The art business blog visual artists get...since 2005
A few days ago, I announced the publication of my new book, Guerrilla Art Marketing for Artists, on this blog. This is a short follow up for those who would rather watch a short video or would like additional information from me, the author, about what is in the book.
Enjoy!
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The opportunity to seize control of your career is now. Conditions are right, tools are plentiful, art buyers are ready… you should be, too. – Barney Davey
Guerrilla Art Marketing for Artists
I believe securing your art career by building direct relationships with repeat buying collectors is a powerful long-term strategy.
You can get a strong start on ‘fast tracking’ your art career to make it thrive in any economy by implementing the results oriented marketing plans in my new Guerrilla Art Marketing for Artists book.
The Internet and evolving consumer buying habits have forever changed how art (and almost everything else) are marketed and sold.
You already know the old ways of getting art seen and sold are not as effective as they used to be. As in the past, today’s art market poses challenges to artists. What is refreshingly different is you now have the tools to call the shots, to control your destiny, and to reap the rewards.
The new Guerrilla Marketing for Artists: Build a Bulletproof Art Career to Thrive in Any Economy book teaches artists how to gain control of their careers. You will learn how to deploy easy-to-use effective networking and marketing techniques that systematically will create a solid base of collectors who buy from you directly.
It is conceivable during the course of a career a full-time artist can build meaningful relationships with 100 collectors, or more. And, it is realistically estimated a typical full-time artist will make 1,000 original pieces in a lifetime, (33 originals x 30 years). As such, an artist with an established direct buying base of 100, or more, collectors may sell one-third or more of their original works to those patrons. Moreover, many of those dedicated collectors will be the source of invaluable and profitable referrals for the artist.
Artists become immune to the effects of a lousy economy or faltering distribution methods when they form close personal bonds with art buyers. In other words, galleries relationships may come and go, social media platforms may lose their luster, and other channels of selling work may dry up altogether. Meanwhile, those artists who have built direct sales connections with collectors will be the ones who continue to thrive in tough times and will lead the pack in the good times.
The ideas in my book are a result of my observations of years of changes in the art business, and how I have helped artists shape successful careers in response to them.
You start with by implementing these concepts:
When you study Guerrilla Marketing for Artists, you will benefit from my decades long history advising visual artists. I am confident any visual artist can learn how to take the ideas in this book and use them to creative an effective, efficient marketing program that will deliver results.
Each of us only have so much time, money and other resources to pursue our dreams and fulfill our goals. You will discover techniques to help you brainstorm for what is essential to your art career success. You do not have to leave it to chance that you will get to know the right people who can either buy your art, or influence others to buy your art. Just learning the tips and techniques to do this alone puts you miles ahead of your competition.
You will learn how to assess your available resources, and then use that knowledge to help you choose and meet your career goals. You can do almost anything if you have enough time, the right tools and are motivated to complete the tasks. This book is your guide to accomplish your goals.
You will learn how breaking your goals down into small, easily completed incremental steps is how you will stay motivated, and on the right path to get everything you have decided is vital done. There is immense satisfaction in ticking off item after item on your daily to-do lists. By having small steps to take, you will never need to feel overwhelmed by your ambitious goals.
I have often mentioned that, throughout my nearly 30 years in the advertising, marketing and tradeshow business, how I have watched in vain as artists, publishers and other marketers threw away their money on one-shot marketing and advertising opportunities.
You could never afford to market that way, especially now. The methods you will learn to use call for making each part of your marketing strategy support the others to create a powerful, repeated message-marketing juggernaut.
To make your marketing work, you need to have your messages touch your art buyers 7 – 10 times, or more. You will time your messages to have them hit during a specified period, and never just because something new, shiny and ultimately unsuccessful comes along.
A key to your success is synergizing your marketing. Just as guerrillas never fight wars, you make each aspect of your marketing a targeted skirmish. By knowing when your marketing will hit and where it will hit and why you have chosen a specific target or project, you can make everything you do amplify your earlier messages. Moreover, because you use an implemented strategy that will give you enough lead-time on every aspect of your marketing, you can plan and plot to get it done in simple, small steps.
Readers will come away informed, inspired and ready to embrace the powerful concepts in it. There is a lot to learn from my book. I know if you just follow these three strategies, you will achieve substantial benefit from my advice. I am confident when you fully utilize them your career will soar:
This book is not about how to create fantastic art. You already know how to do that.
You can learn how to use guerrilla art marketing strategies that will put you in control of a thriving career. Just as guerrillas use skirmishes instead of full-fledged battles, you will find employing marketing techniques specifically tailored to your business are the best way to get your art seen and sold.
As previously stated, it takes 7 – 10, or more, marketing touches to motivate a potential buyer from interest into taking action. For this reason, implementing a guerrilla marketing master plan is the smart way and the best way to get new buyers without busting your budget.
Creating a bulletproof art career comes down to consistently using the best guerrilla art marketing tools and techniques to present your art to your best prospects with just the right amount of focused touches. Get started now.
As a limited time introductory offer, you can order your copy of Guerrilla Marketing for Artists: Build a Bulletproof Career to Thrive in Any Economy and you will receive a free copy of the my Zen of Selling Art e-book. It comes as an instant download, so you will have something to read while your book is being shipped. (It is a $9.95 value)
As a really cool savings, when you can order your copy for $19.95, plus shipping, you are getting a nice 20% discount off the full price, and your e-book free. This is an introductory price, so grab it now and save.
Get Started on Bulletproofing You r Art Career Today!
ACT NOW! This special price and e-book bonus are only offered for a limited time.
Full price is $24.95 (And, you save $9.95 on your e-book.)
You get both books for only $19.95! plus shipping.
You can download your FREE Chapter on Traditional Marketing to gain some insight on what’s in the book, or get started reading while your book is en route to you. CLICK HERE to get your free chapter from the Guerrilla Art Marketing for Artists: Build a Bulletproof Art Career to Thrive in Any Economy book.
If you could not make the podcast with Jason Horejs on the importance of email marketing for artists, you can watch it on YouTube now. Here it is:
Today, websites are standard issue, meaning you must have one. For most artists, regularly posting to a blog is an important way to build followers. Both are great tools to help build your email marketing list. An active email list is your best art marketing tool to help you sell art, and when it comes time to value your business, it can add real, intrinsic asset to your business.
Every one of your marketing tools should have the goal of driving traffic to your website and blog. Sure, they can multipurpose to help you earn interest in your work, traffic to gallery openings or shows, and many other things, but you need to include using them to help you build your email marketing list.
Barney’s new book, Guerrilla Marketing for ArtistsLearn more at barneydavey.com
www.xanadugallery.com/mentorship
Steadily increasing art sales is how you make your business thrive. Among the many ways you can promote your art, email marketing for artists ranks at the top.
Selling art becomes easier and more reliable when artists uses email marketing. With steadily increasing art sales, your business thrives.
Artists today have more tools than ever for selling art and to increase recognition, and stimulate interest in their work. There are so many ways to market art, deciding what to do is difficult.
There is print advertising, publicity, press releases, direct mail, and other traditional methods. Then there are digital media such as websites, blogs, and email marketing and social media. No one will blame you if you feel overwhelmed trying to figure out what you should do.
While I believe artists should use every tool they can to the extent they have the resources to use them wisely, the truth is getting every option working is not possible. To achieve outstanding results selling art, artists must choose which marketing tools they will primarily use.
Websites are essential, blogging is highly recommended, and both will help build your email marketing list. A workable email list is the best tool you have for selling art, and is a valuable bottom line asset to your business.
As a business and marketing tool, social media serves only one purpose for artists. It is digital networking. If you fail to understand the role of social media, it can become a colossal waste of your time, and money. Use social media to drive traffic to your blog and website where you can capture email addresses.
Every one of your marketing tools should have the goal of driving traffic to your website and blog. Sure, they can multipurpose to help you earn interest in your work, traffic to gallery openings or shows, and many other things, but you need to include using them to help you build your email marketing list.
Although it takes many different parts of a marketing puzzle to keep selling art at a steady or increasing pace, one element that reliably will make you the most money over time is your email marketing. That is why Jason Horejs, owner of Xanadu Gallery and I are presenting
a free podcast on email marketing for artists.
Both Jason and I have cultivated extensive mailing lists. In this podcast, we will share how we have built our lists, and how we use them to add value to our followers and increase traffic. We also will provide strategies and tools you for you to learn about so you can better integrate email marketing as a key strategy for selling art.
Have questions about how to use email marketing? Are you already effectively using email marketing techniques or tools. Share your questions and experience by emailing jason@xanadugallery.com.Register now (free) to secure your spot. Don’t worry if you can’t tune in live, Xanadu will provide you a download link for later listening.A note about start time: Because listeners are registering from all across the country (and a number from around the globe) start time always causes confusion. There is just one broadcast and it begins at 4:00 p.m. Arizona- this corresponds to 4:00 Pacific, 5:00 Mountain, 6:00 Central and 7:00 Eastern. Check the chart below for your start time.
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Email marketing for artists
Among the many ways to build a loyal following and sell art direct to collectors, none is better or more effective than email marketing.
As a visual artist, if you have not yet embraced the power of email marketing, there is no better time than now to get started.
Begin building an email marketing subscriber list of patrons, fans, friends and followers that you can communicate with on your own terms. To any small business, a responsive email marketing list is a tremendous, tangible bottom line asset.
Avoid using spammy words – free, help, percent off, reminder – these words, especially if repeated can trigger spam filters and trigger your email to cut delivery. Your email provider should have a checking system for you to evaluate your copy for potential spam problems. Make sure you use it.P.S. For those inquiring minds, there is a difference between open rates and click rates in email marketing for artists. Open rates are the percentage of your subscribers who actually open an email sent to them from you.
Click rates are the percentage of readers who have opened your email, and who then click on a link in your email. This could be to an email sign up form, such as CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE. As an artist, having links to product pages on your website where a buyer can order one something from you is a brilliant idea.
Subscribe here for more ideas on how to get the most from your email marketing. You also will get notification when Jason Horejs and I will be presenting a new podcast email marketing for artists. It is coming to you very soon. Here are links to previous posts in this ongoing series on email marketing for artists:
To see far is one thing, to go there is another. ~ Constantin Brancusi
Goals are the glue to make dreams and vision reality.
There is great power in knowing what you want your art career to become in the future. Using goals helps you take control and shape your career.
Successful goal setting comes by deeply thinking about your ideal art career, which helps clarify what you want and how you will get there. Career success comes by planning and completing small intermediate tasks that lead to achieving your highest art career goals. You can have the career you desire.
High performers in every endeavor use goal-setting techniques. When your goals come from the heart and mind, they become wishes with intentions. Sharply defined goals provide the motivation to coordinate your actions and resources, and gain the necessary knowledge to realize your goals.
Your goals, when broken down into easily achievable steps, become manageable and frees you from just running your career by reacting to things around you. They give you milestones you can use to celebrate having reached them. More importantly, by steadily progressing towards your larger goals, you gain increased confidence in your growing expertise and competency to master your art career and fulfill your all of your aspirations for it.
You start with what you want to achieve in your lifetime, or some long-range time such as 10 years from now. You will use this perspective to make decisions and take actions on all levels of your goals. Using your big picture goal informs your decisions on what are your shorter-range goals. Achieving your goals on all levels requires planning and persistence.
There is so much more to goal setting than can be covered in a single blog post. That is why there are countless books, programs and coaches pursuing helping others to set and achieve their goals. I encourage you to become proactive with your art career by studying goal setting techniques and using them to help you fulfill your art career dreams and aspirations.
Here are some books in the goal setting and motivation category. Many are evergreen and have been reprinted many times. Reading any of them are sure to enrich your life. You may find some as free downloads by searching for them:
It is sponsored by Xanadu Gallery. Please join me when I present it live on Tuesday, April 30 and Saturday, May 4. There will be a recording for those who cannot make the live broadcast.
While we will cover much more than goal setting, I believe having concrete goals is the only way to develop a marketing strategy that artists can use to make the most of their careers. To learn more about the webinar, or to register click on this banner:
Art Marketing Webinar - Register Today!
I don’t know how you feel about securing your art career by building direct relationships with repeat buying collectors, but to me, that’s a pretty good definition of a perfect strategy.
If you are interested in ‘fast tracking’ your way to building an art career that will thrive in any economy by implementing a results oriented marketing plan, then you’ll want to read every single word in this message. Here’s why…
The Internet and evolving consumer buying habits have forever changed how art and almost everything else are marketed and sold. Old school ways of getting art seen and sold are not as effective as before. Meanwhile, unlike previous generations, you have the tools and market conditions to build a bulletproof art career where you call the shots and reap the rewards.
Please consider taking part in this new interactive live webinar. It is about your success and ultimate freedom as an artist. Imagine learning how to master affordable art-marketing strategies that actually work!
For artists who read my books and blog posts, or have taken my other workshops, or listened to the regular art business and art marketing podcasts presented by my good friend and colleague, Jason Horejs, and me, you know I am a wellspring of ideas on ways to help artists succeed. Someone once said trying to capture and use all those ideas was like trying to drink from a fire hose. Realizing this, I will focus on making sure you get these three key takeaways.
While I guarantee you will get your full money’s worth of powerful concepts by taking my webinar, I want you to focus on coming away informed and inspired and ready to take effective action on these three strategies. That’s because I know when you do your career will soar:
I can’t teach you how to make fantastic art. You already know how to do that.
You can learn how to use guerrilla art marketing strategies that will put you in control of a thriving career. Just as guerrillas use skirmishes instead of full-fledged battles, you will find employing marketing techniques specifically tailored to your business are the best way to get your art seen and sold.
On average, it takes 7 – 10, or more, marketing touches to move a prospective buyer from interest into taking action. For this reason, implementing a guerrilla marketing master plan is the smart way to get new buyers without busting your budget. Creating a bulletproof art career comes down to consistently using the best guerrilla art marketing tools and techniques to present your art to your best prospects with just the right amount of focused touches.
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Register Today
Many artists I meet seem to overlook they are small business owners and entrepreneurs. It is logical to a point.
Few other, if any, entrepreneurs live by continually creating something beautiful and evocative from their imagination and then find a way to get it sold.
It’s not surprising artists think differently about their work and their businesses. While most small businesses are selling services or products, few require the creativity of the artist and almost all have a shelf life as opposed to the art, which is destined to outlive the artist.
Still, to build a successful art career, artists must learn the basics of operating a small business. They need to know who their buyers are, how to reach them with marketing messages, and ultimately how to get collectors to buy their work.
All small businesses operate to a degree on word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising. This simply is the best way to get new clients. It also is the hardest, especially for new businesses. WOM happens after a business is established and has a proven record of accomplishment with its satisfied clientele.
At the heart of the success of every small business is an effective marketing strategy. Study the business aspects of any successful art career and you will find the marketing that helps drive sales and awareness.
It is true that it has always been challenging to build a successful art career. What is different now is that artists have more freedom, and more tools, to forge a career where they sell direct to collectors. Not that long ago, for artists to shun working exclusively with galleries and publishers was verboten and considered career suicide. At the least, it was a risky and expensive way to build a career.
Before the advent of the Internet and the variety of powerful and affordable digital marketing tools, and a change in consumer buying habits, the only artists who made it on their own were either well financed with deep pockets, extremely lucky or doggedly persistent beyond the pale of most artists’ ability to perform.
Things are different now. I believe it is crucial for artists to seize control of their career. They should be seeking to establish direct selling relationships with as many buyers as possible. For the first time, artists are can be in charge of their careers without having to be dependent on galleries, publishers or dealers to get their work to market.
I wholeheartedly believe there is freedom and motivation to do business in the traditional style with galleries and dealers, but rather than that being the primary method of selling one’s work, it should be the lesser. In other words, it is the best time to carry your own water. Your art career success is too important to rely on anyone but you to make it happen.
If you haven’t begun to think about the best ways to help you incorporate the best of traditional marketing with the newer digital marketing methods to build your career, you need to get started on it right away. It is your future.
My good friend and frequent art marketing collaborator, Jason Horejs, owner of Xanadu Gallery, is the sponsor of my new art marketing webinar:
I invite you to attend my Guerrilla Marketing for Artists webinar. It clears the jungle path ahead of you, gives you the cutting edge, “what’s working now” tactics you need, and, most importantly, helps you avoid the dangers and pitfalls along your path.
1. Set realistic goals that equal your resources
2. Identify your best prospects
3. Create direct sales channels to your collectors
4. Employ powerful marketing tools matched to your capabilities
5. Act on a plausible plan to achieve your goals
You are invited! This is your special invitation to participate in an exclusive marketing seminar designed to put you on the path of reaching your sales and marketing goals. By taking this unique workshop, you will gain valuable art marketing wisdom and practical solutions to help you get your career moving up the right track.
Create marketing magic to get your work seen and sold
Discover art-marketing tools that will help you get your art seen and sold. You will learn how to simplify, streamline, and manage your marketing processes. You also will learn how to attaining satisfying, consistent results by identifying your top prospects and pitching to them multiple times with coordinated marketing methods.
Sometimes we think others were just born with some kind of magic “entrepreneurial lobe” of their brain.
They weren’t.
At one time, every artist started where you are right now.
By coordinating marketing tools and activities, you will produce the greatest return on your investment and efforts. You will learn how to harness the power of your marketing and the importance of frequent and repeated exposure to your target audience. You will learn to create marketing magic.
Did you know that, on average, it takes seven or more marketing touches to convert a prospect into a buyer? I will teach you how to focus the marketing tools at your disposal and how to increase your sales without spending more time or money on marketing.
The Guerilla Marketing for Artists webinar will help you choose the right art marketing tools and techniques for your art career. You will learn how to break down your marketing processes so you can utilize the components most valuable to you. By emphasizing what works best, you will vastly improve your results.
In this intensive workshop, you will learn how to:
• Determine what is most valuable to you in your career
• Develop a list of prospects worth pursuing
• Bulletproof your career through networking and referrals
• Mix online marketing, social media and traditional art marketing for exceptional results
• Coordinate your marketing to wring the best return from every dollar you spend on it
and much more . . .
The times are Pacific Daylight. If you can’t make it live, register anyway, there will be a free download for all registrants.
My new book, Guerrilla Marketing for Artists, will be available very soon. As a workshop attendee, you will receive a special discount on the book and additional, exclusive, art marketing bonuses.
Hey check that out, it’s really cool! Author being distracted while composing this post.
If you answered yes, you are not alone. This occurrence happens to many folks, especially visual artists. Because the unattended mind is a source of imagination, it is inevitable.
Of course, bright shiny object is a metaphor for ADD, or just have a wandering and wondering, curious mind. I am as guilty as the next person for letting intriguing things cause me to lose focus.
As with many things in life, there is a balance point where differing interests meet and good results follow. For instance, while all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, all play and no work makes Jack a poor boy. Somewhere in the middle is the balance that produces the best outcome in most situations.
I think the right mix of productivity and creativity is at the heart of most art business success. Ignore one at the peril of the other. Examine the business lives of most top selling artists and you will find this balanced dynamic in play.
Recently, my sister inspired me with the announcement she has a new mentor and is involved in a social networking community of musical artists, aka “Tribe”, who also work with the mentor. They work on supporting each other’s career aspirations. I am so happy for her to have found herself in a nurturing environment.
In sharing her experiences with me, she gave me a link to a blog post from TheImagist.com. It is titled, Thomas Keller On Why Passion Shouldn’t Drive You. I encourage you to read the short essay, for those in a hurry, here is Keller’s (He is a culinary expert.) premise:
It’s not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it’s about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then you’ll be a great cook. If it’s only about passion, sometimes you’ll be good and sometimes you won’t. You’ve got to come in every day with a strong desire. With passion, if you see the first asparagus of the springtime and you become passionate about it, so much the better, but three weeks later, when you’ve seen that asparagus every day now, passions have subsided. What’s going to make you treat the asparagus the same? It’s the desire.
I think bright shiny objects with their allure can engender passion, but rarely are they the trigger for desire. If passion is creativity, then desire is ambition. When ambition and passion exist in abundance then productivity and success ensue.
Creativity often requires taking the road less traveled. Productivity is learning to stay focused even as you enjoy bright shiny objects when you encounter them. The key is to not let their lure pull you off the road less traveled.
Learn to be honest with yourself. Take stock of whether your career has the right mix of creativity and productivity. If you have a deficiency in either, stop what you are doing and work on getting your balance back. You will be glad you did.
New book coming soon - subscribe to be notified
Last week, you learned my new book, Guerrilla Marketing for Artists: How to Build a Bulletproof Career to Thrive in Any Economy, is near ready for distribution. To coincide with its availability, Xanadu Gallery is sponsoring a new workshop on the same topic and title. Stay tuned for announcements about both projects.
If you are not receiving this blog via email, you can use this link to Subscribe Now.
The podcast download is available now. Go to: https://s3.amazonaws.com/WorkshopBroadcasts/BrandingForArtists/20130409Branding.wmv
The reason why personal branding is important is easy. If you fail to brand yourself, someone else will do it for you, and most likely the results will not be to your satisfaction.
Gary Vaynerchuk is a social media evangelist, and author of two New York Times bestselling books, Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
Case in point is Wyland, the marine artist who dropped his first name from everything associated with his art career. In the art world, he is Wyland. He is a brand on a rather grand scale for a living artist.
New book coming soon – subscribe to get details.
The copy you are reading here is taken directly from my new Guerrilla Marketing for Artists: How to Build a Bulletproof Art Career to Thrive in Any Economy. An announcement about its availability will be soon. Readers of this blog will be the first to know. If you are not a subscriber, sign up now to get notified and to receive updates to this blog.
Also look for an announcement about a new webinar on the topic of Guerrilla Marketing for Artists. Go to http://x.co/barney to join the list. Tell your friends about it, too!
You may not be able to emulate Wyland by painting 100 whaling walls on buildings all around the globe, or have an image on a California license plate that collects additional fees for marine conservation groups, but that should not stop you from letting his branding techniques inspire and inform you. Start with what you have and work outward, remaining consistent with your message, your mission and your style. Ask yourself how you can use your art, and possibly your status, to change the world around you.
The saying, “Fake it until you make it” has some truth to it. If you do not learn to take giant steps that move you outside your comfort range and push you to achieve new things, it is extremely difficult to grow as an artist, and as a person. Faking it does not mean being a fake. You need to be truly authentic in what you do and how you present yourself. Faking it in this context simply means you are learning on the fly and sometimes only one-step ahead of your audience and benefactors.
Properly applied, personal branding is a powerful tool for artists. Artists have the ability to take full advantage of creative options to define themselves and their art businesses. Learn how you can decipher your own personal style. Use it to develop an overarching iconic look to your marketing to help create new awareness and interest in your work.
A personal brand is a story about you. It is what others say to describe you. If you accept you have a brand, and you do whether you believe it or not, you can use the knowledge to influence how the story is told. Think of what people say to describe you when your name slips their mind. When that happens, it is your brand doing the talking.
Join art marketing and art business experts Barney Davey (artprintissues.com) and Jason Horejs (xanadugallery.com) as they discuss how personal branding. They will cover how branding is something any artist can use to help generate greater interest in their work and themselves.
Have questions about using personal branding? Are you using personal branding in unique ways to grow your art business? Share your questions and experience by emailing jason@xanadugallery.com
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Download Chapter One FREE
