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 “building celebrity” can propel your art career, and how to get better results from your mailing list.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 30 >>>

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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 0:02
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 0:35
Here’s a question from Francis in Dallas. Eric in your book you talk a lot about building celebrity. Isn’t that a bit much I mean, artists are not really celebrities. Well Francis gets your point and I respect it. But consider this a lot of artists become celebrities Some are even national celebrities are gonna think about Norman Rockwell or and Andrew Wyeth are possible Or Salvador Dali. You know, and there are times a lot of people became very famous. I mean even Thomas Kincade became very famous, right? but many are celebrities of sorts just in the art world like there there are a lot of people in the art world who know who Richard Schmidt is, or CW Mundi, or Katherine Stats or Casey Baugh, or Jeremy Lipkin. You know, those people are stars in our world in the world of collectors. So they’re kind of celebrities, right? I think so. People love to associate with celebrities or what they consider to be the best of the best. And when you’re well known, you’re kind of considered the best of the best and that can help your career because you don’t have to explain who you are, or tell your story. It makes everything so much easier. It eliminates friction at the gallery, eliminates friction at sales. I mean, you know, in the art world and you say, Richard Smith, everybody’s going I really know who he is right? I’d love to own one of his paintings. That’s the effect that you want and galleries know it. And people, as a result will pay better prices. Typically, they’ll want to own something of yours because it makes them feel connected to you. And of course, because you’re well known, they respect that even more. And though Yeah, it shouldn’t really be that way. Because we should be known for just the quality of our paintings, but the quality of our paintings helps make us more well known and celebrity, right. So that’s kind of how it works. Anyway, maybe the word celebrities a little too strong, but you could even become a local celebrity or local recognized artist anyway in your community. And you can really build that to your advantage. I know lots and lots of artists who are really well known in their community or their region or their state. And like Rick Wilson, a friend of mine in Indiana, I mean, he he had CW Mundi, really well known around Indiana, Rick’s becoming more and more known CW has been known for a long time. And so in Indiana, they’re even more famous than, than most and yet. courses, some of them are becoming famous or have been famous in the national scene as well. So that’s pretty cool. Anyway, that stuff all helps your career paves an easier path for you to sell more paintings, and get more invitations to events over time get invited into galleries. And it’s worth considering. Now that celebrity is built through a number of ways. And that can be built through marketing, public relations, advertising, in our marketing in a box product, we have a system that kind of teaches people how to do that kind of stuff and how to you know, just get out there and get known, get in front of the right charities and get invited to those things and get highlighted at those things. So that’s anyway, a little touch on Celebrity.

Eric Rhoads 3:39
The next question is from Kimberly, in Chico, California. Kimberly says, I have a mailing list and I’m pretty good about sending things to my list. And I have been for about 10 years. But I’m not getting the kind of response and results that I used to get and I’m not really sure why do you have any ideas? Well, Kimberly first I’ve been to Chico, California. In fact, there’s an old department store, downtown Chico that is now an antique store. At least it was when I was there. And I bought a painting in there for about 20 bucks. Maybe it was even I think it was 10 bucks. It was a kind of an old frame. It’s very dark and had a big tear in it. And of course, everybody just ignored it. And I could kind of see through it and it ended up when I cleaned it up and fixed it. It turned out to be a really beautiful Hudson River school painting. I’m not sure who did it. It’s not signed, it’s probably not worth a lot of money, but it’s worth more than 20 bucks and it’s beautiful. So to get to your question, a couple of things come to mind. The first thing is messaging. Whatever you are sending, has to be wanted or has to be entertaining. And if it’s male or it’s email, it’s got to cut through the clutter, get them to pay attention and needs to be useful and interesting or helpful. So you got to shake it up once in a while. If you have The same stuff, the same format you’ve been sending all the time, you’re not going to get people paying attention. So shake it up, make a difference, change the logo, change the look, make the content different, do some different things to get attention. And that will help people pay more attention to it. I get emails from, oh, gosh, lots of artists who send me their newsletters, and some of them are really great. And I opened them every time and some of them are really boring. And I delete them without opening them. Why? Because I know which ones are great and which ones are boring. And the same people will know that about you. So don’t be boring. So Kimberly, the problem though, is probably not just being boring or maybe not getting attention. The most likely thing has to do with a management of your mail list. And this could be your direct mail list, or your email list. There’s a concept called attrition. Let’s say you have 1000 names on your mail list. And let’s say that each year 10% of those thousand names, which is 100, people will move, die, drop off your list, or maybe not be in the market anymore. Maybe it’s because they have too many paintings and they’re retiring. That could be an average year. So for every year that you have not replaced those hundred names, you’ve lost names. So for instance, over five years, you would have lost 500 people. And you gotta have at least 500 more people on the list just to make the list right. And it’s, it can’t just be people, it’s got to be people who are likely to be buyers. You don’t want non buyers you don’t want people who aren’t interested in art. Yeah, you might be able to convince a few but you want to look for the people that are the closest person to a sale, which is somebody who loves art buys art. Maybe you met him at an art show, that kind of thing. I don’t know if you ever saw my art marketing bootcamp videos, but one of them I talk about, I show this big picture of an elevator and it’s not an elevator and escalator and it’s an up and down, right? There’s one big row going down, there’s one big row going up. And the point is, is that there are always people in and out of the market and in and out of your list. Let’s say somebody inherit some money, you know, Uncle Charlie dies, and they get a few thousand bucks. And they’ve had their eye on something they love for a long time. They get that thousand bucks burn in a hole in their pocket, guess where they’re going to go? They’re going to go out there. That’s why advertising needs to be continuous, not on and off. Because you want to submit ideas about paintings or your products in the eyes of people who are maybe saving themselves. Well, maybe someday maybe they even know they inherited the money but they can’t buy it yet to lawyers send the check. Or maybe they get a better job or they get a bonus or something like that. So that’s people coming into the market. People going out of the market, they retire, they lose a job. They have Have a financial crisis, the stock market crashes and they don’t have any money anymore. And they may never return. Right? So galleries experienced this all the time and galleries know typically that you have to keep advertising because advertising brings new people into your list. And they’re if you’re advertising in the right places, they’re qualified people, right? So anyway, you always have to be mining for new names, not just names, but names of people who love art. And typically people who have the money to buy it, you know, you don’t want to it’s it’s okay to send your newsletter to somebody who doesn’t have the money, but they’re not going to buy anything. So just keep that in mind. Always be looking for new people. And people ask me, should I buy a list? Now typically, not because typically, you want to build your own list, it’s better that way. And there you know, there’s expenses associated with it. But you can be collecting cards and advertising and collecting leads. You want to make sure that everybody who comes to your website has a chance and an incentive. To sign up for your website, that’s really important. Anyway, hope that helps.

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.

Remember to Submit Your 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.