10 Ways to Direct More Visitors to Your Studio

Getting people into your studio means providing good directional signage. During big city-wide art events and smaller building visits, it’s important to create a strategy and marketing materials to assist people when finding your studio. This blog post lists ways you can increase the number of visitors to your space or event assuming you have done the pre-work such as social media and invites.

1. Street Signage

Get something near the street. Believe it or not, some of your audience will simply stop by because they see some signage or an event happening. Consider some sort of large sign or flag or banner. Consider using something colorful to attract attention.

2. Door Signage

Note which door your visitors should enter especially if you have multiple buildings or entrances to your art space. While the main entry is something that will be most utilized, consider adding signage to the door to announce the event or to let people know they are in the right place.

3. Small Indoor Signage

Once inside, give your attendees some initial direction. Again, if there are additional doorways or entrances, make sure to get some smaller indoor signage to start giving some direction. It’s always great to have your name on this sign, your studio number, an arrow, or something to indicate direction and your artwork. Keep it simple and visual, but also informative. Consider changing these signs once a year to keep the imagery fresh. This gives returning visitors a sneak peek that something different in your space and worth finding again.

4. Floor Signage

If your space is not on the first floor, help provides direction through the various floors and stairwells towards your space. Trace the hallways and stairwells and make sure your navigation is clear. If visitors use an elevator consider sticking a sign in the elevator as well so they know what floor to get off on.

5. Lights

Lights are a great way to stand out from the view of the street for evening events. They can also be used to help with providing hallway directions in your building. Consider stringing lights through the building to connect your space to the doorway. My building utilizes this method for our Holiday Art Sale to help people navigate the multiple buildings and find the open studios. This method is great when multiple people are involved as it takes time and coordination.

6. Balloons

Balloons can easily mark open studios. They can be used outside or put on doors to indicate event location and open studios. Be sure to check on these to make sure they haven’t deflated if you are doing a weekend-long art event, it will look pretty sad to have limp balloons to welcome your guests.

7. Sound

Believe it or not, sound can help give direction. Ever walked through a hallway or building and figured out where you needed to be by the music, chatter of people, or another sound. Consider playing music in your space to entice people down to your space. You can also use a band or something louder to indicate that the building is having some sort of event as well.

8. Social Media Posting

If you are going to have a collaborator, band, or vendor like a food truck attend consider sharing social media marketing. Use your networks to post about these vendors and have them post about your art event so your cross-promoting each other and bringing in new attendees to the event.

You can also use social networking as a way to help provide direction to your audience. Consider posting a few photos of your space or do a live video on site. You can use Instagram’s My Story or Facebook to show a virtual walk-thru of the space that all of your friends or followers can watch. Remember these videos only last about 24 hours so be sure to post a fresh video each event day.

9. Hallway Preview

Giving the visitors who have already entered the building a preview of your work in the hallways before entering your space is always a good idea whether or not you have an event happening. But always check with your building management or lease if you are allowed to do this. It can market your art for you when the studio is closed and you are not around. When people notice a setup in the hallway they are more curious about what else is inside so this can help draw more people into your space, especially with an event.

10. Something New

If you always have new work or something to show, talk about or demonstrate in your space, you can guarantee you will have returning visitors. If these visitors enjoyed their experience, they may talk about your studio or your art to someone else or they may bring some friends or family along with the next time they stop by. Keep your studio engaging and provide something new for your visitors to see.

Do you have other methods for getting visitors into your studio? Comment below!