By doing this, you’ll be operating in the top ~75%
of photographers and artists this Q4.

The only thing standing in your way of a higher percentile is all the other photographers and artists doing the exact same thing.

So while Q4 represents a flood of art transactions, it also represents a flood of highly competitive offers and tactical one-upmanship in the race to close the sale with a collector before they take their money elsewhere.

In short, simply participating in Q4 with an offer code is a start, but it may not be enough when everyone else is doing the same. To rise to the top of the competition and reap every possible benefit of the holiday season buying rush, you need two things:

1. A tried-and-tested Q4 art strategy
2. A secret weapon that blasts you to the top of the competition
   
   

1. A Comprehensive Strategy

Winning the sale from your art buyers means putting the work in front of them at the right place and the right time.

Not to mention the right number of times. Just look how often these art retailers emailed their list during a 2-week period in a recent Q4:

You’ll also want to take an omni-channel approach to getting the word out about your Q4 offers:

Some combination of these channels and more should be hit throughout the 4th quarter to ensure your messaging is impossible to miss.

We give our customers a full briefing on exactly what to do and when to do it in our Holiday Marketing Checklist, but the gist of it is this:

Run promotions for each individual holiday, announce them ahead of time, give your audience a warning before they end, and change up your offer frequently to keep the promotions fresh. 

By doing this you will be operating in the top ~20%
of photographers and artists this Q4.

Not bad! But we can do better – way better. 

2. A Secret Weapon

To be your customers' best option this holiday season – the easiest to buy from, the clear preference – you need a secret weapon up your sleeve. A distinguishing feature to supercharge your sales.

There are several things that can fit this slot (a perfectly dialed-in niche can do wonders), but we expect nothing will be quite as powerful as Augmented Reality.

It’s the secret weapon we offer Art Storefronts members, and it can give you a huge advantage in the next few years.

To understand why, just imagine you are an art buyer...

It’s the middle of November, and you’re being flooded with offers to buy the art you’ve been looking at all year. An amazing time to be a collector, but the problem is you can only afford one piece.

So, who do you choose?

Artist A has a great promotion running, but they have no 3D media previews so you can’t get your head around all the options available. Pass.

Artist B is one of your favorite photographers, and they have 3D media previews - great! But their images feature some pretty bold colors, and you’re just not sure if it will fit in with your living room walls. If they had a Wall Preview Tool it may have helped you to come to a decision, but being unable to make the purchase with confidence, you pass. 

Artist C you just discovered earlier this month on Instagram. And while you haven’t been as eager to buy their work as artists A and B, you realize when you land on Artist C’s site that they offer an in-browser Augmented Reality experience. You open up your favorite piece of theirs, launch AR, and in seconds are viewing that piece super-imposed on your actual living room wall.

Boom. Now, you know exactly what the piece will look like.

You know it suits your wall color.

You know it fits in with your existing art collection.

You even know exactly what size to buy after testing out a few options in AR and seeing how it feels in your room.

It's perfect. So, you buy it – not because it was your all-time favorite artist, but because all of your critical questions surrounding the purchase were answered with one elegant tool.

From visiting the site, to viewing it in AR, to adding to cart and checking out - all in-browser. Magic.

And as of right now, practically no one else has it (the clunky version of AR where the buyer has to go download a third party app on the app store and re-search for the artist doesn't count!). 

By doing this you will be operating in the top <1%
of photographers and artists this Q4.

Live Preview with Augmented Reality is a game-changer even in the worst selling conditions.

Imagine what it can do for you this holiday season.