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 if you should be concerned about finding new customers right now, and thoughts on the market for nocturne paintings.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 57 >

 

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:
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:

So I made a deal with my team I said you put the questions in and I’m not going to read them until I actually record live on the podcast because I want to just go off the top of my head rather than having any scripted thing. So this is from Ellen Jean Dietrich, in Fargo, North Dakota, who says right now my single biggest marketing challenge is that I am not meeting new customers, almost all my shows have been cancelled. And very few came to my last event, what’s the best alternative for finding new customers right now? Well, it’s a misnomer. New customers are the thing everybody wants to chase. We all tend to focus on new business all the time, but the people who bought from you are the best possible people to buy from you again, because they already have shown that they love your work and they’re willing to spend money for it, I would suggest a campaign that really reaches out to past buyers and makes them aware of things that you’ve done recently. Because that’s really where the money lies. And probably more than new customers, new customers are a challenge because you got to find them, you got to reach them, you got to sell them, you got to teach them about yourself, then you got to find people to love them. And of course, if you want new customers a place to go is where there’s a deep rich group of people who love the kind of art that you do. And that’s places like plein air magazine, or Fine Art connoisseur or other things like that, where you can find a concentrated group of people who buy art, you can also focus on doing some things locally shows will come back and and of course, people start coming to events again. But in the meantime, I would go after existing customers because they’re a lot easier to sell.

Now, here’s a question from Matthew Calavera in Lincoln, Nebraska, who says I love to paint nocturnes, but I don’t know if there’s a specific market for this. If there is how do I find my way into it? Well, you guys are asking a lot of the same questions. And I think the answer to that is don’t look for the market. Let the market find you. If you love to paint nocturnes, then that’s what you should paint. And if that’s if you’re painting for a market if you’re trying to paint because you know people are going to buy little red barns and you don’t love painting little red barns I highly recommend against that. It’s going to show in your work. I remember there was a an artist who decided he was going to conquer the western market and he started painting all this Western stuff. And you could just tell his heart was not into it. You know, if somebody’s hearts into it, you can see it in their work. And so if you love Nocturnes paint Nocturnes you know, Carl Gretzke does paint other things. But he’s known as the Nocturne guy, and he he sells a lot of Nocturnes a lot of people buy him. So is there a place you can go? Is there like a Nocturnes magazine? No, no, you’re gonna go after people who love great paintings. And if you find people who love great paintings, in certain places, that’s where you want to be you want to be doing art shows you want to be promoting locally, you want to be promoting nationally, I think every artist should have a local international strategy. Because, you know, let’s say that you live, you know, at the time I’m recording this quarantine is still going on in California, right? So if you can’t get out in California, people can’t get out in California, that’s your only gallery you got a little bit of a problem. And that’s your local market. So but if you had a gallery in, say, Florida and Florida is open, then everybody’s out and about and business as usual. So you can make sure that you have a local international strategy have two or three galleries in two or three different places where there’s stuff that’s going to sell and that will make a big difference. And so rather than trying to find a specific market for Nocturne, somebody asked a question last week about finding a specific market for for modern or abstract kind of things. And I kind of had the same same answer. You know, abstract is a little bit broader. So you might find a place where you can advertise and get to abstract people. But advertising is key if you really want to get seen. Anyway, hope that answers your question. Thanks for asking about marketing.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.