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.

What should you do when people unsubscribe from your newsletter? How important is it to have a painting framed at a plein air competition event? Eric Rhoads answers in this Art Marketing Minute.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 72 >

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:

That’d be a good book for you to own. Just saying, okay, and the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions, email yours to me at [email protected]. Now here’s a question from Vicki Haley in Montgomery, Alabama, who asks, What should I do when people unsubscribe from my newsletter? Well, I think the first thing you have to do Vicki is you have to ask yourself, why do they unsubscribe? People don’t unsubscribe unless they don’t find the content valuable. And there’s a whole lot of things you can do to make content valuable, which we’ll talk about in a minute. Now you can have a way that you can ask people, if you get a rash of unsubscribes, you could take in theory, take those emails, write a little note and say, Hey, I noticed you unsubscribe, can you give me some feedback? I wouldn’t do it too many times. I wouldn’t repeat the same people. But maybe you can find out why they’re not reading it. But it always boils down to the same thing. They’re not reading it because they’re not interested. And they’re not interested because it’s not interesting. All right, sorry. You know, the problem is that most most artists in their newsletters, make their newsletter about them. Right? It’s the news of Vicki Haley in Montgomery, Alabama. Hey, I’ve got a new painting out, hey, I did an art show. Hey, I’m cool. The problem with that, Vicki is that that’s not very interesting to other people. It’s only interesting to you, maybe to me. So what do we do about that? Well, the first thing we do is we try to make content that people want now in my art marketing in a box program, I developed a whole bunch of content for people that they could kind of have content to do this on a regular basis. But the bottom line is you want to make it interesting. So what would make it interesting? Well, maybe you teach something about art now may or may not be teaching art itself unless the people getting your newsletter our students, but otherwise, you know, you maybe have an interesting story about art that you opened with each time and then you introduce other things about the stuff about you, you know, your paintings and the things that you’ve been doing and the trips that you’ve been taking, but you know, as a guy who gets three or 400 of those a month and you know, think about some collectors probably do you know, they go around, they sign up for websites and then you know, they start realizing well I opened it I read it I don’t get anything out of it or I don’t like the work or whatever and so they go away. Now if they don’t like the work that’s a whole different problem. And that’s always about getting better but look for ways to make it entertaining. Everybody wants to be entertained, everybody wants to be get to the point fast. If it’s really really super, super long and wordy are they going to read it you Do you have really great photos? Do you open with something strong? Make it really good. That’ll make a big difference. So ask yourself why? and ask them why and then make it better.

All right. Now, here’s a question from Carrie Moore in Cheyenne, Wyoming who asks, How important is it to have a painting framed at a plein air competition event? I think carry I think it’s critical, I think it’s the standard, right now, you know, first off, you got to have that way to hang the painting in the show. And usually, that means it’s in a frame. Now, if you’re a painter who paints on these kinds of can buy canvases, which have the big thick square edges, and you paint around the edges, you know, kind of a modern look, then maybe you don’t need a frame. And some people will like that. But, you know, a frame really is there to make the painting stand out, you know, a beautiful frame makes it kind of enhanced. And that’s why we put our things in frames, because you’re making better and, and you know, the goal is you want to stand out, you want your painting to look great. And now I believe investing in great frames really makes a difference, you know, we we have a tendency to go cheap on our frames. And sometimes you can find inexpensive frames that are not cheap looking. And that’s okay. But if you you know, if you’re going into Walmart and getting a bunch of frames and just trying to put them in frames, they’re not gonna look right, typically, no, nothing against Walmart, or Michaels. But the idea is you want a really good high quality frame, you want something that’s going to really make the painting standout. And then you also need to kind of understand what are the trends of the market you’re going into like, if you’re going into a market that’s very traditional, then gold frames are probably more appropriate than dark frames, but dark frames tend to do really well and markets that tend to lean a little bit contemporary and you know, people will put paintings up that are not contemporary, but if the frames are contemporary makes it feel better anyway. So that’s my, my feeling about frames. I think frames are really critically important.

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.