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 the best way to approach and get representation from an art gallery; and whether or not you should list the price of your paintings on your website.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 105 >

 

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:

The marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions and you can always email me [email protected]. Be sure to mention where you’re from your name and your town, right? Because sometimes they don’t like a couple of them I’ve got today. So here’s one from Fernando Mitchell. Misha Misha Lee, Fernando missionally. Sorry, Fernando. He asked, What’s the best way to approach and get representation from galleries? Well, the best thing to do is to put yourself in their shoes, any time you want to sell somebody on you or something, put yourself in their shoes. Imagine that you’re working in a gallery, you’re trying to get things done, you’re talking to customers and the phone rings or somebody walks in the door. And they says they say hi, I’m an artist, and I’d like to discuss getting into your gallery. Well, when you’re busy, it’s annoying. And I know you’re gonna say, well, it’s their job. Well, their job is to sell art. Their job is to find artists, but they have all the artists they want and need anyway. So they’re always looking for somebody a little extra good or something that’s unique. But they’re getting 50-60- 100 emails a week they’re getting unsolicited packages, I watched a gallery owner open and trash 50 packages while I was sitting there with him, people sending unsolicited packages about their work. And he just said, you know, I have to go through it. But I don’t read it. You know, it’s just too much. He said, I get twice as many emails as this. It’s really annoying. Most galleries are looking for artists who will sell and they’re solicitations from you are bothersome. So how do you get around that? Well, I have in my art Marketing Bootcamp series, a whole thing on how to get into galleries. But one of the s essential things is you want them to see you. And you want them to invite you in. For instance, I met with an artist this week who was in town shooting a video, he’s running ads in our magazine, fine art connoisseur, and he said to different galleries contacted him about representing him. Now, it didn’t happen immediately. Because they want to watch you they see your work, they say Oh, it’s good work. Let’s see what he puts in next time, or she puts in next time. And they watch you one gallery owner told me he was been watching a couple of artists over the course of a few years. And at some point as they develop and they get better, he might contact and put them into the gallery. So that’s one thing, it’s always better, if they call you it puts you in more of a position of power actually, and you want to be invited in being invited in is a lot better than kind of pushing your way in. So look for ways to get them to invite you. Now there’s a lot of ways to do that. For instance, you can get to know other artists who they know who maybe they can suggest you etc. They’re watching for your consistency, and the variety of things. And they’re looking at it sometimes for years. So be patient, but really understand that they’re evaluating you from the standpoint of will this sell, because if it’s not going to sell, they’re not going to sell it.

Here’s another question from David Cruz again, I don’t know what town David, shame on you got to tell me the town. Anyway, David says I have a question about selling art online. It seems that most artists websites don’t give prices for the work. But rather ask the potential buyer to inquire with the artist. Do you think it’s a good idea good strategy? Or is it better to clearly state the price on the website? Well, David, it’s a matter of philosophy. People want people to call why. So they have a chance to sell them to talk to them, maybe to get their name, maybe to justify the price. There’s an old philosophy. And that philosophy is whenever the price is mentioned, before value is established, you never get your price, you have to establish value. And that’s why people do this. Establishing value is building credibility by talking about your awards, your shows your collectability, maybe who collects you getting the fact that you’re already getting these high prices that establishes value. So you can understand why people want you to call. But this is an internet world. And quite frankly, you know, I’ll look at things and I’m sure you do too, in the middle of the night and you’re like I don’t want to have to call he always see you know, call for inquiry or you know, you have to fill out a form. I never do any of that stuff because I don’t want to do it. I just want to know what the price is. And so if somebody says call for price, I move on. Now again, it’s a philosophy but you’re probably losing for everyone that calls you’re probably losing 5050 that that won’t call. So if you’re selling online, I think you look for a chance to establish value right there where the painting is being seen. You know where you’re talking about the value of you as the artist And when they’re looking at your site, and some will buy online, I know a gallery who sold a $650,000 piece of sculpture to a foreign country. The person went online, put the saw the price didn’t negotiate, put their credit card in and it was shipped to him. Everything worked beautifully. So you obviously don’t want to ship it to make sure until you make sure the credit card is going to go through. But I think that you know, today in this world, you have to be willing to operate the way people want to operate.

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!