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 shares thoughts on resources for pricing your art, and why marketing is critical to getting your work seen and sold.

Click Here to Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 43

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
In the marketing minute I answer your marketing questions which you have emailed to me, [email protected] Also be sure and say where you’re from name and town. Here’s a question from Peter Shorady. It doesn’t say where Peters from says Do you know of any books about the sector. We have pricing art. No, no, the answer is no, I don’t have any idea of any books about the pricing of art. There are literally hundreds of books out there on the psychology of pricing and and pricing specific, but they tend to be pricing in a retail environment. I’ve read lots of them. A lot of them have conflicting information, there’s nuggets you can get from every one of them. But art is something special because art is not a commodity, typically. And as a result, it’s done a little bit differently. Pricing art is something I deal with in my books, my website, my videos, my podcasts. Well, this is podcast now, I guess. Anyway, it’s very dependent on how it’s being sold environment has everything to do with pricing, as does the target audiences. For instance, billionaires and even millionaires think differently than thousand heirs and appealing to that psychologism Pardon. I oftentimes tell the story of the lady who went to the 10th show. Artists tells me the story. She says how much is the painting? He says it’s, it’s $4,000. She writes out 40,000 hands in the check. She says, No, it’s, he says, It’s not for 40,000 it’s 4000. And she says, well, it must not be any good, she rips up the check. So, pricing is you know, a high price oftentimes signals a high value, a high value painting, for instance. But sometimes you have to establish yourself to get high price other times some environments you don’t, but understanding the audiences and the environment, how things are framed, who’s selling it, you know, a high end Art Gallery, a low end Art Gallery, a show, you know, how you do everything really plays into it. Pricing is almost almost always based on the strength of your brand. I mean, if I said I’ve got a Richard Schmid painting for sale or I’ve got a Clyde Aspabig painting for sale. I’ve got a Ken Coleman painting for sale, you’re going to perk up because you know the strength of the brand. If I say, you know, Larry Leadbetter than you might not know the strength of the brand. And so if you build your brand, the better your reputation, your reputation for quality, desirability, collectability importance, the better your price is going to be. Of course, scarcity plays into your price as well. If you’re a painter that produces a lot of paintings versus someone who produces very few, that scarcity is important. So you build a strong brand, and you increase your chances of getting higher prices.

Next question, Melissa in Trenton, New Jersey who says many artists feel their art speaks for itself, and they just make the art and they will eventually get discovered why marketing? Well, Melissa, there was a movie called The Field of Dreams. Remember the theme? If you build it, they will come? Well, I think it’s kind of a lie. It’s kind of like the starlet who sits in in the drugstore in Los Angeles in Hollywood, waiting to be discovered, you know, Lana Turner. It happened to Ilana Turner one time hasn’t happened to anybody else that way ever since then, and, and it turns out, by the way, that was made up by a press agent, and it wasn’t the way it worked out. after all. You could wait a long time and never get discovered. Anybody remember thing called the phone book? I mean, why put your number in a phone book just waiting for somebody to call, right? You if you if you know you’re going to get discovered? Well, somebody will figure out how to find you right? Well, your art can speak from itself. But if no one sees it, it’s kind of like if a tree falls in the forest, you know, does it make a sound if your heart might speak for itself, but if nobody sees it, you’ll never be able to hear it speak. It has to have an audience. It has to be exposed. If it’s sitting in a closet in your studio, and it’s never seen, it’s not speaking, if it’s on your website, it’s not necessarily speaking, you know, people think, Oh, I’m gonna put a website together and all of a sudden, my world is gonna change and then they call me and they say, hey, I’ve got a website, but nothing’s happening well, because you’ve got to expose your website, you have to drive people to it, you have to find strategies to bring people in. If it’s just sitting on your website, it’s just as bad as sitting in a closet or almost just as a bad website isn’t something that people typically accidentally stumble on to they might click a link because there’s a story on your website that gets their attention, and that’s Marketing. But that’s rare. So you’ve got to find ways to get people to best specifically look for you. Now, it does happen occasionally for some businesses like hot restaurants starts up and the word travels and every everybody goes there because everybody’s telling everybody else. That’s word of mouth marketing. But the reality is the restaurant was smart, because they invited the right people for the opening. They invited the press, they invited some big influencers, the local mayor, you know, some people who own local businesses, they invited people who are going to talk. And so that’s marketing that’s inviting people. paintings are personal, they’re not going to appeal to everybody. So you’ve got to have lots of eyeballs to connect you to the special person who that painting speaks to and is ready to buy. They’ve got to have the money, the time a place to hang it. It’s got to be perfect timing. That’s why volume in reach can be a good thing, but you don’t want reach everybody you want to reach people who are specially interested, especially interested in art. Now Marketing is kind of like being the kid in class who raises their hand for the teacher. You know, don’t raise your hand, if you’re not willing to get called on. And you know, you might get called on randomly once in a while, but not likely. Or imagine holding a wedding and forgetting to send out the invitations. The invitations are the marketing. Sometimes the entertainment is the marketing invitation, say, you know, we’ve got cool and that gang or somebody like that, playing at our reception. If you want to sell your art, you are in business, you’re in business. And most failures happen in business because they lack marketing. Every business does it. It can be soft, it can be quiet, it can be elegant. It can be loud, it can be obnoxious, it can be awful. You get to choose but without marketing, you starve. Anyway, I hope that’s helpful. That’s the marketing minute.

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.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: 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.