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 what you can do now to prepare for a successful new year; guidelines for selling art during the holidays; and if it’s worth it for artists to have a LinkedIn account.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 98 >

 

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:

While in the marketing minute I try to answer your art marketing questions, email them to me, [email protected]. That’s a new email address. That way they go straight to the art marketing questions. Before I get to questions, a quick thought the majority of us go into the year without a plan. And if we make plans, we tend to make them after the year starts. It’s like New Year’s comes, it’s like, oops, I better do something. My 2020 plans have been done for months. I work on them in July. And you still have some time. And I think you really want to take time with your plans. Don’t just whip whip them together in 10 seconds. You know, take a day take a couple of days. really be thoughtful. I take five days to work on my plans. Yep, 555 days, and I bring all my folks in and we talk about things together. So now’s the time to lay out your plan for the year. What are your goals, pick no more than three goals for the year. three big goals, big, big goals, right, and then prioritize them which one is most important, which is second most important, and so on. Then you build a plan to accomplish each goal we use what are called KPIs key performance indicators. These are the steps towards a goal the things you need to accomplish to accomplish a goal. So every goal has multiple steps. And sometimes those steps might be 50 things that you have to do throughout the course of a year. And then sometimes those steps have steps that you have to get to. So what would be an example of Step four, let’s say your goal is to sell $50,000 worth of paintings that means KPI would be you have to say okay, well, I have to sell so many paintings a month. That means I have to sell so many paintings a week. That means I have to sell so many paintings a day. If you’re focused on those numbers all the time, and you just pay attention to him. It’s like Well, I haven’t sold a painting today, I better get on the phone and see what I can do. I know that sounds oversimplified, but the idea is that you take everything and break it out into many steps. So your goals have many steps. If you accomplish three big goals for the year, you’re you’re doing a pretty good job. And and I don’t always accomplish three goals. But I always try to accomplish the number one goal. And everything I do in my business and in my life related to that goal is to drive that goal home. And so other things. So the reason that’s important because you get all these distractions, and you can say to yourself, well, am I paying attention to my goal? Or am I doing something that has nothing to do with my goals? Sometimes you have things you have to do, like you know, you have to feed the kids. So anyway, that’s one way to think about this.

Now, here’s a question from Nick, in Tybee Island, Georgia who says, with the holidays coming up, I’m considering a seasonal sale. Are there any guidelines for selling art at a discount for the holidays? Thank you, Nick. First, why are you instantly assuming you need to offer a discount? This is not a good practice. discounts are usually held for times when things are tough and not selling the holidays. Are when people are spending money. Yes, they do like discounts, there’s no question about it. But they’re not necessarily looking for discounts all the time, especially something like a luxury item, like a painting discounts or something we do in our heads. They’re not necessarily required in retail, of course, they create the perception of discounts. If you walk into, let’s say the limited, they always have, you know, normal price $100 today’s price $50 50% off, but that’s actually their normal price. So I suppose you can do that. But you know, rather than doing a sale just to a show, you know, I go to open Studios here in Austin all the time. And I don’t see anybody discounting work. I mean, there’s a demand for work and that type of thing. So don’t worry about the price right now. worry about getting people in the door. The more people in the door, the more demand you create on your product, and price is less of an issue. The key point is to get him into the studio early. Get the word out, do a mailing duty mailing, tell all your friends hold him tell him several times. You know, don’t just tell him once, hold a reception at your studio or at your house, invite everybody and then have somebody there to act as your salesperson so that you can simply twinkle to the crowd tell them the stories of the paintings, just merge meld with them and and just spend time with them. Stories sell paintings. I teach that in my art marketing Bootcamp, I think the number one video anyway, it’s kind of late to be planning it but you can still pull it off for this year. We’re all desperate for last minute ideas, especially fluent people. Who need last minute ideas? So get moving on this fast.

Next question is from Dean in Fort Worth, Texas who says, I know that Instagram and Facebook are popular social media sites for artists. But do you think it’s good to have a presence on LinkedIn as well? Or is that just for corporate networking? Well think think of it this way, Dean. First off, you have to be everywhere. If you’re on social media, you’ve got to be on social media, where your customers are, where are your customers? Well, you might be surprised they might be on LinkedIn, I there are big networking groups on LinkedIn for art collectors, their gallery networks on LinkedIn, there’s a lot of things that you can do to penetrate that world and be seen in there. So LinkedIn, I think, is a valuable resource. But my rule is, if I can’t do a good job, I don’t do it at all. You know, I do, I do a good job on Facebook, I do a good job on Instagram, I don’t do a very good job on on Twitter. And I don’t do a very good job on LinkedIn. I posted something there the other time, I think, for the first time ever, and it’s because I only have so much time and only so many resources. So pick the one that’s going to be best for you. Now, there’s this common misperception, and everybody just continually tells themselves This is the way to do things. And that misperception is that everybody who’s on your friend list is going to see every post the reality is only about 2% that are going to see it. So don’t expect them to see it. Also keep in mind, your friends are usually your friends, your acquaintances, and so there are people who are not necessarily your customers, so focus on customers.

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!