May 13, 2025 • 24 mins
Drawing from his recent experience hosting a solo watercolor exhibition, Michael Burpoe shares marketing strategies that business owners can apply to their own store events. He explains how effective event planning, branding, goal-setting, and multi-channel promotion can enhance attendance and sales for any luxury buying experience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to In the Loop, a buying event, and what I
mean by that is I did promotionand marketing and inviting
specifically for this event andI wanted to see if I could try
to relate some of the things Ilearned along the way to what
jewelers and listeners can do ifthey are throwing events for
(00:39):
themselves.
I think I was a little bit moredigital heavy than a lot of
places, but I also had someprint and mailing components and
branding components and I thinkit might be interesting just to
kind of show some of my workalong the way, just like the
process, and see if there'sanything that you can learn for
when you do your next event.
(00:59):
Just a quicker episode becauseI was out a fair amount this
week and I think it's kind of aninteresting one and maybe
you'll enjoy.
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:35):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(01:57):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And now back to the show.
All right, everybody.
So, like I mentioned along theway, talking about this solo
exhibition I put together tokind of rewind it a little bit.
I've talked about my you know,semi-professional art career
(02:30):
along the way.
I work as a design manager forPunchmark and I host this
podcast as part of my job withthem.
But at the same time I also amslightly pursuing a career as a
watercolor artist and one of theparts of being an artist is you
hold these gallery exhibitionsand it's kind of one of those
(02:50):
ways that you level up and kindof push your craft to the next
level is getting people toattend your shows and then
eventually having them, you know, invite you to do more things,
more prestigious shows, and youkind of walk yourself up to the
top like that.
I had a show this is my firstone in a year and a half and I
(03:10):
treated it kind of like abusiness event.
So Unfortunately, because Ihave so much history with
Punchmark and working inbranding and design, I can't
just turn that part of me off.
So I carry those traits andskills into everything I do,
(03:31):
whether it's throwing my ownbirthday party or having a
Friendsgiving at my house.
I have to brand everything.
I have to do marketing for it.
Whether it's you know what thatlooks like is always typically
different, but again, I treatthings.
Anything worth doing is worthoverdoing is the way I've kind
of always seen these events.
So when you're doing an eventlike an art exhibition, one of
(03:56):
the things that I found is veryhelpful is talking about
planning and branding, and onething I did for mine is I sat
down and I really thought aboutwhat the branding for my event
was going to be.
To give you an idea, it wasthis show was held in the next
town over so not in the townthat I live in, but in the next
(04:18):
town.
So not in the town that I livein, but in the next town.
And what I saw this as is kindof a opportunity as well as kind
of a setback, if you will, butan opportunity for me to brand
myself in a unique way to peoplewho might not have ever seen my
work before.
So, for example, I saw this asa branding event for me to talk
(04:40):
about how my work speaksspecifically to the area, and I
think that this is something youcan do with your store and
position yourself.
For example, if you are acommunity-minded business, do
you give money back to the area,do you have these charity
foundation events, things likethat?
How are you going to talk aboutit?
(05:01):
Because one thing I do find isthat when people do charity work
or they have community-mindedevents, they sometimes are not
putting that in the front, whenI think that's a really great
differentiating factor and it'ssomething that you can do more
of.
So for me, what I did is Ipicked a name for my show and I
picked some branding, sometypefaces and colors and like
(05:24):
how was my design aesthetic forthis?
And I really wanted to do thatbecause I noticed that other
people weren't doing that.
So another thing that storescan do to differentiate
themselves when they have theseevents, whether it's a national
rarities event or a trunk showor something like that I think a
little touch of branding goes along way.
(05:45):
So here's what I did I named myshow and I named it terroir.
Terroir it's a word for wine youknow typically using to
describe wine and how you cansort of sometimes taste the
region can be imparted upon awine depending on where it's
grown.
So the terroir and flavorprofile of a wine from Spain is
(06:11):
probably going to taste verydifferently compared to a wine
from California.
They might be wonderful andmagnificent, and maybe even the
same grape variety, but the soiland the pH balance of the
nutrients that go into thegrapes is going to impart a
flavor.
So I named mine terroir becauseI wanted to kind of convey in a
(06:36):
word that my paintings aredictated and influenced by the
area that I live in and grew up.
But one thing I found with mineis I didn't love how the word
terroir looked like the wordterror.
So I actually used the phoneticspelling of terroir.
So that is a slash, lowercaset-E-R dash, w-a-h-r slash, so
(07:03):
that is a phonetic spelling andI thought of it as like a cool
branding.
And the other thing I did is Ipicked a color that I really
liked that I could use as myspot color.
So a spot color is like abranding term that you can use
in a bunch of print materialthat is uniform across all of
them and it kind of becomes likethe de facto branding.
(07:24):
And I think, for example, withnational rarities, events, for
example, if you do one in thespring and you do one in the
fall, like a lot of stores do.
Maybe you brand it differently.
You know, the spring could be alight green, using your logo in
like a more fun way or talking,using it for your colored
(07:45):
printouts and stuff like that,and then for the fall, maybe
using an orange or a darkercolor or something like that.
For me, I used a wine color, soit's close to white, but it's
kind of like a burgundy, kind ofbrownie reddish hue, and I
really liked it.
I spent a lot of time trying topick it and I also picked a
(08:05):
series of typefaces.
I try to keep mine really clean, so I used like a Helvetica and
Helvetica New and also someAcumen, and what I did that for
is just because I really wantedto contrast my art.
I think that putting on eventsat your store, I think a little
bit of design consultation, issomething that kind of goes a
(08:27):
long way, and maybe you onlyhave to do it the first time, or
maybe even the second time aswell, and then from there a good
design system can be built uponiteratively.
So I know Punchmark has adesign team on staff that could
help you, but you could alsojust speak with whoever does
your design work regularly andI'm sure that they could help
you as well.
So that's planning and branding, and I also outlined a couple
(08:52):
of goals and I think I am reallyinto this.
I think every store should bedoing goals as well, and what I
see it as is like pass, no pass.
So pass meaning like what isthe success, kind of markers.
So for me, I just wanted to sellone painting, one print, and I
(09:14):
wanted to have 50 people show up.
That was kind of like what Ithought was like a nice sort of
line, and what it means is thatI hit all of the points that I
wanted.
I wanted people to show up, Iwanted people to show up and buy
low price point items, and thenI wanted people to show up and
buy high price point items.
So if I was able to hit allthree of those like whether
(09:36):
that's a lot of people or not, alot of people as well, as you
know, I think it is determiningwhether that's, hey, we want to
have a thousand people to comethrough the doors during this
time, but also setting up avariable that's like, oh, we
want them to show, you know, andwe want 50 people to buy
(10:00):
something.
I think setting up those linesahead of time so that you know
if things were successful or notsuccessful, because I think
it's a real human trade of us tomove the goalposts Okay.
So that's planning, branding andgoals, but the next, I think,
is also the advertising andmarketing of it all.
So this is where I think thatyou have the most room to do
(10:24):
more, and I think if you're notcareful, you can really spend a
ton of money on this.
I had to really reel it in, butit's what I ended up spending
the most money on is the savethe dates and the posters.
So I think that every store cando a lot more direct mail.
I think direct mail is money,especially if you just do some
(10:48):
tasteful, tasteful stuff insteadof just doing like those cheesy
, crappy flyers that go in andpeople take them and they throw
them right in the trash.
I think having some nicebranding on them and having some
nice photography from yourprevious events, I think it goes
a long way.
So for mine, I did some save thedates to my VIPs.
(11:09):
So this is everybody who'sbought something from me in the
last two years.
So I consider them, you know,former clients and everybody
who's ever done a commission forme and I also did a lot of
marketing to people in the area.
I had like kind of a list ofpeople who I thought could go
and ended up being a lot reallyhelpful to have like those
(11:32):
addresses.
That's kind of what took me thelongest.
And then I bought and designedsome save the dates.
I bought mine from Zillion, Ithink it was, and no, sorry,
from Zazzle, and I think itturned out really well.
I stuffed all the envelopes andI printed everything on labels
(11:53):
and sent them out.
It was by far my biggestexpense.
I spent nearly, I think, like$300 on save the dates and
marketing materials and I alsobought some posters.
I think it's just sometimesstores just aren't really
bragging enough, and what I meanby that is having your banners
(12:15):
and telling your salespeople tomention the events.
And I noticed that in the daysleading up to the events I would
just casually just drop oh yeah, I'm doing a show, it's going
to be at this time at this place.
Yeah, if you're free, youshould swing by.
And of those casual mentions, alot of people showed up from
those.
So I would be recommending thatyou train your staff everybody
(12:37):
on staff to mention it as muchas possible.
It'll just help with gettingpeople through the door, because
I think that that is one of themost marketable things that you
can hang your hat on is theability to congregate people,
and I think that's a very slepton ability, especially for
smaller areas, smaller markets,for bigger cities.
(12:59):
You know, I feel like you couldprobably just have an event and
people will show up.
A certain number of people willshow up just passively, but I
think in a small area, you doneed to be a little bit more
active.
Okay, so that's the save thedates in marketing.
The next I did is that is verydifferent and I would recommend
(13:19):
every store do this is I wantedto find a way to market with my
Instagram and leverage myInstagram.
So one thing I did is, one weekbefore the show started, I
started posting content about it.
So anything related to the showI was trying my hardest to do
(13:40):
at least one a day, but usuallyit was two a day.
I tried to do something in themorning, so all I would do is I
just had some photographs ofsome of the marketing.
Like to save the date, I'd takea photo, put it on my Instagram
story and put the date, timeand location.
That's all I did.
And then I made a post, talkedabout it a little bit more date,
time and location.
That's all I did.
(14:00):
And then I made a post, talkedabout it a little bit more date,
time, location and then I wouldtry to up it.
So in the three days leading upto the show I tried to post
three or four times and then onthe day of the show kicked off
at five o'clock and I had avirtual walkthrough at 4.30, I
(14:22):
posted probably every two hours.
So I really tried to get infront of people's Instagram
stories and really just get ontop of it.
And I was talking to my momabout this and she was kind of
like, man, you're really doing alot of marketing for this.
And I was like, yeah, it'sbecause you need to cash in on
(14:44):
your goodwill.
And I think this is anotherpoint I'd like to make for
stores.
And again, this is I know I'mcomparing, you know, apples to
potatoes but I think that thecashing in it's like why do we
spend all this time and pay anemployee and, like you know,
spend all this effort and timebuilding up our Instagram if
(15:07):
we're not going to cash in on it.
And what I mean by that is youonly have, you know, probably
five or six opportunities a yearto leverage your marketing
tools to their fullest potentialin a way that can really pay
off.
And I think it builds up like acrescendo and it's just like a
really loud noise and you'remarketing and marketing and
(15:30):
you're loud.
And then I think the secondmost important thing is you got
to go quiet afterwards, and Ithink otherwise people get tired
and they turn you off.
And that's what I try to dowith mine is, you know, you
build it up, build it up untilit comes to this moment where
it's loud, and then for the nextcouple of weeks I'm just going
(15:51):
to be quiet and the marketingopportunity is sort of over and
I think it's time to let thingssort of resolve and kind of come
back down.
To let things sort of resolveand kind of come back down.
And one thing I was trying tomarket on, because I believe
digital to digital is one of themost effective routes, because
digital to physical is hard butphysical to physical is easier
(16:15):
and digital to digital is easier.
So physical to physical, when Iwas sending save the dates and
mailing and banners and stufflike that that works the best,
because I was trying to getpeople to show up.
Virtual to virtual is.
I was marketing on my Instagramabout this virtual walkthrough
because I knew that the peoplewho follow my Instagram don't
(16:39):
have to necessarily be limitedto a geographic region, whereas
I'm only mailing stuff to peoplewho might be able to make the
drive.
So, for this virtualwalkthrough, what this was is I
went in and I did an Instagramlive for 15 minutes and I'll get
into why I did it for so short.
(17:01):
But I went through at 4.30 andmy show started at five and I
walked through and I talkedabout each painting for just a
minute, you know, or just acouple seconds, and kind of went
through and I showed everythingand I directed everybody.
If they wanted to shop, theycould buy from the gallery.
But what was cool was it liveson as this legacy and it lives
(17:28):
on my Instagram feed and itlives on as a more kind of
polished tool that I can use infuture things.
And I will say that virtualwalkthroughs and just live
streams they're so easy to doand all you need is someone
that's okay to be in front ofcamera.
Fortunately, it's somethingthat I feel like I'm a little
(17:49):
bit more naturally okay atbecause of this job.
But the thing that I found veryuseful is all you have to do is
just market for this event andthen when you go, it doesn't
matter if you have one person onthere or 20 people on there.
If you understand that the realreason why you're doing it is
(18:09):
so that you can have therecording afterwards, suddenly
it frees you up a little bitmore.
But what's cool is the galleryhad told me that no one had ever
done a virtual walkthrough attheir place, and I think maybe
if you had a national raritiesevent, or again, if you had some
trunk show or a guy's night orsomething like that, I think
(18:30):
having a little bit of a livestream of it all as people come
through and all you got to do isjust keep an eye out for when
people write in and just havesomeone kind of hosting it and
talking through it, all it's Ithink it'd be really effective
and I wish that more storeswould do live stuff, whether on
Facebook, on Instagram, maybe onYouTube.
(18:51):
I think that there's a lot ofbenefit to doing something live
and then taking the recording orthe VOD, which is a video on
demand and then remarketing withthat.
And what's cool is I'm going tobe using that virtual
walkthrough as a piece in myportfolio.
It's like, hey, this is whatthe show looked like.
So we've already gone throughplanning, branding and, as well
(19:16):
as the marketing that's leadingup to it, a virtual component.
And then the final was I did alittle bit of marketing to try
to remarket in clientele, andone of the things I'm trying my
hardest to do is I really wantedto make sure that purchasers
and buyers would consider maybecoming back in the future.
(19:39):
So what I mean by that is, Ithink, having a I put a thank
you note in every purchase andthose thank you notes just have
like a little piece of art andon the back just said thank you,
and it also had my social mediaand contact information.
So I'm hoping that people mightbuy more stuff from me.
(20:00):
I'm hoping that if I can turnone in 10 buyers into a repeat
buyer, that's 10%.
That is a 10% growth more thanif I was to not, and it actually
the marketing and the dollarspays off absolutely, and I think
that jewelry stores in generalare actually really good at this
(20:22):
.
You all know how to, you know,turn a one-time purchase into a
real kind of client.
So they come in and they gettheir anniversary gifts and they
get their Mother's Day giftsand they get their whatever
gifts.
I think that you've all kind offigured that part out, but it's
definitely worth kind ofmentioning.
So I think, if you can kind ofunderstand the connection I'm
(20:46):
trying to make, to me, an artshow is a again, it's a luxury
buying event and I would like tosay that the similarities
between a trunk show and thismight be substantial.
Maybe it's tenuous, maybeyou're all kind of sitting there
like, nah, this is silly.
But I want to kind of conveyhow I unfortunately can't turn
(21:12):
the business side of my brainoff and whenever I do anything
casual I have to do it to themax.
And when I did this art show itwas kind of like a lot of work
that led up to something.
But what's really nice is nowis the quiet part.
Now you kind of just let theshow be up for a month and you
can get a chance to let thesales, the passive sales, happen
(21:34):
.
But I found that having peopleshow up was the biggest currency
I could get.
I guess this is kind of a sidepoint, but I just want to.
Maybe I'll mention it a littlebit further.
What I was saying about theability to congregate people is
such an overlooked skill that Ithink that there are certain
(21:57):
people that can use that almostas like a as a lever.
You know, the ability to havepeople show up to something is
not as common as you think.
I think that having the abilityto tell people, hey, I'm having
a birthday party and peopleactually come, that's impressive
(22:18):
.
Not everyone can do that.
How many people have awesome,great ideas and then they fall
down on one of those legs,whether it's the planning or the
communication or like thepolishing of the actual event or
the thank you at the end.
I think the you can't overlookany of those components and I
(22:38):
tried my hardest not to.
I will also say that I learneda lot.
There's a bunch of things I'mgoing to try to do differently
next time and I think I spentway too much money on Save the
Dates.
I think a fair number of peopledidn't show up and I might
tailor it down, might send it to75 people, because there's
(23:06):
about 25 people who it was kindof a waste and I could cut down
on my expenses, but I think itwas a lot of fun and maybe in a
couple of months or a year, whenI do my next one, it'll be even
better.
I guess maybe I'll leave it atthe end, if you made it to the
end.
If you want to see what the showlooked like, it's on my
Instagram.
My Instagram is burpski15.
That's B-U-R-P-S-K-I 15 onInstagram.
(23:27):
I don't market it very much onanything Punchmark related.
I try to keep my business andart life separately, but since
this episode was all about that,I guess I will talk about it a
little bit more.
Yep, just a quick episode.
I was out a couple of days thisweek dealing with my show and I
didn't want to have us skip anepisode.
We've got some exciting stuffcoming down the pike that I
(23:50):
can't wait to explain and sharemore about.
We have the client workshop ina couple of just a couple of
days, and for that one I'mreally excited as well.
So, everybody, thanks so muchfor listening.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye, all right,everybody.
(24:13):
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cocker.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash Luke.
That's L-O-U-P-E, thanks.
(24:34):
I'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye, thank you.
Welcome to In the Loop, a buying event, and what I
mean by that is I did promotionand marketing and inviting
specifically for this event andI wanted to see if I could try
to relate some of the things Ilearned along the way to what
jewelers and listeners can do ifthey are throwing events for
(00:39):
themselves.
I think I was a little bit moredigital heavy than a lot of
places, but I also had someprint and mailing components and
branding components and I thinkit might be interesting just to
kind of show some of my workalong the way, just like the
process, and see if there'sanything that you can learn for
when you do your next event.
(00:59):
Just a quicker episode becauseI was out a fair amount this
week and I think it's kind of aninteresting one and maybe
you'll enjoy.
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:35):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(01:57):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And now back to the show.
All right, everybody.
So, like I mentioned along theway, talking about this solo
exhibition I put together tokind of rewind it a little bit.
I've talked about my you know,semi-professional art career
(02:30):
along the way.
I work as a design manager forPunchmark and I host this
podcast as part of my job withthem.
But at the same time I also amslightly pursuing a career as a
watercolor artist and one of theparts of being an artist is you
hold these gallery exhibitionsand it's kind of one of those
(02:50):
ways that you level up and kindof push your craft to the next
level is getting people toattend your shows and then
eventually having them, you know, invite you to do more things,
more prestigious shows, and youkind of walk yourself up to the
top like that.
I had a show this is my firstone in a year and a half and I
(03:10):
treated it kind of like abusiness event.
So Unfortunately, because Ihave so much history with
Punchmark and working inbranding and design, I can't
just turn that part of me off.
So I carry those traits andskills into everything I do,
(03:31):
whether it's throwing my ownbirthday party or having a
Friendsgiving at my house.
I have to brand everything.
I have to do marketing for it.
Whether it's you know what thatlooks like is always typically
different, but again, I treatthings.
Anything worth doing is worthoverdoing is the way I've kind
of always seen these events.
So when you're doing an eventlike an art exhibition, one of
(03:56):
the things that I found is veryhelpful is talking about
planning and branding, and onething I did for mine is I sat
down and I really thought aboutwhat the branding for my event
was going to be.
To give you an idea, it wasthis show was held in the next
town over so not in the townthat I live in, but in the next
(04:18):
town.
So not in the town that I livein, but in the next town.
And what I saw this as is kindof a opportunity as well as kind
of a setback, if you will, butan opportunity for me to brand
myself in a unique way to peoplewho might not have ever seen my
work before.
So, for example, I saw this asa branding event for me to talk
(04:40):
about how my work speaksspecifically to the area, and I
think that this is something youcan do with your store and
position yourself.
For example, if you are acommunity-minded business, do
you give money back to the area,do you have these charity
foundation events, things likethat?
How are you going to talk aboutit?
(05:01):
Because one thing I do find isthat when people do charity work
or they have community-mindedevents, they sometimes are not
putting that in the front, whenI think that's a really great
differentiating factor and it'ssomething that you can do more
of.
So for me, what I did is Ipicked a name for my show and I
picked some branding, sometypefaces and colors and like
(05:24):
how was my design aesthetic forthis?
And I really wanted to do thatbecause I noticed that other
people weren't doing that.
So another thing that storescan do to differentiate
themselves when they have theseevents, whether it's a national
rarities event or a trunk showor something like that I think a
little touch of branding goes along way.
(05:45):
So here's what I did I named myshow and I named it terroir.
Terroir it's a word for wine youknow typically using to
describe wine and how you cansort of sometimes taste the
region can be imparted upon awine depending on where it's
grown.
So the terroir and flavorprofile of a wine from Spain is
(06:11):
probably going to taste verydifferently compared to a wine
from California.
They might be wonderful andmagnificent, and maybe even the
same grape variety, but the soiland the pH balance of the
nutrients that go into thegrapes is going to impart a
flavor.
So I named mine terroir becauseI wanted to kind of convey in a
(06:36):
word that my paintings aredictated and influenced by the
area that I live in and grew up.
But one thing I found with mineis I didn't love how the word
terroir looked like the wordterror.
So I actually used the phoneticspelling of terroir.
So that is a slash, lowercaset-E-R dash, w-a-h-r slash, so
(07:03):
that is a phonetic spelling andI thought of it as like a cool
branding.
And the other thing I did is Ipicked a color that I really
liked that I could use as myspot color.
So a spot color is like abranding term that you can use
in a bunch of print materialthat is uniform across all of
them and it kind of becomes likethe de facto branding.
(07:24):
And I think, for example, withnational rarities, events, for
example, if you do one in thespring and you do one in the
fall, like a lot of stores do.
Maybe you brand it differently.
You know, the spring could be alight green, using your logo in
like a more fun way or talking,using it for your colored
(07:45):
printouts and stuff like that,and then for the fall, maybe
using an orange or a darkercolor or something like that.
For me, I used a wine color, soit's close to white, but it's
kind of like a burgundy, kind ofbrownie reddish hue, and I
really liked it.
I spent a lot of time trying topick it and I also picked a
(08:05):
series of typefaces.
I try to keep mine really clean, so I used like a Helvetica and
Helvetica New and also someAcumen, and what I did that for
is just because I really wantedto contrast my art.
I think that putting on eventsat your store, I think a little
bit of design consultation, issomething that kind of goes a
(08:27):
long way, and maybe you onlyhave to do it the first time, or
maybe even the second time aswell, and then from there a good
design system can be built uponiteratively.
So I know Punchmark has adesign team on staff that could
help you, but you could alsojust speak with whoever does
your design work regularly andI'm sure that they could help
you as well.
So that's planning and branding, and I also outlined a couple
(08:52):
of goals and I think I am reallyinto this.
I think every store should bedoing goals as well, and what I
see it as is like pass, no pass.
So pass meaning like what isthe success, kind of markers.
So for me, I just wanted to sellone painting, one print, and I
(09:14):
wanted to have 50 people show up.
That was kind of like what Ithought was like a nice sort of
line, and what it means is thatI hit all of the points that I
wanted.
I wanted people to show up, Iwanted people to show up and buy
low price point items, and thenI wanted people to show up and
buy high price point items.
So if I was able to hit allthree of those like whether
(09:36):
that's a lot of people or not, alot of people as well, as you
know, I think it is determiningwhether that's, hey, we want to
have a thousand people to comethrough the doors during this
time, but also setting up avariable that's like, oh, we
want them to show, you know, andwe want 50 people to buy
(10:00):
something.
I think setting up those linesahead of time so that you know
if things were successful or notsuccessful, because I think
it's a real human trade of us tomove the goalposts Okay.
So that's planning, branding andgoals, but the next, I think,
is also the advertising andmarketing of it all.
So this is where I think thatyou have the most room to do
(10:24):
more, and I think if you're notcareful, you can really spend a
ton of money on this.
I had to really reel it in, butit's what I ended up spending
the most money on is the savethe dates and the posters.
So I think that every store cando a lot more direct mail.
I think direct mail is money,especially if you just do some
(10:48):
tasteful, tasteful stuff insteadof just doing like those cheesy
, crappy flyers that go in andpeople take them and they throw
them right in the trash.
I think having some nicebranding on them and having some
nice photography from yourprevious events, I think it goes
a long way.
So for mine, I did some save thedates to my VIPs.
(11:09):
So this is everybody who'sbought something from me in the
last two years.
So I consider them, you know,former clients and everybody
who's ever done a commission forme and I also did a lot of
marketing to people in the area.
I had like kind of a list ofpeople who I thought could go
and ended up being a lot reallyhelpful to have like those
(11:32):
addresses.
That's kind of what took me thelongest.
And then I bought and designedsome save the dates.
I bought mine from Zillion, Ithink it was, and no, sorry,
from Zazzle, and I think itturned out really well.
I stuffed all the envelopes andI printed everything on labels
(11:53):
and sent them out.
It was by far my biggestexpense.
I spent nearly, I think, like$300 on save the dates and
marketing materials and I alsobought some posters.
I think it's just sometimesstores just aren't really
bragging enough, and what I meanby that is having your banners
(12:15):
and telling your salespeople tomention the events.
And I noticed that in the daysleading up to the events I would
just casually just drop oh yeah, I'm doing a show, it's going
to be at this time at this place.
Yeah, if you're free, youshould swing by.
And of those casual mentions, alot of people showed up from
those.
So I would be recommending thatyou train your staff everybody
(12:37):
on staff to mention it as muchas possible.
It'll just help with gettingpeople through the door, because
I think that that is one of themost marketable things that you
can hang your hat on is theability to congregate people,
and I think that's a very slepton ability, especially for
smaller areas, smaller markets,for bigger cities.
(12:59):
You know, I feel like you couldprobably just have an event and
people will show up.
A certain number of people willshow up just passively, but I
think in a small area, you doneed to be a little bit more
active.
Okay, so that's the save thedates in marketing.
The next I did is that is verydifferent and I would recommend
(13:19):
every store do this is I wantedto find a way to market with my
Instagram and leverage myInstagram.
So one thing I did is, one weekbefore the show started, I
started posting content about it.
So anything related to the showI was trying my hardest to do
(13:40):
at least one a day, but usuallyit was two a day.
I tried to do something in themorning, so all I would do is I
just had some photographs ofsome of the marketing.
Like to save the date, I'd takea photo, put it on my Instagram
story and put the date, timeand location.
That's all I did.
And then I made a post, talkedabout it a little bit more date,
time and location.
That's all I did.
(14:00):
And then I made a post, talkedabout it a little bit more date,
time, location and then I wouldtry to up it.
So in the three days leading upto the show I tried to post
three or four times and then onthe day of the show kicked off
at five o'clock and I had avirtual walkthrough at 4.30, I
(14:22):
posted probably every two hours.
So I really tried to get infront of people's Instagram
stories and really just get ontop of it.
And I was talking to my momabout this and she was kind of
like, man, you're really doing alot of marketing for this.
And I was like, yeah, it'sbecause you need to cash in on
(14:44):
your goodwill.
And I think this is anotherpoint I'd like to make for
stores.
And again, this is I know I'mcomparing, you know, apples to
potatoes but I think that thecashing in it's like why do we
spend all this time and pay anemployee and, like you know,
spend all this effort and timebuilding up our Instagram if
(15:07):
we're not going to cash in on it.
And what I mean by that is youonly have, you know, probably
five or six opportunities a yearto leverage your marketing
tools to their fullest potentialin a way that can really pay
off.
And I think it builds up like acrescendo and it's just like a
really loud noise and you'remarketing and marketing and
(15:30):
you're loud.
And then I think the secondmost important thing is you got
to go quiet afterwards, and Ithink otherwise people get tired
and they turn you off.
And that's what I try to dowith mine is, you know, you
build it up, build it up untilit comes to this moment where
it's loud, and then for the nextcouple of weeks I'm just going
(15:51):
to be quiet and the marketingopportunity is sort of over and
I think it's time to let thingssort of resolve and kind of come
back down.
To let things sort of resolveand kind of come back down.
And one thing I was trying tomarket on, because I believe
digital to digital is one of themost effective routes, because
digital to physical is hard butphysical to physical is easier
(16:15):
and digital to digital is easier.
So physical to physical, when Iwas sending save the dates and
mailing and banners and stufflike that that works the best,
because I was trying to getpeople to show up.
Virtual to virtual is.
I was marketing on my Instagramabout this virtual walkthrough
because I knew that the peoplewho follow my Instagram don't
(16:39):
have to necessarily be limitedto a geographic region, whereas
I'm only mailing stuff to peoplewho might be able to make the
drive.
So, for this virtualwalkthrough, what this was is I
went in and I did an Instagramlive for 15 minutes and I'll get
into why I did it for so short.
(17:01):
But I went through at 4.30 andmy show started at five and I
walked through and I talkedabout each painting for just a
minute, you know, or just acouple seconds, and kind of went
through and I showed everythingand I directed everybody.
If they wanted to shop, theycould buy from the gallery.
But what was cool was it liveson as this legacy and it lives
(17:28):
on my Instagram feed and itlives on as a more kind of
polished tool that I can use infuture things.
And I will say that virtualwalkthroughs and just live
streams they're so easy to doand all you need is someone
that's okay to be in front ofcamera.
Fortunately, it's somethingthat I feel like I'm a little
(17:49):
bit more naturally okay atbecause of this job.
But the thing that I found veryuseful is all you have to do is
just market for this event andthen when you go, it doesn't
matter if you have one person onthere or 20 people on there.
If you understand that the realreason why you're doing it is
(18:09):
so that you can have therecording afterwards, suddenly
it frees you up a little bitmore.
But what's cool is the galleryhad told me that no one had ever
done a virtual walkthrough attheir place, and I think maybe
if you had a national raritiesevent, or again, if you had some
trunk show or a guy's night orsomething like that, I think
(18:30):
having a little bit of a livestream of it all as people come
through and all you got to do isjust keep an eye out for when
people write in and just havesomeone kind of hosting it and
talking through it, all it's Ithink it'd be really effective
and I wish that more storeswould do live stuff, whether on
Facebook, on Instagram, maybe onYouTube.
(18:51):
I think that there's a lot ofbenefit to doing something live
and then taking the recording orthe VOD, which is a video on
demand and then remarketing withthat.
And what's cool is I'm going tobe using that virtual
walkthrough as a piece in myportfolio.
It's like, hey, this is whatthe show looked like.
So we've already gone throughplanning, branding and, as well
(19:16):
as the marketing that's leadingup to it, a virtual component.
And then the final was I did alittle bit of marketing to try
to remarket in clientele, andone of the things I'm trying my
hardest to do is I really wantedto make sure that purchasers
and buyers would consider maybecoming back in the future.
(19:39):
So what I mean by that is, Ithink, having a I put a thank
you note in every purchase andthose thank you notes just have
like a little piece of art andon the back just said thank you,
and it also had my social mediaand contact information.
So I'm hoping that people mightbuy more stuff from me.
(20:00):
I'm hoping that if I can turnone in 10 buyers into a repeat
buyer, that's 10%.
That is a 10% growth more thanif I was to not, and it actually
the marketing and the dollarspays off absolutely, and I think
that jewelry stores in generalare actually really good at this
(20:22):
.
You all know how to, you know,turn a one-time purchase into a
real kind of client.
So they come in and they gettheir anniversary gifts and they
get their Mother's Day giftsand they get their whatever
gifts.
I think that you've all kind offigured that part out, but it's
definitely worth kind ofmentioning.
So I think, if you can kind ofunderstand the connection I'm
(20:46):
trying to make, to me, an artshow is a again, it's a luxury
buying event and I would like tosay that the similarities
between a trunk show and thismight be substantial.
Maybe it's tenuous, maybeyou're all kind of sitting there
like, nah, this is silly.
But I want to kind of conveyhow I unfortunately can't turn
(21:12):
the business side of my brainoff and whenever I do anything
casual I have to do it to themax.
And when I did this art show itwas kind of like a lot of work
that led up to something.
But what's really nice is nowis the quiet part.
Now you kind of just let theshow be up for a month and you
can get a chance to let thesales, the passive sales, happen
(21:34):
.
But I found that having peopleshow up was the biggest currency
I could get.
I guess this is kind of a sidepoint, but I just want to.
Maybe I'll mention it a littlebit further.
What I was saying about theability to congregate people is
such an overlooked skill that Ithink that there are certain
(21:57):
people that can use that almostas like a as a lever.
You know, the ability to havepeople show up to something is
not as common as you think.
I think that having the abilityto tell people, hey, I'm having
a birthday party and peopleactually come, that's impressive
(22:18):
.
Not everyone can do that.
How many people have awesome,great ideas and then they fall
down on one of those legs,whether it's the planning or the
communication or like thepolishing of the actual event or
the thank you at the end.
I think the you can't overlookany of those components and I
(22:38):
tried my hardest not to.
I will also say that I learneda lot.
There's a bunch of things I'mgoing to try to do differently
next time and I think I spentway too much money on Save the
Dates.
I think a fair number of peopledidn't show up and I might
tailor it down, might send it to75 people, because there's
(23:06):
about 25 people who it was kindof a waste and I could cut down
on my expenses, but I think itwas a lot of fun and maybe in a
couple of months or a year, whenI do my next one, it'll be even
better.
I guess maybe I'll leave it atthe end, if you made it to the
end.
If you want to see what the showlooked like, it's on my
Instagram.
My Instagram is burpski15.
That's B-U-R-P-S-K-I 15 onInstagram.
(23:27):
I don't market it very much onanything Punchmark related.
I try to keep my business andart life separately, but since
this episode was all about that,I guess I will talk about it a
little bit more.
Yep, just a quick episode.
I was out a couple of days thisweek dealing with my show and I
didn't want to have us skip anepisode.
We've got some exciting stuffcoming down the pike that I
(23:50):
can't wait to explain and sharemore about.
We have the client workshop ina couple of just a couple of
days, and for that one I'mreally excited as well.
So, everybody, thanks so muchfor listening.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye, all right,everybody.
(24:13):
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cocker.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash Luke.
That's L-O-U-P-E, thanks.
(24:34):
I'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye, thank you.
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