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 how to manage your time to fit in both marketing and creating art, and whether or not you should donate art for silent auctions (the answer may surprise you!).

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 27 >>>

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. So here’s a question from K.C. in Alaska, Washington. I hope I got that right. She says coming from a life of entrepreneurial marketing efforts, I have found that marketing becomes time consuming and it interferes with me doing my art. Is it possible to do both marketing and art? Well, how do I manage to do both timewise. Well, that’s a lot loaded question. Is it possible? Yes, there are many, many, many hundreds of probably thousands of artists who do it well. And if you look through art history, some of the painters who became known were really good at marketing. Mastering marketing is a really important thing. How do you manage a time wise? Well, we’ll talk about that. First off, you need to consider that as an artist selling your artwork, you’re really self employed, you’re running a small business. There are thousands of one person small businesses out there. For instance, if you owned, let’s say, a yard service, and you were the only person mowing, well, you’d have to find time to get customers and you’d have to find time to mow and to balance your checkbook and where the other hats about, you know, getting your fuel or whatever else happens to be part of it. It’s really no different for an artist you just need to embrace the business side of your art and set aside some time for it. The reality is most of us can’t paint for eight to 10 hours a day. Anyway, we need a diversion we need a break we need to get our mind away from the painting step away is what they say. Right? So you Use some of that time for marketing. I also think the more time you can spend on marketing, the more you’ll sell, and actually, the less you’ll have to pay. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but the best artists, the most successful artists are the ones who paint fewer paintings and get more money for them, because they’re in such high demand. So if you were to take for instance, 20% of your time, or one day a week, out of a five day week, you would crush it, you would just totally change everything about your life in terms of marketing. Now you got to get up to speed you got to learn marketing, you got to understand it a little bit more sounds like you already do. But your life could change and you’d sell a lot more paintings just by taking 20% of your time. Or maybe just take you know two or three hours every day in between painting times around lunchtime or whatever time you know pick out the times you think are best for your painting. When do you do your best painting have the clearest head for that what are the times when you’re painting is it best and you can use that for your marketing, your planning, your shipping, those kinds of things. Just like painting you need to Give yourself permission to know that marketing takes time. It’s not going to be overnight. But it’s going to be a little overwhelming in the beginning, but just pick one or two things to focus on. Don’t get too overwhelmed. I’ve got a blog on marketing. It’s at art marketing, calm, and it’s free. You can get a lot of ideas there.

Eric Rhoads 3:17
The next question comes from Henry in Washington, it doesn’t say which Washington state or city anyway, from time to time I get requests to donate my art for a silent auction. What are your thoughts on participating in silent auctions? You know, I get this question a lot, Henry. And I always give the same answer. artists don’t like them, because they think they’re not going to get paid for their painting and they think getting a tax deduction is impossible. Although tax laws recently changed, you might be able to deduct more than time and materials No, but consider it an advertising expense. Would you pay a lot of money to get in front of a lot of affluent people who could buy your paintings? Of course you would. So consider this that opportunity. Now you don’t necessary Want to do every silent auction you want to do the ones that have rich people or fluid people, you know people who can spend money, people who are going to spend money fighting over those prizes, but you don’t just give up a painting you always want to look for what can I get in return. So in my book, for instance, I talk about preeminence marketing and how to become preeminent. And to be preeminent means that you’re going to be highlighted, you’re going to have something special. So what I would do is I’d say something like this, just say when they ask you so you know, let’s let’s get on the phone, I want to talk about this. You say Listen, I’m going to give you a really expensive painting, you know, a painting worth a couple thousand dollars or maybe more, and it’s probably gonna be one of the best most sought after prices. But in exchange, I need you to do the following number one, I want you to feature my painting on all of your advertising and marketing postcards website etc. as one of the primary items in the silent auction by painting and my photo needs to be the most prominent and needs to have … my name, and maybe the name of the painting and say that it’s one of the top prizes, and it’s valued at whatever the price happens to be we agree on. Secondly, your signage at the event needs to do the same thing. Number three, I need admission to the event number four. And of course, you need admission so you can work the room number four, I need access to the list of everybody who attended, or preferably even everybody who was invited, and I need the ability to contact those people. Now, if they’re not, if you’re not going to let me do that, then I need to be able to put out a business card bowl and we’ll have a separate prize for another painting. And I’ll collect the business cards and I’ll contact them on my own subtly and tastefully, of course, and since I’m giving you this valuable prize, I also need you to recognize me on stage, just a simple introduction. We’d like our special guests, the artists who donated this top prize, your name to stand up and you know, give a round of applause kind of a thing and maybe read a small you know, paragraph about me. So that that makes it makes sense. This is going to help me because if I’m going to spend a couple hundred thousand, I made a couple hundred thousand. Well, it could be I suppose if I’m going to spend a couple thousand dollars for the painting on you and frames and everything else I need to get something in return. Now what you want to think about there’s 500 wealthy people in that room? Would it be worth a $2,000 painting? You bet it would, of course, you need an immediate plan to follow up with that list, you need a way to make sure that they get your marketing materials or get invited to your website or your studio. And you need to understand that one time of anything is at the answer. So you want to do multiple charity events. And if you do that consistently become a local superstar. We have a whole program in our marketing in the box thing where we talk about how to do this. It’s very powerful anyway, it’s gonna be uncomfortable in the beginning to ask because you’re not used to doing that. But if you want you can have somebody else do it for you to have somebody who can represent you in that case so that you don’t cave in. That’s it. possibility away. I hope it helps. And I hope this marketing minute has been valuable.

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.