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.
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:
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:
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:
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 determine if you want to break in to the plein air events scene; and different ways to get publicity.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 86 >
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:
Okay, well in the marketing minute I try to answer your questions. I don’t always have all the answers. I just think I do. Well, anyway, that’s what people would tell me. I tried to answer your marketing questions that you email me, [email protected] Here’s a question from Frank in Germany. Frank says, Eric, I want to break into some of the plein air events in America? Because there are not a lot of them in Europe. What do you recommend? Well, Frank, the first thing is you always have to ask yourself, why? Why do you want to break in? What is your goal? Is it about recognition? Is it about painting with other people? Is it about selling art? Is it about publicity? Or is it just the idea that you want to participate in events, try to figure out the why. And that’ll help you define everything else. In this is true with all marketing. Whenever you say to yourself, I want to fill in the blank. Ask yourself why what’s the exact goal? And the answer to why next frog, what I’d like to say is that there not a lot of events in Europe, that’s true. But we need more. And maybe it’d be a good thing for you and some of your friends to start some events. And that’s how they all start here. You know, in Laguna, all the Laguna was just a few painters who got together and started the Laguna chapter, or the Laguna plein air painters Association, la papa. And so that’s how it works. Just get some friends together, maybe go to a local charity or local city or somewhere where they can give you some promotion power where you can attract some people, get them to promote it spend about a year in advance on it, you know, put some publicity out there on it. And you’ll find that you can create your own events and, and quite frankly, we need more in Europe. Because the plein air, the plein air movement is spreading around the world. And we need more everywhere. And so the more plein air events, the more people find out about plein air painting, at cetera. So that’s a good thing. In terms of getting invited to events in America, there are two things First off, watch for announcements of juried shows, calls for artists and then apply. Because these are usually blind judging, they’re judging your work, they’re not buying you based on your name or your brand. Now, if you get into those, that’s great, but keep in mind, you’re gonna have to probably pay your own expenses, some events will put you up somewhere, usually with a host family. And of course, you’re gonna have to carry all your gear and your frames and all that kind of stuff. So you got to anticipate that in advance. And you may or may not sell sometimes great artists go to these events, and they don’t sell sometimes unknowns go and they sell out everything you just never know. But some events also want to draw people who were pretty well known because well known artists draw in other people. So some artists have told me that once they started advertising, they started getting invited to events, sometimes it’s because they had articles, you know, things like that will will help get you visibility, and that visibility will help get you known. So look for ways to get visibility, do your marketing job, and, and that’s what it will do. I also say that winning awards will get you publicity, and winning awards, like plein air salon, for instance, will really help as well. So be visible.
The next question comes from Pamela Howard. Folks, I got to remind you tell me where you’re from when you send these emails, because I don’t know where Pamela is from. But she says, In your book, you talk about how to get publicity. Would you talk about it some more on the podcast? Pamela publicity can really launch a career and especially if it’s in a big media gets you a lot of exposure with a large following, either locally or nationally. But it’s usually not about one thing. In other words, one article, one ad, one of anything is not usually going to accomplish everything. It’s about repetition over time. So you want to be looking to build articles. Every time you do a show, try to get publications like mine, to do stories on your shows, get them to do features on you get them to do stories, but also you’ve got the whole local option, right? So you’ve got kind of local, national, and then you’ve got industry specific. So national might be you know, how do you get nbc news or the National Enquirer or somebody like that to do a story on something unique that you’re doing? That’s cool. And that gets you a lot of exposure, but it’s a one time only exposure and if you get into something like plein air mass magazine or Fine Art connoisseur or something else, then you are now getting seen in front of the people who matter most, which are collectors, the collectors and the people in the industry, the people who run events, things like that, that’s going to help you a lot. And so look for opportunities to do that. But I also think every artist needs a local and a national strategy. Local, because you can make a lot of sales and a lot of money locally, national, because you don’t want to have all your eggs into one basket, right, because some local towns don’t do well in certain times. And if there’s a recession in your town, at least you’ve got a recession proof strategy by having galleries in two or three other markets, preferably markets where the recession isn’t hitting, because some markets tend to be a little bit more recession proof like Silicon Valley, for instance, tends to be, of course, that could change at any time, like anything. So do national, do local and basically get to know editors, keep them informed. Don’t badger them, send them something three, four times a year, don’t send them an article that was just written about you and a competitor that’s like, I people send these things to me all the time. They say, Hey, I just got this article in so and so magazine, and here’s another one and so and so magazine, it’s like, well, why would I do that? Because I don’t want to, I don’t want to do what everybody else does. I want to do something different. So don’t tell me that. But of course, don’t trick me either. Right? So you know, I don’t want to say hey, here’s an article on this trip that I just did, and then find out it’s appearing in three other publications. It’s not really fair, and is you just don’t want to make bad will with editors. And sometimes they will explain it will see things like that as bad well, so anyway, get to know editors, every editor, every magazine, every, every everything, every newspaper, you know, they have slow moments. So looking for ideas. And if you have something that’s pre written or an idea that’s in front of them at the right time, they’re going to grab it and run with it. And sometimes that’s the best thing that can happen 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:
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 stylized your frames should be; and how to sort through all the art fairs to determine which will be the most successful for you.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 85 >
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 them to me, [email protected] from Boulder, California a little bit from Boulder, Colorado. Suzanne cable asks, how much and how stylized should framing be. I always struggle with framing since I feel like the buyer may want their own style. Well, you know, that’s always an option. Suzanne, buyers sometimes change paintings, galleries, sometimes change paintings. I have a painting hanging in my house that David lafell painted in 1968. It’s a frame that he made himself. It’s just beautiful, but it matches the mood of the painting. And he told me about that he couldn’t find a frame that match the mood. So he made one made what he envisioned. Sometimes the frame complements the painting. Sometimes you want it to blend in sometimes you want it to draw you in. It depends on your taste as an artist, but and sometimes the gallery changes the frames for the marketplace. You know, markets are different. Some markets are like gold frame markets. Others are black frame markets. Some are alternate markets, others are modern, clean lines. It’s all dependent on the market where it’s going. So it might get changed after the fact you want to put your best foot forward though, and try to get it right start by matching your taste to the painting. I tell a story about a gallery down south which had an unsold painting in the gallery for a year. The owner had it reframed with a very expensive like 14 $100 frame. No is a 20 $500 frame. And it’s sold in the first week for four times the price frames matter. Rich people don’t respond to cheap frames unless they look really great. All too often artists buy what they can afford to buy and put them in frames. And I understand that but frames are like cars, some people see themselves in a better way. others see themselves in a bucket of bolts, the best possible frame you can put on it, you can always up the price to get compensated for the frame frames help sell things, great frames matter put great frames on your paintings, they really will help and a lot of people don’t have the vision to know what kind of frame to put on them. So sometimes they’ll just keep on mahtim others will change it.
Alright, here’s another question from Shauna Sue. In Alexandria, Minnesota. Shauna Sue says how do you sort through all the art fairs that determine which ones will likely be more successful for you? Well, Shauna Sue, I would apply what I call a market evaluation to the process. Everything you do marketing wise, you want to attach an outcome and a metric, you know, what are the things that are going to make that outcome come true? What are the we call them critical drivers? So in a fair, what is the outcome you want from the fare? Let’s say you invest $1,000 to be in the fare? What’s the minimum outcome? You have to get back for that fare to be successful? What’s the desired outcome? Let’s say your desired outcome is 10 grand in sales? What’s your desired outcome? How do you get it? What are the critical drivers to that desired outcome? Well, first off, it’s having paintings that are going to get you to that price, it’s going to have paintings that are you know, you might have a strategy to sell volume, you might have a strategy to sell a lot of $25 paintings to get to $10,000 you might have one big one. What does it take to pull people into the booth to attract people? What kind of sales does it take? What’s the makeup of the attendee? Who’s there? What can they afford? What neighborhoods are they coming from? is worth selling at the show? Frankly, I think it’s kind of like a magazine you know, like you want to look for concentrated audiences like to my magazines are concentrated concentrated audiences of buyers, you want to you want to get to the buyers. Volume doesn’t matter. Somebody can say, Hey, I’m going to have a million people through the art show. Well, do you want a million people traipsing through your booth that aren’t going to spend anything, you want to attract the money people you got to figure out a way to attract them, draw them in, get the right audiences visiting your booth and not wasting your time. And you want people who are going to spend not sit there and stroke your ego and say oh your paintings beautiful. Well, why don’t you buy something if it’s so beautiful. So what matters is that people are buying, do they have the money to buy or they get a bipod holders or t shirts, you got to understand that about the fair and some some of the best way to do that is go to the fair on your own a year in advance and then consider it for the next year. Talk to the artists find out what’s selling, find out from people who are you know, call in advance people who have been to the show, not from The show organizers because they’re never going to tell you the whole story. They might not know the whole story. Again, know your market. I also think you need a strategy. Everything I do has a strategy attached to it should anyway, if I’m doing my job, like if I’m speaking somewhere, I want to go in there knowing the room knowing the outcome, what am I going to take out of there? You know, am I going to try and promote something? Am I going to try to build an image? Am I going to try to get them to spend some money? The same thing with affair? So just know your outcomes? Know Your shows? Know your lighting, know what’s going to draw people in? What can you do that nobody else is doing that’s going to make you stand out? How do you engage people? How do you get them talking? What do you say to them when they say things like, I’ll think about it. You need to have a plan. You don’t want to go into that unprepared. need to be ready and loaded. For every possible thing. Sit down, write down every possible objection that you’re going to get and then come up with an answer for that objection. If you do, you’re golden. You’ll outsell every booth there.
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:
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: “Am I too old (or too young) to become a profession painter?” and “How long should I stay with the same gallery?”
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 84 >
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:
Well, in the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions that you can email me [email protected] I need more. Yes, I need more reminder just right now just take your email out. And you know any question like this one from Marion Johnson, Sandy Johnson City, Tennessee. She says Eric, I’m 65. And I’m told I’m a pretty good painter, but I’ve never sold a painting or even tried. People tell me I should. Am I too old? to become a professional painter? Mary, only you can answer that question. I don’t know your circumstances. I don’t know your health issues. So I don’t know what you’re going through. But 65 is the new 45. You know, people tend to be staying younger, stay unhealthier. As long as they’re getting out getting exercised. Outdoors painting is a good thing. I think it boils down to your state of mind your attitude how you think about it, do you think you’re too old? If you do, it’s true. If you don’t, it’s true. Some of the greatest painters of all time, were older and did some of their best work in their latter years, I hate to say senior years, because I don’t like the word senior anyway. Age In fact, might be an advantage for you. Because people assume because you’re older, you have deeper experience and wisdom. That’s a good marketing tool to remember. Anyway, a good painting is a good painting is a good painting and good painting sell. If they don’t, but they don’t sell by themselves. Right. One of the problems that some people who are older might have is they’re not willing to learn anything new. And you got to be learning new. And by the way, if you stay curious, and you’ll learn new things, and you stay engaged, you’re going to be much, much happier. And if you’re happier, you’re going to feel younger, and you feel younger, you’re going to stay younger. To become a pro though, you got to sell paintings, to sell paintings, you got to learn how to sell paintings get to learn marketing, you’re going to learn the process of running your little business, or maybe big business. And a lot of people have started late and made up great careers and made a lot of money or some people just want to start and have some extra income, it’s up to you. But you could do whatever you want to do, just gotta set your mind to it. And of course, you can’t just set your mind to it, you got to put the business into the shovel into the dirt and work at it. You know, Nothing happens without working at it. I you know, it’s really nice to imagine things and to think positive, all that stuff, that’s great. But unless you’re working it, it isn’t going to happen. You gotta work, you got to work hard, nothing. Good, is easy. Now, I have several courses on marketing, of course, my video my book, several videos, actually. But you can start for free. You know, my art marketing blog, it’s artmarketing.com, and just start reading up and study and learn about marketing. Just take it one step at a time, one little thing at a time, just try some stuff, see what sticks and don’t get frustrated. Because it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. And things like advertising will speed it up. But those things don’t even work overnight. Usually, you gotta put in the time, you got to put in the repetition. And you have to get known trusted people have to become aware they have to you have to stay visible, they have to know who you are. And they want to like you and that takes some time to get to know you’re just like just like life, right? So, of course you got to do some decent paintings and never hurts to find out if they’re really good. Get some opinions from people who will actually no, you know, don’t ask your friends. By the way, the same thing applies to MIT young. And the answer is, of course, only if you think you are. I was on the radio at age 14, making fairly big money on the air by 17. And people had told me it was impossible because I was too young. And they told me I had to pay my dues. I had to go through this process and I was going to have to, you know, work hard for many years before I ever got a chance to be on the radio. Well, just do it. Don’t judge anybody by age. It’s up to the individual.
The next question comes from Jody in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which happens to be my hometown. Jody, ask Eric, I’m really happy. Business is going well. I’m selling a lot of art. And I’ve been making more money than I really ever thought was possible from my art. But I’ve been with the same gallery for 20 years, and though they’re doing really, really well. I worry that they won’t do well forever. What should I do? Well, Jody first congratulations. making a living is a beautiful thing. Having a gallery is a beautiful thing. Having one for 20 years is a beautiful thing. I wouldn’t worry so much about whether or not they’re going to go out of business and if you do worry, it might not hurt to have a conversation with Is the owner and just say, hey, we’ve been together 20 years, what’s the next 20 look like? What are you doing? What happens if something happens to you, you know, you can have that conversation. And then at least you’ll have a little bit more information. You know, if they say, Well, I’m getting ready to retire and turn it over to my kid who has no experience, I’d start worrying. But even need to consider a couple other things, you’re experiencing what we call concentration risk, all your eggs in a single basket. If that gallery goes away, and you go from 1500 miles an hour to zero overnight, it’s gonna be painful. I’ve watched it happen. There was a prominent art show out in the West, it was breaking all the records because it had an aggressive and loved leader. When that leader died, the show almost died. It’s never quite been the same sense. It’s never sold as much sense. And it’s been a little rudderless. So the person behind something makes a big difference, oftentimes, unless they have really great systems in place. You know, the gallery has good systems in place and good marketing, and they, they follow certain disciplines, and they have their people well trained, that’s a lot better than being reliant on a single individual who just happens to be really charismatic. But even then, it can, it can change. So remember anything that’s based on one thing, one person, really I always oftentimes talk about the Parthenon reimagine the Parthenon with one single pillar, a car slams into that pillar, that thing comes crashing down. You know, so that one pillar is your gallery. I have friends who have patrons who buy a lot of art from this, sometimes they’ll buy, you know, 234, or five paintings a year, sometimes more. And they have a lot of their income tied up and that one patron, and I’ve seen artists who say, you know, all of a sudden, my patron who has been with me for 10 years and buying a lot of stuff stopped buying, well, you know, maybe they experienced the stock market crash or down in their business or some other thing. Maybe they just don’t have any more wall space. You never want to have more than 10 1520 25% max of your business coming from a single source. Now, some of that might be teaching or workshops might be galleries might be direct selling, it might be art shows might be other forms of income. And but you know, I think it’s a good idea in general, to have three galleries, more than three, you can do that. But you know, 20 you don’t need that probably. But that way, if something stops, you still have income.
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:
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 handle rejection as an artist; and how to come up with a price on the spot.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 83 >
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 all you got to do is email me your questions, [email protected] Question from Marcia in Philadelphia who says, Can you speak to handling rejection as an artist rejection from an art gallery or rejection from a show? Thank you Marsha. rejection is a part of life. rejections a good thing because it gives us a thick skin, we get used to it, that it doesn’t bother us. But as artists, we take everything so personally, because we’ve personally invested ourselves in creating our art. But if you understand that rejection is part of a process, that it’s nothing personal, that it’s supposed to happen. You never got 100% on every test, when you were in school. That’s, you know, that’s kind of like rejection. That’s self rejection, I suppose. But it’s nothing more than things just aren’t a fit. So don’t take it personal. For whatever reason, you’re not a fit for a show, maybe you’re you know, maybe you’re not ready, you want to know if you’re not ready, rather than looking at it as Oh, they didn’t like my work looking at it as well. Maybe either I wasn’t a fit. Or maybe I need to work on my work a little bit more, you know, we all have to get better. I have this friend who’s a sales trainer name is Pam Lantos, she would stand to people on stage one of them she would stuff their clothes with $100 bills sticking out of their collar, their pockets and everything else. And she would say to the other one, ask him for the order. And she’d say, that person would say, well, will you buy this from me? And that person would say no, every time they said no, that person would pick 100 pick $1 bill out of their clothes. And she kept asking, and they or they kept asking and they kept saying no. And they kept getting $100 or the 100. They kept getting the dollar bill, I’m all confused. Anyway, the idea is to train you to understand as a salesperson, and it’s really true for an artist to the more times you ask, you’re going to get a lot of rejection. But if you get rejection, it’s going to lead you to more dollars. So you just got to keep asking and just look at rejection is one more step towards getting into a show or getting into a gallery or getting the money. So anyway, I think that’s a very important point to consider. rejection is part of life.
The next question coming from David, in San Antonio, who says I just sold my first painting to somebody who was a pastor by when I was outside painting. I was working on it. I had no idea what to charge. So I just made up $100 price was at a good price point. What should I charge in the future? Well, David, congratulations, you sold a painting outdoors when you were painting. That’s a beautiful thing. selling off the easel is wonderful. I’m proud of you. You made a sale. Great. Congratulations. The reality is there’s no way I can answer your question. Is it a good price point? Is it good for you is the question. You know, if you’ve never sold a painting, and you got 100 bucks, congratulations, you paid for your paint and your canvas and a little bit of your time. So that’s a beautiful thing. If you sold a painting, it’s a beautiful thing. Now, if you put a couple hours into it, you get the satisfaction of knowing it’s sold and you got 100 bucks, you can buy yourself dinner. Hey, why not? It’s not bad. Now, the question is, where are you and where should you be? The real lesson here is that you need to be prepared for that question when you’re outdoors painting. You see, it happens all the time. You probably felt a little bit lost, because they asked you and you weren’t expecting it. I’ve sold paintings off the easel a few times the first time was kind of like he just did the little bit, but I didn’t know what to say I was blindsided. When and and i caved in, and I gave a low price just like you did. And you know, that was cool. But when I started planning for it, I decided to try some techniques that I learned when I was younger man when I was in sales. For instance, there’s a concept that suggests you never want to be the one to offer the first price. You want them to offer the first price. So somebody asked me and you can be ready for this. They say hey, how much is your painting? You can say well, I don’t know. What are you willing to pay? Yeah, the reason that’s important is because it can go any direction. Now, they will always tell you a lower price than they’re really willing to pay and you’re always able to say You know, that’s really not quite enough, maybe you could offer a little bit more. And usually there, they’ll bump it up, because everybody always starts low. I know you, you probably do I usually do. Now, what if somebody walked up to you? And they’re thinking, Oh, man, I’d love to own that painting. And if it’s $500 or less, I’m going to buy it. And they walk up to you, and they say, how much is the painting? And you say, it’s 100 bucks. They just saved themselves? 400 bucks. But if you said 500 bucks, they might say, Yeah, okay, cuz that’s the perceived value that they had. Now, here’s another thing you can do. Because there’s a, there’s an old theory called if you talk price, before value is established, you lose. So here’s something I might do. somebody walks up to me and says, Would you be willing to buy your painting? I might say, Well, what would you be willing to pay? And they’d say, Well, you know, I’m willing to pay this, I will oftentimes say, listen, usually, when I finished this painting, I’m going to take it back to the studio, let it dry, I’m going to put some varnish on it, and I’m going to put it in a beautiful frame, and I’m going to ship it to my art dealer, my art dealer would sell this very painting framed for 20 $500. And but as you probably know, the art dealers usually keep about half. So here’s what I’d be willing to do is I’d be willing to sell you for half of that. Because I don’t have a frame on it. Now, they might then say, well, would you cut another 50 bucks, because you’re not giving me a frame? And I might do that. But if you’ve established value, you’ve said, I’m a painter who’s in a gallery. I’m a painter who would normally get 20 $500 for this. I’m a painter who deserves it. And now they might say no, and go away. And that’s okay, too. You have to decide what’s the price point before anybody walks up, you have to know in your mind, but if you just say you blurt out, it’s 20 $500 or it’s $1,000. They don’t know you. It’s it’s like, if they know you, if they have some credibility, if you say, hey, look me up. Let me show you here on my website here. Let me show you on my gallery website. Look here, this, this sells for 2020 $500, the same size. So this is going to go to the gallery. But if you want to buy it from me for half, I’d be willing to do that because I’m only going to get half anyway. But that way you’re not really discounting. Anyway, the point is that you want to be ready. Now there’s other things you probably want to be ready for things like do you give lessons so you can hand them a card or something like that. And so you always want to be prepared for what you’re going to encounter.
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:
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 painting media such as watercolor, oil, acrylic, or pastel can affect how you price your art; and if your social media page should focus only on your art, or if it’s okay to include other subjects as well.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 82 >
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 you can always email me your questions. I get a lot of these but we try to get to all of them. [email protected] This comes from Zach. In San Diego love San Diego. Zach says, I like to use a combination of different types of paint, combining watercolor and acrylic for example. Do you think this should affect my pricing in any way? Zach, I don’t think anybody cares. Quite frankly, consumers typically don’t think about that kind of stuff. Now maybe if somebody is a really serious collector and you know they’re big oil painting person or big watercolor painting person may be a big acrylic person, but I don’t think you know, galleries all the time sell paintings that are mixed media, you know, sometimes it’s collage, sometimes it’s stuff glued on. I just don’t think it matters. I don’t think that people think about that stuff. We tend as artists to overthink things. Most consumers buy paintings based on the painting, you know, they don’t think about the life the longevity, the archival quality, the paper, the medium, you know, they don’t care about any of that stuff. What they care about is whether or not they like it, if it speaks to them. If they like it, then it becomes an issue of will they buy it? So the question then becomes how do you put them over the edge? How do you help them? Buy it? Well, hopefully, you know, there’s somebody who’s helping you a gallery or somebody who’s kind of selling for you or something like that. But I like to post the story of the painting. I like to put the story beside the painting when it’s hanging in the gallery, they don’t always do it. I don’t always provide it. But sometimes. And stories are memorable stories, sell facts, don’t sell stories, sell facts, logic. Nobody cares. Give people a good story that they can tell other people. And if they like the story, if it resonates with them, it’s going to make them feel the need to own it, maybe personalizes it a little bit they can relate to the story than when it’s hanging in their house, they’re gonna tell their friends, the story, not the facts.
Next question comes from Nathan in Aspen, Colorado, I’m guessing Nathan is probably a ski bum. just guessing. Because Nathan says, I’m graduating from art school in the spring. I already have an Instagram account with lots of followers. But I post about my art and other things. Should I start a new account for my art? Or should I could could my account my personal account just hurt my future sales in any way? Well, Nate, congratulations on your pending graduation. I love to catch people at this stage of their life, early stage of their career where they’re fresh and new and able to start from fresh because you have the whole world in front of you. And you can build a very successful and lasting career. If you make the right steps early and keep that discipline. You know you can become world famous in a very short period of time if you follow the right steps. So you’re you’re getting a good start, you’re asking the right questions. I usually don’t say this, but I highly recommend that you read my book. It’s about art marketing. They’ll tell you about it later. But the I think the book really outlines some really important basic principles that you should get. And there are also a lot of those principles are in my videos. But I think find a way to at least get the book it’ll cost you 25 or 29 bucks or something like that. Become a student of marketing and you will thrive the greatest artists in the world. The ones who were known the Rembrandt’s. They were great marketers. Rembrandt was a brilliant marketer. Picasso was the best marketer on Earth. Whether or not you like his work he sold a lot of it became a very, very, very successful, wealthy. So whether or not that’s why you’re doing it, you don’t have to do it to become wealthy. Now to your questions. Is there a right or wrong answer? I you know, I think that I’m kind of conflicted about this, Nate. People like to get to know the person they want to know a little bit about your art if they’re really interested in you as an artist. But, you know, in Instagram, I don’t know about you, but I follow people based on what they are producing, you know, especially artists. So it’s like, if there’s an artist I love, I really want to see his or her work. I don’t really care about what they’re doing with their life. Now if I know my care, and maybe that’s part of helping people get to know you, but the thing you want to have void are things that are polarizing, unless that’s the image you’re trying to project. But that can be dangerous. I have a friend who’s an art gallery owner. And she actually fired an artist because of something he put on Instagram or Facebook, because she heard from a collector of that artists work, who wanted to return the work because she was repulsed by something they put on social media. While she had to, she had to take the painting back. I mean, what else could she do, she refunded the money. And then she fired the artist and she said, I can’t have this kind of behavior from from you, you’re, you know, you’re a professional, you’re supposed to be professional supposed to act like a professional. So keep that in mind, you can hurt yourself, you know, if I always say if you’re showing pictures of yourself, with your head in the toilet after a strong night of partying, that’s probably not something some collectors are going to want to see, you know, again, maybe it reinforces your image, if that’s your image, but I think that, you know, I’d rather not risk it. I kind of like to walk a line, you know, you’ll never hear me talk about politics or religion, or, you know, things that are going to turn a lot of people off. I mean, I might say it personally to somebody, but usually not even then I just try to stay away from those kind of polarizing things. And, you know, some people don’t care about that others do I have friends who, who just cannot contain their political opinions, and they turn some people off, and those people will never buy their artwork. And and they don’t understand why that you know what crosses that barrier, but it just irritates some people. So just be careful about that, by the way, Nathan, don’t ever like get just let discouragement and get in your way, the people you hang out with are gonna have lots of opinions. If you’re hanging out with a lot of other artists, some are gonna complain all the time about how bad things are, how they’re not selling work, others are going to tell you how things are not going the way they want them to. You know, be careful about surrounding yourself with negativity, you want to listen to people, you want to respect them. But surround yourself with people who are positive is great example, I just heard from somebody who was telling me how awful things were in a particular town. And then I was with a dealer from that particular town who told me he just had the best year in his business. So you know, what makes the difference there? I don’t know. But you know, what, when things are up somewhere, they’re down somewhere else. But always you can always find out where they’re up. And you can always go into that area into that market into wherever things are going well. So just keep that in mind. Also, you didn’t ask, but since you’re soon to be fresh out of school, a couple other pieces of advice. There’s a lot of recent evidence that the promise of social media as an ad medium isn’t always effective. And it is effective. Don’t get me wrong. Procter and Gamble just removed $150 million from Facebook and Instagram, because they found out it was not increasing their sales, and they put the money started putting the money back into traditional media and they’re already seeing increases in sales, we have a tendency to believe because something is new and shiny and hot, that it’s going to, it’s going to succeed. You know, you want to go where the money is I always say stand in the river where the money is flowing. And so be thinking about other things. For instance, there are the people who you hang out with might all be social media junkies, I know I am. But you also have to understand that not everybody who buys is a social media junkie or is going to follow you and that might not be effective. Also remember this all decisions are emotional. When it comes to selling anything, all decisions are emotional, that may not apply to toilet paper. But even then, you know, it probably does because it’s like, somebody wants the stuff with aloe in it because they think it makes it a better experience. experiences are emotional. But all emotions are are all decisions are emotional, but they’re justified with logic. So you can sell by facts and logic, but you’ll lose almost every time when you sell by facts and logic. We don’t buy a car because it’s practical, we buy a car because it speaks to us. It speaks to our emotions, it speaks to who we are, you know, the color, the style, we buy things based on who we are, we try to get something that matches us. We might rationalize it or justify it with gas mileage, or some other such thing. So keep this in mind. social social media has people focusing on fact based selling and data and that’s okay and it works in some instances. But always think about why people buy and how you can appeal to them. I mean, you know, for instance, you know, a full page ad in a magazines that’s going to all the prominent art buyers. That can really see that ad You know, there’s a lot of difference in that space behind between you know what they’re seeing on a phone And you know, if they’re all gathered in one place, this is a better place, not necessarily better, but it’s a place to sell them. And you might want to think about that kind of thing, but sell with emotion, learn how to sell with emotion. practical and logical stuff typically don’t work. And even with people who are in positions that are practical, like lawyers or accountants or doctors or otherwise, most of those decisions are still practical.
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:
In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.
In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains what you should include on the back of your painting before you sell it, and what to include (and what to leave out) on your professional art website.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 81 >
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. email your questions to me, [email protected] And never hurts to put your name, your full name and your city. I like to know this is a question from Julie in Columbus, Ohio, who says Eric recently I heard you say on the podcast that it’s smart to put the GPS coordinates on the back of your landscape painting. So anyone the future would know where it was painted. I love this idea. Is there anything else we should include on the back that I might not think of? Well, I don’t know. You know, Julia, there’s a lot of standard stuff I do. I take a little Sharpie what I do a plein air study. And I write the story of who I was with or what was going on something to remind me of the actual event. You know, if I’m painting with other painters, I say I was painting with Joe Paquette or somebody like that, right and and I always put copyright the year, my name, and then the words All rights reserved, you might want to check with your attorney to see how they want you to do it. And I always put my signature and I try to always put my website, I try to also put the location GPS location is something I don’t always do. But I think it’s a great idea. My brother actually came up with that idea. Anyway, I think a title for the painting and make a title juicy, don’t just put you know tree on the river or do something like something that gives it kind of a romance to it something juicy, right. And a little trick I often do, especially if I’m doing a painting, I’m sending it to the gallery, I’ll usually put on there for a free gift, please contact me at this email address. And then when when it’ll say thank you for buying my painting for free gift, please contact me and then what I do is I contact them and I send them a an image on on little note cards of the painting that they bought. And then on the last second to last card it says hey, these you’ve used them all up, I’d be happy to send you another box my as my gift. And of course that’s a really great marketing tool because they’re sending your paintings out to other people. And also they’re contacting you it’s an opportunity to reach out to them say hey, I want to show you what I’ve got something, something new. Anyway, that’s kind of one thought.
The next question is from Kenneth in Ketchum, Idaho, I was just in Ketchum, Idaho. Kenna says, I finally decided to have my website built to help represent and sell my art. I know, I’ll have my painting, sir, for sale, my bio, my contact information, but what else? Is there anything specific that I should or shouldn’t include on the site? Well, the one thing that you have to understand is that having a website is kind of like being in the phonebook, you know, if they don’t know you exist, they’re not going to search your name. So having a website is only going to do, it’s going to stroke you and some people might stumble into it if they happen to do a search. But you’ve got to promote yourself, you got to get yourself out there drive people to your website, that’s a whole nother thing. I think the things that I would I would do, I go into depth on my video marketing series. I have a whole hour on websites and philosophy and some things you can do that relate to personality types and how to make them click the right button and scratch their itch. But I don’t have an hour right now. But one thing I think is important is to focus on what you want to be known for. I’ve had people who have put up websites, and it confuses people, because there’s pictures of all kinds of different things that you do. But if you want to be known as a landscape painter, for instance, then put up your landscapes put them front and center. I had a lady Tell me one time that she didn’t get any response to her advertising. I said, Well, I find that kind of hard to believe. And she said, Well, I did get a huge increase in business in visitors on my website. I said, Yeah, well, did you convert them? She said, No. And I said, well, let’s look at it. So she was highlighting landscapes. And when you went to her website, it was figures and and portraits, but you couldn’t find the landscapes. And so most people would give up at that point I dug through, I had to go through about three layers to find them. So make sure that you’re relevant. If you’re advertising for Pete sakes, put up there what your advertising, even if it’s sold, put it up there because people are going to come there. And then the other thing that I think is really critical as you want to have a capture device, you want to try and get people to put their email address in so that you can get them on your newsletter list and contact them in the nicest possible way, obviously, ethically. So you can offer some kind of a benefit you can say you know, I’ll give you a free ebook of my 20 best paintings or something like that, so that you get them and incentive to give you that email information. Anyway, that’s what I would do with a website. I think those are the critical things and then there’s a whole lot more on the video series. Anyway, I hope this is helpful to you. That’s the marketing minute.
Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving 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:
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 advice on contracts for artists and how to finalize a sale when you have someone interested in a specific painting (including one question you should ask).
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 80 >
Submit Your Art Marketing Question:
What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.
FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute: DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.
Announcer:
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.
Eric Rhoads:
In the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions. You can email them to me [email protected] A question from Thom. And from Rozendaal arts. He says I’m Dutch currently living in Pisa Italy. I’m working towards selling my first original works and was wondering if I should make some sort of a buyer’s contract that states the buyer is not allowed to reproduce the work etc. Thanks in advance.
Tom, thanks for that. Question Hello in Italy and I hope you’re safe and healthy. One day I’ll get over there to paint the leaning tower with you. How about we do that? Anyway. I don’t know the law in Europe. I don’t even know the law here. But I do know a lot about copyright law. We do a lot of copywriting around here. Copy right around here. copywriting is writing copy. That’s a different thing. Anyway, I don’t want to scare anybody off as a buyer and I’m not so sure making them sign a contract. You might have a bill of sale that it might By the way, it has a little statement about this just says that you own the artwork, it’s your copyright and they cannot reproduce it. What I tend to like to do is I put on the back anyway, I put a circle “c” Copyright 2020 my name, comma in capital, all rights reserved. All rights are all rights. Sometimes, I’ll put a statement on the back of the painting too that says that The artist holds the copyright to this painting and does not. And the buyer does not receive rights for reproduction. So you could you could have a lawyer or somebody come up with a statement, I’m sure you could come up with something like that. That’s not going to spook anybody. Most people aren’t going to do it anyway. But you just want to have a little protection there. A copyright technically is your protection. We have a podcast on copyrights that we did a couple of months ago and you might want to look for that it might be worth listening to.
Next question is from Alex in Washington State who says I’m an artist in a high end, collective gallery in Seattle. I do a good job selling my work for the most part, but occasionally I find I lose a sale awkwardly at the end. Here’s my routine. I wait for the customer to stop and spend time with a painting. I come up casually I chat with them and I inquire as to what they like about the work. I use their answer to talk about the art and then tell them any story that is attached to creating that piece outdoors and why I feel my work is important at this moment in time. And what I hope it will represent in the future of our region. At this point, they either say I’ll take it or there’s an awkward long pause before saying thank you and moving on to the next. before they leave, I give them my card say thanks for visiting the gallery and I inform them in the next opening or any event that will be bringing them back. I also post that painting on Instagram or Facebook several times, in hopes they’re gonna see it. Sometimes they do come back sometimes they say they can’t stop thinking about it, than the story behind it. And they buy it most of the time. They’re just gone. And that’s it. The question I have is, how do I ask for the sale at That awkward moment when I know they’re anticipating a pitch or contemplating a sale with me? I have flat out asked do you want me to wrap that up for you but that has met with hard nosed Most of the time, and they will not return to the painting after looking at others. So I if I try a hard sale, I’m afraid that’s going to blow it.
Alex, you’re doing most everything right. You want to ask a question and engaging question. Rather than what do you like about that work, which might put somebody off? You might say, does that painting remind you of something? Because most people see a painting and they go, Oh, that reminds me of my childhood or a place I grew up. I have a painting in my sister in law’s house. And everybody says, Oh, I know exactly where that is. That reminds me of when I was a kid, you know, it’s a swing hanging from a tree. And so people are reminded things, ask a question, and then shut up and let them talk. Try to keep them talking with statements like really tell me more, but don’t be too obvious or certainly not manipulative about it. You can then say, by the way, I’m the artist. If you have any questions, I’m nearby. And if they have a question they’ll ask right then They probably don’t want to be pressured though nobody wants to be pressured. The key to selling is paying close attention to the reactions and the body language. If their arms are crossed, they don’t want to talk to you, my guess is that you might be going into more detail. You talked about how you’re talking about, you know, the future of your artwork and all that stuff, you might just be boring them to death. You know, the key is, say something, let them talk. Let them talk, right. There are lots of books on selling in the market. Most of them especially the older ones are manipulative and old school. It can’t hurt to read them. But quite frankly, if they can afford a painting, they probably heard all these trial closes and all that old nonsense. I don’t like it anymore. Anyway. If you’re not going to sell somebody you’re not going to sell. You’re not going to get everybody. Most importantly, give them an image of the painting and say, if you can’t stop thinking about it, let me know, I’ve put my mobile number on it and be happy to deliver it and hang it up for you. Or you might try something else. Like you could say, hey, do you mind if I get somebody to take my picture with you guys in the painting, take it off the wall, put it in their hands, get the picture. And then say, let me email that to you. And by the way, if you’re interested in it, you know, I’ll bring it over and hang it up for you. And don’t mention the price. If they don’t mention the price. They’ll if they ask the price, that is an indicator that there is some interest. But some people ask the price because they’ve got a number in their head. And the your number is different from their number and they’ve already decided, oh, boy, I don’t know that’s a little bit too much. The other thing is sometimes there’s a technique that’s used in retail, where they try to get a number, a higher number, and then they have a lower number and people remember the higher number and think its that value and then you bring them to the lower number. That’s a little more that I want to get into today because it’s kind of, I don’t know, maybe manipulative, so I don’t want to be manipulative. anyway. Most important is just chat with them strike up a conversation. Don’t be, you know, people can sense your angst over selling a painting. Don’t oversell them, just talk to them and say, Hey, you know, Thanks for looking at my painting, I’m really honored that you looked at it, and I hope you liked it. And, you know, then Nice meeting you and where you guys from and what are you into and you know, just let them talk, the more they talk, the more they’re going to like you maybe, hopefully, and then the more they talk, the more they might before they walk out say hey, by the way, where, you know, how much is this painting? And that’s when you say, Well, you know, today it’s this amount of money because, quite frankly, you know, whatever. you know, I’ve discounted it or I’m not discounted it or it’s you know, whatever the price is you just kinda have to play that out. The other thing is a trick that I use Oftentimes when I’m consulting galleries, and this is a trick that’s used. I don’t like the word trick, but it’s a technique that’s used in the retail business that came from the jewelry business, they’ll put a price on a ring under a spotlight in a glass case, and they’ll make it three times exactly three times the ideal price they’re trying to get. Well, the thing you can do, for instance, is you can hang it, let’s say it’s a $2,000 painting you’re trying to sell. You have a $6,000 painting hanging on the wall, clearly a visible $6,000 price. And then next to it, you have three or four or five $2,000 paintings. And so the $2,000 paintings feel a little bit more attainable and yet you are perceived as a $6,000. artist, right? So that’s one thing that can be done. You might want to try that anyway, it’s you’ll see it you’ll notice it once you start going into galleries because they do that All the time. Lots of them do. Anyway. hope that’s 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:
