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 61

In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads addresses if you should give discounts on your paintings; and overcoming the fear of rejection when approaching a gallery.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 61 >

 

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer:
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads:

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

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

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artist to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

By |2023-10-03T08:49:32-04:00March 29th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 60

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 how to get your work known on a larger scale, and ideas for increasing the price of your paintings.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 60 >

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 yours to [email protected] and I read these sight unseen never seen them I answer them without a script because I just got to do it off the off the top of my head because that’s how I roll question from Christina Hillen in Buffalo, New York who says please keep the marketing minutes coming. They’re very inspiring. Thank you, Christina, what’s your question? My question is, I have no idea how to get my work known on a larger scale. Where do I begin? Well, I don’t know if you mean larger scale, meaning larger paintings. But assume you mean, how do you get your work known on a larger scale, I recommend that every artists have two strategies, and sometimes three, but let’s start with two. I think as an artist, you start out local. And you really get well known locally, we have a product that we created called art market in a box. It’s really designed to get people to become kind of the known artists locally in their community, and really be the person that everybody relies on for charity auctions and getting your name out there. And anytime there’s an artist mentioned in the media, it’s you and anytime that anything’s going on, it’s like – we want you to become a local star. That’s very important, because you can sell a lot locally. And there’s a lot of things you can do locally, you can’t do nationally. But the downside is that sometimes local doesn’t work. Let’s say you live in a community where, your community just isn’t, the jobs aren’t there, people aren’t making any money. And so, if you are relying entirely on one marketplace, then it’s a problem for you. That’s why we recommend also a national strategy, which means getting into some art galleries, or selling nationally in other places. Now, what I try to do is I try to put myself or I try to recommend that you go into galleries where things are really crushing it where people are making money and people are doing it, like a place like Silicon Valley, for instance. Because or, sometimes it’s a different place. Some markets get hot, for whatever reason, try to be in those markets, or maybe places that people go on vacation when they’re allowed to go on vacation. But let’s say you had a gallery in Hawaii, and everybody was going to Hawaii and now nobody’s going to Hawaii, well, you’re not going to make any money from that gallery. So that’s why you want to have two or three, I don’t recommend more than about that, some people will do more, but you’ve got to have enough quality that you can send to the galleries. And so having two or three galleries in two or three different locations around the globe, so that you’ve got a little economic stability can be a really good thing. And so I think the way to scale to get known on a larger basis, first off, get yourself a way to sell and that is through a gallery. Now you can sell direct as well. And there’s a whole nother dialogue about that. But the idea is that you’ve got to help your gallery, you can’t rely on them entirely, because it lets say I’m in a gallery with, I’ve been three galleries now. And I’m in a gallery with 30, 40, 50 other artists in some cases. And so, what’s gonna make me stand out, and the thing that’s gonna make me stand out is my name my brand, right? So you want people to seek you out. And the way to do that is you got to build a brand. So that’s when you start your advertising strategy. That’s when you start a social media strategy. Although I caution you that social media tends to be our friends, tends to be people who are not necessarily art buyers, not always, I mean, you can get them but you’ve got to have a specific strategy to get them. And then, you’ve got to work it and you’ve got to work at constantly, you got to just keep it out there year after year after year. As long as you’re in business, you’ve got to be working on your advertising and, your visibility, your publicity, things like that. So the way to begin is, start out by building your brand, getting known and getting used to selling things, maybe ramping it up locally, but then starting out nationally.

Now, here’s a question from Sean Stanley in Charleston, South Carolina. Hello, Sean. Sean says recently, my local art center had a blowout sale, you could ask $10 to $100 for your paintings. I took lots of smallish ones 11 by 14 being the largest. I’m a hobbyist I made about $300 people love some of some of them. It helped build my confidence a lot. What should my next step be? Well, there’s nothing like selling a painting to build your confidence, Sean , congratulations, I think that’s terrific. And, everybody has to start somewhere. And pricing is one of those difficult things, you know, I’m not a big low price person. But I also know that when you’re starting out, you’re not going to command a higher price until you get to the point where you’re a little bit stronger, and then you can start commanding. But I think just getting used to being able to sell paintings is a really good thing. And so do more of that. So what I recommend is you get yourself an art show at a local restaurant or something, you may or may not be strong enough to do that yet. But get some experience, set up a little sale, maybe set up a sale at your house for your friends, or an open studio, get used to selling get to the point where you’re selling. But all of us need to always work on getting better, because it’s getting better. That also builds our confidence. It’s nice to sell paintings. But it’s nice to sell paintings at higher prices, ultimately. And when you start getting, instead of $100 for painting, you start getting 200 and then 400 and then 1000 and 2000 and 5000 and then 10,000, then 100,000. That’s gonna make a big difference. Now, some of us never get there. But a lot of us do. I’m not. But I think that means that you want to be constantly pushing yourself to elevate your skills. One of the ways to do that is to enter competitions, because now you’re up against other people, and it does something in your brain, it clicks something off in your brain and makes you try harder and makes you step up and makes you say, can I make this painting better. So I think that’s a good next step, trying to art get some art competitions, and you get that validation if you win. Now, not everybody wins. And a lot of people enter many, many times and never win, and sometimes they do. And so that helps build confidence. But I think, starting out with a little local thing, I would do something at a local diner restaurant, something like that, and see if you can sell some more hundred dollar paintings. And once you get some more under your belt, maybe you can develop relationships with the people who bought those paintings and sell them some more and then gradually ratchet up your prices 250 to 200 and 300 and so on. And, if you’re a hobbyist and you only want to be a hobbyist that’s cool, too. There’s nothing wrong with that. So congratulations. I applaud you on that.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artist to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

By |2023-09-27T10:28:09-04:00March 22nd, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 59

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.

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads shares if it’s best to stick to one style or to mix it up, and how to handle inventory and overstock issues.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 59 >

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 or at least I try and sometimes I never see them before I answer them. I don’t script them. So here we go. email your questions to me [email protected]. Here’s a question from Kate Emery in Farmington, Connecticut. My wife, our grandmother grew up in Farmington, Connecticut, Historical Society there has an old building and it’s, matter of fact, that’s a family farm. Anyway, Kate says Eric, my question is in regards to art shows I paint in a few different styles and different subjects landscape portrait abstract, do you think it makes more sense to stick to one style and subject or to mix it up? On the one hand, it feels like variety will give me more chances to win. But I do. I do think when it comes across it comes across as less professional somehow. Well, I’ll tell you a story, Kate. I had an artist who who did some advertising with me. And she called and she said, You know, my ads didn’t work. I said, Well, they’re working for some people, because I hear I’m hearing from them too. Let’s find out why. So I said, let’s look at your ad and we looked at her and she was advertising portraiture. And so I went to her website with her on the phone and I said, Okay, let’s look at your website. And on the front of the website was a landscape painting. And I said, Well, if you’re advertising portraiture, they modified portraiture there. She said, Well, I do lots of different kinds of painting. I said, Yes, but your advertising, you want to capture what you’re advertising for it because you’re going to drive more people from that than anything else. So I went and I said, Okay, let’s find the portraiture. And so I just kind of did what anybody else would do. And I kind of poked around, I couldn’t find it. couldn’t find it anywhere. Finally, you know, after 10 steps, I found it and I said, Look, you’ve got to bring it to light. I have had this conversation with many artists over many, many, many years. You want to get branded as something because if you brand you get branded as all things you could come branded as nothing. And, I know a lot of artists who do a lot of styles and they might use a synonym, they might use another name. And, let’s say they do abstract they use a better name for their abstract and they have a separate website for their abstract. There’s nothing wrong with lots of subject matter but you want to kind of get known for something and you want to kind of push something I think that’s the answer in terms of art shows. I don’t know if you’re talking about competitions because you said chances to win. I suppose it gives you more chances to win the reality is in in art competitions like the Plein Air Salon, the more things you enter, the more chance as to when you know gallery owners who are our judges might see one thing they like and another thing they don’t like. So you’ve got up, enter two things, you might have a chance to three things you might have a better chance for things might have a different chance. But you know, it’s it boils down to quality, and people are going to pick the best quality, I have found that most artists are not really good at all things, what are you best at, put your best foot forward? And think about that. And it’s not less professional somehow. But it will confuse the marketplace. if let’s say you want in two categories in your, you know, one was an abstract and one was a landscape and your name came up, and both of them you’re going to confuse the marketplace when they see that. So just keep that in mind. Branding is something that we all need to learn and understand. I talked a lot about it in my book. And it is something that is really worth understanding. Because if you get branded incorrectly, it’s really hard to overcome.

Here’s a question from Thomas in Dallas. Again, I’ve not read this one, it says, I have a card line for my art. And the gift store market seems to have fallen through the number say I shouldn’t make any new cards at this time. And that means I don’t have a catalog to use for marketing. I have some loyal customers who are still buying my designs. But many of the stores I sell to still have product from earlier in the year. My question then is about supply and demand for artists. Well, I’m not sure what the question is exactly, Thomas. But I think let me let me see if I can figure this out. What I think you’re saying is, you know, they have inventory, they’re not going to buy new cards because they have inventory. Well, that may or may not be true. First off, a lot of people have inventory because they had their stores closed during COVID. Right. And so, our assumption is that they’re going to have a lot leftover. But, now that people are getting out, they’re spending a lot of money, they’re buying a lot of things, holidays are coming up, I think, if they’re used to seeing you coming out with a new catalog every year and new new stuff every year, I think you need to do it and you want to put your new work out there. And their chances are, they’re gonna order some new work, you just never know what they’re facing. And you said you need a catalog to use for marketing, well use it for marketing, it may or may not be the best year, you may not want to print as many or you might want to take a take a shot, you’re gonna eventually sell them. And you said you have some loyal customers buying your design, so those people will probably buy them. I think I’d go for it, and and also ask yourself this, is there a specialty product that I could put in there that might sell especially well? Right now, for instance, could you do something that is very related to COVID times, that, that people might find fun? It’s for a gift card like pictures of people in masks or whatever, you never know I mean, look for something that will be relevant relevance tends to sell better than non relevance. I hope that helps you and gives you some direction on some art marketing.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-09-21T08:19:45-04:00March 15th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 58

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 non-conventional ways to get your art seen, and if collectors might consider certain painting processes to be “cheating.”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 58 >

 

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 yours to Eric@artmarketing com. I never see the questions before I read them now as I’m reading to you. So I’m making it up off the top of my head. So sometimes I stumble a bit but I try to give you a marketing advice from my decades of experience. This one comes from Zion Moore in Richmond, Virginia who asked what are some of the non conventional venues where artists can show our work? How can we Zig when everyone else is zagging? Well, that’s a principle that I teach is, when everybody else is doing one thing? Do you want to do what everybody else is doing? Why not do something different? Well, you can think in terms of non conventional things. Well, first off, I would ask myself this question, Who buys paintings? Who’s most likely to buy paintings? And where do those people hang out? Right. And so I was thinking about this one the other day, as a matter of fact, car dealers, if let’s say you sell really, really expensive paintings, why not do a show at the Bentley dealer, or at the Lexus dealer or the Mercedes dealer, so you bring it down a notch. But the idea is that you are focusing on going to places where people hang out, if I have my car and I have to go into the dealer, and I have to sit in the waiting room for an hour waiting for them to change the oil or the tires or something? Why not do a show in a place like that? Where else could you go? Now I would say a laundry mat, not probably a great idea. Because first off, it’s not necessarily going to be people who are going to have the money. Typically people using laundry mats don’t have the money to buy paintings, maybe they do some do some don’t. But, where are people spending time they’re spending time in doctor’s offices, especially like plastic surgeons that people who get plastic surgery tend to be people who have a little bit more money. So think in terms of where do wealthy people hang out? Country clubs, golf clubs, there are lots of different places like that. Of course, it’s all changed with COVID certainly fancy restaurants, but look for places where I my my famous saying is stand in the river where the money is flowing. And you can do that and be unconventional not just do what everyone else is doing.

All right. Here’s a question from Kelli Watson in Cleveland, Ohio. I was just in Cleveland recently. Kelly, she says I worry about what collectors would think about my process. Specifically, is it considered cheating? Or is it okay to use Photoshop when coming up with color combinations or comp composition concepts? Well, I suppose Kelly, it depends on who you ask. And if you ask me, it’s not a problem. Now, there are people who will say, well, it’s not right to use a projector, because you’re projecting the image onto a big canvas to blow it up or something. I’m not so much a purist, I think what matters is that you get a great painting. And that, when photographs were first revealed, some of the great painters were using photographs, even people like Bouguereau, who was head of the essentially head of the Bozar School in France, he was using photographs, because models are expensive. And, so you can use photographs, a lot of people use photographs to move objects around. And the whole idea is to create a beautiful painting. And so if you’re using Photoshop, or you’re using some iPad program, or some other thing to kind of figure out your composition and your colors and your color harmony, why not is, ultimately you’re going to do the painting and the painting is going to be what people see and how you do it really doesn’t matter what you do matters, and that’s doing something really fine. So I hope this helps and I hope these give you some ideas for marketing.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-09-11T08:15:16-04:00March 8th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 57

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 be concerned about finding new customers right now, and thoughts on the market for nocturne paintings.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 57 >

 

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:

So I made a deal with my team I said you put the questions in and I’m not going to read them until I actually record live on the podcast because I want to just go off the top of my head rather than having any scripted thing. So this is from Ellen Jean Dietrich, in Fargo, North Dakota, who says right now my single biggest marketing challenge is that I am not meeting new customers, almost all my shows have been cancelled. And very few came to my last event, what’s the best alternative for finding new customers right now? Well, it’s a misnomer. New customers are the thing everybody wants to chase. We all tend to focus on new business all the time, but the people who bought from you are the best possible people to buy from you again, because they already have shown that they love your work and they’re willing to spend money for it, I would suggest a campaign that really reaches out to past buyers and makes them aware of things that you’ve done recently. Because that’s really where the money lies. And probably more than new customers, new customers are a challenge because you got to find them, you got to reach them, you got to sell them, you got to teach them about yourself, then you got to find people to love them. And of course, if you want new customers a place to go is where there’s a deep rich group of people who love the kind of art that you do. And that’s places like plein air magazine, or Fine Art connoisseur or other things like that, where you can find a concentrated group of people who buy art, you can also focus on doing some things locally shows will come back and and of course, people start coming to events again. But in the meantime, I would go after existing customers because they’re a lot easier to sell.

Now, here’s a question from Matthew Calavera in Lincoln, Nebraska, who says I love to paint nocturnes, but I don’t know if there’s a specific market for this. If there is how do I find my way into it? Well, you guys are asking a lot of the same questions. And I think the answer to that is don’t look for the market. Let the market find you. If you love to paint nocturnes, then that’s what you should paint. And if that’s if you’re painting for a market if you’re trying to paint because you know people are going to buy little red barns and you don’t love painting little red barns I highly recommend against that. It’s going to show in your work. I remember there was a an artist who decided he was going to conquer the western market and he started painting all this Western stuff. And you could just tell his heart was not into it. You know, if somebody’s hearts into it, you can see it in their work. And so if you love Nocturnes paint Nocturnes you know, Carl Gretzke does paint other things. But he’s known as the Nocturne guy, and he he sells a lot of Nocturnes a lot of people buy him. So is there a place you can go? Is there like a Nocturnes magazine? No, no, you’re gonna go after people who love great paintings. And if you find people who love great paintings, in certain places, that’s where you want to be you want to be doing art shows you want to be promoting locally, you want to be promoting nationally, I think every artist should have a local international strategy. Because, you know, let’s say that you live, you know, at the time I’m recording this quarantine is still going on in California, right? So if you can’t get out in California, people can’t get out in California, that’s your only gallery you got a little bit of a problem. And that’s your local market. So but if you had a gallery in, say, Florida and Florida is open, then everybody’s out and about and business as usual. So you can make sure that you have a local international strategy have two or three galleries in two or three different places where there’s stuff that’s going to sell and that will make a big difference. And so rather than trying to find a specific market for Nocturne, somebody asked a question last week about finding a specific market for for modern or abstract kind of things. And I kind of had the same same answer. You know, abstract is a little bit broader. So you might find a place where you can advertise and get to abstract people. But advertising is key if you really want to get seen. Anyway, hope that answers your question. Thanks for asking about marketing.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-09-05T10:55:12-04:00March 1st, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 56

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, publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

In this Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, find out when you should start marketing your art prior to holidays and the best way to market your art if it’s considered “unusual.”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 56 >

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:

Thank you Jim. In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions you can stump me if you want. You can email them to me [email protected], which is a good website with lots of marketing stuff on it that we’ve put together anyway, artmarketing.com. Here’s a question. And by the way, these are unscripted. I have I’m reading this for the first time. It’s from Gabe Little in New Jersey, who says when should artists start their holiday marketing? And are there other holidays that makes sense to use for marketing? Well, every excuse that you have to get your name out there is a great excuse and so whether it’s Fourth of July, I do this program called Art Marketing in a Box, it’s a program designed to make people the superstar well known artist and sell a lot in their local communities. And it’s got a lot of stuff based on every possible holiday you know, you can do birthday marketing, if you know marketing birthdays of Mark know the birthdays of people who bought your paintings, but you know, always the holidays, whether it’s July 4, or whether it’s Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, getting things out their way in advance. People are always looking for the ultimate gift and they never know what to get right. This is always a problem. And so you want to start it early. Now I always have done a Christmas in July kind of thing. And the reason I do Christmas in July is because I say you know if you want to commission a painting, start get me working on it now so I can have it ready for Christmas. And so you could start that now it’s still you still got time, but you want to be getting a head start on all marketing, all holiday marketing, and I like to work three, four months in advance and minimum and in cases of commissions and things you might need more time so all holidays make sense. I hope that helps, Gabe.

Here’s a question from Jackie, Jackie Bryant in Sacramento, California who says, my work is somewhat unusual. And what’s the best way to find the right market that would be interested in buying it? Well you know the the thing about art is it’s pretty hard to categorize someone as the kind of person who would like abstract painting or the kind of person who would like realistic painting, let my you know, my household would be a really great example of that my wife likes things that are more colorful, more bright, more, more abstract, sometimes a little bit wild. And I tend to like things that are a little bit more subdued, a little bit more traditional in nature. And you know, the kids like all kinds of different stuff. And so every household is going to have a little bit of a mixture. And, there are people like me who I have very tight paintings, I have very loose paintings, I have a couple of abstract paintings, I do have a little bit of everything. So I don’t think it’s so much about finding the right market for your work, I think it’s just the idea of getting yourself out there, you need to market yourself, go after, if you think that, you want to market yourself to people who buy abstract paintings, then, maybe advertise on a website or in a newsletter, or email newsletter, or, a magazine or something, like art news or something that that’s going to appeal more to people in the in that kind of a world. Whereas, my publications probably appeal to people more than traditional realism kind of world. But that’s a really great place. The point is, you want to find concentrated audiences of people who are known art buyers, because if you just put yourself out there in the universe, that’s nice, but you’re gonna pay a lot of money, you’re gonna have to reach a lot of people to find, one shiny penny in the in the crowd. And so you want to go for concentrated audiences where there are known people who love and buy art and so that’s probably the best the best answer I can give you, Jackie. I hope that helps. Anyway, this has been my opinion on how you can deal with marketing.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-08-22T07:28:13-04:00February 22nd, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 55

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 the best way to approach a former buyer about new paintings you have available, and if you should use your donations as a marketing point.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 55 >

 

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:
Yeah, buy my book that would be pretty cool. In the art marketing minute I try to answer your art marketing questions. I always answer them whether or not I get them, right. I don’t know. But anyway, email your questions to me, [email protected] we’re always looking for questions. Here’s one from Russell Martinez in Boise City, Idaho, who says, What’s the best way to approach a former buyer about buying a new painting? Well, first off, Russell, it’s a great question and some important question. You see, we are all always focusing on how we get more new business. But the reality is that most businesses make most of their money on repeat business. And so if you can figure out a strategy to get repeat business, that’s important. I teach that in a lot of my art marketing, bootcamp video series, and I also teach it in my book, but the idea is that you want to find ways to engage people to buy more in the future. Now there’s a couple of things. First off, I have two answers. The first is to understand that the very best time to sell someone a second painting is when they’re buying the first one, you know, think of McDonald’s and they always say, what do you want fries with that, you know, they suggest something. The theory is that people buy more during the peak of enthusiasm if they are already on a dopamine high, because dopamine is triggered when you’re buying things, all kinds of research about that people like to buy more, that’s why they put all this stuff at the checkout counter at the grocery store. Because they’re buying stuff that just make they want to buy more stuff. And it doesn’t seem practical, but it works. And so they love you, they love your work, so why not? So another thing so here’s what you can do after you get a commitment on the first painting, you can say hey, by the way, you know, I want to show you a couple other paintings that would go really well with this one, because I kind of intended these to hang together now Don’t lie to anybody. If it’s not true, don’t tell them that. But you can say, here’s some paintings that I think would go well with that painting and a little grouping, you know, in your living room or something, and then you pull it out, create a little grouping, see how they react, they might want to buy it, they might say, you know, would you give me a discount on those or something you can decide what to do. I like to also think that a great way to do this is to say hey, you know, you bought a painting from me, I’m really honored that you would do it, you know, I make my living as an artist, it’s nice to find people like you willing to buy, I’d love to reward you by giving you a 10% or 20% off on any of the other paintings. If you buy them today, you know, and if you buy a whole bunch of them, I might, I might give you a really special discount. This is very effective. And people like to take advantage of that. And it’s a good thing to do. The other thing to do is to stay in touch with collectors and buyers over time. You know, when you get a buyer, send them a nice note, send them some note cards with their painting on the note card, stay in front of them touch base by email or mail don’t become a pest, but stay in touch. Because you know, even though I’ve bought painting, sometimes I don’t remember the names of the artists. That’s that’s not so much true anymore. But when I first started doing it was true. And, you kind of blend in with everybody else and they go What was the name of that person. So you want to stay visible because they might be going well, I got to get a gift or I got a birthday coming up or something. So I created a whole program called Art Marketing in a Box, which was designed to reengage buyers. And also to get local buyers and collectors more engaged and works really effectively. We had one artist who bought it and they doubled their sales in the first year using the strategy. Anyway, the idea is to stay visible. We use different pre written things. And you can of course adjust them. But the idea is that you can put things in front of buyers to stimulate purchases at different times a year when they’re seeking gifts or when you know other things are happening. And it’s just nice to stay in front of them. The more you stay in front of them, the more they will eventually buy. It’s just proven, proven science. I was talking about science earlier. Don’t be afraid to ask too. You know, if they love your work, they probably would love more. And you say you know, I’d love to see a couple more paintings go out the door with you today. Is there anything we can do to make that happened? And let them say, you know, yeah, maybe if you did this, or maybe if you did that? Don’t be afraid to ask. And also the other thing we all make a mistake of it’s don’t assume that somebody does not have money. Because they might have money and they might have a lot of money. You never know what they’ve got. And so just go ahead and never hurts to ask. If you don’t ask you won’t get right.

Now here’s a question from Amanda Lewis in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Amanda says, I make an annual donation from my art to a nonprofit can or should I use that as a marketing point? And I would say Amanda, absolutely, yes. Here’s what I like to do. And I love to donate paintings, to auctions and to silent auctions. And I don’t care if it’s costing me a painting and sometimes I’ll do a really big one. And why? Well, because it’s a great marketing opportunity. And don’t look at it as how much this is costing you say, Well, if I give them a $2,000 painting, can I get two or $4,000 worth of marketing value out of this? Think about this. Most art marketing situations like I mean most high art marketing, where am I going with that most of these nonprofit situations where they’re doing a, they’re doing an auction or something a charity auction, they’re attending to attract local people who have money, and not always, but oftentimes, and those people are willing to spend because they want to give money to the organization. And so you can make yourself highlighted, what I oftentimes will say is, look, I would love to give you a $5,000 painting, I’ll give you a really big one. But in return for that, here’s what I want, I would like to be the featured. I’d like my image of my painting, maybe even my picture with my painting, I would like to have it on the cover of the website, right up front, you know, when our opportunity to win a $5,000 painting from Eric Rhoads. Now, the other thing you want is you want to be on their postcard, you want to be on their emails, you want to be on everything. And so you’re getting that the second thing I like is, I want an introduction at the event before my thing is auctioned off. And that way they stand. Here’s Eric. And that way, at the cocktail party, I get to meet people, and they have something in common, they can talk to me about, oh, I loved your art. And then I can collect business cards. The third thing is I always give them a second painting to give away in the silent auction or for a drawing and I’ll put cards in there, you know, I’ll put a thing in there to put your card into win. And that way I get the names and draw it. Now another thing I oftentimes will do this is sometimes effective sometimes not is I will actually suggest to them that I’d be willing to do a little bit more for them in exchange for the names in you know, or would they do an email blast on my behalf? You know, here’s a beautiful painting from this artist. He donated it to us and we want to make you aware of his work and his website, that kind of thing. So, anyway, it’s a great question, and it’s something you should do and look for an opportunity to use in your marketing.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-08-14T09:20:59-04:00February 15th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 54

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.

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads shares insider tips on doing market research to sell more art, and advice for artists who don’t have years of experience but still want to build their brand.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 54 >

 

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 0:02
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 email yours to [email protected]. Here’s a question from Kelly Johnson in Omaha, Nebraska who asks, If you’re the only one doing your marketing, what are some suggestions you have on doing market research to find out what really matters to your buyers? What do you think about sending surveys for example? Well, that’s a great question Kelly. And the number one thing that most marketers miss is understanding that they need to listen to their customers, your customers have all the answers that you need. Now in selling art, it’s a little bit more difficult in that because it’s not real cut and dry, because it’s an emotional response someone’s having to a painting typically. So surveys can be great, but most of us aren’t very good at surveys, most of us are not trained in how to do them properly. And if you don’t do them properly, you get biased answers. And if you get bad information, you get bad. you respond badly, you don’t do things properly. I’m trained, I was trained in research years and years and years ago, I used to do a lot of research and I’m still not very good at it. And I don’t rely on it a lot. I do ask survey questions from time to time and I do get some answers. But I’m looking for things that are, more like what artists would you like us to do a video of or what artists would you like us to bring into a convention versus understanding the psychology of things a little bit more? You’re really looking for the things that people say that might help you in your marketing to get attention from others who are like them, like how do they talk about your work or what it means To them or why they wanted to own it, or maybe why they bought it or something, if somebody can articulate that some of those are difficult. Surveys are usually only valid with big big samples too. So usually a very small number of people participate in a survey, you know, like 1% 2%. And so you’ve got to have a big sample for it to have any meaning. Right? So, if you’ve got 1000 people, yeah, and you probably don’t, then you’ve got to have you know, 1% of 1000 people which is 100 people and or I mean, 10 people. Man, don’t ask me to do math, but that the idea is that you you want to have a decent enough survey size, most people don’t get the answers that they need. So one of the best ways to do it and I learned this a long, long time ago from a buddy of mine is that he hired somebody who called his buyers and asked them to just talk to them about their their work. Now you don’t have to do that. You can do it yourself. But people are not going to tell you the complete truth. Because they don’t want to hurt your feelings if there’s anything that would hurt your feelings. But having somebody else call for you, you know, it’s like saying, Hey, you know, I’ve got this friend, her name is Kelly Johnson from Omaha, Nebraska. And she said that you bought one of her paintings. I’m doing a little bit of market research for her. Would you be willing to spend a couple minutes on the phone with me? And I want to ask you some questions to understand it because I’m trying to help her with their marketing. Some people would say yes, some people would say no, and you’re being perfectly transparent about that. And then you can just ask them questions… I’m just kind of curious, what was it about that painting that you liked? And how are you feeling about it? And did you feel like it was a good experience and you know, things like that, but what you want to do is try to have permission to record it because you want that’s a great tool because you’re looking for terms. You’re looking for things that people say, you know, so I was doing some marketing for our real Islam live conference and I did a thing where I asked people to, to record some testimonials for me and I was listening to things they said and how they said them. And then I’m able to use that kind of language when I’m marketing it that because they’re very similar to the people I’m trying to attract. Right. So this is all very difficult, but art is you know, art is again, a little different animals. So typical research if I’m doing a widget, you know, I’m trying to sell the easel brush clipper. The value specs are something that I can do some research about, you know that a little bit more and I can apply that in mass marketing, but if I’m selling a painting, because it’s so personal, so a little bit more difficult. So, anyway, give it a try. See what happens.

Now here’s a question from Ryan Davis in Cape Coral, Florida who says, when you look at the great contemporary master artists, it seems to me that that time is the only way to build a big brand. What advice do you have for those of us who don’t have so many years of experience? Well, first off years of experience are invaluable. Of course, and big brands are built over time, of course, but it’s not always just time you see, I can tell you I could probably name a lot of people I know, who have got a lot of time but don’t have a lot of success, and, they’re good artists. And so why is that? Well, it’s because they’re not combining time with repetition of message and they’re not doing the right things that are going to get them noticed and known the one thing that the people who are contemporary masters who are well known understand is that these are that you have to do certain things on a regular basis you got to be doing shows on a regular basis got to be doing books or articles you got to get exposure you got to do advertising got to do things that draw attention to you and and it’s never just one thing. You know, the tendency today is to make it about well, I’ll just do social media. Well, social media is the most misunderstood advertising medium around, it can be very effective. I use it, but I don’t use it for all things. Because first off, I would never do only social media, because you don’t want to have everything reliant on one particular thing. Because if that one thing changes, or there’s laws passed or whatever, then it’s no longer going to work for you. But also, because there’s a lot of different things that you would that we as artists have to do. And so look for the things that are going to move the needle forward, and that’s marketing in different ways. Remember, also social media on a typical Facebook account. For instance, I’ve got my max which is 5000 on my Facebook account. I know that every time I tweet something out or post something as it is in Facebook’s world, I know that only 2% of my audience is going to see it now. That means only 2% of that 5000 are ever going to see what I post now, I have some tricks that I have learned about and employ that get me actually pushed out there to a higher percentage, but it’s probably still only six to 8%. And that’s because I work very hard at that. But, you’re not necessarily going to accomplish your marketing with social media. The other thing was social media. And again, I’m not anti social media, I use it a lot. But most of us as artists don’t have most of our followers are not collectors, most of them are fellow artists. And that’s so you’re kind of preaching to the choir, the people who may or may not be buying art from you. And so there’s a lot of things that you’ve just got to do. So, Ryan, I think the answer to your question is, it’s not time, it’s time plus time plus repetition of advertising of messages. You know, I just had a situation where a an artist had been advertising with us decided to move all of the the advertising dollars out and move the advertising dollars into social media because that artists didn’t feel that the results were there. But the artist got into several galleries as a result of the advertising, the artist got invited into several shows as a result of the advertising. And as a result, the artist is feeling well, I haven’t been able to track direct sales. Well, the direct sales may not be happening. And usually if something isn’t happening, it’s because you’re doing something wrong. I can have two advertisers. And I can have them do the same amount of advertising. And one advertiser will get really brilliant results, another advertiser won’t get results. And it’s because of what they say in their ads, how they structure their ads, what the call to action is, what are the things they’re trying to motivate people to do. Of course, it also has to do with the art Is the art any good? And we all believe our arts good, but not everybody else believes that. And so, we kind of have to fight that battle. But the idea is that when you’re when you’re in a group of let’s say, you’re in a cluster of the right kind of people, so I’m in a cluster Fine Art Connoisseur magazine last month went out to 500,000 people, big audience, very unusual. We normally don’t have that big audience, but we did it for that one issue. And, but the people we typically are going to if somebody came to us and said, We want to send this magazine to, you know, a bunch of school art teachers, you know, we might, we might say, yeah, that’s nice. Maybe we’d like for them to have it but they’re not going to do any good for advertisers, because advertisers know that those people are not likely to have the income. No offense to anybody just being practical here might not likely have the income to buy a you know, a five or $10,000 painting. So you know, when you look for targeted clusters, you know, like Fine Art Connoisseur, for instance, has a targeted cluster of people who are known to spend a lot of money on paintings are known to be collectors they known, they are known as a concentrated group of collectors, it’s very desirable. So it’s not about big numbers as much as it is about the right people who can buy the right thing from you. And that’s what you always want to be focusing on. So I’m not sure I answered your question. I probably got to it in a roundabout way, Ryan. But if you’re seeing great contemporary masters. And they’re succeeding. Yes, they have been around a long time and time is one thing that, you can cheat time a little bit, you can speed things up a little bit. But, time is on your side, but if you’re not doing the right things that time isn’t going to help. So I hope that helps.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-07-25T08:41:26-04:00February 8th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 53

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 using social media for marketing versus paying for advertising, and tips on branding consistency.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 53 >

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 0:02
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads
In the marketing minute, I answer your art marketing questions and the way to submit them is just email me [email protected] there is no stupid question. That’s how we learn right? Okay, here’s a question here. This is a stupid ques- No, I’m just kidding. This is a question from Amy in Chicago. Amy is going to hate me she’s never going to write in again. Anyway, she says isn’t social media marketing enough? Why would I ever pay for advertising? Well, I’m not suggesting you should pay for advertising. You have to figure out all of us have to figure out what our strategy is and what our tactics are and what you’re trying to accomplish what you’re, do you want to sell art Do you want to brand yourself to want to get invited to events, what is the purpose of your marketing? And then that will determine what you need to do. We have these misperceptions about social media there are a lot of people think, well, all I got to do is put my stuff on social media and my stuff will sell. It’s kind of like saying, does anybody remember phone books? It’s kind of like saying, well, I just put my name in the phone book, and people will call me Well, the phone books filled with lots of people. It’s like having a website. Oh, I just got to put up a website and everybody will discover me. No, that’s not true. I mean, some might buy an accidental search. But the reality is that they’re going to discover websites when you promote them. And, and so the same is true with other things. Now, if you’re promoting on social media, and you’re doing it properly, and it works for you, and you’re making money and you’re getting your goals accomplished, then that’s all you need, quite frankly, why would you pay for advertising? Why would anybody Why do 10s of thousands of businesses advertise? It’s because they get a return on their investment. They’re trying to reach people. They don’t have, we have this belief that everybody on social media is getting our posts and the reality is on Facebook, only two to 3% ever see any post that you do that means if you had 5000 followers, which is their Max, only two to 3% will ever see that post. And sometimes it’s the same people all the time because there’s these algorithms that they use. And so as a result, you want to be aware that you’re not necessarily reaching people. Now, there’s a lot of strategies. I teach in art marketing Bootcamp, at the conventions about how to penetrate that how to make that work for you. But the reality is, you also need to make sure you got the right people following you and you’ve got to have the right messaging. So if you’re going after collectors, for instance, or people who are buying art, you got to get go after people who you know are going to be the kind of people that you want, and so you got to fill up your followers with that. You can’t be talking to artists, other artists and talking about Artists stuff that other artists are interested in you got to be talking to things that other collectors are interested in. So you got to change your tactics and most of us have our Facebook pages or Instagram pages filled with our friends and as a result we’re not necessarily getting the right kind of followers and that’s why it typically doesn’t work for people it might work for you and that’s great if it does but advertising is about reaching people you’re not reaching and the ability to target to reach people that you that are in a particular category you know, like if I if you want to target people who are known art buyers or known art collectors, then you go to places where you know they are you know, like my magazines plein air magazine, fine art connoisseur, etc. So I pay for advertising I spent a lot of money on advertising I can’t even say how much it’s a lot but I it works for me and I get a return and so the more I spend the more return I typically get. And it takes time it builds up over time but then it just keeps return. As long as I feed it, so that’s why I do it.

All right. Next question comes from John in San Francisco, who asks, How important is it to have consistency in the way that you market your brand? Do you have any tips for being consistent and branding? John, good question. Thank you. Well, think about your favorite brands think about any brand. What are the biggest? It used to be? I don’t know if it still is, but the biggest most well known brand in the world was McDonald’s. What if they started using green arches? Or what if Apple started using yellow on their logo instead of black or silver, whatever they use? These are little things that matter. People are creatures of habit, they want to be comfortable, they get to know you. It’s like a friend that you know, you recognize, right? I remember some actress can’t remember who it was had plastic surgery. And it’s like, I didn’t recognize her anymore. And so it was very uncomfortable for me and I’ve never gotten used to it. So I think the idea is that you create a look a consistent look and you want to stick with it. You want to be careful Though a lot of artists are using their signatures as their logo, and that’s okay, but you don’t want us to use signatures alone because the ad needs to have or the logo needs to have the name under it. Because people can’t usually read signatures unless it’s very, very easily readable and even that I would not assume they can read it, you know. So it just doesn’t hurt to make sure you do that. But you want to look for things like consistency, color, theme, consistency, same look, same type everything on your business cards, website, you know, everything you do your brochures, everything you want, that comfort of consistency. Also, you just want to make sure that you’re reinforcing your brand constantly. You’ve got to, we all think that everybody knows who we are, you run one ad and you think everybody knows who you are. That’s not true. You have to build it up over time. It takes time and time and time again, I always talk about repetition is the key to everything. You’ve got to have repetition to the same audiences. People don’t even read respond to things until they’ve seen you seven times in a short amount of period of time. So you got to figure out how do I solve that problem? It’s about repetition. All right. Anyway, that’s, that’s my tips on art marketing today.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of 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.

By |2023-07-19T08:22:33-04:00February 1st, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 52

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 new advice on if you should list your prices on your website, and thoughts on fame versus success.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 52 >

 

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 0:02
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. I haven’t been stumped yet but I’m sure somebody will stumped me at some point I’m it’s bound to happen right? Anyway, email your questions to me [email protected]. And if you want to check out the website artmarketing.com has tons of articles I’ve written about art marketing. Here’s a question from Kathy in Indianapolis who asked Is it a good idea to list your prices on your website for your paintings or on your social media? And if so, why or why not? I’ve always wondered this because if people don’t see the price, how are they supposed to know how much it is and some artists don’t do it? Some do it. So what’s the right way? I don’t think I can say there’s a right way or wrong way. I think that the way to say it is you got to make your choices. Now I will tell you a story. A dealer friend of mine in the I’ll just say into Texas dealer friend of mine in Texas, was having this great debate about whether or not he should put prices on his website because no dealers were doing that at the time this a few years back. And I said, I think you should I would put my prices on there because the internet is all about instant gratification. And if I am in another country, or if I’m sitting up at four o’clock in the morning, I browse around, I see something I want to be able to buy it. I don’t have to pick up the phone and call you. And his argument was, yeah, but I if I get them on the phone, I can talk to them and talk them through it and help sell them. And my argument was, yeah, but you might not get them on the phone. Most people don’t want to get on the phone anymore, and some will some won’t, but you need to be able to sell it anyway. So he took a chance on it. He did an experiment and he put his prices on the website right away right away. I just felt so totally vindicated here, right so right away. He gets a An order that came in at like four o’clock in the morning, just like I said it would happen it was from some foreign country. And the order was for get this $650,000 for a big piece of sculpture. This is a top tier gallery $650,000. Now, when he arrived the next morning, he had a wire transfer for the money in his bank account. And he was able to confirm it and be able to send the sculpture and pack it up and send it to wherever it was Brazil or something, I think. And and so, from that point forward, he always put his prices on his website. Now some dealers still don’t do it. Some artists don’t do it. I you know, I think it’s debatable but I think, in this this culture, we’re going on Amazon and we’re shopping for things we want to be able to have instant gratification and I think that art is Really is the same way. And so I would do it, that’s what I think is the proper way to do it. And you also can have opportunities to upsell for framing or you know, pick a different frame or things like that. Most of the website providers provide things like that now, so I think it’s a really good idea. I, you know, again, it’s debatable, but I think it’s worth a try. And if you have a reason why it’s a bad idea, let me know, I’d like to hear it.

Next question comes from Randy in New York City, or Randall, who says it seems that the best artists rise to the top and are working and that working on your art and getting to the highest possible level of development is the most important thing to become famous. Would you agree? Well, I think there’s a couple of things in here. First off, this sounds like a trick question. I know it’s not random but the famous you know, what’s more important? Is it more important to be famous or is it more important to be successful? Is fame successful, you can be famous and not make any money is that You want? Do you want to be famous and successful financially, you know, you got to figure out what you want. But here’s the problem. It seems like it should be the case. I mean, you would think that the universe would do that you spend your life working on your work, you get really good at it, and you put it out there, and then it just automatically gets recognized. And that happens sometimes. I mean, people do get discovered they do get recognized from the quality of their work. And clearly quality tends to rise to the top and gets the higher prices. But if you don’t put it out there, sometimes it’s not going to be seen you know, what if you don’t just get discovered what if you don’t get a gallery? What if you don’t find an agent? What if you don’t get seen? I have seen so many instances and learned about so many people throughout my career of people who are brilliant painters who have never been discovered. I had I was had an opportunity I was asked to come to England to try and talk a particular painter into getting out there and going into the market. And because he was so shy, he didn’t want to do it. And he had, it was a brilliant artist, and he wouldn’t even sell his work. And he’s in his particular case, he just didn’t want to do it. And but there have been so many instances of people who wanted to do it, but they didn’t, that, you know, they just never got anybody interested in. Um, so I think the thing is that, that selling your work is a lifetime effort. As long as you’re going to be selling your work, you’re going to have to be somewhat assertive, some would say aggressive, you have to be willing to put yourself out there. I mean, let’s say you’re at a cocktail party, and you meet an art dealer and you’re so shy that you won’t even say hey, I’m an I’m an artist, and I’d like you to look at my work. Well, first off art dealers get that so many times they may not pay attention to it, but they also might say, Yeah, I would like to look at your work but some people are social You know, marketing is sometimes just a matter of raising your hand and telling people what you’re up to. It doesn’t have to be anything beyond that. But a lot of people think marketing is something they don’t need to do. They don’t need marketing skills. They think marketing is crass, for some reason, but some have been lucky and gotten out there. Some have not. So I would say that you’ve got to be really sensitive to the idea that learning marketing is important. Let’s let’s say this, you know, I think a great thing for an artist is to eventually get a two or three great galleries, maybe more or to get a great handler, maybe somebody to work for you, maybe somebody to be your your agent. But you know, the reality is that usually you have to do some marketing and build some some awareness before somebody wants to do it. It’s like galleries want to go after successful people. They want proven people sometimes they’re not willing to take the risk and so you got to get out there. So learning and discovering marketing, go to artmarketing.com. Check it out. See if You can find some things that might be of value to you. I think you might find it to be helpful. Anyway, I think that’s, I think that’s the answer.

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.

By |2023-07-06T14:41:05-04:00January 25th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
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