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 determine if you want to break in to the plein air events scene; and different ways to get publicity.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 86 >

 

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:

Okay, well in the marketing minute I try to answer your questions. I don’t always have all the answers. I just think I do. Well, anyway, that’s what people would tell me. I tried to answer your marketing questions that you email me, [email protected]. Here’s a question from Frank in Germany. Frank says, Eric, I want to break into some of the plein air events in America? Because there are not a lot of them in Europe. What do you recommend? Well, Frank, the first thing is you always have to ask yourself, why? Why do you want to break in? What is your goal? Is it about recognition? Is it about painting with other people? Is it about selling art? Is it about publicity? Or is it just the idea that you want to participate in events, try to figure out the why. And that’ll help you define everything else. In this is true with all marketing. Whenever you say to yourself, I want to fill in the blank. Ask yourself why what’s the exact goal? And the answer to why next frog, what I’d like to say is that there not a lot of events in Europe, that’s true. But we need more. And maybe it’d be a good thing for you and some of your friends to start some events. And that’s how they all start here. You know, in Laguna, all the Laguna was just a few painters who got together and started the Laguna chapter, or the Laguna plein air painters Association, la papa. And so that’s how it works. Just get some friends together, maybe go to a local charity or local city or somewhere where they can give you some promotion power where you can attract some people, get them to promote it spend about a year in advance on it, you know, put some publicity out there on it. And you’ll find that you can create your own events and, and quite frankly, we need more in Europe. Because the plein air, the plein air movement is spreading around the world. And we need more everywhere. And so the more plein air events, the more people find out about plein air painting, at cetera. So that’s a good thing. In terms of getting invited to events in America, there are two things First off, watch for announcements of juried shows, calls for artists and then apply. Because these are usually blind judging, they’re judging your work, they’re not buying you based on your name or your brand. Now, if you get into those, that’s great, but keep in mind, you’re gonna have to probably pay your own expenses, some events will put you up somewhere, usually with a host family. And of course, you’re gonna have to carry all your gear and your frames and all that kind of stuff. So you got to anticipate that in advance. And you may or may not sell sometimes great artists go to these events, and they don’t sell sometimes unknowns go and they sell out everything you just never know. But some events also want to draw people who were pretty well known because well known artists draw in other people. So some artists have told me that once they started advertising, they started getting invited to events, sometimes it’s because they had articles, you know, things like that will will help get you visibility, and that visibility will help get you known. So look for ways to get visibility, do your marketing job, and, and that’s what it will do. I also say that winning awards will get you publicity, and winning awards, like plein air salon, for instance, will really help as well. So be visible.

The next question comes from Pamela Howard. Folks, I got to remind you tell me where you’re from when you send these emails, because I don’t know where Pamela is from. But she says, In your book, you talk about how to get publicity. Would you talk about it some more on the podcast? Pamela publicity can really launch a career and especially if it’s in a big media gets you a lot of exposure with a large following, either locally or nationally. But it’s usually not about one thing. In other words, one article, one ad, one of anything is not usually going to accomplish everything. It’s about repetition over time. So you want to be looking to build articles. Every time you do a show, try to get publications like mine, to do stories on your shows, get them to do features on you get them to do stories, but also you’ve got the whole local option, right? So you’ve got kind of local, national, and then you’ve got industry specific. So national might be you know, how do you get nbc news or the National Enquirer or somebody like that to do a story on something unique that you’re doing? That’s cool. And that gets you a lot of exposure, but it’s a one time only exposure and if you get into something like plein air mass magazine or Fine Art connoisseur or something else, then you are now getting seen in front of the people who matter most, which are collectors, the collectors and the people in the industry, the people who run events, things like that, that’s going to help you a lot. And so look for opportunities to do that. But I also think every artist needs a local and a national strategy. Local, because you can make a lot of sales and a lot of money locally, national, because you don’t want to have all your eggs into one basket, right, because some local towns don’t do well in certain times. And if there’s a recession in your town, at least you’ve got a recession proof strategy by having galleries in two or three other markets, preferably markets where the recession isn’t hitting, because some markets tend to be a little bit more recession proof like Silicon Valley, for instance, tends to be, of course, that could change at any time, like anything. So do national, do local and basically get to know editors, keep them informed. Don’t badger them, send them something three, four times a year, don’t send them an article that was just written about you and a competitor that’s like, I people send these things to me all the time. They say, Hey, I just got this article in so and so magazine, and here’s another one and so and so magazine, it’s like, well, why would I do that? Because I don’t want to, I don’t want to do what everybody else does. I want to do something different. So don’t tell me that. But of course, don’t trick me either. Right? So you know, I don’t want to say hey, here’s an article on this trip that I just did, and then find out it’s appearing in three other publications. It’s not really fair, and is you just don’t want to make bad will with editors. And sometimes they will explain it will see things like that as bad well, so anyway, get to know editors, every editor, every magazine, every, every everything, every newspaper, you know, they have slow moments. So looking for ideas. And if you have something that’s pre written or an idea that’s in front of them at the right time, they’re going to grab it and run with it. And sometimes that’s the best thing that can happen to you.

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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

  • Art retreats
  • International art trips
  • Art conventions
  • Art workshops (in person and online)
  • And more!