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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 type of paintings you might want to include the next time you enter a work for an art show; and how to beat the odds when you launch an online advertising campaign to sell your art.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 100>

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

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

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

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

Eric Rhoads:
In the marketing minute I try to answer your questions, your marketing questions, of course, you can email [email protected] with your questions, and tell me your name and where you’re from. This guy didn’t, but we’ll answer his question anyway. It’s a question from Ray Richardson. Ray says, When entering an event for the first time, what type of paintings? Should I include? Landscapes obviously, but what about things like still lifes or pet portraits? Should my work be solely geared toward what attendees expect? Or should I show a wide variety? Since my interest varies? From vehicles to animals to landscapes to still life? Great question Ray. The one thing I think you have to be thinking about is when you’re first branding yourself, and you’re first getting out there, you want to stand for something but don’t stand for everything. You can confuse people by doing showing too much variety. Also, I think the answer lies entirely on the show. Most shows have criteria landscape show typically will want you to show landscapes and nothing else, maybe a figure or a portrait or at least a figure in a in a landscape. But always whatever you do, show your best work, try to get a third party opinion from a pro who can be objective and tell you if something isn’t your best work. Only put your best stuff out there. No matter if it’s a show or it’s online or anywhere else. Editing is important. People don’t understand unfinished paintings unless they’re artists and even then sometimes don’t notice it. They’ll just go Oh, that was awful. So show your best work no matter what. Whether you’re showing in person or online, you only have one chance to make first impression.

Next question, Lisa did this right? She gave her town Lisa Cunningham of Waverly Township, Pennsylvania sounds beautiful. I’m sure it is. Maybe we’ll paint there sometime. Lisa, she asks, I’ve been giving serious thought to launching an aggressive ad campaign, knowing that it will take repeated exposure of my work to yield results. That’s smart. However, I can’t help but think no matter how appealing a work of art might be to a potential collector, it’s still an expectation that they actually see the work in person before making a sale. Galleries in Art Fair satisfy this concept. But as you know, both are very unpredictable and attracting the right buyer. Well, everything’s unpredictable and the right buyer, but you can kind of beat the odds a little bit, Lisa, by going after a concentrated area, you know, concentration is really important. For instance, there are places that have concentrated audiences of people who are known art buyers, and you want people who are known art buyers in the kind of art that you sell. There’s no doubt in my mind that seeing a piece of work in person is best. And I think people need to see artwork, you know, people are seeing a lot of things on Instagram or Facebook, and they’ve never been to a museum and they’re judging it based on what they see. And when they see it in person, it just kind of brings tears to your eyes sometimes. So I think that, you know that would be best. And we all ought to do our best to get people out to see original art, but that’s a sign of the times. And you have to get attention and sell in every way possible. And it’s very common always has been for collectors and others to buy from an image, whether it’s a web image, which is more recent, or a Facebook or Instagram image. You know, galleries have done this forever. You know, they’ve done it from photographs, even they used to send catalogs before the web, and some of them still send catalogs. It’s a very, very normal thing collectors and buyers are very used to it. Photos of paintings have been used. As a matter of fact, I was looking through some old magazines from the 1800s art magazines. They were advertising paintings with etchings, not even photographs. So you know it’s been going on, it’s just not possible for everybody to see it in person. And usually the gallery if they mail it out, and the person doesn’t really fall in love with it, they’ll they’ll take it back, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about. Now let’s address your other question about ad campaigns. Well, I really you kind of had it down, Lisa. But I need to disclose first that I own some magazines that sell ads, but I’ll try to be objective anyway. I learned this a long time ago and I learned it the wrong way because I used to think that you could buy an ad an ad a single ad in a magazine that had a big audience and it would sell something it’s just simply not usually true. It’s usually true for an event or something specific time like that, but not necessarily for selling paintings and building a brand first you have to have repeated exposure. You have to assume that you are unknown and have to become known now you may be known in your town or your region, but you may not be known everywhere. Does Matter of fact, we, we did a thing with a very famous artist. One time we launched one video, we assumed this artist was known worldwide. But in reality, he was only known around New York where he lived. So we had to build a lot of repetition and build his brand before the video would sell. So the other thing is that there are a lot of artists who were once known who have stopped advertising. I know, people who advertised 10 years ago who stopped advertising. And we assume that everything is attrition with 10% of any audience in a single year, in in a bad economy at more might be more than 10%. So for instance, if somebody advertised 10 years ago, assumes everybody knows who they are 100% of the people have never heard of them. So that’s something that they have to be thinking about. So the the best way to overcome all of these issues is to relentlessly repeat, if you’re unknown, or you want to get known. This applies to everything, whether it’s a magazine, email, social media, or otherwise, one of anything typically doesn’t work. Sometimes, you know, carpenters can’t hammer a nail with one slam, usually, maybe have a big muscle, but it takes repetition. advertisings like the law of physics, for instance, imagine a battering ram on a castle door, a giant tree with a big weight and force can break that door down with just a few taps. But the smaller the tree, the more taps it takes, you have to repeat and repeat and repeat because you have to create attention, then get interest, then desire, then purchase. And by the way, if somebody doesn’t happen to like the one particular painting, you got to build your brand so that they know who you are. And then maybe one day, they’ll like one of the paintings, so many of my you know, some people might not buy for years, but that presence over years, builds your brand. I’ve got lots of stories, I’ll tell you some time anyway, the average person needs to see something seven times before they buy it, that means see it. Now, if they don’t see everyone that runs, that’s not going to do you any good. And of course, the average person isn’t going to buy every painting they see. Not even every painting they like. So it depends on how often and it also depends on a certain amount of luck, right? So you lose momentum. If you just do it once, wait a few months and then do it again. You gain momentum. If you do it, for instance, three times in a single magazine or like what advertiser did for us, it was a new gallery, he wanted to get noticed fast, he wanted to look big and important. So they were like the battering ram. They bought 10 full pages and fine art connoisseur in plein air. They ran them, everybody noticed it got a lot of attention. It worked right away. They got a lot of massive action because of that, because they were a big battering ram. So there are ways to overcome things. But they also stayed visible over time, and stayed on people’s radar for several years so that people would know who they are interesting. Once they got to the point where they felt really confident that everybody knew who they were. They stopped advertising everywhere. Within two years. They were out of business. I don’t know if there’s a correlation. But just saying right, so my best advice. Don’t do ads if you can’t repeat them a lot.

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

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

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains what you can do now to prepare for a successful new year; guidelines for selling art during the holidays; and if it’s worth it for artists to have a LinkedIn account.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 98 >

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

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

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

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

Eric Rhoads:

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

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

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

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

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

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

How do you turn ‘likes’ into sales? What do successful watercolorists do to sell more paintings? Eric Rhoads answers in this Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

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. 

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 90 >

Click here to listen to this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast!

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

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

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

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

Eric Rhoads:

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

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

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

How can international artists sell more art in America? Should you quit your day job to become a full-time artist? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

This episode was originally published in 2021 and is still relevant. 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. 

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 88 >

Click here to listen to this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast!

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 and buy paintings, 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 (2021) 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, 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 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 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.

Do frames make a difference? How can new grads support themselves as a professional artist? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

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. 

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 87 >

Click here to listen to this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast!

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 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 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.

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:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

When someone buys your painting, should they sign a contract about reproduction rights? How do you finalize a sale when someone is contemplating a purchase (including one question you should ask)? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

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.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 80 >

Click here to listen to this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast!

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 Tom. 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 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.

How do you negotiate to sell your art in a restaurant? What’s the best way to get local museums interested in your work? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

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.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 78 >

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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:

I am working on another book and I’ll get that done one of these days but in the meantime, if you haven’t got my book, Hey, you know what to do. In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions you can email your questions to me [email protected] Steve from San Francisco in the Bay Area says I have recently been painting on the coast near a lodge and associated restaurant after linking the lodge on my Instagram post from the previous week and asking my permission to paint on the grounds. They remembered my Instagram posts later while painting the lodge manager came by and expressed interest in hanging my paintings in their cottages. How cool is that? So we set up a meeting and I’ll be bringing a dozen framed paintings to show her we briefly discussed a range of possibilities from purchase to commissions to hanging the paintings with sale signs and to the best of my knowledge the lodge and restaurant are not showing any other artists can you offer any negotiating arrangements and ways to parlay this opportunity? Well you know I’m not big on you know negotiation games. I think you know just kind of say what’s on your mind but you know hold back a little bit you know, you don’t have to put dump all your candy in the lobby so to speak. And decide the outcome that you most want you know there is a desirable outcome you could leverage this in a lot of ways you could you could make money from it, you could get more money from it by showing paintings you could do a lot of other things so do you want a bulk sale to the hotel? Do you want them to put your paintings in every room? Do you want to show in the hotel and if it’s in the hotel you want to show where do you want to in the lobby or in the rooms Well, if the if the rooms are going to see it but everybody can’t see every painting then you’re going to reduce your possibility of sales. I think so. I think you know you could do both but I would suggest that you try something like first off. Tell them that you will not hang paintings in rooms that are for sale because it’s too risky for damage or theft or otherwise. If they want them in their rooms then they could cut a deal for a bulk amount of paintings you know let’s say you’ve got 30 rooms and they want 30 paintings. You could do that or you know if they’re not going to go for that you might be able to say well we could do prints and you could cut a deal for prints and then you’ve still got the paintings you can sell.

And so that’s nice because you could give them giclee prints framed at a lower price. But asked him to do a lobby shore restaurant show for three four months and especially at the peak of their season. And people who see them in the room will also want prints or originals you want to sell prints in the gift shops. I sold paintings in the gift shop of a very high end Hotel in Lake Placid for many many years. And you know they sold and they sold well and they sold for a lot of money just because It’s a gift shop, you know, if it’s a high end hotel, somebody who’s paying a high price, they don’t seem to care. But people want to be able to buy on the spot, you know, you see art shows where it’s like, you see this painting and contact the artist and it’s like, No, I’m not going to contact the artist have had a couple of drinks, I don’t want to do that, you know, you might intend to you take a picture of, of the of the artist tag or something, by the way, make sure you put one of those little QR codes on your tag and say, take a picture of this with the painting and that way they remember the QR code comes up and they can contact your website. But I would rather they be able to say, you know, to purchase this painting, tag this tag into the store, and the gift shop and do it that way. Sell small paintings, they can throw in a suitcase, or a car for their their memory of their trip, also have a big monumental painting in the lobby for sale now don’t offer discounts unless they ask keep saying no on discounts. And at some point you may have to cave but I suggest that you, you know, if you buy 10 paintings, I’ll give you a discount of 10% of you by 20. I’ll give you a discount of 20%. You know, that kind of thing. If you want all the rooms, I’ll discount it by you know so much. But you start without discounting. Because why give money away? You might not have to. The next question comes from Ray Richardson in Kannapolis, North Carolina Who says I’m doing a lot of vehicle art trains, aircraft, boats, etc. And I’d like to approach museums with my work either for consignment or display in their gift shops. I talked to one but I’m not sure I went about it properly. What’s the best way to get local museums interested in my work? Should I just sell the original art to them? And allow them to resell? I don’t have prints made yet I prefer getting the original art in the shops. Is this a smart move? You know, Ray, there’s no right or wrong. I mean, you can you can go about this in any particular way. The idea here is, you’ve got to ask yourself why this is important to you, you know, is somebody going to a museum, going to go into the gift shop and spend a proper amount of money for a painting now they might or they might not. And it’s certainly worth testing. My goal is to test everything. So you could do you know, you could certainly do prints, people will buy prints, you know, people buy memories of something. What would be nice is to get a show in the museum if you could get a local museum to do a show and then put your work in there. And then keep your work in there. That would be kind of cool. But you know, ask yourself, you know, what is your goal? What What do you most want to do? Do you want to sell paintings? Do you want to get your paintings displayed, so other people will buy them in other venues? You know, ask yourself, What is your goal and then start with your goal in mind and then work towards that goal, whatever the goal is. But yeah, I mean, you know, you said you you don’t know if you went about it properly, you know, we’re gonna make mistakes. We all make mistakes, but, you know, make sure you’re calling back. You have a discussion with somebody, no, don’t, you know, let grass grow under that, you know, call him back, say, Hey, we had a discussion. I don’t know if it went well. Tell me what your thoughts were. And they’ll tell you I mean, you know, just don’t plan a games Be smart with them. And I think that will help. Anyway, that is 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.