Pre-sale orders: a tool for profitable artmaking

REAP BEFORE YOU SOW

Ever tried to sell a piece of art without showing someone what it looked like?

Sounds crazy right?

Well… that’s exactly what I just did.

Let me explain.

These past few weeks I tried my hand at hosting a pre-sale for the first time ever — with my new 2020 calendars. For those who might not know, a pre-sale is basically selling something to people before you’ve even made the thing.

This concept is scary (or at least it was for me) because I have always leaned on showing off my artwork as a way to market it.

I had my doubts: I doubted that it would actually work, that people would trust me enough to buy a calendar when they didn’t know what the monthly photos would be. I mean you’re going to look at the dang thing every day for a year. Looks are important here!

I had those creeping thoughts of “what if they don’t like it when it comes out?” “What if there’s a malfunction with the printer and I have to refund everyone’s money?”

Doubts are a constant in my brain and I’ve learned to ignore them. And rightfully so.

The pre-sale went amazing.

I sold hundreds of dollars worth of calendars at $17 each in the span of two weeks.

And no one even knew what they looked like yet!!!

That’s cool, but, what exactly is better about hosting a pre-sale compared to selling something the regular way?

WHY HOST A PRE-SALE?

Firstly, it’s nice to know how many of a thing to make before you spend money making it. I’ve overshot my expectations on certain products and made too many — causing me to lose money and hold onto 20 shirts with my artwork on them that no one wanted to buy. Womp womp. I’ve also made too little, like in the case of my calendars last year. I made 5. CLEARLY a lot of people wanted them but I just didn’t expect that. So I lost out on money and on making people happy.

Presales let you know how many people are willing to buy before you have it made. That way, you don’t mess it up by making too many or too little.

Secondly, you can take feedback from people before you make it, so that it can be even better. I had people message me and say, “This is cool, I hope painting xyz makes it into the calendar because it’s my favorite one.” And I could make sure it got in, because I hadn’t designed it yet. Using people’s feedback to improve your art is a beautiful thing.

Thirdly, I didn’t have to save any money for making the product up front. I’ve got bills to pay like anyone else, and sometimes it can be hard to save up to fund a cool project I have on my mind. With a pre-sale, I could just use the money people paid me to have the product made. Helllooooo, genius!

WHAT CAN GO WRONG?

The test didn’t go without errors though.

The manufacturer I use to make a lot of my art products (Vistaprint, they’re pretty rad actually), requires a certain number of an item. You can make things in quantities of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, or higher. So say I had 39 orders, I’d have to make the jump and have 50 made anyway. That can cost you in a lot of situations.

However, in my case, I found there were people who missed my short window of a sale and were happy to buy up all my extras once they found out the calendars existed.

But overall, my first go at hosting a pre-sale was a success!

TIPS FOR A PROFITABLE PRE-SALE

1. Make sure to price accordingly.

Count in the possibility of a low number of orders (things are cheaper in bulk and more expensive as a single purchase) and make sure you will still profit if you only have 5 people who place an order. 

Take into consideration the cost of shipping and packaging materials, not just the product itself. You can charge a shipping fee or just add it into the cost of the product. 

2. Let people know when to expect the product at their doorstep. 

When will you stop taking pre-sale orders, or when do the “doors close” on your sale? You can’t take orders on a pre-sale indefinitely, because it squanders the opportunity to buy in bulk. 

After the doors close, when will you be shipping them out? If your product is handmade, this will take longer. If it’s painted digitally and reproduced onto something, your turn around time will be faster. Either way, just make sure people are informed about the timeline before they buy.

3. Add a sense of urgency. 

When you first release this new product (and it should be a never-before offered thing) closing the doors on your sale is the best way to add urgency. When the sale is over, either the product becomes unavailable or it goes up in price. 

Adding a sense of urgency to people’s purchase helps people to make the decision to buy — if they don’t do it now, they may not get another chance or they may have to buy at a higher price later on.

If they can do it later, they’ll procrastinate, twiddle their thumbs, wait for their next paycheck, and they may forget and never buy it at all. Urgency is key. 

4. Promote your pre-sale like crazy. 

I had people who didn’t find out about my calendar pre-sale until after it was over. They did not get a calendar. You want to avoid this at all costs!! This leads to disappointed people and lost money on your end. Don’t feel over-salesy, think about all the people who will be bummed if they don’t hear about it. 

Post on social media multiple times, tell your friends, tell your coworkers, tell your family. Ask them if they know anyone who would want one. Consider buying an ad online if it fits your budget (don’t forget to up the cost of your product if you do this, gotta keep that ROI in check). 

If you need more help on how to promote your artwork, check this post out here.

5. When it’s over, ask people to tag you in posts of them using your product.

Where did they hang the print? Did they frame it? What are they drinking in their cool new mug you designed? Share these testimonials on your social media and on your website too if you’d like. This creates trust and proof to others that even if they can’t see the exact product beforehand, they know they’ll be happy with it — they’ll think, “other people were satisfied, why wouldn’t I be?”

Next time you’ll get even more orders. 

TRY IT YOURSELF

If you’re having trouble gathering the funds to make prints of your paintings, or turning your manuscript into a paperback book — try hosting a pre-sale!

You might be surprised, like I was, at how many people trust you and the quality of your work to buy something before they can see it.