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 addresses if you should give discounts on your paintings; and overcoming the fear of rejection when approaching a gallery.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 61 >

 

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:

In the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions and you can email yours to [email protected] which also is a resource. Lots of blog posts there on marketing. Here’s a question from Omar Schmidt in Carlsbad, New Mexico who says, should we do discounts on our artwork, even with discounts? I’m not selling, but I advertised several of my oldest beginner paintings for free and they were claimed within an hour. Yeah. Oh, Mark, don’t do that baby. Look, advertising paintings for free is a great way to never sell another painting because you’re establishing that there’s no value to them. If you want to give paintings away for free, that’s fine. Do it privately. Do it quietly but don’t do it publicly. And certainly don’t advertise it. Because that’s going to make it harder for you in the future to sell anything. Now. People will take us dental floss for free if you give it to him. So paintings, same thing. But you’ve got to find people who value paintings you got to go to the right places. Look, I don’t know how you’re trying to sell. I can’t comment on your discounting. But discounts are not the reason people typically buy. Now there are people who if they’re in the market for something, they find it for a discount, they’ll buy it. But most people won’t even spend money on something they don’t want. If it’s discounted, paintings, or emotional, somebody falls in love, and they’ll pay what they think is a fair price in their mind. The key is understanding that and matching it, clearly discounts can work, but they can also wound you. There’s a time and a place like Nordstroms does one sale a year, I typically do a Black Friday sale, which is coming up. But I don’t normally do discounting. I’ve been doing it during COVID. Because everybody needs a break right now. And quite frankly, we need the money too. So we figured that was a win win, and the artists need the money. So we’re helping them but people who always see you discounting your prices always going to be a discount price, you might not get them back to pay the full price. So some restore retail stores do that right? Every time you walk into certain stores, it’s always 40% off and you just know that they’re marking it up so they can mark it down. But again, that kind of depends on what you’re selling in the art world that doesn’t tend to happen much a starting point Omar is to find out if your works any good. Is there somebody out there who can give you critiques of your work? be objective and not don’t look for all the good stuff? Look for only the bad stuff? You don’t want to hear all the all the compliments? You want to hear what’s wrong with it. And is it marketable? And can you improve it so you can find out if you’re ready? discounts are usually signs of desperation. All right, giving things away is fine. But don’t be public about it. Chances are people who got them we’re not in a position to be cash buyers anyway. But they’ll take them for free. So the other thing is, do you really want paintings out there that you did early that have your name and your signature on them? Be careful about that, because they will haunt you down the road, right? Someone will show up an auction or something and then you’ll be like, ooh, I want that out of the market. I don’t I’m not proud of that. Right. So you got to find a market gotta find a place to sell your work and be seen by buyers who appreciate fine art. I can help you with that by reading my book. I think that’s a good place to start.

There’s a question from Lee Branton, Evansville Indiana. Lee, I’m from Indiana. Lee says can you speak to overcoming the fear of rejection when exposing your artwork to the public or a gallery? Oh, Lee, I’m all over that. Because I am like Mr. rejection. I was talking to a psycho therapist today. And she told me that the number one problem is lacking self esteem. self esteem, of course, can be situational. There are some people I’m totally confident around, I could stand in front of 1000 of them and dance on stage and not have any problem. There are others. I’m like, shy and reserved around I know, that’s hard to believe. But, depends on certain levels of respect or where they came from, some of my early mentors and people that I looked up to, I’m still a little intimidated by some of those. So, and there’s just certain people so keep in mind, it’s situational. When I first put my work in a gallery, I was uncomfortable. And I was making lots of excuses. And I was insecure. It felt very on like me, a rejection is really fear. But why do you fear? Why don’t you embrace rejection? Can you flip it around and say I actually want rejection? Why would you do that? Well, first, you know that every painting has a special person for it, right? It’s not going to appeal to everyone, just like not every painting appeals to you. paintings or emotional reminders, memories, childhood places, things like that, they’re not going to appeal to everybody. And so let’s say that you know this and you know that you’re going to appeal only to one out of 20 people all as soon as you get those 2019 people to reject you, maybe you’ll get to the 20th and you get to a sale sooner. So the faster you can get the rejection. That way you’ll embrace it, you’ll say, Okay, I got a rejection. Good. check that off next. That way, you’re closer to a sales. That makes sense. Alright, a friend of mine is a sales trainer. She stops her pockets with hundred dollar bills. And she says to a person, okay, ask me for the order. And every time she says no, she says, Take one of those hundred dollar bills. And then, they asked for the order 20 times, she finally says yes. And they get to keep all the hundred dollar bills they plucked off of her. I think the idea is, to make the example that you got to ask a lot, you got to be willing to ask and effort in order. And so some of that is is training that you could stand to have, when you’re dealing with artwork, we’re always or at least often insecure about our artwork. It’s normal. But why? Well, maybe we don’t think we’re good enough. And if that’s the case, if we’re insecure about our work, then maybe we need to have it evaluated to look at it and say, Is it good enough? Should we be out there yet? can we improve and always look for ways you can grow and improve? That’s why videos and workshops and seminars and conventions and things like that are really, really helpful. Don’t think of this as rejecting you. They’re not rejecting you. They’re just not clicking with that particular painting. It’s nothing personal. So as soon as you understand that, and That the faster you’re going to get beyond that fear, people are generally kind they want you to succeed. Look for the bright side and everything and don’t look at them as being critical of you or your painting. It just has an appeal to them embrace failure, as lessons that bring you closer to the success that you want. I think I could write a whole book about that topic. Well, that’s the marketing minute.

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 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.