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, you’ll learn what you should be doing right now to plan for your yearly art goals and how the company you keep can affect your “halo marketing.”

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 2

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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 minutes we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by arts marketing. com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads:
Thank you Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions.

Here’s a question from William in Providence, Rhode Island. William says it’s a new year. What should I be doing to plan my marketing for the new year?
Well, William, ideally you want to start in November or December or before that but it is still early so you’ve got the whole rest of the year. Start always in all marketing, don’t put tactics first. Try to figure out what you want to accomplish. To start with the end in mind, what do you want to accomplish this year might be travel, it might be dollar figures, it might be being in certain shows, it might be other things, but try to figure out what those things are. Let’s say it’s money. So let’s talk about it. So let’s say for instance, that you want to make $100,000 a year last year, you were $80,000 a year. So start by asking yourself what work to get you at $80,000. Now ask if doing more of the same will get you there, it may or may not. We always tend to say if we want to make more money, we have to sell more stuff, but that’s not always the answer. There are other answers. For instance, selling at a higher price. Let’s say last year, you sold 40 paintings at $2,000 each. What if you could sell 40 paintings at 20 $500 each you would reach just by adding $500 more per painting, you would reach your hundred thousand dollar goal if that’s the money that you get to keep right. So if that’s if the galleries involved you might have to up it a little bit more. But think in terms of what can I do that makes my job easier because it’s always tough enough out there. Or let’s say you want to sell a quarter of the people who bought paintings, sell them two paintings at a time instead of one is there a way you can do that as their way you can do what we call an upsell. Try to get someone who say, since you already bought this, I’m going to offer you a discount on the second one, if you do that today, that kind of a thing. also define your goals against your current status and then start laying out a plan. And if you need to sell more, just find more ways to reach more buyers. And that’s all about promotion, advertising, PR, etc. lay out a month by month plan and then stick with it and just know that everything you do doesn’t happen overnight. It takes repetition, repetition, say that again. Repetition, right. All things in advertising and promotion are about repetition because it takes time for people to build trust, to get to know you and to be aware of you. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Next question is from Tanja of Oakland, California.
Tanya says at last year’s convention, you said that you’re known for the company you keep. Can you explain what that means as it relates to marketing? Well, Tanya, there’s a principle I like to call Halo marketing. You get the halo effect the glow of someone else, by your association. Let’s say for instance, that somebody famous buys one of your paintings. How can you use that to your advantage? People tend to want what celebrities have. That’s why celebrities get a lot of money as spokespeople. So let’s say that Steven Spielberg owns one of your paintings. Why not find ways to tastefully spread the word that Spielberg’s one of your buyers? That means a lot, you know, because people love stories? Wouldn’t it be cool if the gallery was able to say hey, by the way, Spielberg owns one of these are to be able to say, Hey, I own a painting that also the artist is owned by Spielberg. I don’t recommend you doing it without permission. But you could ask permission. Let’s say for instance, you sold Painting to Steven Spielberg, you could say, hey, by the way, would you be willing to allow me to mention this to the people? I know I want to respect your privacy, but it’ll help me a lot. Because obviously, you’re famous. And if you own one, others are going to want to own one, would you mind? And sometimes they’ll say yes, sometimes they’ll say No, don’t do it. If they say no, and always do it tastefully. There’s also another principle and that is that the association with others can be important in other ways. For instance, there’s a meat company called Allen steaks they sell by direct marketing. And they put the names of famous steakhouses on their brochures, people that use their steaks, what does that imply? It implies that you get the same experience by buying from them as you would from those steak houses, right? So that’s what I mean there’s a value in being in the hands of prominent people, prominent collectors, important museums, even important galleries because people know people who are in the know and know that if you’re in a particular gallery that’s really important. That says you’re pretty high quality and that’s going to be helpful to You overall makes you look even more important, but you want to be careful about how you do it. You don’t want to overdo it. You don’t want to be a name dropper, you don’t want to look brash. You want to be more subtle about it. Maybe that’s quotes by others, like having a quote on your brochure from Steven Spielberg or photo with Steven Spielberg or something. If somebody else is saying it, it’s a lot better than if you’re saying it, but there are ways you can do it. And then it’s a little bit more implied than direct Hope that helps help these marketing tips are helpful for 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 artist and to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. Thanks for listening.