In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains what to do if you hit a “price ceiling” when selling your art, and how to advertise your art to a targeted audience.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 23 >>>

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer 0:02
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads 0:23
Thank you Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. Here’s a question from Rich in Tucson, Arizona. He says I’ve been a professional artist for years but I’ve hit a price ceiling. Gallery owners have told me they need to keep my price low and have discouraged me from raising prices. How do I change this? Well, Rich, you’ve got a couple of options. One option is not to raise your prices and to increase your volume. If they can sell more volume, whether Not they can. That’s a discussion you want to have with them. But everything about prices psychological price is tricky business, lots of great books on pricing. And I’m not sure I can answer this the way you want me to. But here goes I’m going to try. First gallery people know their audiences and they know what they can get. Or at least that’s what they believe. They have put you into a price box that they think they can get for you. Now you might be able to talk to them and edge your prices up gradually by 10 to 15% a year. And I like to see artists increase their prices every year anyway. But if you’re not selling, increasing your prices isn’t going to necessarily make it better. Now, you should, though, have this discussion with a gallery. If they believe that they’re not going to get the increased price. They’re not likely to push you. They might even push you out of the gallery. So you have a couple of choices, trust them and ask them to help you gradually raise your prices. Or you have to experiment, see what happens. Maybe they’ll do that with, you know, say, hey, let’s raise the prices and see what happens. But if you’re doing that your prices have to be the same online everywhere, they’re gonna find you, like if they’re gonna look you up in another gallery, and it’s an eight by 10 painting, it better be the same price as the eight by 10. everywhere because people do that, as you know, you do it, I do it. The other thing is, you might have to change galleries. Now. I want you to respect your gallery and have a discussion with them before you do that, because they work very hard on your behalf or at least they should. But I know an artist who had this problem with three galleries. She had kind of got boxed into a price. They weren’t raising their prices. She talked to them. They didn’t want to raise her prices anymore. So she thought What do I do? Well, she had heard from some other galleries who wanted her in she contacted some other galleries who wanted her in and she said, Okay, here’s the price range I want to get and they went Oh, that’s No problem. As a matter of fact, we could get a little bit more. So they set a new price. She terminated a relationship with the old galleries and went to New galleries that believed they could get the price and in fact they did. So that’s kind of how this all works. But again, try to trust your gallery try to have a relationship and a dialogue with them. They do typically work very hard for you.

Eric Rhoads 3:20
The next question is from Crystal B. of Texas. Crystal says I need to choose the best advertising venue to really connect with those who will connect with my art. I challenges developing a target audience since I do landscapes, figures and portrait. Is there a place I can advertise where there’s an audience that appreciates all three? Well, Crystal, I’m going to tell you something you probably don’t want to hear. Brace yourself. Are you ready? Well, there are plenty of places you can advertise that have readers that love landscapes, portraits and figures. My own Fine Art connoisseur magazine is one of them for instance, but I think you have a photo problem, and you’re going to confuse your audience while you’re building your brand. Who are you as an artist? How do you want to be known? Now, don’t get all bent out of shape, paint what you love paint the styles paint the subjects that you want to pay. But if you had to pick one to be known for which one would it be, but establishing your career and building your brand over the first 10 or so years, maybe longer, you need to be known primarily for one thing. Now there are people like Richard Schmid, for instance, who can pull it off because he’s been around for 60 years. He’s known as a brilliant artist and he does still life. He does portraits, he does figures he does landscapes. He does it all. But when he built his career, I’m guessing I’ve not talked to him about this, but I’m guessing he kind of focused in one particular area became known and collectible. people found out how brilliant he was and started collecting his other work. Now, there’s also artists like David Lefell, David Lefell, is known as a portrait and figure artists primarily He also does landscapes, but it’s rare to see him. So you should consider standing for something, you know, he’s big, you want to be big, right? So ask yourself, what’s the story people will say about you. Crystal B is a, what? A landscape artist, a figure in portrait artists, I think figure and portrait kind of go hand in hand. So that’s one category. If you want to go the route of offering lots of variety, you can do that. But it may slow your progress because you don’t want to confuse your audience. Now, if you can show different kinds of work in a gallery, because the gallery is there to be able to explain it, they could say, you know, crystal is a brilliant landscape artist. She’s known as landscape artists, but little do most people know she also does these portraits and figures and we happen to have a couple of them. They’re pretty rare, but you should get one of those. But when you’re advertising, try to keep your primary focus in one particular area while you’re building your brand because that’s really critical. Now I’m sure there are people who are exceptions to that. But I think as a marketing person, that is probably the right way to go. Anyway, hope these have been helpful for you.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

Remember to Submit Your Question: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.