FrameWorks was launched in 1989, when Christine Sweeny moved to Miami and opened a frame shop in the heart of Coconut Grove called Kennedy Studios. In1995, Sweeny rebranded the business as FrameWorks, moving her retail location to its current corner on Commodore Plaza. Claire Lardner became an equal partner and owner in the business in 1996, bringing her successful career as an attorney to the partnership. Over the years, Sweeny and Lardner have continued to invest in FrameWorks’s evolution with cutting-edge technology and equipment, constantly working towards upward growth and expansion.

When FrameWorks began, Sweeny operated the business solo. Today, the company employs 22 people, many of whom have been with the company for over 15 years and live in the local community, and has two locations. FrameWorks installs artwork worldwide, from Spain and Italy to Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands.

FrameWorks is committed to providing superior customer service, offering competitive industry pricing, and staying on top of business trends. This pursuit and consistent delivery of excellence has resulted in the retention of clients over many years. Both Sweeny and Lardner have achieved the prestigious industry designation of Certified Picture Framer, awarded by the Professional Picture Framing Association. Less than five percent of all picture framers in the country hold this designation. Their commitment to continued personal development in their chosen trade has allowed them to have consistent growth over the past two decades.

FrameWorks serves two sectors: residential and hospitality. The residential clientele is made up of local residents from around South Florida who come to the retail store for picture framing and art services. FrameWorks is proud of its reputation in the South Florida community for not only the exemplary art and framing services it provides, but also for its constant and continued support of local charities, community events, and school art programs.

The hospitality sector requires working with developers, business owners, interior designers, and architects who are in need of art and framing services. Clients from this sector include cruise lines, hotels, timeshares, and office buildings.

The industry standards for artwork in the hospitality industry in 1996 were prints and posters from catalogs. FrameWorks saw an opportunity to provide custom imagery at a fraction of the price. Sweeny and Lardner purchased their first wide-format printer in 1999 and began providing alternatives to the industry standards. This offered an additional revenue stream for FrameWorks and continued to distinguish the company as a leader in the industry. Today, FrameWorks offers wide-format printing services with four printers, cutting-edge software, and alternative, innovative substrates for printing and framing.

FrameWorks has seen continual growth over the years. Sweeny and Lardner acquired additional manufacturing and storage space in 2000 to accommodate large-volume production and meet all of the company’s crating, shipping, and export needs. In 2009, they opened a second retail location in the heart of the Bird Road Art District that provides retail art and framing services and houses large-format printers for servicing wholesale clientele.

Given FrameWorks’s continued growth and its proven stability of core sales, Sweeny and Lardner have cemented their retail presence by purchasing their original retail headquarters property on Commodore Plaza. The co-owners see the acquisition as a crowning achievement that will convert rental payments into on-going investments of commercial property, offer FrameWorks control over its physical plant and streetscape appearance, give Sweeny and Lardner a solid earnings stream, and act as a valuable asset to rely on for value accumulation and leveragability. Sweeny and Lardner are excited about the growth and potential of FrameWorks in the years to come.

Services include:

• Art consulting
• Printing services on multiple materials
• Banners
• Artwork
• Signage
• Picture and mirror framing installation

Client list includes:

• Hospitality Purveyors (Sandals and Beaches)
• Coconut Grove Arts Festival
• Atlantic Purchasing, Hotel Properties in North America
• Interspace Design, Coconut Grove
• Gansevoort, Turks & Caicos
• International Design Concepts, Jumby Bay, Antigua Summer Bay, Orlando
• The James Hotel, Miami Beach
• The Benjamin Hotel, NYC
• 1 Hotel, Miami Beach
• Carnival Cruise Lines
• Norwegian Cruise Lines
• Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
• Pullmantur Cruises

Website: www.frameworksmiami.com

The post Gallery Spotlight on FrameWorks Miami appeared first on Art Business News.

Marketing framing services through daily-deal companies is not for every business, but for those that are thinking about giving it a try, here are a few suggestions. Over the last several years, my shops have used daily-deal marketing to great advantage, and the following list contains some of my company’s success strategies.

Daily-deal websites include Groupon, Amazon Local, and Living Social. These companies promote special discount deals; sell vouchers to their customers; and pay them for the sales, minus commissions and fees. New customers then bring these vouchers to your company. The daily-deal websites collect no money from you upfront. They get paid only if the offer to your customers is successful; if they don’t sell a deal, you pay nothing.

Here are five more things to keep in mind when you first try out a daily deal.

1. BE AWARE OF THE TYPES OF CUSTOMER A DAILY DEAL ATTRACTS
You will attract a few people who want something for nothing. One of the great advantages of these programs is that if customers are unsatisfied with your offer, they can easily return their voucher for a refund. This approach keeps you from getting negative online reviews. Most customers, however, understand what they are buying and are just looking for an incentive to spend money in your shop.

2. KNOW YOUR PRICING
Get a good idea of how much your average customer spends per order. Make sure that the total value of the deal you are making is well below that average. This tactic ensures that the 50-percent-off deal that the daily-deal site presents costs you only about 20 to 25 percent on average. Potential customers don’t see this approach as a trick.
They generally understand that framing is far more expensive than the amount that the deal offers. If they do not
understand this concept and feel that you are overcharging them, suggest that they return the voucher for a refund.
This approach will generally defuse a potentially tense situation and prevent any bad online reviews.

3. CAREFULLY WORD YOUR DEAL
Do not in any way imply that the amount offered will cover an entire framing order unless you are offering a package deal. Offers generally set certain limits, such as “$50 for $100 toward custom framing.” Also be sure to include important specifications, such as “limit: one voucher per frame,” “limit: three vouchers per customer,” and “voucher must be used in its entirety; there will be no refund or credit issued for unused amounts.”

4. GET AS MUCH INFORMATION FROM YOUR NEW CUSTOMER AS POSSIBLE
When customers redeem their vouchers, make sure to get their contact information, especially their email addresses.
Email is a preferred and effective method for these customers to receive future offers from you. Second, most of the
daily-deal sites do not make a repeat offer to the same customer from the same merchant, so it is up to you to bring
that customer back into the shop. Finally, email is the easiest and cheapest way to keep in contact with your customer base.

5. KNOW WHETHER DAILY DEALS ARE NOT FOR YOU
Daily deals may not be the type of marketing that will work with your business model. If your shop cuts margins close so that you can offer your customers the best possible price, you have no room for an advertising budget.
Therefore, this approach is not for you. However, when you use them properly,daily-deal sites can help bring new
customers into your shop. So, if you’re looking for a new marketing strategy, come up with a plan that makes sense for your business and give it a try.

With three Framing Palace locations in Maryland, Ed Gowda has specialized in custom framing for over 25 years. One of his passions is to share information and ideas within the industry. framingpalace.com

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Framers are always looking for ways to increase profits. They’ll try just about any advertising idea, even having their logo emblazoned on placemats at the local diner, cash-register tapes and bowling score sheets. They’ll squeeze suppliers for discounts; I’m guilty of this one. They’ll walk around their shops switching off lights to save a few pennies. However, one of the easiest ways to increase profits is by analyzing the markups on the materials that go into a custom-framing order and begin placing more emphasis on those that offer the best profit margins. This business concept certainly isn’t new; in fact, businesses in every industry focus their sales efforts on their most profitable items. Supermarkets place their moneymakers at eye level on store shelves; Chevy and Ford advertise their pickup trucks more frequently than they do their cars. Why shouldn’t framers do the same?

Many framers put most of their effort into selling low-margin products while ignoring more profitable items. Consider the major components that go into a typical custom-framing order and explore how to dramatically increase profits by shifting emphasis to selling products that are better for the bottom line. You can achieve these goals and give your framing more visual bang for the buck.

MATS

I consider mats—not frames—to be the foundation of custom framing and the center of the custom-framing universe. Consumers can buy some fairly nice frames in a number of places, including art supply stores, online sources and even some general retail stores, such as Target. These frames are not as nice as the ones consumers can purchase from custom framers, but they are certainly adequate for many buyers. Custom matting, on the other hand, tends to be the exclusive domain of the custom framer. Mats add beauty, create visual depth and enable the framer to control color and space. Most important, mats are among the keys to your profit picture, producing both direct and, more importantly, indirect income. When it comes to direct profit, mats are the kings of markup, when you calculate on a percentage basis. I discovered that a $5 sheet of matboard can produce more than $100 in retail sales. I proved this fact by doing an experiment under controlled conditions, and, admittedly, it required cutting concentric openings in the mat. Although this approach is great for making a mobile to hang in a child’s bedroom, it doesn’t represent the typical yield. However, even if you get only $50 worth of sales at from a $5 mat board, you’d probably be pretty happy.
When it comes to mats, however, the indirect profit has the greatest effect on both your sale and your profit, and that effect can be huge. Simply including a mat in a custom-framing order may increase your sale by as much as 35 to 45 percent. When you place a mat around a piece of artwork, you’re no longer framing the piece; you’re framing the mat. So, in addition to the price of the mat, the order now requires a larger frame, a larger mounting board and a larger piece of glass, all of which add to the total sale. For proof, try this experiment. Using a 24-by-36-inch print, a frame of your choice and your default glass type, price out the order without a mat. Then, add a single mat and once again price out the order. You should find a substantial increase in your sale. That mat can also produce additional profit by leading the way for add-ons, such as additional mats and upgrades to conservation-quality mats and fabric mats. But why stop there? Mats also open the door to fillets, decorative cuts and other embellishments. One of the best things about selling mats is that, while you’re increasing your profit margin, you’re also improving customer satisfaction. Mats provide great visual bang for the buck, and they put the “custom” in custom framing. And because the benefits of mats are readily apparent, they’re an easy sell, as long as you begin the design process with mats. For obvious reasons, it’s almost impossible to sell a mat after you’ve quoted a price without one.

FRAMES

Mouldings will typically have varying markups, with lower-priced units typically receiving a higher percentage markup than more expensive mouldings. Because the frame is the most expensive component in most framing orders, frames account for both the largest cost of materials and the largest portion of each sale—but not always the most profit. To illustrate this concept, compare two design options for a piece of artwork. The first design includes a nice high-end frame but has no mats—only a frame and your default glass choice—and prices out at $400. The second design includes a frame that’s neither as nice nor as expensive as the first. However, this option includes a double mat and the same type of glass you chose for the first design. This order also prices out at $400. On the surface, both designs may appear to produce similar profit margins, but not all $400 sales are equal. The order with mats and a lower-priced frame probably generates a significantly greater profit.

GLASS

Glass is the last major component that goes into most framing orders. I believe that many framers err when it comes to choosing their default glass. I recommend that your go-to choice for glass should be the lowest-price option you can offer: standard, reflective picture glass—the cheap stuff. I know that many framers do not use this glass as their default choice. It’s in your and your customers’ best interest to offer premium glass products as options, not the default, however, because a large portion of the public sees custom framing as expensive, and many see it as too expensive. By forcing the customer to buy a premium glass product, you’re adding to that perception. Furthermore, most of your customers have set a limit to the amount of money they’ll spend to frame an item. A vendor who offers a variety of choices almost always offers better but more expensive materials as options rather than forcing them upon the customers. This approach lets the seller keep
the base price more affordable and leaves an upgrade path in place. It makes sense for framers to take this approach, too. Another thing to consider is that standard picture glass provides an attractive markup percentage that is second only to mats. Standard glass produces a healthy profit for you and is a budget-friendly option for the customer. Premium glass products, on the other hand, are more expensive, typically produce significantly lower margins and take a bigger slice from your customer’s budget. You should continue to sell these products when appropriate, but you should offer them as options.

One final point is that framing components fall into one of two categories: those that enhance your designs by providing visual benefits and those that provide protection. Upgrades to archival products and all glass products typically provide protection. Buying them is somewhat like buying insurance. Not everyone wants to buy insurance, but it should be available for those who do. Customers should be the ones who make the choice. Analyze some of your recent sales to see whether you might be able to increase profits—and improve customer satisfaction—by changing sales emphasis. A few simple changes could provide a big improvement in your profit picture.

Paul Cascio is the lead instructor for The American Picture Framing Academy.
Cascio also provides business and sales training and consulting.

The post Mind Your Margins – More Profit for Happier Customers appeared first on Art Business News.

Business owners in the framing industry use a variety of creative methods and expend a considerable amount of time, money and attention to generate sales leads. In addition to traditional advertising media, today’s businesses introduce themselves to prospective customers through websites, email and social networking. And well they should, because creating awareness for your brand lies at the foundation of any good marketing strategy. However, it’s not enough to just reach out to prospects; you need them to reach back. You want them to reciprocate by responding to your overtures. Ideally, you want each prospect, upon introduction to your business, to jump into the car, drive to your business and make a purchase—without procrastination and without detours or delay.

Unfortunately, modern consumers rarely take the shortest path to the point of sale. Getting a prospect into your business often involves an intermediate step: a phone call. Making a telephone inquiry gives prospects an opportunity to ask questions; assess the quality of customer service, competence and professionalism; and ultimately decide whether you’re the one they want to do business with.

In my previous column, “Turn Your Website Into a Sales Engine,” I wrote that the goal of your website should be to get a prospect to call you. A phone call is easier to achieve and gives you a second bite of the apple: a personal interaction that lets you build rapport with your prospect, provide useful information about your business and distinguish your business from the others.

That phone call also halts, at least temporarily, the prospect’s online browsing and keeps them from the clutches of your competitors.

I view every phone inquiry as an opportunity. It’s a chance to have a conversation with a prospect and to start and build a relationship. A telephone inquiry lets you sell the unique benefits your business offers and to sell yourself.

Your website may aim to get a prospect directly into your store, but the odds of it happening are stacked against you, especially if the prospect also visits the website of an always-on-sale-but-not-really-on-sale craft store and sees a coupon for 70 percent off. At that point, it’s “game over” for you because you have nothing with which to trump such a compelling offer, regardless of its veracity. But if your website convinces a prospect to call you to obtain more information, answer questions or learn about your current promotion, the outcome of the game is now within your control.

Take Charge
Now, let’s look at what you can do to take advantage of the great one-on-one opportunity a telephone inquiry offers.

When you receive a phone call from a prospect, you must be ready to effectively handle the call. Your primary goal, of course, is to get customers and their frame-worthy items through the door of your business. However, to make that happen, you’ll need to reach two secondary goals: building a rapport with the prospect and taking control of the conversation.

Building a rapport will come naturally as a result of the conversation, especially if you take time to include some small talk.

However, making a new friend is just half of the battle. You must also take control of the conversation. Taking control lets you—not the prospective customer—determine the direction and length of the conversation. Fortunately, with practice, you can fairly easily take control of a conversation. You need only ask questions; then, you’ll be the one driving the bus.

In any dialogue, the person asking questions is the one in control; the one answering the questions is not. You needn’t be pushy or rude to take and retain control. Instead, develop a habit of ending your portion of the dialogue with a question that encourages your prospects to talk about themselves or the items they want to frame. Controlling the conversation also lets you steer the discussion away from price.
The best questions to ask are those that help you get your new acquaintance into your store or gallery. Preparation makes that goal easier to achieve. Develop a list of standard questions that you can rely on. Here are a few to get you started:

• Where will you be displaying the artwork?
• What is the decor in that room?
• Do you know where we’re located?
• Can you come in now?

These questions are easy to work into almost any conversation, and they help you achieve your objective.
Keep in mind that someone is going to be in control of each conversation; if you’re not in control, the prospect is in control. The one question a prospect always wants to ask is, “How much will this cost?” That question is the one that you can’t and shouldn’t answer over the phone. Simply be strong and get them into your store or gallery, so that you can make a sale.

When you do get a question about price, explain briefly that pricing depends on a lot of variables, including the mounting method, glazing options, degree of required preservation and display options. The existence of all those variables makes it impossible to answer that question over the phone. Promise that you’ll provide an exact quote when the customer comes in.

Avoid mentioning the size of the piece the customer wants framed because he or she probably knows the dimensions of the artwork and will expect that information to be enough for you to quote a price. Also, avoid discussing the frame itself because this question, too, may lead to another pricing question: “What’s the cheapest frame I can buy for this piece?”

After you rattle off all the variables that affect price, follow up with a question of your own to retake control.

Open the Door
Clinch the deal by asking for a commitment: “Can you come in now?”

When a customer says, “Yes,” let him or her know where your shop is. Give directions that might bypass a competitor’s location.

Conclude the call by recommending that the caller ask for you upon arrival. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the only one there; it puts a potential customer on a first-name basis with you and lets that would-be client know that he or she has a friend in the business.

After ending the call, write down the name of the person you spoke to. It’s also good to keep track of your conversion rate—that is, how many prospects show up after a call. These techniques are amazingly effective, and they can make a dramatic difference in increasing your income.

Selling is possibly the most overlooked and underdeveloped skill in our industry. It’s also part of your job, so learn to do it well. Improving your sales skills and those of your staff can pay off in a big way. Because the sales process often starts with a phone call, include these tips in any training program.

When your website does its job well, your phone will ring more frequently. How well you handle each opportunity to speak with a prospect often determines the success or failure of your business. Be a guerrilla. Learn to sell. ◆

Paul Cascio, the Guerilla Framer, is the lead instructor for The American Picture Framing Academy (pictureframingschool.com). He also provides business and sales training and consulting. Contact Cascio at pdc@pictureframingschool.com.

The post The Guerrilla Framer: The Power of a Phone Call in Turning Prospects into Customers appeared first on Art Business News.

By Paul Cascio,The Guerrilla Framer

When I first joined the framing business more than 25 years ago, I had to advertise in the Yellow Pages directory. It was a necessary evil for anyone in a service business. The Yellow Pages directory was the Google of its day. There, consumers searched for services, such as plumbing, transmission repair and, yes, picture framing. The less frequently consumers needed a service, the more important it was that the company have a commanding presence in the Yellow Pages, the place where consumers let their “fingers do the walking.”

Local telephone companies published the Yellow Pages, and those companies enjoyed a virtual monopoly. Sure, there were other wannabe books, but they were, for the most part, worthless. If you wanted your phone to ring, you needed to have an ad in the Big Book, as the telephone company liked to call it.

According to your Yellow Pages sales rep, the bigger the ad, the better—especially if you also opted for the magic of red ink. Advertising in the Yellow Pages was expensive, and if the ad didn’t produce the results you wanted, you couldn’t modify it. If you didn’t pay, you would lose your telephone service.

My first ad, a quarter-page masterpiece in the Hartford, Connecticut, directory more than 25 years ago, cost more than $600 a month, and it was a fixed expense for the term of its 12-month contract. The good old days turned out to be not so good.

Fortunately, the Yellow Pages directory is now mostly obsolete. Today, your prospective customers use search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, to seek out and compare service providers. Your Yellow Pages ad is now your website or, more specifically, the landing page of your website.

This month’s column examines ways to maximize the effectiveness and visibility of the first and most important page of your website, the landing or index page. It examines methods of improving search-engine optimization (SEO), or page ranking; avoiding common mistakes; and converting website visits into sales.

Improving SEO
Having a website is worthless if your prospective customers never see it. Your objective is to bring qualified traffic to your site. A high page rank with Google places your business at the top of the list when someone in your area conducts a search for the services you offer.

You shouldn’t worry about those potential customers who search broadly for “picture framing.” It’s OK if Google lists your site on page 372 of the results for such a broad search. The people doing those searches may as well be spitting into the ocean and will have to narrow their search criteria to get more useful information.

Your focus should be on the person whose search criteria includes additional keywords that identify your town, neighborhood, area code or zip code as a way of filtering the results. By focusing on localized searches, you can be the leader of the pack when it comes to search results.

Being at the top of the list of search results is ideal, but as long as your website appears in the upper portion of the first results page, or “above the fold,” to use a newspaper term, the user won’t have to scroll down the page to find you. I consider any listing above the fold to be a prime position.

Achieving Prime Position
It’s relatively easy to get prime position for localized searches. There are typically few frame shops in one part of any town or zip code. The key to success is to include searchable information, such as the neighborhood, town, zip code and area code in as many places on your website as possible and to include that information in the metatags—the behind-the-scenes info that search engines often use to decide page rankings.

Always include this information in your website:

– Title. Use a long title that includes lots of searchable information as part of the metadata.
– Description. The page description is important not only because it enhances your page rank, but also because the first few lines of the description often appear in the search result. You can use it to convince prospects to visit your site.
– Keywords. Keep in mind that using too many keywords could actually hurt your page rank. Google’s ranking system is a well-kept secret, and the company periodically changes it. Conventional wisdom suggests limiting the number of keywords to a maximum of six to 10. Separate keywords by commas, and the keywords should include your company’s general location and the words “picture framing,” “custom” and “art.”
– Header. Work your location info into the headline of your website; for example, use a header such as “Orange Park’s Favorite Picture Framer.”
– Body. Include as much searchable info as possible in the body text.
– Image Names. Consider renaming images to include your zip code or town name.
– Alternative Text. Use alternative text for situations in which the image is unavailable to readers—either because they have turned off “images” in their web browser or because they are using a screen reader due to visual impairment. Providing an alternative allows all users to access the same information, even if they cannot see an image. Some web browsers show the alternative text when the mouse cursor hovers over an image. As a side benefit, alternative text may enhance page rank for the searchable terms that identify your location.

Although it’s impossible to know exactly how Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines determine page rank, include information that identifies your location in as many places as possible. This approach gives you the best chance of achieving a high ranking whenever someone conducts a local search. After you maximize your chances of attracting prospects to your website, the next step is to focus on what to do with them once they’re there.

Primary Objective
The main objective of your website is to produce sales. However, if your business is a retail store or home-based business, you’re probably not directly selling products or services from your website. Therefore, the goal of your website should be to get customers into your store or to call you.

Unfortunately, most framing websites don’t achieve these goals. Most landing pages are nothing more than electronic business cards. With a bit of effort, however, you can make your site into an engine that repeatedly produces new customers and generates sales.

The key is to design your landing page as if it were a Yellow Pages ad. Despite being just keystrokes away from the competition, your landing page must convince visitors to end the search and choose you. And you want them to consummate the decision with a telephone call, which will give you an opportunity to get a verbal commitment for a face-to-face meeting.

Where Are You? How Do You Get There?
A good Yellow Pages ad included not only an address but also, when necessary, a map. The landing page of your website should include a map and written directions or a link to a Google Maps or MapQuest page with your location prelisted as the destination. Placing this information prominently on your landing page can help bring prospects directly to your store. A photo of the exterior of your store can also be a helpful navigational aid.

Next, make it visual. Picture framing is a visual business, yet many framers have a website that primarily includes only text—which is neither visual nor appealing.

A one-page website that looks professional and inviting is all you need to capture prospects. Later, you can add more content to your site. It’s a good idea to offer useful information, such as picture-hanging tips. However, the landing page makes the all-important first impression. Make sure it looks good before you spend time adding more pages.

Don’t Derail the Sale
The Google search that brings prospective buyers to your website also provides easy access to most, if not all, of your competitors, which invites comparison shopping. Naturally, it’s in your best interest if the shopping ends with a visit to your website.

Encouraging a phone call offers the most consistently valuable outcome, and it’s what you should strive for. A phone call does what a web page can’t: It creates a personalized experience. A phone conversation gives you a chance to build a rapport with your new prospect and an opportunity to separate yourself from the competition. It also allows you to answer questions and address your caller’s concerns.

If you effectively handle the call, your prospects will no longer feel the need to call other framers. Their search ends with you and with a promise to ask for you by name when they arrive at your store. Because of this rapport, you almost ensure a sale even before you end the call. When you actually meet your prospect, both of you will feel more at ease because you’re already familiar with one another.

Without that telephone conversation, distractions and nearby competitors can prevent even a well-intentioned prospect from arriving at your store. There’s no reason to rely only on the power of what visitors see and read on your website. A telephone conversation personalizes the experience and strengthens the prospect’s desire to do business with you and only you. Near the end of the conversation, be sure to ask, “Can you come in now?” Confirm an appointment, and you’re almost certain to make a sale.

Make the Phone Ring
Encourage customers to call by prominently placing your phone number in large type near the top of the page. Include some inviting words of encouragement, such as, “Call us with questions.” Consider displaying your number as an image rather than text. This approach can help reduce the number of telemarketer calls you receive.

Consider adding a call-me button, which immediately connects you to the prospect’s phone. A number of companies provide this service for a fee, but Google Voice users can get it free with Google’s Call Me widget. When a visitor to your site clicks on the call-me button, Google immediately calls both your phone and the visitor’s. In just seconds, you’re connected, giving you a chance to turn a website visitor into a customer.

Don’t use your website as just a business card; turn it into a sales engine with the techniques and strategies that made Yellow Page ads effective. Exploit these techniques and you’ll find that the next time that prospects let their fingers do the walking, there’s a good chance that walk will end with you.

Paul Cascio, aka The Guerrilla Framer, is director of the American Picture Framing Academy (pictureframingschool.com), where he conducts training workshops and seminars for new and established framers. Contact Cascio at pdc@pictureframing school.com.

The post The Guerrilla Framer: Turn Your Website into a Sales Engine appeared first on Art Business News.

As framers, our framing design habits tend to be influenced by various trends that crop up in the world of art and decor. Sometimes you have a favorite frame profile for a long time, but then eventually you eventually drop it from your repertoire. We all have that group of corner samples that’s worn from constant use and relegated to the lower corner of the sample wall. We just stop seeing them as we once did.

Seeing Old Frames in a New Light
Sometimes it’s to pick up samples that you haven’t used in a long time and reacquaint yourself with them, almost like you might with an old friend. With a little attention, you might start to see the design in a new light. And perhaps those frames you lost interest in will be worth rediscovering and falling in love with all over again.

In this regular column, Attention to Detail, we are going to focus on various details of frame design. Each month we will select a design detail for close examination. We’ll start with a quick look at its history and origins. Then take a look at how we’ve used that design over the years, as well as what the market currently has to offer. By examining frame design details that we are already familiar with, we can gain an expanded perspective and refreshed appreciation of them.

Why pay attention to trends that are not currently popular? After all, trends come and go and what looked good ten years ago may seem tired-looking and overused right now. But give it another two years and it could become fresh and new all over again.

What Goes Around Comes Around
Staying in touch with an array of design details, regardless of their popularity, keeps us a strong player in the design game. Consider two such trends—the flat square profile and the ornate frame. At one point not too long ago, the flat profile was considered by some framers as somewhat of a compromise and a selection for the customer that couldn’t make up their mind or the customer that was afraid of picking something that had “too much style.” So they would default to something that was safe and easy which often meant the flat profile.

But is simplicity always a compromise? Fast forward to 2012 and the situation was a bit different. When you opened an interior design magazine you saw almost nothing but flat square profiles, usually in white. Demand for flat frames increased in some markets to be a considerable percentage of sales. Some framers became frustrated at the lack of variety in the trend. But then change cropped up again. Open an interior design magazine this year, in 2014, and you will often see a single, highly ornate, eye-popping frame as the centerpiece of a room.

Ornate Influences
Why so ornate in 2014? Right now, Victorian clip art in the graphic art and printmaking fields is stirring interest in designs from the Industrial Age and the Victorian Era. As well, major museums are getting a fair amount of media coverage around the restoration of important paintings to be displayed in their original large-scale and extremely ornate frames. Simply put: people are being conditioned to like ornate frames once again. The domination of the market by the ornate frame may not be here today, but it could be on its way and soon. Are you ready? How familiar are you familiar with your design details?

As framers we know what we like about a particular frame. However what makes the framing customer pick a certain frame? Every frame has a range of elements and details that collectively make the profile what it is. In the eyes of the consumer there is often just one prominent feature that is foremost in its appeal and influences their choice of that profile. In reality, though, there may a dozen or more elements in the design that contribute to the success of that choice and to the pleasure in viewing the finished work.

Giving Frame Details Their Moment in the Spotlight
Its overall impression is the combined presentation—the shape, finish, width, ornament, proportions, patina, etc. These are all so important, even if they are more subtle or in the background. It’s like when you go to see a musician perform. They are the one in the spotlight and reason that you to bought a ticket, but what about the band? There are the drummer, keyboardist and the bass player. While not always in the spotlight, the band members certainly add to the experience and are a big part of why you enjoyed the entire performance. Fortunately, at some point during the performance, each member gets a chance to do a solo, taking the spotlight for the moment and showing us what they can do. In this column we are going to give each of the design details that make up a frame their deserved attention by giving them a solo, their moment in the spotlight.

Consider each of these articles as the start of a great conversation about design. And by all means, feel free to chime in and offer your own perspective. Share pictures of your work as an example of the design detail being considered. Tell us your favorite moulding in this design category. Is there a discontinued profile that you miss? Tell us what you liked best about it and someone might suggest a replacement option.

We have invited a wide variety of informed perspectives to our conversation in order to add depth to it. This includes the people that put the frames out into the world like the manufacturers, the custom frame shops and the frame makers. We will also get input from those who use frames in their own fields such as artists, interior designers, antique dealers, galleries and museums.
Ultimately, we hope each conversation will become an in-depth consideration of the design detail being featured and become a resource that you can turn to when in need of design inspiration and frame design confidence.

Eric Jarmann has been in the picture framing field since 1997 being the owner of John Haywood Gallery and of Eric Jarmann & Company. With background in retail management, gallery, photography, graphic design and restoration of old homes he brings a broad range of design and business skills to the picture framing industry. He is the in-house framer for Thornwillow Press and its boutiques located in the St. Regis Hotels. He also is founder of Newburgh Portfolio, a regional arts organization. He is active in social media and runs a blog about picture framing called All About the Frame. He can be reached at eric.jarmann@gmail.com.

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Each year, Finer Frames hosts a juried art competition in the spring to build name recognition and highlight the work of many talented local artists. Fifty area artists compete for $700 in cash and ribbons in watercolor, oil/acrylic painting and mixed media categories. Promotion for this event begins months in advance with press releases calling for artists, distributing posters at area art supply stores, and getting the event scheduled on art events calendars on television, radio and newspapers.

This annual event has been a tremendous success and has become my signature event. Entry fees cover all of the expenses and the media coverage is free. It’s so perfect that the only down side is the tremendous amount of effort (and room) that it requires, but I’m convinced it’s worth it.



Recruiting artists.
To attract area artists, I sent out a call to artists, arts groups and local media. I began by preparing a press release that contained all the basic information describing the media categories, prizes, show dates and location. I faxed the press release to arts editors of four area papers and the college paper as well. Arts groups like the Idaho Watercolor Society included the release in their monthly newsletter, which helped to recruit great competition in that category.

Judging the show.
The judge of the contest has changed every year. Each has had a professional art background and has given careful consideration to every entry. The first year, I made the mistake of asking three experts to judge the show. When the three couldn’t agree, I finally had to step in and choose some of the winners. I learned my lesson and invited a single judge the following years. The most passionate judge was an art professor from a nearby college. He really seemed to enjoy his role and spent hours critiquing each painting. Thus far, all have been willing to do this for free, although I do give them a nice thank you gift.



Awards.
The judge’s results are announced at a special awards presentation on the opening night of the show. Artists are encouraged to bring their family and friends and all are welcome to vote for the People’s Choice award. Winners in each category receive a cash prize and beautiful rosette ribbon, which accompanies their painting for the duration of the show. I serve complimentary wine and hors d’ovres for the partygoers. It is an exciting evening for the artists and for all those who attend.

Where to hang the ugly painting?
It has always been my intention to encourage new artists, but when it comes to displaying amateur artwork in questionable frames, I start to get a little concerned. The first year of the show, the entry fee was only $10. I learned the hard way that the price was too cheap to attract professional artists but low enough to catch the attention of anyone who had a whim to put paint to paper. The nicest people brought in the ugliest work.



Promoting the show.
From the very beginning, the local media was very interested in my effort to support the arts. The newspapers, radio and television were generous with their coverage (which, by the way, was completely free). This was community news: an event to get excited about and one with pretty pictures too. I faxed details about the event to the paper and sent them photos of a few paintings. The news release appeared in the papers with a color photo by its side.



Hard work pays off.
The generous amount of media attention helped to drive new customers into my store. Artists who were unfamiliar with my services brought me their business and introduced me to their own family and friends at the awards reception. They were so excited to have their work exhibited in a gallery that they eagerly told everyone they knew about the show. Attendance was good as supporters of the arts came out to see the paintings, and many patrons asked to be added to my mailing list. The exposure was tremendous. The event and its coverage cemented in my mind the reality that it’s not what a business says about itself that counts, it’s what others say that matters.

The post Meg on Marketing: Let’s Put on a Show appeared first on Art Business News.

Consider what John Moore, a former marketer at Starbuck said about the ordering process:

While it may take a little longer to figure out how to order your double tall, half-caf, vanilla, nonfat latte, once you do, there’s a feeling of belongingness, that you’re part of the “club.”

Whether it’s an exclusive ordering process like Starbucks, a club membership like Costco, or a sense of community like Harley Davidson, creating a feeling of exclusivity is the best way of successful branding of your art and framing business.

The power of exclusivity is often overlook and under-utilized by framers focused on discount coupons to compete. But the truth is that it is the best way to penetrate a very tough marketplace and is best used when competition is fierce. Custom picture framing is exclusive by definition; limited distribution, sold at select stores and at a higher price. The major benefit of this is that customers tend to attach a higher perceived value to products like this which in turn allows for higher profit margins.

How can framers harness the power of exclusivity? Although it’s not nice to exclude people, you can be exclusive in your business. Here are a few tips to keep you focused.

Carve out a niche – Identify a target customer group, and not just one, make a list of several groups that need framing services.

Create a need – Think ahead to solves needs they haven’t realized yet. For example, golfers needing hole in one scorecard framed, or student pilots completing their first flight.

Invent ways to invite friends – Consumers that value exclusive memberships take pride in that exclusivity and will likely invite a few friends to join in.

Establish value for your framing services – Over the top frame displays, strong store merchandising and great website photos are a terrific way to create value by building trust.

Back it up with substance – Making sure every step of the sales process is executed to the best of your ability is the key. Deliver more that you promise is always the best policy.

Considering the success major brands like Starbucks, Costco and Harley Davidson have seen in a difficult economy, we should be encouraged by their commitment to offering a high quality product at a premium price. By following their example and harnessing the power of exclusivity framers can enjoy enduring success.

Meg Glasgow

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It was the week before Christmas when this customer came in looking for a print she has seen in the shop weeks before. We found the print and worked for nearly an hour selecting mats and a beautiful frame that I actually could have delivered in time for the holiday. When she came in the next day to pick it up it all seemed fine at first, then came the melt-down. I’ve seen a lot of different behavior displayed by customers over my 20+ years in retail, but I never expected this. She was upset – well beyond what would be considered reasonable. She was down right hysterical! There were whiney cries of disappointment in between big sobs and a river of tears. Everyone stopped, eyes open wide, jaws dropped while they listened to her rant and waited to see what I was going to say next.

This situation was uncomfortable for me, but a great training session for my employees. It reminded me of how important handling difficult customers can be and how critical it is to the survival of a retail business. Surveys say that 95% of dissatisfied customers become loyal customers if their complaints are handled well. Here are eight tips for diffusing customer anger and creating calm with cranky customers.

1. Respect the customer. Give the customer time to vent (and rant if need be) and let them explain their entire situation. Don’t apologize too quickly – they won’t hear it anyway. If you interrupt too quickly they may feel stifled and will be unwilling to hear your solution.

2. Don’t get defensive. Remember that their attitude and behavior aren’t personally against you. Keep your voice pleasant and your tone helpful and compassionate. You will make things much worse if you sound irritated or defensive.

3. Focus on the facts. Ask questions and listen carefully to what the customer is saying. Are they unhappy with the color or the design, was the project not completed on time or is there a problem with the frame. Find out exactly what the problem is.

4. Repeat the problem. “I heard you say you were disappointed with the mat color.” Restate their concerns so the communication is clear. “Do I understand you right…?”

5. Say you’re sorry. Say you’re sorry even if you didn’t do it, even if the customer is wrong. “I’m sorry this isn’t what you expected.” Don’t pass the blame – the customer doesn’t want to hear it. They’re talking to you – it’s your problem now.

6. Fix it. Before you offer your best solution, ask the customer what they would suggest to fix the problem. Perhaps they would be happy with $20 off the price, a replacement or refund. Tell the customer what you plan to do to resolve the situation and when it will be done.

7. Give a gift. To show that you care about them and their business, give them a coupon for $50 off their next order, a gift certificate. A small token of your appreciation of their understanding will be remembered.

8. Follow up with the customer. Even if the problem is solved send them a note in the mail or write an e-mail to make sure the customer is happy.

9. It’s important to remember not to let the customer’s drama become your drama. Try to create calm and correct the problem while diffusing their anger. Take these steps to resolve the customer’s complaint and an unhappy customer can become one of the 95% of satisfied customers that help improve your business.

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