Secrets for gaining a repeat collector

The repeat collector is someone who buys more than one piece of art from you. They love your artwork enough to start and grow a collection of it. Repeat collectors aren’t made overnight, however — there are a few key secrets to making someone who has bought your work before become interested in buying it again. Let’s go over the best ways to motivate that second, third, or fourth sale.

ART STYLE 

At the most basic level, people buy art to look at it. They buy it to decorate their home, so that their home looks a certain way. Having a consistent art style means when they collect more than one piece of yours, they will match in such a way to set the aesthetic of the room. 

Any interior designer will tell you that there needs to be a common thread that ties a room together. Many say the whole house should be visually tied so that each room flows into the next.

Your art can be that common thread.

Besides, with a unified style, anyone who loves one painting from you is likely to love any other. That’s the beauty of a well-defined aesthetic.

Whether that’s through similar color, line and shape, texture, or any other element – the art style will draw them in over and over again.

The continuity between the pieces will inspire someone to buy not just one, but more than one. This is usually the first thing to inspire a customer to become a repeat collector.

Struggling with your art style? Does your art look like it fits into many different aesthetics? I offer a class called Elements of Art Style that will give you a style makeover to draw in that ideal repeat collector.

PERSONAL BRAND 

Style and brand are intertwined, but generally your personal brand is deeper than the visuals. It’s your core messaging. 

Your core messaging is often conveyed in your subject matter, but it’s always conveyed in your actions as a person: what you say, what you share, what you volunteer your time for, what you spend your money on. What you put energy into is what you value. What you value most is your message.

Repeat collectors love an artist they can feel proud about buying from. Good people want to support good people. If you advocate for clean natural spaces, like I do with my Michigan Parks and Places Series, then you’ll attract collectors who also care about natural spaces. It’s a cause that brings you together. It makes them want to support you not just once, but many times. And feel proud about it every time. 

Your personal brand doesn’t always have to be about some great cause, though. Sometimes your personal brand can get heavily associated with specific things.

If you buy a coffee at your local coffee shop every morning, your brand can grow to be associated with that action and that small coffee shop as well. So if your collectors also go to their cafe each morning, then you have that daily routine in common. This makes your brand relatable. If your collectors are local and they drive by that same coffee shop on their way to work, they’ll think about you every time they see it. This makes your brand recognizable.

Personal brand is how you relate to people on a personal level. 

And people buy from people.

So share what you care about, share what makes you human. Your buyers will become repeat collectors as they grow to know and love you for more than your art. 

GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE 

When someone buys your art once, that’s great. But what you do after that may determine if they ever buy from you again. Customer service can make or break a repeat collector.

Focus on communication, speed, and quality materials. 

People love your art because of what it looks like and the impact it’ll have on their home when they hang it up. This will inspire them to click “add to cart” the first time. 

But if they get it home and it falls apart within two weeks, they won’t buy again. If you take 2 months to send it out, they won’t buy again. If they’re having an issue and reach out to you yet you never respond, they won’t buy again. 

Don’t make these mistakes. 

Communication is probably the most important part of good customer service, and a lot of other mistakes can be fixed with it. 

For example, sometimes my prints get lost in the mail. For the customer, this looks like not receiving your art for 2 months. Yikes! But when they reach out to say they never got it, I immediately respond, apologize, reprint and resend the prints at no extra cost. Is it an immediate loss for me? Yes. But the trust gained by that person is worth it, because I know that person is likely to stay a repeat collector. 

Make sure to communicate your apology and what you intend to do to fix the problem.

Quality materials is mostly a preventative measure – prevent your customer from having any issues with water damage, bending, breaking, etc. Prevention is the best problem solver. 

Good customer service will keep people who love your art happy with your business, too.

MAKE IT A SERIES

The most collectible type of art is art that is already assembled into a “collection” or a series. It’s art that not only has the same art style from the same artist, but it follows a very specific theme. 

One example of a series is my Zodiac Signs as Houses Series. Each painting in the series is of a house. But not just any house. Each house represents a zodiac sign. There are 12 prints in the series – one for each sign. 

Aesthetically, they follow my art style, but they also have stricter rules: each painting has a black background instead of the variable white or black or fully filled background that my other works may have. 

From a collector’s standpoint, the series is very attainable at 12 paintings. If it were 100 paintings, that’s a tougher challenge – tougher to afford, tougher to display because it requires more space. Make it relatively attainable. 

Because it’s related to the zodiac, a repeat collector is most likely to buy 3 – the big 3 of their astrological chart. And then they may be motivated to buy other houses for their friends, their spouse, etc. 

There are plenty of ways to create a highly collectible series. 

Making a few pieces of your art into a series can motivate people to buy more than one because it feels satisfying to complete the package.

KEEP SHOWING UP

Persistence is often talked about, but rarely executed. Keep showing up by making new art, selling prints of old art, and staying ready for previous buyers to buy from you again.

A lot of times it takes people a while to decide they want a second, third, or fourth painting from you. Maybe they bought the first one on a whim because they loved it. And maybe they didn’t have space for another one until two years later when they moved into a bigger house, and they decided to buy 3 more! 

Patience isn’t the right word for it. You can’t simply wait around. You’ve got to keep making, keep sharing, keep offering things for sale. 

What would have happened if that same customer was ready to add to their collection in their big new house – but you had stopped posting on socials, stopped doing art shows, and not updated your website in a year? They probably would’ve bought art elsewhere.

Be ready for people to come back around and expand their collection (and LOOK ready, too).

CHERISH THE REPEAT COLLECTOR

Be grateful for those who resonate with your work enough to spend money on it multiple times. 

On a personal level, these folks are the ones who GET you, who understand your message and share your vibe. From a business perspective, they’re the ones who will propel you forward. Did you know you’re more likely to sell to someone a second time than you are to gain a brand new sale? 

Focus on growing your repeat collector base with art style, personal brand, good customer service, creating a series, and persistence.