Mind-Shifting Marketing Ideas for Your Art Business
Episode #296 | Art by Lee White
Are you marketing your art all wrong? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Anthony Wheeler discuss how to turn followers into customers (without cheap gimmicks).
SHOW LINKS
Mitchel Swain-Resevsky: How to Make Your Next 6 Figures in 6 Months Selling Fine Art Prints
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Give every artwork multiple lives to increase your streams of income.
Scarcity increases the perception of value and the pressure to act. Use it to your advantage in marketing.
Sell a story, not a product.
Be intentional; marketing is a skill that anyone can develop. Don’t leave your results up to luck!
SUMMARY
Do you market your work with strategy, or with hopes and prayers?
We creatives like to focus on the fun work and hope advertising and selling take care of themselves, but we pay for our lack of intentionality with low sales, poor engagement, and flopped projects. As free-spirited as we’d like to be, a little strategy goes a long way. We looked at artist Mitchel Swain-Resevsky’s advice and discovered that deliberate marketing yields deeper human connections, increased sales, and a more predictable and sustainable career.
So, what does marketing entail? Well, it doesn’t mean posting and hoping you go viral; there’s much less luck and much more intentionality involved. First, educate your audience. Rather than blasting them with surprise announcements on launch week, prime them in the weeks and months beforehand. Tell them the story behind your product or project, give them a glimpse of work behind the scenes, and help them understand why this work is special. Remove barriers to purchasing by giving framing and display ideas and sharing shipping and sizing info early so no questions are left unanswered.
Post more than you think you should. “Going viral” isn’t a strategy, but consistency is, and the more you share, the more top-of-mind and discoverable you become. Build trust with your audience by sharing your story and showing past work. Establish your credibility and worthiness before you ask for their dollars.
Give every product multiple lives. We’ve been advocating this for years: every original piece can be repurposed into prints and other products to expand your income streams.
Create deadlines for buyers. If your offerings are always available, there’s no pressure for prospective customers to bite the bullet and buy. Having a hard cut-off helps them take action.
Did these tips open your eyes to anything you could do differently? Let us know your next marketing move in the comments!
