boy am I late in June and July  Marketing tips for my studio... 

okay, here we go...

The last guy I dated did marketing for a title company in Plano and he gave me a great idea for my own marketing when he told me that 90% of homeowners forget the name of their real estate agent who sold them a house within three years, but many homeowners will be ready to sell their home, or recommend an agent to a friend in that time. When most real estate agents sell a home,
they give the new homeowner some kind of token gift at the time, as a thank you, such as a cheese basket, or something for the home. With proper seminars, you can have a big market here...Go to real estate offices (I had my "beau" at First Fidelity set this up for me, but you could easily do it on
your own with a few calls or faxes) and do a free seminar showing them how to do a personal gift. Allow them to each do a free tile, or mug etc and explain how they can use this as a permanent "business card" in a sense...Rather than the gift basket, have them make a personalized gift for the homeowner and show them simple methods of painting. The key then is to tell them this will be something the homeowner will then keep, they can personalize each one differently with the homeowner's name, and then (drum roll) they can then put their own name and business phone on the bottom so they will never be forgotten when it comes to a referral or time to sell the home again. Additionally, painting will relieve stress, they can do it in business groups in the party room, and these gifts will probably kept (since they are personalized) rather than eaten and tossed like the meat and cheese basket! We have had a lot of fun with the real estate groups in the area!! A stroke of luck for me...(plus this guy's office was directly across from another pottery painting studio so he gave me business reports daily...hmm, maybe he was a "keeper" after all...neh..)

Donate an item to a telethon. For example, the SPCA is doing a telethon and we are donating a free dog food bowl and water bowl that you can stamp your own pet's paw onto and we will add free calligraphy for their name and teach you how to paint it. They announce your store name etc. on t.v. as they are
telling of the item...you could also think big and donate a birthday party.

It has been over 100 degrees every day in Dallas for as long as I can remember. We currently have an ad in the entertainment magazine that I like ...it is a local paper that lists all the bars, nightclubs and hotspots. In large letters our headline says "ARE YOU IN HEAT?" Then underneath it you read "Bring some wine, bring a date, "chill" inside and paint til late! Then we have our usual ad about what you do, we fire it, no experience needed yada yada yada then we list the days we are open late. In the middle is our logo
and a picture of a table place setting that has a painted plate, painted bowl on top, a glass of wine and paint brushes rather than silverware. The placemat is lots and lots of paint splatters. It brings in more dating
couples. And the headline surely grabs your attention! I wanted something that gave people a fun INDOOR activity cause you virtually can't breathe outside right now! Feel free to adjust this for your own summer ad. I don't care.

When I was recently visiting Charleston, S.C. I bought a cute t-shirt from the Ceramics Cafe. I think this is a great idea for a tourist area, or have kid's t-shirts made and the birthday child gets one free for every party booking. You can write it off at the end of the year for advertising. I would have loved to have chatted with the owner of this store, but when I walked in with the guy I was visiting he asked something like "So, what do you do here? You show us how to paint?" So then I had to play dumb so I apologize if the owner
reads this, but I did buy a t-shirt. Great pottery places in Charleston! I also loved Wired and Fired where they had their own bartender serving wine and coffee and thier logo on a huge polished copper wall and cool purple custom cabinets.

I haven't done a website of my own yet, but I think if I had specials like many hourly fee studios do, it would be a great idea. People can log on to your site, view some cool pictures and find out what events are happening. Also, you can explain the concept on your site so when you have your website address on your business card, people could go there to find out more about it. I have business cards that have a picture of finished pieces on it so the concept is understood whenever I hand one out.

Allow local artists to display and sell their pieces in your studio for a limited time (you decide the time frame) if they will come for an afternoon and help your customers with some painting technique. Display their pieces for a few weeks first and advertise what day the artist will be in the studio. You could do an "artists month" with different artists every few days ....their payment is the free gallery space... I would not ask for commission on the sales if you allow them to show customer's some ways to paint in their
style so they are working your studio for an afternoon as payment...try to get local artists with all different painting styles for a good variety and try to have one a day or so...if you don't know where to find them, start at a local college with those majoring in ceramics for their MFA. They would love it on
their resume as well. The instructor should know some good ceramicists in the area as well. You might also use them to come in for a class on handbuilding from raw clay if this isn't something you are familiar with.