Advice on "cold mails" to potential customers

[Marcus Lim]

Hi everyone,
Lately i completed a landscape painting, and just so happens there's a marina club nearby the scenery that my painting was based on.
I have a mind to write to the organization to see if they're interested in buying this painting as part of their collection. My question is: how do i present myself? Would it be better to send a hard-copy mail, or via email?
I hope to hear the advice from seasoned masters who have lavishly adviced younger artists like me.
Thanks

[SB Wang]

http://209.85.171.104/translate_c?hl...UTgc7AkmQVvfJw

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

I think that sending emails to an established organization is slightly tacky and looks lazy, and also looks as if you have just carbon copied the same email many times to different people, just changing the name. Also much of new email from unknowns goes straight into the junk mail bin.

I would send them a professional hard copy letter with a 8" x 10" photo of your painting, making sure it is an excellent reproduction, and also that it is the first thing they see when they open the letter.

Then include a cover letter, mentioning their organization, and what you admire about them and the landscape they are part of. If they make an effort towards conservation of the landscape I would definitely mention that you appreciate their efforts - basically just let them know you know about them and like what they are doing, so they don't feel that you have just picked them at random along with many others you are taking a chance with.

Include a concise, but impressive resume.

You could telephone them, perhaps, about you sending this letter and image that you are excited about and would really like them to see, so they don't just throw the letter away thinking it is junk mail. I wouldn't mention that you want to sell the painting to them initially. What you want at first is to get their curiosity aroused and get them to see and like the painting, and then mention you might like to have it as part of their permanent collection.

Then phone them soon after you know they have received the letter, suggesting - as though you were being as agreeable and helpful as possible - bringing the actual work in so they can see it in person.

Hope this helps.

You could also bring the letter around personally. It helps very much for people to know and meet artists - it adds depth and meaning to the work they see.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Just realized this was posted 3 years ago. What a nut I am! Well, I hope this helps someone else, and I hope you sold your painting.

[SB Wang]

*Thomasin the thoughtful!

** S+P=H:
Sell out her own house and car in order to --paint--Hall of fame, is the road of a female artist
It remined me the phrase "破釜沉舟"[Listen (help