkit for other promotion and event best practices.

Spreading the Word

Once you’ve established your promotion, it’s time to get the word out. To make things simple we’ve supplied you with a variety of templates and tools to help spread the word. See our Marketing Strategy Playbook elsewhere in this Toolkit for details on how to maximize those tools and tell people about your promotion.  

The Toolkit offers a variety of items to help you spread the word, including:

• Press Release Template
• Email Template
• Social Media Templates
• Blog Post Template
• Gift Guide Pitch Template
• Web / Social Media Images
• Artists Sunday Badge
• Printable Posters / Fliers – downloadable separately due to file size. Download from our Dropbox folder here: https://bit.ly/ArtistsSundayPosters
• Social Media Videos – More than 20 attractive and fun social media videos for your use. Download separately due to file sizes from our Dropbox account at https://bit.ly/ArtistsSundayVideos

 

Next Steps

The Artists Sunday Toolkit is divided into three sections:

1. Guides and Checklists
2. Promotional Templates and Tools
3. Best Practice Tips for Artists

Review the guides and checklist documents, using them to craft and plan your promotion(s).

Once complete, use the Promotional tools and templates to get the word out.

Read through the best practices articles for additional tips

Tell Us About It

Once you finalize the details of your promotion, event, or virtual event, tell us about it, so that we can promote it too. Give us the details at: https://artistssunday.com/listing/

View current events and promotions below. Events/promotions are added as they are submitted, so check back frequently.