How to Gain New Fans at Conventions

So, you got a table at a convention?  At an expo?  A fest?  An artwalk?  Next to some kid’s lemonade stand?  Doesn’t matter.  That’s great!  Now you have the opportunity to gain new fans of the work you’re putting out into the world.  But manning a convention table is not a passive event.  As much as we’d all love to just sit there and “let the work speak for itself”, it’s rather annoying to see artists with their heads down hoping someone will walk up to make a purchase.

First of all, selling your product should not be your number one goal at a convention.  Your number one goal is gaining fans.  And to become a fan, people don’t have to make a purchase.  Selling is a numbers game, and the more fans you have, the more people who might make a future purchase.  Conventions are the best social networking venues you’ll ever encounter, but they’re not necessarily the best place to sell.

Convention-goers can’t buy everything, and because most purchases are cash-only, they are very careful to use their dollars for the right product.  Attendees act less like shoppers and more like carnival ticket holders.  Lots of people will want to buy your work, but they won’t, only because they are searching for the perfect something that will rationalize their feeble childlike minds into using their last ticket, their last cash dollar.  And when they don’t make a purchase from your booth, they will feel bad, not just for themselves, but for you, the poor penniless art booth vendor.  This is exactly when you have them subscribe to your website!  This is when you gain official fans.

“No problem,” you say.  “Here, subscribe to the website.”  Or, “here, you can get page updates.”  And then you hand them a pad of paper on a clipboard with a pen.  Don’t ask them, just put the pad into their hands.  They will grab the pen without even thinking and sign their email.  (It also helps if your pad and pen aren’t boring, get creative.)  And now you’ve got yourself an official fan.  They will walk away happy to have supported your work without having to spend a dime.  And you’ll be happy because once you gain enough subscribers and enough traffic to your website you’ll be able to start monetizing your url and hopefully sell more of your products to more fans online.  Win-win.

It’s rather disappointing to see so many convention tables miss out on this amazing opportunity.  So many artists just watch patrons look at their work and walk away, bitter that attendees would not open their wallets.  These artists are losing hundreds of new fans and subscribers of their work.  Don’t be discouraged, selling your work at conventions is a tricky business, attendees are a fickle bunch, but before they walk off into the void, just remember – “No problem, subscribe to the website.”

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