Social Media for Artists Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Art Marketing with Eric Rhoads

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 35

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 insights on using social media for marketing (even if you avoid social media), and networking tips for freelance artists.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 35 >>>

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. All you got to do is email me, [email protected]. Here’s a question from a YouTube listener who said, I’m a fairly successful artist, I make a good living and I refuse to do social media. For me, it’s a giant waste of time and I’d love to hear your thoughts as to whether or not an artist should engage in any social media at all. Well, it’s not an easy answer because it can be a giant time suck and it’s hard to measure the value unless you do it exactly right, which is something very few people know how to do. Now a lot of people are posting a lot of stuff And posting progress shots and posting their paintings. But I’m not sure that a lot of people are selling a lot of paintings from it once in a while somebody gets a Hey, I want to buy that painting. But there are not very many people who are actually selling a lot of art. And there’s a reason for that. It’s because they’re not doing it properly. I think it can be done properly. I would refine your question a little bit more by asking is not doing it hurting your business, you say you have plenty of business. And if that’s the case, it’s probably not hurting it. But just keep in mind, a lot of people built a business and they have momentum, and then it dries up and it stops suddenly, because they’re not keeping their momentum up. That’s why advertising is important to things like that. But social media can be advertising and there is advertising opportunity there. But it’s a whole different game on social media works very well for things where it’s clicking buy this now, and it’s not necessarily an expensive item. So So clearly, Facebook, Instagram, etc, are mainstream and most people are on it. But does it sell art? Well? Is it gonna get you into more galleries? It might I mean, there are gallery owners who watch and they clearly are paying attention to what people are posting to find out what they, what they’re doing whether or not they’re bringing them in. It’s not automatic, of course. But again, there’s a formula. You know, today, it’s kind of like not being in the phonebook and the old days, you know, when people use phone books, if you weren’t in the phone book or the Yellow Pages, they wouldn’t remember you well. Being on the web is more like being a phone book, of course. And I think having a website is absolutely critical too. And it sends a signal if if you’re not doing it well or if you haven’t updated in 30 years, but anyway, a lot of people will randomly learn about you discover you because someone may have clicked on or commented on your Facebook and then they see that and they you know people pick up on it, but Most artists actually don’t have many collectors following them. Some do. Most of the artists have their friends, fellow artists following which is nice, a nice way to be seen nice way to be social. But it’s not necessarily moving the sales needle, although artists do buy paintings and so that can happen. But you have to know how to do it exactly. And I do hear stories about a few people selling consistently, but not very much. There is one thing to know is there’s a false belief about Facebook, and even Instagram. And that is that we think that everything we post is being seen by all of our followers. Well, on Facebook, only 2% of the people on average, will actually get to see what you post and that’s assuming they see it because they’re scrolling through, they might miss it. If you don’t have good creative, you don’t have good graphics. If you’re not saying something interesting. They might buzz right by it. I do that all the time. I’m flipping through just going fast. So just because it’s somebody’s speed doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to be seen. So what you want to do is, of course, if you’re working on business, you want to be in a controlled environment, that’s an environment you control yourself or someone that you know. And trust controls a controlled environment, to some extent would be email, except you can’t control it completely because you might end up on a spam list or you might get no open rates, advertising, you know, things like our magazines, our newsletters, like some of the stuff we produce, obviously controlled environment, it’s, it’s gonna get out to the right people. But you have to, no matter what you’re doing, if you’re using it for marketing, there’s three legs on the marketing stool, and I talked about this in my books in my videos, and that is that you’ve got to have great attention getting content or copy. copywriting is very important headlines are very important. And that’s true on social media too. You’ve got to get people’s attention, you got to have a great graphic. Next, you got to have a great audience. And that is An audience who is the audience that you really need to reach. And then of course, you’ve got to have repetition, any message. In order for people to take action on it usually has to be repeated and seen by that individual eight or 10 times, and sometimes over longer periods of time depending on how much time has passed because we lose memory of certain things when we sleep. And so in a short period of time, you want to be seen 789 10 times in a longer period, it might be 30 4050 times depending on if you’re building a brand or you’re trying to sell something in particular, great content, great copy, great audience and repetition without those things, most marketing will fail. The next question comes from Jan Coby. It does not say where Jan is but she says, I used to paint as a greeting card artists for five years for the leading greeting card company now teach art part time and I’m developing a line of card ideas. I would love to free For other card companies, and share my new ideas, but I don’t know how to proceed. I have a list of greeting card companies and art directors all over the US. And I plan to send them five by seven postcards to my best work for consideration. What’s your best advice for me to find freelance work?

Eric Rhoads 1:04:19
Well, Jan, you must be pretty good. I think that the first thing is to take an inventory of what you already have. You have connections at the big greeting card company. And unless you left on bad terms, maybe they would become your best customer. as a freelancer. Have you thought about that if you open that door? Secondly, you’re probably in touch with a lot of other greeting card designers. And they probably worked for other companies too. And they know former designers they know art directors, maybe ask them the question. Can they make introductions? Can they tell you who they know? My guess that they’re probably not a lot of greeting card companies. I might be wrong, but I don’t think there are hundreds of certainly probably Not thousands. And my guess is that they all have designers on staff or they all use freelancers, one or the other, maybe both. So why would they buy your designs? What’s unique about your designs, you need to come up with a compelling reason to get their attention. This is called strategy. Cease mailing postcards is a tactic, what you put on those postcards and what you’re targeting and who you’re talking to and what your messaging is. That’s strategy, cards or tactics. Now, let’s say there are six to 10 companies and six to 10 art directors. Why send a card? Why not just pick up the phone and call each of them and introduce yourself? It’s only six people. So if you get a no, you can probably ask a couple questions and learn about the likelihood that you would succeed with them long term. And if it were me, I’d start my own card company. Then the key is getting distribution and being able to afford to print your cards but You’re up against some big guns. So why not create something unique and different, like an online greeting card company, make it so that they can order online cards through an app and have them auto mail to the people you want with the messages you want. There are some apps out there that do that kind of thing. I don’t know if they have designs like what you provide, but you could certainly work with apps or you could do it yourself. My rule is that self employed is always better than employed. In other words, you’re controlling your destiny more if you have your own business. So think about that. Now, being a freelancer is having your own business. So that’s a good thing. But you’re also relying on other people. If you can rely only on yourself and your great marketing and your great distribution. Think Big and you can control your own world. Now related to your question about postcards, I love postcards. They’re very effective. Now they’re expensive. They’re not as expensive as other types of mail, but you can probably count on you know, 50 or 50 cents or $1, or card, depending on how many people you’re sending to if you’re sending to 1000. You know, it’s going to cost you 1000 or $2,000 for a mailing. And postcards don’t typically work without what we call repetition. And what I do postcard campaigns, I like to hit people over and over and over again in a few weeks period of time, you know, every week every two weeks twice a week, you will grow on them, people will start paying attention, they won’t respond immediately, but eventually a high percentage of them will respond. Anyway, hope this helps. This has been the art marketing minute.

Remember to Submit Your 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.

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 7

In this Art Marketing Minute, you’ll learn if you might want to consider using a different name, and how to make the most of Instagram.

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 7

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

Eric Rhoads 0:23
Thank you Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. Well, here’s a question from Joan Barnum. Now, I normally don’t use last names, and I don’t know where Joan is from but in this case, it’s relevant because she says thanks so much for your podcast and for the marketing minute. I tune in every week and I’ve learned so much value from both. I’ve been learning what I can about selling my art and I’ve been trying to establish some kind of online presence, but I discovered recently However, that there is a well known watercolor artist out there whose name is very similar to mine. She’s Joanna Barnum. And I’m Joan Barnum. I wonder if it will make it difficult for people to find me online. And if I should consider changing the name, under which I do business, reverting to my maiden name, for instance, I’m just in the beginning stages of the process. And so I’m going to make this sort of move now would be the time.

Well, I couldn’t agree more. It’s a great question. It happens more than you think I can think of several. What comes to mind is Scott Pryor. And then there’s Scott W. Pryor. Both artists, there’s Charles white, and there’s Charles H. White, both artists. And Heck, there’s even another Eric Rhoads. Who was, well, an adult film star. That wasn’t me thankfully. Yikes anyway, he’s dead. I might not be after I mentioned that. Anyway, if you already established the name and then you discover somebody else’s got the name or then you got a little bit of a problem. And you if you’re starting out though this is a good time to avoid confusion and brand yourself under a name where there’ll be no confusion. Now I grew up in radio and we used to do stage names all the time, and you might want to invent a name that sends a signal of confidence to your buyer. Some people pick names that are about their brand, you know, like if you’re a spy, you could be Roger danger. Or you know, remember Jonny Quest. He was an adventure in the cartoons, Richie Rich. But seriously, go out there and come up with a name that really works for you. Now, I wouldn’t call yourself Monet, though there are people out there who’ve done it. There’s an actress whose name is Monet. I wonder if it’s real. I doubt it. But anyway, come up with something distinctive. Stage names are pretty common and there are a lot of artists actually who you Stage names it and if your maiden name works, it’s great. But if it’s hard to say, or it’s hard to spell or hard to read, like if your maiden name is Roberto, it’s, you might want to do something easier. Like I have this friend who’s a radio person and her name was Rabinowitz. And you know, how do you spell it? So she changed it to Robin’s. And you might do something like that. Or you could just be distinctive by saying, you know, your middle initial. The other thing you’ve got to your advantage is that you want a name that’s memorable and you have a name that’s memorable. Right? Who is memorable PT Barnum is memorable. Why not be L. Barnum or PT Barnum or some variation on that or there may be you play off of that, you know, Linda Barnum, like you know, like PT Barnum, the greatest show on earth, you know, you can have some fun with that. So give it some thought. Anyway, it’s a good time. Remember, you are a brand we invent names for brands. And why not do it for artists brands now I think authentic and real is best. But in a case like yours, where there’s going to be confusion, and the names are close, you might want to consider distinguishing yourself with a different first name at least. And don’t forget, there is some gold in that name Barnum, because you want something that people remember because everyday names like Jones and Smith and so on are not very memorable. But if you say you introduce yourself or your website says, Hey, you know, it’s Linda Barnum, like PT Barnum, and then they’re trying to remember who you are, they’re going to remember that.

Here’s the next question from Adam. In Los Angeles, Adam says, I’ve noticed everybody’s moved over to Instagram from Facebook. How can I get a lot of followers so I can sell more art?

And Adam? Well, you’re asking the wrong question, not to embarrass you. But the question should be How can I sell more art, Instagram as a tactic? Just like a magazine ad, or an Email as a tactic. You want to start with a strategy. How are you going to differentiate? Who is going to be your audience? What is the avatar of your audience? The Avatar is like, Who’s the average person who buys your art? And what do they like? Explain and understand that avatar, you know, like, we know the avatar of the people who come to the planner convention, and there’s a lot of the similar type of people, so we tend to talk to them. So think about that, because you want to think about who you’re trying to sell art to. Now, most people on Instagram and Facebook are misusing it. And they’re really talking about themselves a lot. And they’re not really talking about the business aspects. And so you want to think about that, and I’m going to do something very special with plein air convention this year. I’m going to do a morning on Instagram in my art marketing boot camp. And that’ll be worth the price of admission alone, believe me, so I went to the world’s top experts. I got their tips. I’m going to explain them Plus, I’m going to share some of my own. And there’s not enough time here because I’m going to spend about an hour just on that. And probably an hour isn’t enough. But the bottom line with Instagram is it’s about engaging people. It’s about commenting, often smart commenting, and those kinds of things engagement and commenting will help people follow you also liking other people, but there’s a whole lot more to it a lot of strategy behind it. So I didn’t mean to be snide by saying it’s around question, but you want to be thinking about multiple pillars. You don’t want all of your business relying on one thing like Facebook has lost 60 million people recently. So what if your business was based on Facebook? You know, would it affect you? It might so if your business is affected by Instagram at one time, and then you have to reinvent yourself another time, you should be doing multiple pillars Anyway, you should be having a lot of different variations on the way that you You, you market yourself? 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 and 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.