What should you include on the back of your painting? What info should go on your art website? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

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.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 81 >

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:
In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions. email your questions to me, [email protected]. And never hurts to put your name, your full name and your city. I like to know this is a question from Julie in Columbus, Ohio, who says Eric recently I heard you say on the podcast that it’s smart to put the GPS coordinates on the back of your landscape painting. So anyone in the future would know where it was painted. I love this idea. Is there anything else we should include on the back that I might not think of? Well, I don’t know. You know, Julia, there’s a lot of standard stuff I do. I take a little Sharpie when I do a plein air study. And I write the story of who I was with or what was going on something to remind me of the actual event. You know, if I’m painting with other painters, I say I was painting with Joe Paquette or somebody like that, right and I always put copyright the year, my name, and then the words All rights reserved, you might want to check with your attorney to see how they want you to do it. And I always put my signature and I try to always put my website, I try to also put the location GPS location is something I don’t always do. But I think it’s a great idea. My brother actually came up with that idea. Anyway, I think a title for the painting and make a title juicy, don’t just put you know tree on the river or do something like something that gives it kind of a romance to it something juicy, right? And a little trick I often do, especially if I’m doing a painting, I’m sending it to the gallery, I’ll usually put on there for a free gift, please contact me at this email address. And then it says thank you for buying my painting, for a free gift, please contact me and then what I do is I contact them and I send them an image on little note cards of the painting that they bought. And then on the last second to last card it says hey, these you’ve used them all up, I’d be happy to send you another box my as my gift. And of course that’s a really great marketing tool because they’re sending your paintings out to other people. And also they’re contacting you it’s an opportunity to reach out to them and say hey, I want to show you what I’ve got something, something new. Anyway, that’s kind of one thought.

The next question is from Kenneth in Ketchum, Idaho, I was just in Ketchum, Idaho. Kenna says, I finally decided to have my website built to help represent and sell my art. I know, I’ll have my painting, sir, for sale, my bio, my contact information, but what else? Is there anything specific that I should or shouldn’t include on the site? Well, the one thing that you have to understand is that having a website is kind of like being in the phonebook, you know, if they don’t know you exist, they’re not going to search your name. So having a website is only going to do, it’s going to stroke you and some people might stumble into it if they happen to do a search. But you’ve got to promote yourself, you got to get yourself out there and drive people to your website, that’s a whole nother thing. I think the things that I would I would do, I go into depth on my video marketing series. I have a whole hour on websites and philosophy and some things you can do that relate to personality types and how to make them click the right button and scratch their itch. But I don’t have an hour right now. But one thing I think is important is to focus on what you want to be known for. I’ve had people who have put up websites, and it confuses people, because there are pictures of all kinds of different things that you do. But if you want to be known as a landscape painter, for instance, then put up your landscapes put them front and center. I had a lady Tell me one time that she didn’t get any response to her advertising. I said, Well, I find that kind of hard to believe. And she said, Well, I did get a huge increase in business in visitors on my website. I said, Yeah, well, did you convert them? She said, No. And I said, well, let’s look at it. So she was highlighting landscapes. And when you went to her website, it was figures and portraits, but you couldn’t find the landscapes. And so most people would give up at that point I dug through, I had to go through about three layers to find them. So make sure that you’re relevant. If you’re advertising for Pete’s sake, put up there what you’re advertising, even if it’s sold, put it up there because people are going to come there. And then the other thing that I think is really critical as you want to have a capture device, you want to try and get people to put their email address in so that you can get them on your newsletter list and contact them in the nicest possible way, obviously, ethically. So you can offer some kind of a benefit you can say you know, I’ll give you a free ebook of my 20 best paintings or something like that, so that you get them and incentive to give you that email information. Anyway, that’s what I would do with a website. I think those are the critical things and then there’s a whole lot more on the video series. Anyway, I hope this is helpful to you. 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 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.