In February I was working with a new client who was sharing information about their live auction items from the prior year. The conversation went something like this: Me: So you sold a home irrigation system in the live auction last year? They: Yes. It's worth nearly $4000, so we put it in the live auction to get more money for it. We sold it for $1600. I think we had 3 bids. Me: We can find a better way to sell it. And we did find a better way. This year we sold that ... Read On >
Marketing
[Video] Get aggressive about email marketing your auction
Boy was I on fire when I recorded this video! I shot this about three months ago, after having two conversations with clients that got me all flushed about email marketing. I turned on the camera and my passion oozed out. (The audio didn't sync with the video on this, but the content is fine.) I get frustrated when clients explain that a school / nonprofit policy states they can’t send out more than one or two emails a month. Or that they have to promote the auction in a section ... Read On >
Wine silent auction idea: Sommeliers drive bigger bids
I'll be working a wine auction later this month in Texas and thought I'd share a wine silent auction idea I witnessed at another event. If you've got a lot of wine in your auction, why not have a sommelier onsite to educate guests and "talk up" your packages? At a school auction earlier this year, one entire silent auction section was devoted to wine. Large formats. Hard-to-find wines. Rare vintages. Some were sold as cases or collections; others were sold as single bottles. Though many of ... Read On >
Live auction display ideas for vacations
If you've got a vacation or two that will be sold in your live auction, it helps to geographically show guests where the city / resort / hotel is located. When I'm serving as auctioneer for a group, I create my own "displays" to help market items. I often don't know what the client will be doing for a display, and I want to be sure that during the preview time, I'm able to engage bidders with my own information and materials. For example, here are four images I've used in the last month to ... Read On >
Silent auction display ideas for concerts and sporting events
If you’re selling great tickets to a desirable concert or sporting event, what is one of the key pieces of information a bidder would want to know? The location of the seats. Given that most of your bidders are visually-oriented, you’ll want to include a diagram indicating where those seats are, in relation to the action. Though you can and should tell bidders that the tickets are in Section 120, row J, seats 1-4, it’s just as important to show them that location. Showing is ... Read On >