Each week, Eric Rhoads answers two art marketing questions from listeners like you during the Marketing Minute Podcast. Browse the marketing minutes here to learn tips on how to sell more art.

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 96

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 why galleries might keep up to 40 or 50% of the sale of your painting; and what you should know if you’re looking for the single best way to sell your paintings.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 96 >

 

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 marketing questions and you of course can email me anytime [email protected] Here’s a question from Darlene Wilson, who asks, is it worth to have your artwork sit in a gallery for long periods of time? And what should you get in return for the 40 to 50% they get from your sales, I have seen my friend spend a lot of money shipping and hanging shows and galleries even being asked to provide all the beverages and appetizers as well as their contact list, etc. Where is the line? Well, I gotta tell you, Darlene, a natural thing for people to do is to assume that these people are getting 50% for doing nothing. And I suppose there are probably some galleries out there that are doing nothing, but most of them are doing something and they’re doing a lot. You have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Now, quite frankly, I know an artist who’s given up 75%. And he’s just bust in the doors open, he’s selling so much. And he’s happy to give up a large amount of money because he’s making so much money on on gallery sales. If things sit and they’re not selling, maybe you want to have a discussion with the gallery, why is that? Are they showing your work? Are they getting positive reaction to it? Is it something that you should refresh, send them something new. Once in a while, I’ll pull something out of the gallery, and I’ll repaint it or touch it up or change something in it. Because I have fresh eyes after it’s been sitting a while and then maybe send it off to another gallery. The galleries really have a hard time nobody really understands the plight of the galleries. First off, it’s tougher than ever to make a living at a gallery. Sometimes I know galleries that are paying 25 and $50,000 a month rent in their locations, that means I got to sell a lot of paintings, you know 25 or $50,000 paintings or half that you know something like that for a break even plus they’ve got lights, you know, lights in galleries, the electric bills are massive, because of all the lighting. And they have marketing and advertising list building working clients, the cost of events, salespeople, commissions, cocktail parties, advertising, you know, you name it, they work hard for their money, do not ignore that fact. And a lot of people I know make a lot of money from art galleries, and some of them don’t some of MYRIN and some of them don’t. But you know, you got to work with your galleries, it’s a two way street, they need your help, and you need their help. And so I think that’s worthwhile. Now, of course, you can survive without galleries. But then you got to take on marketing yourself, the idea of having a gallery is that they’re selling for you when you sleep. And they’re selling for you when you’re painting. And your inventory could sit there a while everybody has hot and cold spells, you know, economies in different markets are good or bad. Or sometimes things change. You know, you might spend weeks or months or even longer periods of time I’ve had with my gallery have had hot and cold spells, you know, they’ll call me one time, that’s like three times in a row and in a month are like selling tons of paintings and all of a sudden, you know, they sit for a long time, and I don’t sell any for a while it just, it kind of depends. But they need to hear from you. They need you. They don’t need to hear from you complaining or whining or, you know, beating him up, you just want to kind of let them know what’s going on. They need to know your stories, they you know, send them an update of other shows that you’re doing or the things that you’re doing. So they have something to talk about, keep fresh in their mind, got to remind them a friend of mine sends chocolates to the gallery. Every time a salesperson sells something, he sends chocolates to reward that salesperson guess who he is going to promote next, or he or she is going to promote next right? So if it sits sits in your studio and sold, what’s the difference? If it’s sitting in the gallery, it’s being seen probably unless it’s in the back room. And by the way, I went into one of my galleries last summer and my painting was not out it was sitting in the back room and I asked why and he said it’s not very good. I decided not to put it up. I said I wish you told me you know I will take it back and fix it. But instead of just sat there and he didn’t tell me because he’s got so much other stuff on his mind. Good idea to rotate things in and out if they’re not selling. But anyway, sometimes a frame can make all the difference in the world too. But if you want to keep 100% I get that but doing that you’re taking on all the responsibility of marketing and is that the best thing you can do now I teach marketing I have helped a lot of artists, but it’s a lot of work you need to spend 20% of your time minimum and probably a little bit more if you want to really be successful and a good galleries worth their weight in gold. Seriously.

Here’s one from Bob in San Ramon If you could only do one thing to sell your art, what would it be? Well, Bob, if I think anyone should, I don’t think anyone should do one thing. You see, imagine the Parthenon, right, the building in Athens with columns on it’s got that triangle on top and the columns. Imagine, all the columns are gone except for one column in the middle. And it’s holding that big, heavy marble thing up. So now imagine a car slams into it, that column comes crashing down, the Parthenon comes crashing down. That’s what we call a single point of failure. And single point of failure is a flawed marketing strategy. If you want to succeed, you need massive action. That means you need lots of columns, you need all the columns all the way around the building, do as many as you possibly can multiple ways to reach people to touch people. If I had to start out with one thing, it would be list building, finding a list, creating a list of people who are truly interested in my paintings, and finding a way to stay in touch with them on a regular basis. Now, if you don’t have any money, you can do it by email, or you can do maybe a little with direct mail, that stuff works extremely well, but don’t live or die on a single point of failure. You need to do lots of things to market work, which is why it’s nice to have galleries working for you, that get the time it saves you. The other thing is, you know, artists these days are so distracted. You know, the thing that you’ve got to ask yourself is what’s the best and most effective use of your time. And the best and most effective use of your time as an artist is getting better as an artist and painting and doing as much painting. And all these people who are so busy doing other things that they’re not getting time to paint. I had a an artist tell me recently that she was not painting anymore, because she was doing so many workshops, she never had time to paint. Another artist told me that he actually came to us and said, I want you to do my videos for me because I don’t want to take customer service emails and calls and be running to the FedEx and UPS people all the time. Because I should be painting. And so you know, think about the things that are distracting you and actually actually what is the best use of your time? Well, the best use of your time is painting. The second best use of your time is figuring out how to make your business fly, which is communicating with your galleries or if you don’t have galleries focusing on your marketing.

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!
By |2021-11-15T11:58:16-05:00December 6th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 95

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 if you should separate your marketing/website for multiple artistic endeavors, such as painting and sculpting; and how to get your website in front of more people.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 95 >

 

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 marketing questions which of course you can email to me, [email protected] This is a question from Kara. Head del Lago HD a l Gao hit a Lago. I’m sorry, Kara, I’m sorry, botched her name. She asked for those of us who work in multiple mediums should we separate our marketing? For instance, should a sculptor and a painter have two different websites? One for each? Well, Kara? I think it’s an interesting, interesting question. And I think it depends entirely on where you are in your career. If you’re known and established in one area, or both areas, I think you can get away with it. Artists are creative, they try to use different mediums Sargent did watercolor and oil. George George Carlson was a great sculptor, and then decided to move to painting. Richard McKinley, a brilliant pastels is also a brilliant oil painter, Cynthia Rosen a palette knife oil painter, also just recently started doing watercolor for travel, there really are no rules and you of course can do anything you want. The issue comes down to are you confusing the audience? I’m a big fan in marketing, a single focus when you’re branding and marketing, you know, so if you were to walk, walk up to somebody or awaken in their sleep and say, you know, what kind of a painter is Cynthia Rosen? The instant answer is, well, she’s a oil palette, knife painter. And so you want them to know what you are, you could argue there’s room for saying there’s that you’re lots of things. And that’s okay. But if you don’t want to confuse people, you might want to wait till you’re really selling well and very established, and then maybe kind of start talking about the other things you do doesn’t mean you can’t do them. And I would not do separate websites, show who you are, whatever it is. And you know, what matters most is that you’re showing great artwork and showing that you’re, you’re competent, and hopefully a great artist, and get known for something. And you know, consumers easily get confused. They’re not paying very close attention anyway. So there’s not a right or wrong, but I do think you could do in your sales a touch if you confuse consumers. So I hope that helps.

Next question comes from Cindy Lund, who says, I have a website, how do I get in front of other people? Well, I think that’s a good question, Cindy. I heard from a person recently who said, Now that I have a website, I’m surprised that you know, the phone has been ringing off the wall with people buying my art. Well, it’s just not the case, just having a website is kind of like having your name in the phonebook. It’s not going to do anything unless people are coming to it. They’re coming to it because they’re looking for you just like the phone book, or unless they stumble on to you by accident. Now that can happen are lots of ways to drive traffic. The first is organic search, meaning you show up in a search for another item, let’s say somebody does searches the term watercolor painting, and you show up on the you know, at the top of the water coloring, watercolor painting search, which is probably unlikely unless you’re really really, really getting a lot of hits, used to be easy to manipulate what they call SEO, which is search engine optimization. And it’s less easy today. Google now knows all the tricks and prevents them. But I’d suggest maybe you blog weekly on your site, make sure that lots of keywords are in it keywords being things that people would be searching for, like the term oil painting, or painting of children or whatever it is you do. And then if enough people read your blog, you’re going to show up more in search because if people are clicking on your website, Google’s going to note that so I would write your blog email link to your list your newsletter list or whatever, and hope that they they click on it. And you should be building a list anyway, we’ve talked about that in the past and you should be putting your blog on social media so people can click there and clicks from different computers will signal Google to help it show your stuff more they tend to reward success. driving people to your website isn’t enough though what you do once you get them there is a bigger question. And if you want to you want them to buy or to look or to take some particular action, then you need to optimize for that and that’s another subject for another time I talked about it in my book a little bit. Also, advertising is the most common way to drive people to a website. Remember that you want qualified art buying customers you know if you’ve got a lot of people who love art, but they don’t buy art that’s not going to do you any good. The my magazine for Since plein air magazine, the readers buy lots of art even the artists buy lots of art but you got the people who follow the circuit go to go to the plein air events the collectors, you know they’re buying art and they love plein air paintings and so that’s a good place to advertise and get them to come to your website. Or you know, my magazine, fine art kind of sir. Same kind of thing. You’ve got all these qualified art collectors. Even things like fine art today plein air today, realism today, American watercolor, the things that are going to reach the people who are going to buy are going to make a big difference, but you want audiences that are proven buyers. Because if you just grab audiences in general that’s just not help enough. You want things that are you want to reach people were going to buy.

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!
By |2021-10-07T11:50:48-04:00November 29th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 94

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 if you should pay for a sponsored post on social media and, before you spend a dime, what to consider; advice for writing an informative and engaging artist bio.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 94 >

 

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 marketing questions and you can always email me those questions or anything else. I’m always there for you. I answer every single email [email protected] Here is a question from molucca mc. Art. I don’t know what that is, must be a Twitter handle or something. Malachy MC says, should an artist pay for sponsored posts? Or not? I’m assuming the question is about sponsored posts on social media like Facebook or Instagram. I have a rule before I spend a dime on anything. I try to determine the following things. And these are important get a pen. Number one, what is my goal and my expected outcome from my ad? What do I hope will happen? Am I trying to get people to look at my art? Am I trying to get them to subscribe to my newsletter? Do I want them to follow me? Do I want them to attend a workshop? What’s the one thing? Of course you want it all? But what’s the one thing? Because that determines how you do it? Secondly, how do I get at least double my investment back? If I spend $10, then I personally expect to get $20 back then hopefully a lot more. So what must happen for money to come back? What a lot of people find out when they ask themselves these questions is it’s not easy to buy on your website or on your social media, there may be things that are blocking. So if I’m not selling something on the spot, I have to ask myself, what’s the value to me? So the value is branding? Of course, it’s valuable to get them on your newsletter, of course, it’s valuable to get a name. But what if you get 10 people to subscribe and it costs $10 each? Is it worth it? Is it worth $100? Each? Is it worth $1,000? Each? How do you know? If you have no idea if they’re art buyers, art lovers who don’t buy, or artists who may not buy? Then don’t spend the money? Go to places that you can target who’s my exact target? How do I reach them? And then can I afford repetition? You see if you cannot afford repetition? You shouldn’t be advertising? Because repetition is one of the three legs of advertising the three legs of advertising is media market and message. What media are you using? What is the market? And what is the message and and the message really comes down to you know your headlines and the content. But can I afford the repetition repetition is so important. It’s rare that anybody responds to any marketing from one ad or one repetition. But if you can get somebody to see an ad seven to 10 times within a certain period of time, it can work really, really well for you. I’ve I’ve watched artists go from poppers to having a lot of money because they just stick with it, they have the repetition takes a while. But if you’re willing to be patient, that’s what you need to do repetition. And you also want to make sure that if you’re reaching the right kind of people, the kind of people who buy so if I can’t afford to make sure that the ad reaches the same person seven to 10 times, it won’t work. And typically, if I buy advertising, I buy advertising for long periods of time, I usually sign 234 year contracts. And the reason I do that is because I know that it’s that repetition over time that builds momentum over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. One time I got talked into buying an ad in an auction house magazine, and I thought well, I’m going to reach all these rich collectors and I’m going to sell a lot a lot of subscriptions to fine art connoisseur magazine, I ran a full page ad I paid many, many, many, many, many 1000s I think it was $18,000 for it. And I sold exactly two subscriptions. If I had to run that ad over and over and over and over again, I probably would have sold several 1000 subscriptions but I didn’t do that. And of course I didn’t need that big of an ad to do that. So I learned my lesson. That’s one of the ways we we all learn is that we’d make mistakes. So before you spend any money, don’t throw your money away without knowing your goals and wedding won’t know your outcome. There’s also a lot of people throw their money away with things like boost this post or sponsoring an ad yet they have no goals, no outcomes, no specific financial goals. And without those things you’re throwing money away whether it’s social media ads or ads in one of my magazines, fine art connoisseur plein air. It’s not smart business until you have a goal. My sales organization will take you through your goals and if you don’t Normally, they’ll help you understand what might be the right strategy to have in mind. So keep that in mind.

Next question is from David Wood. David says, do you have any advice on writing an informative and engaging artist bio? David, the answer is yes. Thanks for asking, I have a rule. My role is Zig, when everyone else Zags. I get sent and read or exposed to literally hundreds of artists BIOS, and I’m usually gone within 10 seconds, because they’re boring. There is a rule in all advertising and everything that you do, whether it’s your website, whether it’s your business cards, whether it’s your ads, whether it is your artists bio, everything you need to do, everything you do needs to have headlines that sell and selling is really relating to people finding something that really gets their attention, you need a headline that makes me want to read the rest of the copy it you have to assume that if they don’t read the headline, they won’t read the first line, if they don’t read the first line, they won’t read the second line, if they don’t, there’s a guy by the name of Sugarman, who wrote a book for Advertising Age, and he talks about this, he calls it the slide, you got to get people to read that headline, enough people to read it. And of course, if you’re doing email, you got to get them to read the subject line. If they don’t open this, if they don’t open the email, the subject line doesn’t get their attention. It’s not going to give them anything. So subject line, and then headline, then first sentence and so on. And once they kind of start reading, then they’ll keep reading, but you got to get them through that first paragraph, that second paragraph, and so you got to write things to pull them through, and artists BIOS tend to be really really boring. Now I have spent 10s of 1000s of dollars I’m not kidding 10s of 1000s of dollars taking courses and programs on MRI and reading books and watching videos on writing headlines. research says that without a strong headline, there’s only a 10% chance that someone will read anything further. When I’m writing headlines I sometimes will write 20 or 50 headlines before I decide which one to use don’t use the first two or three things you use keep coming up with ideas I tell myself if I can’t come up with 20 I’m not any good right so I write 20 headlines and then I go alright which is the best one which is going to get the most attention and and I have taken copy you know we sell a lot of videos and things I have taken copy on a on a product that bombed, rewritten the headline only and the first paragraph and all of a sudden that product was a huge success. That’s how much it matters. So it matters with your artists bio it matters with everything you do because your goal is to get people to read it to pay attention to you. So where I put most of my time is in writing and I’m friends with some copywriters who make literally millions of dollars in some get paid about 60 to $100,000 just for a single two page letter. That’s how important it is. You know, if you’re selling books online or vitamins or something, you know, a good letter can make the difference between 10,000 in sales and 10 million in sales. That’s how important it is. So these copywriters are worth every penny because they know how to sell things with words, each of us need to spend most of our time on our headline. And then on our first or second paragraph, when you’re writing an artist’s bio, or you’re writing your website or you’re writing your ad, it doesn’t hurt to get some professional help because I use professional help from time to time. Although I’ve I I’ve spent a lot of time learning and growing so that I can do them and make strong headlines. There’s also this concept of the slide right I talked about that a minute ago, imagine a playground you climb this slide, you get to the top and then you slide down and copy the headline is the top of the slide, or the first step on the slide. Second step is a powerful first sentence which leads you to the third step which is a second sentence, and then you get them to the top and then you get them over and then they slide down and then they buy. Alright. Now if I were writing a killer artists bio, I’d tell a powerful story. Because as I said, my Sunday coffee the other day, stories are one of the most effective forms of communication. No one buys on logic and get that out of your head. Logic does not exist. Logic facts, nobody cares. You’ve got to turn that into emotion. emotion is what works right? No one wants to hear that David Wood was born. In a log cabin on a lake, but if your headline said how a house fire let a young survivor to become an important artist, you get their attention, they’re going to read the next slide. And then you tell the story and you weave in everything you want them to know and you stand a much better chance of reading the whole thing. I talk a lot about this in my videos. I think the very first video has all the information on how to tell stories and how to write stories, and make stories about your artwork. Remember, making stories about your artwork and giving it to the gallery is really important because stories are easy to remember that can pass them on to collectors much easier to remember than facts. Ask yourself this. Also, what is the purpose of an artist bio, it’s really nothing more than a sales document. Its purpose is to make them want to own your work. It’s got to give you credibility, but it’s got to reach their heart facts don’t reach the heart. Facts are boring. Another thing always tell yourself to add, which means all right. So this is something that took me a long time to learn. You know, if you make a statement, let’s say I make a statement that says David Wood is one of the top artists that xxx in 2019. Which means you will be getting one of the best pieces of Western art in your collection, which will go down in history as an important piece of art. So if you make a statement, ask yourself how can I say which means now you can say it different ways. You don’t have to actually say those words. But try to find a way to translate for people don’t assume they’re going to know things on their own. Anytime you state something state the benefit to the reader or the buyer, which is why which means is important. also assume that they’re not going to read it at all. And if they only read the opening paragraph, can you accomplish something in the opening paragraph that is going to get them to be interested in buying your art. So like anything in marketing, and quite just like painting there’s a primary purse purpose a focal point right there’s a focal point in your artist bio. So I hope this marketing tip has been helpful went a little longer than normal.

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!
By |2021-10-07T11:37:04-04:00November 22nd, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 93

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 if it really makes a difference to invest in higher-quality frames for your paintings; and why, if you’re doing any amount of marketing, you should understand the basics of copywriting.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 93 >

 

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 questions. Of course you can always email me [email protected] Tell me your name and town please. Here is one from Frasier Lee in Williamsburg, Virginia. Frasier says, What are you going to talk about framing? I struggle with spending money on frames. Does it really make a difference in selling paintings? Frasier, I think you already know the answer to that you wouldn’t be asking the question. But I don’t mean to belittle you not saying that. But Frasier, I’m going to be in your town in Williamsburg, Virginia. This fall we’re having our figurative art convention and Expo there. Maybe you should drop by. There’s going to be some great framers there too. By the way, the answer to your question is yes, of course it makes a difference. If you’re paying a lot of money for a painting, and you live in a high end home, you don’t want a cheap frame staring out at you and chances are you won’t even buy it if it’s in a cheap frame. Your house is filled with quality furniture, quality draperies, you don’t want something cheap looking on your walls. Now, there are cheap looking frames, and there are cheap frames that look good. You just got to find them. There are some great looking low price frames out there. And I got to tell you the story I think I’ve told this story before but there’s a gallery in the south that had a painting that sat in the gallery for a year the gallery director said I was getting ready to send it back to the artists but i thought you know what, I think it’s the frame. So he took it to his framing guy a guy who charges like 15 $100 for a frame put it in this beautiful elegant frame, put it back on the wall and tripled the price it sold the first week it was the frame framing makes a difference now you may or may not want to spend 15 $100 or 20 $500 on frames but I know people who do it and it pays because remember frames are kind of like cars you know cars are the frames of our lives and if you’re in a fluent person and you’re driving a Mercedes or a Porsche or Bentley or a Rolls or something those are the frames of your self esteem and same with your house and your front door and that big house and you’re you know you got a lot of expensive paintings in there you don’t want them in cheap frames so think about that framing is about self esteem but you’re working good frames and by the way we’ll see you in Williamsburg hope you’ll drop by figurative art convention we’ve got some amazing people coming in for instance Nikolai blow Han who is the top figurative painter in Russia taught at the academy their greatest art school in the world. And then the other greatest art school in the world our Yes, there are maybe two maybe three john Michael angel from the an angel Academy and Florence is doing a pre convention workshop and also on stage. So since you’re going to be in Williamsburg anyway, just walk across the street and come on and see us.

Okay, here’s a question from Tom Powell in Utah. Tom says I’ve heard you talk about headlines and copywriting. I do copyright all my work, but I’m not sure what you mean by headlines. Well, Tom, two things. There’s two kinds of copywriting, copywriting, as you’re thinking it is copywriting your work for legal copyright. That’s one kind of copywriting. What I’m talking about is copy writing, writing, copy, copy, meaning text to help you sell copy usually means selling copy, copy is selling text. So for instance, there might be a headline and a copy or text in an ad for a website. Words really matter. They’ve done all kinds of tests about this, showing a product in an ad is usually not enough. You need a headline to stop them that says, you know, stop moisture in your house today. If somebody’s got that problem, they’re going to stop and look at that. So people who do advertising and people who do what’s called direct marketing, where their email marketing or where they’re sending things in the mail, they study this, and I’ve read dozens of books, I’ve attended lots of seminars, I bought lots of courses to learn how to write. I’m still learning every day, but every word matters, and you got to get attention. That’s why I think words and headlines and copy are so important in your ads in your emails, your newsletters, whatever you’re writing about, you need to make sure that you’ve got good copy. Now this may or may not be for you. But let me give you an example. Let’s say you’re sending your email newsletter and in the subject line. One Version says my latest newsletter, another subject line says how to make your art collection worth more money. Which one are you going to open if you’re an art collector, you’re going to open the second one because you want to know how to make your art collection worth more money. And plus, you know every artist that send something out, there’s they’re sending something out. It’s about me, right? Here’s my latest newsletter. Well, who cares about your latest newsletter? Tell me so Something that’s in the newsletter that’s going to benefit me that I really want to read about. I don’t know, if I want to read about you, you’re assuming I want to read about you. So chances are, the second headline is going to get more opens, because it’s about the reader. It’s about benefit to the reader. So always be thinking about that. Headlines matter in a lot of places, subject lines, if they don’t open the email, they’re not going to read the email. If they don’t read the top line, they’re not going to read the second line. If they don’t read the second line, they’re not going to read the third line. So crafting your messaging very carefully, really matters. This is all proven science, and things without good words don’t get great response. I mean, even the Bible in the beginning, right.

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!
By |2021-10-07T11:24:04-04:00November 15th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 92

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 why the back of your painting is a valuable marketing tool; and an important reason why you may not want to sell your art.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 92 >

 

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:

This is a question that came across the transom in my art marketing in a box. It’s a private group. It’s a product that we have. And it basically helps people market gets all this stuff kind of done for him. And people are having a lot of success with it. But we have this anonymous group and we trade questions and stuff. And I’m always answering questions there. So I’m not going to say the name on this one. But this person said, Eric, you once mentioned that the back of your painting is a valuable marketing tool. Can you explain this? Well, what I mean by that is, the back of your painting is a great opportunity because somebody is buying your painting. And so what’s on the back really matters. First, your back of your painting needs to look highly professional, I think I like to see a brief bio on the painter can’t be too large, especially on small paintings, but a bio. And that a place to learn more about the painter, which is your website, and your contact information. Now your gallery may or may not like this. But if you have a good valid agreement with them, where you say, Look, I’m not going to violate anything, I’m not going to sell direct, they shouldn’t be have a problem with it. I like to put the story in the painting if you have room, and of course your copyright. And then I like to put something else on there like a little message that says to the buyer of this painting, I have a gift for you email me at, you know, Eric at plein air magazine, for instance. And I’ll send you a gift and then you send them some gift cards, they get your address, you get their address, and you send them some gift cards with their painting on it. And it says from the collection of the collectors name, and then it gives them something to brag about gives them some nice coat postcards, they’re going to remember you it’s going to be different than anybody else ever did for him. And there’s also the law of reciprocity, which means they may want to do business with you again in the future because you gave them something nice. So that’s something I like to do on the back of my paintings. And it’s something I don’t always get done, but I try.

Here’s a note from Amanda berry in Columbia city, Indiana. That’s my old stomping grounds. As a matter of fact, my grandmother used to live there. Amanda says You talk a lot about selling your work, so much so that I feel a little pressured. Oh, I’m sorry. She said I never really planned on selling my work. But now I’m starting to think maybe I should be considering it. Well, Amanda, you don’t have to consider it. The answer to your question is no, no, no, you don’t have to sell your paintings. And no, I talked a lot about marketing because there’s a lot of people who want to sell their paintings. Painting is a hobby is what most painters do. And they don’t have to sell or don’t even need to sell their paintings. And if you’re not needing to, if you don’t make a living off of it, you don’t need to make a living. If you’re not looking for a little extra income, then you don’t need to feel obligated to sell your paintings. Now, last fall a fall color week, I had a couple of painters tell me that they wanted some advice on selling their paintings. And I sat down with them one at a time. I said, Well, why do you want to sell your paintings? I said, Do you want it for the money? No, I’ve got plenty of money. Both of them said that. I said, Do you want it for the recognition? They say yeah, I’d like a little recognition. So I said to him, Well, why do it? Why sell them? If it’s not about the money, why sell them? Why not just enjoy your life as a painter take the pressure off and get your recognition through donations to to charity organizations or gifts to friends or something like that you don’t you know, you don’t have to sell it. Now if you want to be in a plein air event, you know, maybe that’s another way to get some recognition. But again, it’s not necessarily about you have to make a living. So don’t feel pressured. Selling is not necessary, unless it becomes important to you.

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!
By |2021-10-07T10:15:14-04:00November 8th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 91

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 if your painting prices should be different depending on the region; and what to consider if you’re an international artist.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 91 >

 

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:

Here’s one from Janice Webb. Janice says I’d like to know about pricing for regional markets. I’m selling in Seattle and getting a lot of inquiries from my hometown in Idaho. The question, I think is, should you have a different price in your hometown than you have in Seattle, I think you’re assuming people in your hometown can’t afford the same price as people in Seattle, which may or may not be true. But it might be a story yourself telling yourself, I talk a lot about the stories we tell ourselves because we have this limiting belief. You know, there are probably people driving Mercedes Benz or nice cars, or having big houses in your town in Idaho. If not, maybe it’s an economically depressed area, it’s a different thing. I think the key is, you should have consistency in your pricing. I don’t want to go on a website, you know, if I walk into a gallery in Seattle, and then I look up your name, and I find it on a website and a gallery in Idaho for half the price, I’m not going to be a happy camper, right? And then that’s going to cause all kinds of other problems. And so I don’t think necessarily having different prices is a good idea. Now, sometimes there’s a good reason for it. So for instance, I’ll paint a a nine by 12 figure painting, and I’ll paint a nine by 12. landscape painting, the finger painting might take me five times longer, maybe I’ll ask for a different price for that. But it’s an exception, right? So that’s one of the things you want to think about. Also, you really should be in the places that are going to sell your artwork, you know, it’s not about getting the lowest price, it’s about getting the highest price. And so if you’re selling well in Seattle, you know, do you really need to sell in your hometown, maybe you can pick up another gallery in another market like Seattle, so that you’re selling, you know, get into Santa Fe or something like that. So I think that kind of answers our question.

Here’s a question from Jane. Cameron in England, it doesn’t say we’re in England, James Jane says, You Americans, I think we’re being scolded already. Change says you Jane says you Americans tend to be much more forward about marketing than we are in England. I’m afraid that if I tried some of the tactics in your book, and using a lot of repetition, I might get laughed out of town. Well, Jane, there’s a figure there’s a figure of speech called laughing all the way to the bank. That’s all I can tell you. Three things first, only you know your market, make sure you know your market well, and make sure you’re not telling yourself a story, you know, is this really true? Because I’ve had lots of those stories and reality, they’re never true. You know, somebody will say, well, you email too much. And I know some people don’t like that. But when I don’t email, I don’t sell anything. When I do, things tend to sell. So you’ve got to follow practices in marketing, that are going to work practices in marketing have to do with very compelling headlines, very compelling copy, things that are going to get attention. You know, great marketing works pretty much the same way. Or same way. Anywhere. I went to a seminar, a marketing seminar, there was a guy there, I can’t remember his name. But he was from the United Kingdom, and he did seminars in the United Kingdom. And he said, when he started out, he believed this whole idea that you know, and marketing in England is more genteel. So he kind of took that approach and nothing was selling. And so he went to the marketing guru, a guy named Dan Kennedy. And Kennedy basically said, No, no, you got to use the same principle. same principles apply everywhere. You got to have repetition, you got to have compelling copy. Don’t try to be so genteel. So he went out and just did what he recommended he do and all of a sudden, everything started selling. So he was telling himself a story. Great marketing works, great marketing techniques work, people who tried to be quiet and gentle, and, you know, not too obtrusive. Hey, that’s okay, too. You know, you got to try your style, but you got to try and figure out a way to make it work. And part of the problem we suffer with in the world is you know, we suffer with the idea of getting attention. What are you going to do to get attention and get people clobber people over the head so that they’re going to sit up and take notice because if you’re a little meek little feather in the corner and nobody notices Well, that’s not going to do any good. But if you stand out if you’re bold, you get noticed. Well, that’s going to do a lot of good and then you can laugh all the way to the bank.

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!
By |2021-10-05T11:48:59-04:00November 1st, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 90

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 answers the questions: “How do you turn likes into sales?” and “What do successful watercolorists do to sell more paintings?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 90 >

 

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 questions. Tell me your name and where you’re from. Most people just say their name and then say where they’re from. And then I just say, you know, like, here’s Nancy Crawford, but it doesn’t say where Nancy’s from Nancy says, How do I turn likes into sales? Well, Nancy, it was not an easy answer. But let me try. First, a lot of people believe the promise of social media is the end all be all for selling. But so far, it hasn’t come true for most people, some people yes, not most people, you have to use the same disciplines in all marketing, whether you’re marketing and Facebook, whether you’re marketing on social media, Instagram, or whether you’re doing magazine, or other types of advertising, and certain disciplines, which I teach in my art marketing courses. And you got to follow those disciplines no matter what otherwise it won’t work for you. But if you want it to work, well, you need to treat it like a business, you got to do certain amounts of posting regularly daily, depending on Facebook or Instagram, Instagram, the ideal is two a day Facebook is three a day, you got to spread them out to the right day parts. And you need to be in both cases engaging that means when somebody comments or likes you got to engage them, you got to talk to them. And it’s not a two or three word engagement. And it’s not a copy and paste engagement or an automated engagement because you will get penalized for those things. You got to actually engage and talk to them and have a dialogue engagement is everything. When you get a like, why not say Hey, thanks for the like, tell me what you like about the painting and start a dialogue. And then maybe you can use that dialogue as an opportunity to say hey, by the way, if you’d be interested in owning this painting, I’d be willing to part with it. I wouldn’t start out that way because that might be a little bit too much too soon. But certainly you can dialogue and then kind of move into that. And that’s how I do it. And by the way, I just sold three paintings by doing that. So I think it’s very effective. Three paintings to the same person.

Here’s a question from Sally Jamison. She says watercolor has a stigma and does not sell as well as oil. What should I do to sell more? Well, Sally, I’m not sure that stigma is still true kind of used to be true. might be true with some galleries. I know a lot of watercolor artists who are making great livings making really a lot of money selling a lot of paintings. And they do what I do you know, they stand in the river where the money is flowing. That’s my saying that I always talk about is you go where the money’s flowing, where find out where watercolor paintings are selling and be there, spend time where watercolor is embraced and not shunned. Beware the people who are buying it are paying attention. You know, if you’re there are galleries that move a lot of watercolor, there’s some that don’t believe in watercolor be in the ones that believe in watercolor. And also you’ve got to ask yourself, Is this a story and Is it true? Or is this a limiting belief and is am I making it true? So the limiting belief might be that watercolor has a stigma. If you were a watercolor artist, I don’t recommend switching to oil to sell more paintings because your heart won’t be in it. Your heart is what sells paintings. You’re heart has to be in 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.

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!
By |2021-10-26T07:52:16-04:00October 25th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 89

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 where to find a list of invitational, juried, and open plein air competitions; and when it’s a smart idea to work toward a formal art education.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 89 >

 

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 marketing questions which you can always email me [email protected] I’m always looking for questions. Here’s one from Susan S, doesn’t say where Susan is from. She says is there a place to find all the three types of plein air competitions invitationals juried open, etc. While we do an annual issue in plein air magazine, if you’re subscribing to plein air magazine, you’re going to get this. There’s an annual issue which talks about all the shows all the events, it doesn’t so much talk about art competitions that you can enter, but all the other things that you can enter. And so that’s a good thing. The other part of her question is how does entering a competition help in marketing yourself or your art? Well, it helps in a couple of ways. First off, if you’re in a competition, like a plein air event competition, then you’re winning awards, you’re getting attention, they’re promoting the names of the artist, it’s helping your career, people are going to see you, they’re going to see how you work, how you respond, and they’re going to get to know you a little bit. If you’re talking about the kind of competitions like online competitions, like the plein air salon competition, it helps you because it gives you something to talk about something for your resume that you want in a category or you won the overall competition. This is the kind of thing that helps in your branding. Remember, branding is a lifetime commitment. You’re always looking for shows, you can talk about events, you can talk about things that you’ve done, where you’ve been successful, and that’s where these competitions will help you. And then you can of course milk it by putting it out there and talking about it to your collectors, your newsletter, and all those other things.

Here’s another question. She says how important is a degree or a formal art education in the art industry today? Well, I probably will make some people mad by saying this if you want to teach. If you want to teach in certain institutions, college, maybe even High School, a masters of fine art is very important. And a lot of colleges require a masters of fine art. But you got to get it from the right school. I had a neighbor who has an MS MFA, but she can’t draw to save her life because they didn’t have any drawing programs that she ended up doing collage. So she ended up having to study with someone after college to learn how to draw, learn how to paint. So it depends on the college, but if you want to teach you got to have an MFA, probably at least especially in college level, if it’s about you know, do you need a degree to sell art or for collectors to take take you seriously? I don’t think so. I mean, it’s nice, it’s gonna make you In theory, if you get a good degree, you get a good education, it’s going to make you a better artist that’s going to help you. But from a marketing standpoint, I don’t think it’s going to make a huge amount of difference. What they care about is the quality of your art. I hope this is helpful.

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!
By |2021-10-05T11:26:32-04:00October 18th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 88

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 ways international artists can sell more art in America; and inspiration and motivation for those who are ready to quit their day jobs and become a full-time artist.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 88 >

 

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:

This comes from Esther Luca from Spain. Oh, cool. I she says I think it’s harder for artists to make a living in Europe than it is in America. Can you tell me how I can make my painting sell in America? You know, I don’t have a clue. I don’t know if it’s harder. You know, I think sometimes the grass is always greener, right? We think it’s not as good in our area. But it may just be the way you’re doing things. Maybe your marketing maybe the way you’re putting yourself out there. I don’t know if it’s true or not. But it probably is, to some extent anyway. People who love paintings who people who buy paintings, you know, they’re the same everywhere, I would think so you may just have to do some marketing different. I mean, you know, I think that, you know, sometimes the economy ebbs and flows. So like if you’re in an area with a bad economy, maybe they’re not buying paintings, but you maybe got a market in an area with a good economy. That’s why in America I was talking about if you’re in a couple of galleries, make sure you’re in one gallery where the economy’s really strong or where tourism is really strong. You Roca Ester, excuse me, Esther, you can take advantage of the mystique. Being from Spain seems exotic to those of us here in America. And I would think that galleries love the idea of saying this person’s from France or Spain or something. So you might want to start thinking about marketing in America, talk to some galleries and so on so they can market you. But remember, the world is small today, you can get your work out there on Instagram and Facebook and other things, and nobody has to know where you’re from. I’m going to be teaching Instagram marketing one morning at the plein air convention and the key to Instagram marketing. And then there’s many, but there’s an 8020 rule, you know, 80% content 20% asking or selling. And so don’t overdo it. And so you just want to kind of build your reputation there. But you know, you can’t really control who’s there. You don’t know if they’re collectors or followers or just other artists, not just other artists, but other artists. So just be keeping that in mind. If you want to get into an environment where you’re pretty much guaranteed to sell then you want to be in an environment where people are there to buy. For instance, you know, a magazine like mine, fine art connoisseur, or plein air, people are there to buy people buy people, track artists, they watch them, they watch them over time, and they eventually will they like them, they’ll eventually buy something. The key to all marketing though the principles are always the same. You’ve got to find a platform where the money is hiding, right? I always say stand in the river where the money is flowing. Something that collectors are known art buyers are going to spend time with, which tends to be, you know, like art shows, Art Gallery openings, art magazines, art websites, but more focused on art buyers, things that focus on art buyers and art collectors. So I also like to go where the big money is because big money is not as sensitive if the economy crashes, and the economy always crashes at some point. So big money might not spend a half a million dollars on a painting, they might only spend $50,000 on a painting, but small money, they just stopped buying then. So I like to be where big money is. And that’s why Fine Art connoisseurs like we focus on we’ve got like 300 billionaires that read it. So it’s pretty cool. Anyway, you want to be seen frequently, people believe that advertising is content. In other words, they see your ads of your paintings. They feel like it’s content. That’s not true at all magazine advertising, but it’s very true in an art magazine, and concentrate on dominating single out audience, right. So like, if you spread yourself too thin, you say I’ll do a little here and a little there and a little over there, then you’re not getting enough frequency typically unless you can really afford it. So get where you can get a lot of frequency where you can be there. All year, every year, every issue of multiple times over, you know, three, four or five years. That’s how you build a reputation takes time and commitment. I have artists that I helped start marketing five years ago, who are household brands today in the at least in the art communities that nobody ever heard of five years ago, it’s because they’re just out there and they’re consistent. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s not easy, but I hope this helps.

Next question comes from Julien See, Atlanta, Georgia. Eric, he says I love listening to you when I paint. I was sitting here wondering the other day, how I can do this full time I work as a manager at a tire store. My back hurts. Yeah, I get it. I don’t, I can’t keep doing this. My goal is to be a full time artist in five years, but I don’t know where to start. And I’m in my mid 40s. So I can’t retire anytime soon. And I’ll be given up what retirement income I have. What would you do? You know, Julian, follow what you love. If you follow what you love, you’re always gonna find a way, it isn’t always easy. I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy. You know, there’s a TV host by the name of Steve Harvey. I saw a video of him the other day, and somebody asked him kind of the question, how do you succeed, and he says, you have to jump, you have to take a leap of faith, you have to jump off. He said, you’re gonna see others who have had success. You’ll see people with nice cars and big houses and big money. And maybe those things are important to you. Maybe they’re not maybe it’s just about making a living. But he said, when you see that don’t get debt, get dough. Hello, don’t get discouraged when it’s not you, Your time will come You know, they may have you don’t know what they’ve gone through to get there. He says their parachute opened, they jumped their parachute open, he said, You jump, you might fall and fall and fall and have a lot of mishaps and hit some rocks and bump your head. But you’re going to eventually make it me you don’t if you don’t jump, you’ll never make it you’re never going to get your parachute up. And if you don’t jump, so I thought that was pretty good advice. And so I think, you know, the whole idea is, I like to make plans. I don’t just jump I mean, I sometimes I make I take risks, but I don’t just jump I think you need to be a student of marketing. I would study marketing like crazy for a year, just study it by everything you can read everything you can study, study, study, study, study, start trying at marketing makes the difference. There are painters that have never been heard of that are brilliant, that will never be seen or heard of because they don’t do any marketing. There are great painters in the world from the past. You know, Monet was a great marketer. He was a brilliant marketer. So and he look how famous he is now, he’s dead, but he’s famous. Anyway, build yourself what I call a four or five year plan, start working to plan edge into it, the goal is to start selling while you still have your job, start selling, get good at it, ramp it up so that by the time you’re ready to quit your job, the time you’re ready to quit your job, I think is when you’ve got you’ve replaced your income. So now you’re making double the income, right? Because you’ve got your painting income, and you’ve got your job income, when you’ve got double the income. Now you can start putting a little money away, so that you have money for a rainy day, because it’s nice to have six months or a year if you possibly can put away and then you know, once you’ve got some money put away then I think it’s okay to pull the plug in. Maybe a friend of mine did this, he went from a full time job. And he went to a part time with the same company. And that he went to a consulting, reducing his time a little bit year after year. And then eventually he went out full time doing art. And he was teaching and workshops and you know, whatever it was to bring in money. And so that’s kind of the way you do it, your edge into it. So anyway, hope that helps. You know, of course you got to get good at being a painter to us. You want to be doing workshops, you want to be studying videos, you want to do anything you can to make sure that you’re constantly improving your work, because you’re out there among others who are doing the same thing you got to compete. So I hope that’s been a good answer for you. Thank you. I appreciate the question.

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!
By |2021-09-22T09:06:13-04:00October 11th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 87

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 whether frames really make a difference when it comes to selling a painting; and shares advice for students on how to start supporting yourself as an artist as soon as possible once you graduate.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 87 >

 

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:

Here is a question from Betty Sue. in Savannah, Georgia. Well, Betty Sue, she says Mr. Rhoads, I’m curious about whether frames really make a difference in selling art. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on frames in my gallery gives me a hard time about the frames I use. What should I do? Well, the first thing Betty Sue is don’t call me Mr. Rhoads, that’s my grandfather. We’re very informal around here. I think what you should do is understand that frames make a big difference if you’re trying to get a big price for a painting and then you put a crummy frame on it. Now there are inexpensive frames that look really elegant. So it’s not necessarily about price. But you got to have a big beautiful frame and framing makes a difference. I remember a gallery in your area actually telling me that he had this painting and hung. It was a beautiful painting. He loved it. It hung in his gallery for about a year it didn’t sell, he was getting ready to send it back to the to the painter, and it had a pretty low price on it was like a $2,000 price. So the guy has sent sent an image off to his frame maker had a beautiful, really expensive gold carved frame made for it very custom. And it costs a lot of money. I don’t know what it costs, but I think I remember him saying it was $5,000 It’s a lot of money for a frame, I get it. But he put that frame on it, it sold the first week for $15,000. framing makes a difference. Great framing makes a difference. I think framing is kind of like cars, people put themselves in nice cars, because they’re like picture frames, right? It’s how they see themselves. If you’ve got somebody who’s paying a lot of money for a painting, they don’t want it in a crummy frame, they want something that’s going to look good around their expensive furniture and around their beautiful expensive house. And it’s got to fit. So you got to you got to know your market. Some galleries are higher end market, some galleries are low in market, I don’t know your market, but framing will help a great frame. If it’s properly done. If it’s properly color matched. And it really stands out, it’s going to compliment the painting and make a huge difference. Now, I know coming up with the money is tough. I remember a discussion with a friend who was doing a major show. And he said I really don’t have the money for the frames. And I said you just gonna have to figure out a way you got to go for it. And he did, he got better frames, and the show sold out. And he said, You know, I think it was the frames that really helped make a huge difference. So keep that in mind.

Next question is from Rachel in Florence, Italy. Cool. Yeah, we have people look at the stats on the podcast. So people all over the world, I mean, people in Iran, and I think that’s very cool. Thank you all for listening, everybody. She says, Hi, I’m an American student living and studying art in Italy. I don’t graduate for two more years. But I want to be selling and supporting myself as soon as I get out. So I want to be thinking about what I should be doing now. Well, Rachel, I think that’s very smart. Because we should all learn to think ahead, you know, our marketing plans, we really, you know, I try to do a marketing plan a whole year out and sometimes two years out. And it’s not always easy, and sometimes it changes. But you need to be thinking about your marketing two years out. And so what can you be doing? Well, first off, you want to be patient, you’ve got to learn what you can learn and you got to get good, that’s the most important thing you can do. Because this time invested will serve you well, what I would do is I would schedule a show of your work to take place in your town or in New York or someplace soon after you get home maybe a couple of months or three months after you get home so you have a little time to work on it. But work towards that show by painting nights and weekends if you’re allowed to or if you can, or if you have the time to and start building a body of work so that you have things that you can put in a show. And that way you have time to find a venue, you have time to get somebody to work with you on it to promote it. And that’s a good way to kind of kick yours your career off and get some experience in a show. You want to get known. You want to start commenting a lot on Facebook and Instagram, smart commenting, and maybe showing some examples of your work when you comment. Don’t be too over but be smart, be intelligent, and talk a lot about things that you’re learning and that will help get your brand out there. Now, that’s not the only place to do branding, of course, but it’s probably the only thing you can afford right now. You also should be ready for gallery shopping now. The galleries are going to say you’re probably not ready yet, because you still got a couple more years to learn a lot of stuff. But I remember when Katy Whipple hit the market soon after graduating from the Grand Central Academy, Jacob Collins school, she was like a rock star on fire. And she has been on fire ever since. I mean, she’s doing these incredible paintings she’s doing these shows her stuff seems to be selling. And, you know, she, it’s like, people see that and they go, I want a Katy Whipple for my gallery. So you know, you can contact galleries in advance and say, Hey, I’m at this school in Florence. And here’s the kind of things we’re learning. And here’s what I’m working on now. And I’m going to be a whole lot better than this in two more years. And would you consider me in a couple of years and start dialoguing with them now? and have a discussion and maybe by the time as you keep sending them work? They’re like, yeah, yeah, we want it. We want to be associated with this. And you can kind of sell the idea that these students who graduate from these great schools are the ones who are painting all the great work and you want to grab them while you can. So that’s what I would do. There’s probably a lot more stuff you can do. But you you know, you want to build a website. And you want to start gathering names who are of people who are interested, and you want to do what’s called retargeting or remarketing. And that’s the idea that when people visit your website, it collects a pixel so that if you want to put Facebook ads and something in front of them, you can do that. So that’s how that works.

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!
By |2021-09-22T08:27:41-04:00October 4th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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