Marketing can be very tough! Where do you spend your time or your money? I recently interviewed artists displaying their goods at Art In The Park in Oakville Ontario and while very talented at what they do they struggled with marketing.

For Anna Novakovic it was social media

For photographer Lorraine Bloom it was self promotion in general.

Those two issues go hand in hand for many of us. Which channels should you be on? How much content should you produce? The platforms keep changing so where do you spend your time? These are all questions that artists and business owners have been asking for years. What do you do?

START WITH MARKETING PROGRAM

Social media and marketing actually go hand in hand and you have to think of it as a funnel. How do you get a customer that doesn’t know your name to be introduced to your art, sign up to be contacted by you on a regular basis, and then buy your product?

The social media is the top of the funnel, you’re not trying to sell your art to people you are just letting them know what type of art you do. Choose one or two platforms that you are comfortable using, set up a schedule for how active you plan to be on that platform. Is it once per week, every day? This is your top of line funnel.

Once they know you how do you stay connected with them? Is it through follows or subscribers, a newsletter list, or some other type of name or email capture program. Maybe it’s a mixture of the two. Email is the most preferred as it allows you to have control of the names and promote to them as you see fit.

The last part is encouraging sales and many creatives do this very wrong. This is a game of patience. I see many artists try to sell to people a lot and it turns people off, they appear too hungry. Other artists don’t ask people to buy at all and don’t get the sale. The key is to have a promotion or constant conversations about buying your work without coming across too aggressive. This may include specials on a regular basis, selling at shows, revealing new art as it’s produced. Set goals for yourself for the next year and lay out a plan.

Artist Lori Fonger sets her goals up for the year like this.

Your plan will change based on what area you need to work on in your particular business. I like to start with one area, work on that for a while and then switch to the next area that needs improvement. With that being said it is important to map out the whole marketing program because you may need to reverse engineer it. For instance you may need to decide how many sales you want first, how you will contact a potential client second, then how will get noticed third. The reason for this is you don’t want someone to find you and then not know where to go next.

I outline how I improve my business through the short below.

This is the perfect time of year to begin thinking of what to work on for next year. Start making notes and looking at what worked or didn’t work in the past and create those goals. I wish you luck and make sure you visit the Cashing in on Creativity Podcast for more interviews and tips from artists. If you need help with your marketing program I can help in that area.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a media entrepreneur with multiple podcasts and television shows. He is the author of six books, professional cartoonist, and marketing consultant. His media programs help clients grow their brands and create marketing materials to help their businesses. You can learn more about Bruce and his work at www.bruceoutridge.com