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 to prepare early and make your upcoming exhibition a success; and insights on finding solutions if your sales have slowed down, and sell more art.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 106 >

 

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 try to answer your art marketing questions. And of course they’ve been submitted by you. Email your questions, [email protected]. Try to tell me where you’re from. I don’t use last names, usually. But I like to say where you’re from. This one’s from Bernie, in New Jersey. So Bernie says I’m working on a show that is coming up in about a year from now. It’s my first solo show. Congratulations, Bernie. That’s cool. And I want it to be a success. But I’m wondering what I can do now to make sure it’s a success. Any ideas? Birdie, sometimes the best things come from the best questions and you’re asking the right question, What can I do now you don’t want this to be a last minute thought to try to fix something that’s not happening at the last minute. It’s like holding a wedding. And then not sending out the invitations, right? I mean, you’re having an event, but if you build it, they won’t come you have to make sure they come you have to make sure that you really make people aware of it and talk about it all the time. And make sure that you’re repeating it all the time because people forget. And otherwise, if you don’t do that, it’s a waste of time and energy to do a show at all. So I would suggest a few things. First, you want to plant seeds early, I’d get some little cards, made up business cards about the show, have your information, hand them out, have a big thing that says Save the date, use one image from the show, and then hand them out all year a year in advance. You know, I’ve got a show coming up in a year and then every time you see somebody bring it up, it’s okay. They’ll think you’re a little bit annoying, but that’s okay. Now, you know, the other thing is you need impressions, you need several impressions, you see everything needs impressions, you’re planting seeds over and over and over again. So you know, email out have saved the date notice and maybe a graphic about the show in advance to your list. If you haven’t got a list, start building a list now and get collect business cards from people who might want to come and that way you can have continuous notices in front of them, talk about it in your newsletter talk about it and everything you do. Tell them to get it in their calendar. And then one thing you can do is you can automate the calendar so all they have to do is click on a link and it’ll drop it in their calendar forum. And that way it’s there, they’ve saved the date. Next, I’d hit up social media to talk about it at least twice a month for a year and more mentions 30 days before you want to really amplify before the event. And of course you can post teaser images but don’t show the whole thing you know Joshua rock recently did a show and he showed little pieces of images not the whole thing that way you wanted to come and see the show and see what they look like. I’d start by an ads a year in advance Now I wouldn’t necessarily play some a year in advance but get them bought you know you can buy ads on newsletters and sometimes you have to get those ads way in advance to get the dates you want. Also same thing with ads and magazines. Hit places that have art buying collectors you need like fine art connoisseur or even plein air that reaches the plein air collectors. And then remember that frequency sells people want things when they see it more repetition helps do it two to three times at least in issues before a show most people just buy one ad and they don’t get the results they want but if you buy an ad and then people go oh yeah, I should pay attention to that and then they buy another one and then you’re getting their notice and more likely to get them and you want the people who have the money which are the collectors typically more times they see it the more important they think it is. I’d also recommend, this is something nobody does but I would try to get a star guest you know if you know somebody or happened to you know when to be cool to say I’m going to have Brad Pitt from or who Jennifer Aniston or something like that for my ribbon cutting, everybody will come everybody will come they want to see him they want to get their picture taken with them. You know whatever you can do to draw people and if you have somebody that you know that would help you out or maybe you meet somebody or sometimes you can reach out I have friends who have actually purchased celebrities for events. You know they sometimes there are people who do it for five or $6,000 That’s a lot of money but you know it’s not a lot of money for some events and you know they’ll come to a charity event and you know that might be be Lister stars that aren’t famous anymore but were once famous and that’s okay you know get people to a show to help. You also want to get critical acclaim before a show that means you want to try to get reviews, get articles before the show so that people are talking about it people go in and see it beforehand and they see the work and you want them talking about it. The bottom line is talking about for your increased dimensions in the last 30 days as reminders mentioned in everywhere, your newsletter everything you do bring attention to it the last 30 days and then send out reminders the week of the day of the the day before even the evening of because people tend to have intend to come but they sometimes forget, get those reminders out to them. And it’s okay to say hey, do you mind if I send you some reminders? Most people say yes.

Next question comes from a meal or amo, I’m not sure what it is in Maine. Eric, one of my friends is a pretty famous artist who has always made a great living selling art, yet his sales have come to a stop last couple of years. He’s had a really rough couple of years. And he thinks it’s over. He thinks nobody’s buying art anymore. Is it over? Well, Emil, I don’t think it’s over at all. I as a matter of fact, I had dinner with an artist recently. And he told me the same thing happened to him. He racked his brain. And he was thinking, Well, you know, art just must not be selling because I’ve consistently sold art. And he started deciding that maybe he’s the problem, you know, he wanted to blame everybody else. You wanted to blame the galleries. He wanted to blame the art business, he wanted to blame the economy, while the economy’s good, he wanted to blame the presidential elections, you know, he wanted to blame everything. And then he realized, well, he needs to stop blaming everybody and just find a solution himself. And the conclusion he came to was that he’s been painting the same way in the same subjects forever. So he started playing and experimenting more, and he really made his paintings different. And he started having more fun, he was less bored, he was more energized. And it showed in his work. You see if you’re bored, it shows in your work. And if you’re doing the same thing you’ve always done, everybody’s like, well, he or she hasn’t done anything lately, that’s new and interesting. So out of the blue, he started selling everything, again, everything was selling because he was energizing his work. So don’t blame others don’t blame the economy, don’t blame the election, don’t blame the galleries. Now, I know people who this past year sold more art than they have in the history of their careers. And I know more gallery, I know galleries have done the same thing. I have others who told me they’re struggling, they haven’t sold anything and they think everything’s over. It’s not over, you have to take personal responsibility, you have to tell yourself, I’m going to do whatever it takes, as long as it’s ethical and legal. I’m going to do everything that it takes to make sure that I sell the amount of art that I need to sell, take personal responsibility. You know, if you have to fire a gallery, fire a gallery, get a new one, if you have to reinvent yourself, if you have to try new things, try new advertising, try different approaches. You got to have fun, you got to be out there, you got to be doing marketing, you got to message things. You know, a lot of artists are kind of stuck in the past, and they want to do things the way things have always been done yet. This is a new world, things are done differently today than they were five years ago, even 10 years or even one year ago in some ways. So get unstuck, get unstuck, shake everything up, and have some fun, and you’ll find it’ll make a big difference. Also, we forget that some of the things that we worked really hard on when we were starting our careers. You know we were doing lots more shows, we’re doing lots more energy, lots more promotion, we were talking to more people were out there, you know, banging on doors, and then we get money we get comfortable. We stopped doing all that stuff. Go back to the basics. What have you forgotten to do that you should be doing? You know, when when we’re marketing things, we get so close to it. Sometimes we forget to tell people things they need to know because we assume they know don’t assume anybody knows who you are. If you haven’t been selling work for a couple years, there’s a whole bunch of new collectors in the market who don’t know you exist even though you may have been famous.

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!