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 shares how to use marketing to make your art stand out from the rest, and ways to protect your art when it’s being sold through a gallery.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk6AYd7q3mY&feature=youtu.be

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 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.

Here’s a question from Justin and Eclair Wisconsin who says how do I stand out? Other than with the quality of my art? How do I get folks excited and enticed to buy my work when there are so many others to choose from? Clearly art marketing success goes away. Beyond the art itself. I’ve sent out announcements to past collectors and their response is non existent?

Well, Justin, there’s a you know, there’s a lot to all of these things. But first off, there’s lots of lots of lots of questions in what you’re saying, I’ll drill down here first, I’m a big quality guy, quality should matter. But sometimes quality is a matter of opinion, right? We’ve all seen paintings that we never understand why they sell or why they get a recognition or why they’re, they’re famous. I won’t mention any names, but I saw a painting by a famous artist the other day, and I thought this is like third grade work, but that’s their thing anyway, so we can’t necessarily understand it. But we do want to do the best quality we know how to do and try to always elevate our quality and try to always learn and get better painting sell because they create emotional responses. Sometimes they stimulate a memory of a childhood or a thought or a place of just fond memories, creating emotional sponses about having an emotional response when you paint it, paint the emotion that you feel and that will help people connect with you. So if you love it, somebody else probably will too. And of course, in my first art marketing video, I talked about the importance of telling stories, and how to tell them stories will help sell paintings. I’ve often attach stories to the backs of my paintings. Give them to the galleries so the galleries can tell the stories, and it helps people connect. There’s four different personality types and some types can see things and will buy immediately. Others need to be nudged. They need a little reassurance or they need stories to help them connect. That’s why salespeople train salespeople are really important because salespeople know how to read customers, get them engaged, ask them questions, talk to them about things without being pushy, you want to be ethical and not pushy. And and they oftentimes will tell stories, but there is a crafting of stories that takes place part reality part fantasy, which I go into in that video, but you start with stories And people will help connect. It’s also true people have lots to choose from. But there could be 1000 paintings in a gallery you could walk in and one will stand out and you are emotionally stuck on it. Now the key then is getting that person who’s emotionally stuck on it to buy it. That’s where some sales training comes in. But quite frankly, it’s just a matter of engaging people getting them to talk about it. Don’t talk to them so much don’t give them a bunch of spiel that makes them want to walk away ask him questions, ask him whether you seem to be interested in that painting. Tell me about it. What what are you seeing in there? Is it stimulating a memory or a thought and get them talking about it that can help and then also good salespeople can direct people to buy our PR marketing success does go beyond art itself. The key to marketing is to create desire is to create exposure sometimes need people need to see things time and time and time again. They need to know you they need to know your brand. They have to feel comfortable with you. All of that ties into it. You’ve got to draw attention to your art to yourself, marketing can be about making it feel important or special or exclusive to. So, announcements oftentimes fall flat, you mentioned announcements, they fall flat, they usually don’t work because usually they’re dull and they’re boring. And they’re all about you. They’re not about the reader. But also you got to keep in mind that you got to find different ways to get these announcements in people’s heads so they can see them, you know, frequency sells things. Repetition sells things. And you want to have the ability to remind people you know, if you send something out a month in advance, and then you know, you get no response, you send it out again and again. I developed a program that I call art marketing in a box, and it’s designed for artists who want to want to become kind of like local superstars and to sell locally, and it has a lot of repetition instruments in it to give you opportunities to be in front of people on a regular basis. Hope that helps.

The next question is from an anonymous reader, understanding why here the person says I’m going through a crazy stressful situation with a gallery not sending my art back to me. They’ve represented me for 19 months without a sale, not come through on their promises and have not sent my art to me when I’ve asked them over a month ago, they have over $20,000 worth of art.

Well, to anonymous, I’d say I’m sorry. I’ve had it happen. I once had my photography in a gallery in Seattle. And the gallery disappeared. I didn’t live in town. I didn’t even know it for a long time. And I lost all my artwork. Interestingly, I was at a cocktail party somewhere, not even in Seattle, and the guy said, you know your name sounds familiar. Were you in a gallery in Seattle? I said, Yeah, a lot years ago, 20 years ago, he said all my brother on that gallery he was looking for you. He said, Give me your address. I’ll get all your artwork back and I got it all back, surprisingly. So sometimes things are misunderstandings. But anyway, to this particular question, there’s a lot to it. But first, I always recommend you have to have a gallery agreement, which states things like what happens if they go back to What happens if you want your artwork back? Who pays for shipping? Who does what? And how is it framed? My gallery has, you know, it has to have, it has to have hooks on the back, it has to be ready, you know that kind of a thing? Secondly, you say you’ve been 19 months without a sale, but do you really know that maybe they sold some and they kept the money and haven’t paid you. Oftentimes galleries will get into the situation where they don’t really know how to manage their money. And so they get some money in they pay their light bill and then they realize, Oh, I can’t pay you and they’re intending to pay you, they get some other money. And then they’ve got their advertising bill. So reputable. reputable. Experienced galleries typically don’t do that. But sometimes new galleries do and they’re well meaning they just get themselves in trouble. They don’t know how to handle their money. So you got to work with them. But you could have somebody Secret Shop to see if your work is hanging. Or you can go on the website and find out that you know, maybe, maybe you can find out if it’s sold, but most importantly is don’t be sneaky, I don’t think you have to be sneaky. there probably was not a sale, but maybe they’re just ignoring you. It’s hard to know. The best is not to sneak around just give it some more time call him a few more times, don’t be angry just mentioned that you feel like things aren’t working out and you’d like to pull out how can we arrange that Don’t be a jerk. Because if you’re a jerk, they won’t want to talk to you. And they might, you might even say, look, if you’ve sold my work and you’re just weren’t able to pay me for whatever reason, we can work something out. But let’s just get this worked out. I want to get the rest of my work out of there. And maybe they’ll talk to you, maybe they don’t. If that doesn’t work, if you’ve gone to the website, your stuffs still up there. They’re still in business. you’ve verified that. You can send a registered letter, maybe having an attorney politely ask them to respond within so many days and don’t make threats. It’s not necessary, but they’ll get the point. And then if that doesn’t work, you can you can go in and make a threat I suppose. That’s why contracts matter. You want to have something in writing You know, if you sue for your work, if you don’t have a contract, you’re not likely to get it. Especially if there’s a bankruptcy. So, got to have a contract. I think that’s the best thing. There’s no reason to be nasty or unbusinesslike you have a reputation to uphold, even if they don’t. So be nice, be civilized. Also, you could drop in and simply say, I’m here to pick up my work. I had a client who owed me $18,000 one time, they wouldn’t pay me they wouldn’t take my calls. I try it and try it and try it. So I got on an airplane, I flew to them. And I went in at eight o’clock in the morning, I said, Hey, I’m here to pick up my $18,000. They said, Well, we don’t have it. I said, Well, I’ve been calling it’s past due. You’ve been, you know, I’m not a bank. I’ve got my payroll, I can’t make and, and I need you to pay me. They said, Well, we can’t. I said, Well, I’m gonna just sit here quietly, and I’ll just wait till you bring me a check. And they said, we’re not bringing you a check. I said, Well, I’ll I’ll sit here all day if I need to. So I sat there all day, till five or six o’clock at night. They’re closing up the office. They said, Sir, you need to leave? I said, I’m sorry. I can’t. They said, well, we’re closing the office. I said, that’s fine. I’ll sleep here. And they said, No, you can’t. I said, Well, why don’t you call the police. And then you can have me removed. And so they got angry, and they went in, they cut the check. And they said, we’ll never do business with you. Again, I said, I understand that. But quite frankly, I don’t want to do business with people who do business this way and don’t pay me. So I got my money. And sometimes that’s what it takes. I’m not suggesting that but sometimes you have to be firm. But be professional where you can be nice, be civilized, you don’t want to do something you’ll later regret. Anyway, that’s the marketing minute. I hope you enjoyed it.

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.