Art Career Success Requires Making Goals

March 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Your Art Career Success Requires Goal Planning and Strategy

Goal planning is a key to art career success

Goal planning is a key to art career success

Setting goals is essential the success of your art career, just as it is with any business, large or small.

The adage, “Failing to plan is planning to fail” is a truism that holds up well because it offers inescapable common sense. Strategic planning makes for art career success.

Happy Easter – Happy Passover!

Due to this being a holiday weekend,  and with other things I am working on in my own career needing immediate attention, I am replaying this art career goal setting post for you. Whether you caught this post the first time around, or are reading it anew, practicing goal setting and then working  on your plans to accomplish them is the key to your success as a visual artist.

Newsflash: My New Book Available Very Soon!

The book is titled Guerrilla Marketing for Artists: How to Create a Thriving Art Career in Any Economy.Because I believe it will has the potential to have a major, positive impact on your art career, after months of preparation, I am excited about completing it and having the chance to offer it to you.

The book is getting its finishing touches this weekend. It then goes for typesetting and to the printer to make ready for proof copies. A mid-April shipping date is anticipated. Watch this blog and your inbox for an announcement coming for its availability.

Goal Planning Is an Integral Part of Success for Any Endeavor.

If you are going to climb a mountain, work on wining an Olympic medal, or want to turn your art career into a powerhouse that matches your aspirations for it, you have to start with goals. Study the art career of any successful visual artist. You will find they use some form of goal setting to help them make informed career decisions and to drive their art career to match their ambition for it.

Setting Art Career Goals Is Critical to Your Success As a Visual Artist.

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. ~ Lewis Carroll

 Do You Have Art Career Goals, or a Hobby?

As a visual artist and a creative entrepreneur, you must have clear goals for what you want to happen in your art career? Your goals should be realistic and prioritized with workable plans for reaching them. Otherwise, you have a hobby, not an art career.

I have a visual artist friend whose ultimate career goal is for her sculpture to become part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Everything she does is driven by that singular goal.

One Ambitious Artist’s Goals

Does she have other goals? Of course, but in one way or the other, they all feed towards her primary goal. These include:

  • Steadily increasing sales and value of her artwork.
  • Representation by top galleries internationally.
  • Respect from her peers, art critics and art collectors both for the value of her work and for her unique artistic vision.

Those are lofty goals for any artist. To be fair, I think they are not realistic for many artists. Anyone can say they want their work to be found in MoMA or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, or some other highly prestigious and elite place, but few have all the necessary ingredients to make good on such a goal. Your idea of What Is Success might be quite different.

Learning to Assess and Evaluate Your Art Career Goals Is a Process

Being able to honestly and accurately assess the value and quality of what you do is a gift. It comes easier to some artists than others. However, if you have worked at making art for a few years, you should have a decent take on where your work fits in the art world.

In my bestselling (Amazon.com “Business of Art” & “Prints” categories) book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market 2nd Edition, I devote a chapter to Goals and Vision. If you are interested, you can download Chapter One here for free. In it, I challenge my readers to seriously ask themselves what they want to achieve from their artist career.

In the book I declare from an art marketing and sales perspective there are only three art career choices:

  1. Full-time artist.
  2. Part-time artist
  3. Hobbyist

These are choices, of which there is no bad choice. It is simply a personal decision by the artist to determine what makes the most sense for them. Basically, hobbyists can paint or create whatever they want whenever they want.

For those who aspire to be a full-time artists, or to make a serious part-time career, which is the initial most realistic route for many artists, then having clear goals and a workable plan to execute around those goals is necessary.

Goals Are Essential Building Blocks to Success

Solid goals form the foundation upon which an art career is built. They act as a guiding light to help artists make the best choices for actions they need to take to keep their art career moving forward. Things change in our lives and in our business, as such goals are fungible meaning they need to be exchanged or replaced as necessary to keep your art career on track.

It is easier if you break your goals down in time. For instance, setting five-year, one-year and quarterly goals makes adequate planning for each period possible and realistic; you might wish to amend this suggestion to add longer or shorter time frames, such as a ten-year goal, or having monthly, even weekly goals.

Here is a five-step plan to help you get in creating realistic goals for your art career.

Use S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Art Career Success

Use S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Art Career Success

  1.  Determine Your Goals. Take the time to figure out what is important to you and your family. Use the Goldilocks theory and make them neither too hard nor too easy, but just right for your situation.
  2. Prioritize Your Goals. Your priorities will be for what is most important what is doable now versus what is doable as a future goal.
  3. Create a S.M.A.R.T Action Plan. Smart is well-known goal setting acronym.Read this informative blog post for more details and insights on using it:
    S = Specific
    M = Measurable
    A = Attainable
    R = Realistic
    T = Timely 
  4. Revisit & Assess Your Goals & Actions. Get it on your calendar. Set aside the time to routinely review your goals and your success in achieving them. In time, you will know if are on track, or need to revise your plans to align with the reality of your situation. Maybe you have had a breakthrough, or maybe you have had a setback. That’s life. Just learn to adjust and keep moving forward. 
  5. Share Your Success. Share your success with others. Share it with yourself. When you achieve a milestone, let others know you have gotten there. Take the time to enjoy your achievement, and share your success with others. Show them how you got there, or share your goal planning techniques, so they can emulate what you have done. It’s a big world, do not worry that sharing your success techniques will somehow diminish your sales capapcity. It is far more likely through the act of sharing that more goodwill and business will come your way.

 If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. ~ Albert Einstein

The better you plan, the easier it is becomes to breakdown the necessary steps you need to take to advance your art career. You can enjoy great success on your own terms when you make realistic achievable plans and use your determination to follow through on the steps you outline in your plan.

Filed Under: Art Business

Fine Art Photographer Bob Killen Interviews Barney Davey

March 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A Wisdom Interview With An Art Marketing Pro

A Hard Sunday Ground - Bob Killen

A Hard Sunday Ground – Bob Killen

Who wouldn’t be flattered to be the subject of an interview with the above lead headline?

I am both flattered and honored to have a fine art photographer and educator of Bob Killen’s stature take his time to get inside my head for the benefit of other artists. You can read the interview on this link.

Bob Asks Tough Questions

You can see a list of the tough questions Bob asks below. He definitely was digging for useful information about the fine art photography market, the print market, art marketing and social media. I did my best to give answers that will help other artists. Take a few minutes to learn why I find Bob such a dynamic figure on so many levels.

Bob Killen Is a Tour de Force

Steve Jobs said: “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?” If you look into the work of Bob Killen, you will find his dent in the universe. He is a photographer extraordinaire and an accomplished artist with a wonderful eye for composition and color. More than that, he has a subject about which he deeply cares, which are public wildlands. He is also a cancer survivor with a motivating story to tell about his battle with it.

Use Your Fine Art Photography or Visual Artistry to Raise Public Awareness to Preserve the Mojave Desert

Bob has devoted much of his professional life, art and artistry to raising public awareness about the consequences on wildlands due to the conscious choices the public makes regarding them. In the past several years, he has focused on exploring and making images from the Mojave Desert.

Not content to photograph the magnificent desert himself, he became the first Artist in Residence for Mojave National Preserve. Today as an Artist Guide, he actively recruits photographers and painters to the worthy Mojave National Preserves Artists in Residence Program.  As he says, “We are seeking fine art image-makers, (photography and paint) to explore the Mojave National Preserve with their cameras and canvas. For the artist in residence program we seek artists whose work will capture and preserve the meaning of the Mojave National Preserve, but whose aesthetic sense stirs a deep measure of artistic affect within the viewer.”  If this describes you, contact him at: AIR@bobkillen.com.

Learn Photography, Photoshop and Fine Art Marketing from the Best

When Bob is not working on his professional and personal fine art photography projects, you will find him fully entrenched in a teaching capacity. Besides teaching fine art photography to all levels, he is an Adobe Certified Trainer. I recommend you subscribe to his blog to keep up with all he offers fine art photographers and fans of fine art photography.

Calumet UniversityCalumet Photo Supports Bob’s Fine Art Photography Education Activities

Bob is closely associated with Calumet Photo, one of the leading online photography supply stores with global retail locations. He is instrumental in its Calumet University. It provides in-depth learning experiences for photographers who want to advance their skills, creative vision and technical expertise.

Here Are the Questions Bob Asked Barney Davey:

  • How did you become interested in the art industry?
  • In the last several years you have begun to follow fine art photography as well as painters, and the Giclee print movement. How do all of these mediums relate to each other?
  • Fine Art Galleries are beginning to sell online in conjunction with their bricks and mortar stores. How do you feel this online component will affect fine art photographers in terms of opportunities?
  • Fine Art Photography and Paintings sell because of their subject, interpretation, and the tactile qualities or sense of surface and touch. How can photographers portray these qualities in an online environment?
  • What should a new artist do first to enter the market? (emphasize fine art photography as well as other mediums.)
  • Social media has quickly evolved as a major market force for all things including art. How do fine art photographers and other artists harness social media?
  • Many artists shun social media because of the time commitment. Is there a method or madness to manage that artists can adopt to manage their social media time?
  • It is apparent to us that story, narrative, and human interest elements about the art and artists has become a major factor in developing an audience for an artist’s work. Given that, how important is it for an artist to have a blog? What is the best way for an artist to learn to develop his or her blog? Should artists consider using a blog service?
  • We give you the final word. Tell us what is on your mind and what artists should consider today for a better sales future tomorrow.

Read My Answers Here:

Read Bob Killen’s newest blog post, Barney Davey Speaks with Bob Killen here to find my answers to Bob’s questions above.

Get started making money in the print market

Get started making money in the print market

Filed Under: Art Business, Art Marketing, Fine Art Photography Tagged With: , , , ,

Art Careers | Becoming a Corporate Art Consultant

March 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Rewarding art careers happen.

Henry Moore's Large Reclining Figure, Kew Gardens, London.

Henry Moore’s Large Reclining Figure, Kew Gardens, London. Creative Commons Use

When it comes to art careers, there are more ways to put your passion and creative talent to work creating work than you imagine, including becoming a corporate art consultant.

In conversations about art careers, painters and sculptors naturally are the jobs most think of first. However, they are far from the last or least way to enjoy a full-time art career.

Art Careers Are Not Limited to Artists.

The visual arts field takes armies of people with varying talents and interests to make it on the grand scale upon which it operates. Art careers abound as teachers, marketers, gallery owners, picture framers, curators, print publishers, critics, journalists, fine art printmakers, giclee printers and a myriad of other talents and skills. I think one of the unique art careers often overlooked is that of corporate art consultant. In this unique profession, practitioners either seek or are sought to take on the role of choosing what art is chosen and placed in commercial buildings.

Art Is All Around Us When You Start Noticing.

As a visual artist, you probably recognize and are more sensitive to art in public places than the average consumer may. Even with your heightened senses, you probably don’t think about the massive amounts of art that is used to enhance commercial buildings.

Understanding How Corporate Art Gets Placed Is An Art Career Opportunity.

The types of buildings and businesses span a wide swath of our everyday lives. If you go to work in an office building, it likely has art placed on the interior public and private places. Many such buildings also display art in exterior spaces. The rest of us who do not commute to some office building still encounter art as we move through our normal daily lives. You will find art in banks, medical offices, restaurants, spas, resorts, hotels, churches, synagogues, and more. Pretty much, it’s everywhere you go.

Oftentimes It Comes Down to Who You Know.

Artists who develop a relationship with a corporate art buyer can potentially help their art careers. Such a relationship is not a guarantee that your work will end up in a corporate setting, but it has to help if there is a need for the type of art you create. I talk about networking on a regular basis with the idea of specifically meeting those who can help your career. Corporate art consultants are a perfect example of a desired contact.

Art Career: Corporate Art Consultant

Art Career: Corporate Art Consultant

Occupied by Artists.

Artists occupy many of the art-related professions mentioned above. It makes sense that some fine artists would find a satisfying art career on the business side of the art market. If you are interested in either becoming a corporate art consultant, or just want to understand the nature of their business, then you need to read Becoming A Corporate Art Consultant. It is a slim volume full of big ideas. More importantly, it gives the reader the complete low down on what it takes to become a corporate art consultant.

Markoff’s Book Is Useful, Practical and to the Point.

Barbara Markoff is the author. Her book is loaded with the kind of advice that comes from years of personal experience doing the job. Her daily work involves tasks that positively affect art careers. Markoff has successfully worked as a corporate art consultant for nearly 30 years. She and her husband, Rob, also run a topnotch retail picture framing business in San Diego, California.

Picking up Markoff’s tips of the trade make the book a must read

Certainly, you may first be an artist in your heart and soul, but if your bank account tells you that you need to find another way to make ends meet, then working to become a corporate art consultant may be just the ticket for you. Art careers can be enjoyable and rewarding from many different aspects of the business.

Information and insight are keys to becoming smarter at art marketing

So, whether you want to gain valuable insights to help you decide if you should pursue becoming a corporate art consultant, or whether you should more aggressively pursue corporate art consultants to help further your own art career, then you should read this book. Either way, I highly recommend it!

Filed Under: Art Business

Email Marketing for Artists | 10 Ways to Create Content | Part Four

March 9, 2013 by 5 Comments

In Email Marketing for Artists, Content Is King

Email marketing for artists

Content is key to email marketing for artists success

Email marketing for artists is a must for any comprehensive strategy designed to develop a successful art career.

To be effective, your email marketing newsletters and messages need new, stimulating, and relevant content. As with all successful endeavors, planning and focus are keys to success.

Organization & Planning = More Success & Less Stress.

Email marketing for artists is the same as for any other business. When the deadline to start writing comes, having your content ready is how to avoid stress and reduce how long it takes to compose your article. Rushing to find last minute news and ideas for your content creates anxiety and wastes time and money.

Create an Email Marketing for Artists Content Keeping Systems.

Evernote is the best way for clipping online content. It helps you quickly and easily capture and organize anything you find online. Microsoft One Note also is a convenient info organization tool. You can print any document from your computer to it, and you can copy and paste information from the Internet into it. It is old school, but if it works for you, keeping a physical folder with ideas for content is better than nothing.

Content Is King.

The goal for your email marketing for artists strategy is simple. Engage your subscribers with content that keeps them involved and excited. You want subscribers to anticipate receiving your email newsletters, and to enjoy your content.

It’s About You, Just Not All About You.

Use a mix of information about you and your art, including noteworthy news, which could be either personal or professional. Write about your current projects, events, sales, and promotions along with other enticing tidbits of useful, entertaining items of interest. Of course, your email marketing for artists content needs to about you. Nevertheless, the more you incorporate content not specific to you that both interests and intrigues your subscribers, the more your readers will be eager receive and read your messages.

Here are 10 suggestions for producing innovative and relevant content:

  1. Video content is powerful. If you are already creating short videos to help you standout with your audience, put them in your newsletter. A great way is to insert a tightly cropped screenshot image from the video.  Then link the image to the streaming service, such as YouTube, where it is uploaded. This avoids the problem of subscribers’ email programs filtering embedded videos.
  2. Special Deals. Provide exclusive invitations or offers only available to newsletter subscribers. Make it pay for them.
  3. Ongoing Useful Content. Add a regular “Tips for Art Collectors” as a fun, ongoing component of your newsletter. A few suggestions  are how to hang art, how to care for art, the placement of art, framing or re-framing art, storage, shipping, consignment, and how to use the secondary art market.
  4. Guest posters. They will add a different perspective or expertise to keep your art marketing content stimulating. These guests could include other artists, a picture framer, a museum curator, another art collector, or the organizer of the show where you exhibit.
  5. Relevant news rules. Use news about you, your local art community, or the whole art community to involve your readers. Ask for feedback. Set up alerts on Google Alerts for topics you believe would attract your readers. Including one for your name, and business name if different, helps you learn what others are saying about you.
  6. Resources for ideas are abundant. Keep up on news, trends, events and opinions. The New York Times Art & Design and Huff Post Arts & Culture pages are rich resources for your email marketing story ideas.
  7. Keep up with your competition. When it comes to email marketing for artists, it is necessary to know what other artists are doing. If you find something valuable, you can link to it, or write your own art marketing content to add your opinion and perspective. If it’s content is important to you, for instance  funding arts in education, your new post citing the original post will extend the messages and keep the drum beat going. Notify the the original author to let them know you linked to their copy, it might be cause for a prized link back your content.
  8. Hang out in the same online spots as your buyers. Use these sources for research first and communication second. Follow your buyers to find the groups and communities where they hang out. See what topics are trending within those groups. Perhaps there is a charity or activity you were not aware of that is relevant to them. Never be a phony. However, if you are like-minded feature their interests in your art-marketing newsletter, or contribute to their cause and recommend it in your newsletter.
  9. Get personal. For some of us, it is easy to share stories from our personal lives. Do not despair if that is not you. Draw parallels from third party examples. It could be anything that inspires you. If you are into the classics where you learned a lesson, perhaps something that deeply moved you from seeing or reading Les Miserables or Anna Karenina. Relate how you life, art or business was  affected. Talk about how it informed or inspired your newest works. Sharing at this level is compelling, especially when your art and creative process are included.
  10. Use keyword and trend tools. They help you get inside the thoughts of your best customers and prospects. Use the Google Adwords Keywords and the Wordtracker Free Keyword tools to build a list of the way your customers search to find art and artists. Layer your research using the Google Trends tool. The point is when you know what your collectors and prospects are looking and searching for, you can build your content around their interests. That is much more effective than guessing or you publishing around what your interests are; hopefully you will find much common ground to work. As with many points listed here, using keyword and trend tool research could be the subject of a lengthy post on its own. Recently, I  used Google Trends to help illustrate a recent blog post. You can read it here: Canvas Prints versus Art Prints | What Terms Are You Using?

There Is a Wealth of Information from Search Engines.

Doing your own research for art marketing newsletter ideas and suggestions will result in many more helpful suggestions you can use to make your newsletter copy sparkle. Just as with making art, the more you do it, the more your expertise will improve.

You will find a myriad of items you can include in your newsletter. Never forget that the primary purpose of email marketing for artists is to spur interest in you and your art, and lead to sales. Make sure you have links to pages where your readers can find your art and buy it online.

Make a Schedule and Stick to It.

Commit to sending your newsletter at least monthly. Any less than that and your list will become stale, and your reader interest will wane. It is too precious to let that happen.

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How to Profit from the Art Print Market book

Get your work in the print market – Order Your Copy Today

Filed Under: Art Business, Art Career, Art Marketing, Internet Marketing/Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Art Career | Can I Help You Do Something With Yours!

March 2, 2013 by 4 Comments

A Successful Art Career Has Clarity.

Clarity: noun (as described by dictionary.com)

  1. clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.
Do you have art career clarity?

Do you have art career clarity?

Some People Are Born Lucky.

When it comes to being clear on what one passion’s is and whether to pursue it, some people are born lucky.

It seems such self-knowledge is in the DNA. The lucky ones did not seek it, it always just was. For the rest of us, we are seekers of art career clarity.

Turning a Murky Mish-mash into a Clear Brew.

Most of us lack crystal clear clarity on art career choices, or just career choices, including me. I’ve been a fireman, a soldier, and a Teamster. I have worked in a steel mill and helped build giant thousand mile pipelines. I have been an entrepreneur, advertising and tradeshow rep, and a strategic alliance marketing executive. At various times, I’ve owned an insurance agency, and a direct advertising and marketing company. My day gig is sales and tech support for one of the fastest growing companies on the Internet.

As you know, I also am a blogger, workshop leader, podcaster and an author focusing on helping you achieve art career success. My fourth book, Art Marketing: How to Get Your Work Seen and Sold is scheduled for a mid-April publication date. Due to its potential broad appeal to virtually all visual artists, I am confident it will be my most successful book yet.

Sometimes Clarity Comes Late for a Reason.

I believe I have traveled this crazy patchwork of jobs and career choices to lead me to this point.  That is, to use my accumulated knowledge and expertise to help you propel your art career.  Can you imagine no longer being dependent on a day job, or on distribution channels that you don’t control to get your work sold? If you are up for it, I know that together we can make these things happen.

Keep Watching for What Happens Next.

My clarity is this: I can only succeed with my goals if I help you succeed at your goals.  Whether you are new to reading my blog, or have been with me for years, I ask you to stay tuned.  Truly, the best is yet to come for both you and me.

Gaining Clarity on Career Goals Is Essential.

If you are making marketing plans and trying to move to a full-time status, or further secure your future as an artist, you are severely hampered if you lack clear art career goals. If you want to enjoy the kind of success you believe your talent and creativity deserve, you need to be clear on your art career goals. I plan to help you get there.

Keep reading this blog for announcements of new plans and developments designed to succeed in your art career.

I will see you at the top!

Optima Web Tools for Artists

Great products, great service Why pay more?

Filed Under: Art Career Tagged With: ,

Hate Art Marketing? You Are Not Alone!

February 23, 2013 by 1 Comment

Art Marketing Is a Learned Skill

Hate Art Marketing? You Are Not Alone

Hate Art Marketing? You Are Not Alone

If you are candid enough  to agree to the question in the headline that art marketing is something you despise, then good for you for your honesty.

Coming to grips with those things that you don’t like to do, or are afraid to do, starts with the frank analysis that you are turned off or scared.

By realizing you have a problem, you can begin to fix it. On the other hand, if you are clueless or in denial, then you haven’t a chance of correcting actions that may be holding you or your art career back.

You Are Not Alone.

Getting good at art marketing and the whole of art business is a struggle for many artists struggle. Often the thin line between a successful career and a mediocre art career is how well one adapts to learning and utilizing effective art marketing and basic business skills.

There Is Good News.

While there virtually is no way around of performing hands on art marketing tasks in the early going of an art career, you eventually can delegate much of the work around marketing your art career. If you are one of the fortunate ones, you may have someone close to you that is ready and capable of taking on the daily art marketing chores in your art business.

Another option is tapping into the growing ranks of virtual assistants. These independent contractors can do nearly any project for you, short of making art. And, if you look at artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Dale Chihuly, you realize they employ assistants who help them make the finished product of their art.

Finding Virtual Assistants.

You can find Virtual Assistants, or VAs, locally and online. More and more, VAs attend business-networking meetings to help them find clients. These range from traditional business networking groups such as Business Networking International, (BNI), Chamber of Commerce meet and greet functions, and some more relaxed for-profit events staged to help professionals find each other.

Referrals are always a terrific way to find any kind of employee or contractor. Online offers many ways to find a VA for your needs, including these suggestions:

Know What You Want Done.

The most crucial thing is to know what do you want your VA to do for you. If you describe your tasks too loosely, or ambiguously, it makes communication and accountability difficult to manage. If you are restrictive, you can end up doing too much work yourself, or not getting enough accomplished for the given potential of the situation.

A good VA, or maybe more than one, can do a lot for you. They can do market research, help you create a mailing list, manage your social media programs, make sales calls, do bookkeeping, manage your schedule, and much more. You may not need that much assistance, or be able to afford it. Pick the things you want to do the least, or admittedly suck at doing them, and then find the right VA to fill that gap.

Working with a VA Is Comparable to Art Marketing.

Both start with simple plans taking small steps towards a larger, grander vision. At first, you want to take on only enough to make sure things run smoothly, goals are met, and tasks completed. As you progress, you move towards accomplishing more complex tasks and tackling more challenging goals.

Athletes often mention staying within themselves. This doesn’t mean you are not capable of potentially extraordinary things. It means you strive to get the best from your potential with the realization that proficient performance will take you to your loftiest goals.

There is plenty of time left in this year for you to start tackling art marketing opportunities, and to bring in the right VA to help you make the most of them.

P.S. Free Podcast Recording Now Available:

The broadcast with Jason Horejs and me from last Tuesday is now available. Use the link below to go to the download page.

The Internet and Art Impact, History and Future

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Visual Artists | New Free Podcast | The Internet and Art Impact, History and Future

February 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

What Impact Has the Internet Made on Your Art Business?

Join us for a Free, Live Podcast on Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

(Free Podcast Recording Now Available):

The broadcast with Jason Horejs and me from last Tuesday is now available. Use the link below to go to the download page.

The Internet and Art Impact, History and Future

Internet & Art Marketing

Join our free podcast!

In a bitter twist of irony, this free podcast had to be rescheduled due to, you guessed it, technical difficulties. We have worked out the bugs in the webinar software and ready to bring this new broadcast to you.

In order to attend the session, please click on the register link below (free) - even if you were registered for the original session you will need to register again.
We look forward to having you join us for this rescheduled broadcast.

Since its advent in the mid-1990’s, the internet has impacted our lives and our society in unfathomable ways. The art market certainly hasn’t been left out of the revolution, but in some ways it has moved into the new era more slowly than other industries. Join art marketing and art business experts Barney Davey (artprintissues.com) and Jason Horejs (xanadugallery.com)  to discuss these changes, the impact the internet has had on the art market and the future of the internet-driven art market.

How has the internet changed your life and business as an artist? What would you like to see happen online for the art market in the future? Send your questions and comments to jason@xanadugallery.com.

No Time to Listen Live? We Have You Covered

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.

Time Zone Local Start Time Local End Time
Eastern 6:00 6:40
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Mountain 4:00 4:40
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Join us for a Free, Live Podcast on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Register Now

 

Filed Under: Art Business

Email Marketing for Artists | Newsletter Design Tips | Part Three

February 16, 2013 by 6 Comments

Effective Email Marketing for Artists Design Is Essential

(The free podcast with Jason Horejs and me on the Internet and its impact on the art business is rescheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 19. Register Here.)

Effective email marketing design is essential!Understanding and using email marketing design techniques increases your readers’ interest. Effective design will keep them reading your message.

Previously, we have talked about the importance of building your email-marketing list, and covered options for different email-marketing services. Now we turn to email newsletter design.

Newsletter Design Tips

While design, content and subject lines are closely related in email marketing for artists, there is too much information to cover those topics in one blog post. Today, we will go after email newsletter design and jump on content and subject lines in future Art Print Issues blog posts devoted to email marketing for artists.

Start with a Pre-header

Email open rates differ. You will not have every subscriber opening and reading your email. Some will open, but not read the entire contents. A pre-header is the first line of copy above the body of your email. It displays in some email programs, such as Outlook, and in most mobile email readers.

As a secondary subject line, a good email marketing pre-header will enhance the open rate and click-through rate for your email marketing messages. It appears just after the subject line in an Inbox. For your readers, it briefly summarizes what the email is about before they open it.

Use Headlines and Images

Use headlines with header tags, such as h2, to break up blocks of text. Many readers are skimmers. You can give them the essence of what your email message contains by moving them through the copy with headlines. Keep your headlines short, informative and punchy.

If it makes visual sense, use a headline that relates to the second block of text, rather than the first just below it. You won’t lose readers by doing this. In some cases, it intrigues them to keep reading to discover the copy to which the headline relates.

Images

In email marketing for artists, images help tell your story visually. Images brighten your copy. They help your reader more easily understand what you are saying in your email marketing message.

Always use the Alt-tag option on your images. ALT attribute text is the short line of copy that shows if a viewer hovers over the image. It also displays if your recipient’s default is set not to display images in their browser of mobile device.

Alt-tags are great selling tools in email marketing for artists. If you don’t change the picture default name it might show something like, DSC-12115.jpg, which is boring and useless. With image alt-tags, you add context, and have a chance to tell your story more elaborately. Make your tag descriptive or a call to action, or both. “Get 25% off all images from the Waterfront Series until (expiration date.)

Make your images the right size for your content. Don’t use huge images directly from your camera or smartphone. Use Photoshop, or some other photo editing software to compress the image for web use. Pixlr.com is an online slimmed down program similar to Photoshop.

Content Blocks

Use short content blocks. This helps your design for the short attention span of most email readers. Try to use only two or three short sentences in each block. Using bullet points and numbered items is useful in making your copy easier to read. They increase your results.

Call to Action and Links

Your email marketing newsletter is a sales and promotional tool. While it does not hurt to be friendly and sociable, that is not the point. Make sure you have a Call to Action designated for your newsletter. Yours might be:

  • Announce a Special Offer.
  • Invite to a Show or Exhibit.
  • Purchase an Artwork Direct from You.
  • Invite to a Gallery Opening.
  • Take a Survey.

Your Call to Action can be a hyperlinked image, or a text link, or both. Use text links to promote your reader’s attention, or to direct them to something you are writing about. For instance, if you visited a local museum, link to it in the copy about it. Or, if you have an image of an artwork for sale on your website, link to the order page.

Design Elements

Pay attention and you will observe greater use of white space in graphic design everywhere, including email marketing. See how grocery flyers are less crowded with items. Most fonts are flat, without shadows, bevels and other Photoshop trick. Make sure you use fonts that simple and easy-to-read.

Use personalization sparingly and where appropriate. Incorporating a person’s name makes your copy friendlier, unless it is overused. Then it becomes salesy and a big turnoff. In most cases, just use the first name, or sometimes last name. People do not want to see their address or phone number in your email marketing copy.

Navigation

If you have various sections, or your copy is lengthy, then use the page navigation as part of your email marketing newsletter design. Navigation helps your reader easily jump to the part they want to read. Anchor text is another way to help your readers navigate your newsletter.

These are the basics of successful email marketing newsletter design. Learn to incorporate them into your email marketing efforts, and you will begin to see growing interest in your newsletter. This will translate into more conversions to sales, better open rates and click rates for your newsletter.

New Free Podcast for Artists: The Internet and Art Impact, History and Future

Internet & Art Marketing

Join our free podcast!

The irony of a technological mishap that required a reschedule of this broadcast is not lost on my broadcast partner, Jason Horejs, or me. Undaunted and unbowed, we are set to try again.

Please join us on Tuesday, February 19 for our latest podcast. Click Here to Register

Filed Under: Art Business, Art Marketing, Internet Marketing/Social Media, Podcast Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your Art Career | What Is Holding It Back?

February 9, 2013 by 2 Comments

Is Your Art Career Where You Want It? 

Art Career Path

Where is your career headed?

If your answer is no, do not feel alone. Many artists find scattered, ineffective marketing plans steer their art careers off course.

Just as with your art, only you can make a success of your art career. When you learn to focus on what is valuable, then organize and execute around your priorities, you create success.

You may be trying to do too much, or you just as likely are doing too little, or at least too little of the most important items on your marketing agenda.

Simplify and Succeed.

While you can’t expect to fully learn how to get on track by reading this blog post, you can use it as a stimulus to start making improvements to your art marketing. Your hard work creating your art deserves the best you can do to get it introduced to your top prospects for buying it. Don’t let your art career suffer because your marketing is failing.

Many Artist Careers Founder Due To: 

  1. Artist is unfocused and dabbling in everything which leads to spotty results.
  2. Artist is not doing enough marketing, and is using some combination of wishful thinking, fear of failure, or a dislike of the business of art to avoid seriously working at art marketing.

There are many other ways artists sabotage their careers, but most have paths that lead back to one or both of the points above. The first thing you can do is determine you are going to improve your art marketing. Work on creating a simplified art marketing plan that focuses only on those things with greatest potential return on investment.

How Do You Get Started Improving Your Art Career?

  • Take the time to assess your potential as an artist and a marketer. Commit to getting better at both. Learn how to sell art.
  • Come up with tough, honest answers about your capabilities, your resources, and your willingness to work hard at the business of art.
  •  Learn which marketing tools are best for you to promote your art and your art career.
  • Minimize your marketing to only the most pressing goals — those with your best odds of achieving them.

Grow Where You Are Planted.

There are opportunities everywhere. Much of it is nearby. If you are not producing results from your warm market, which is people you know and people they know, then you are missing your easiest sales. In all but the rarest cases, it is easier to be well known and successful in your home town, state and region than in some distant place where you are a stranger.

Buck Up and Get Out There! Your Art Career Success Is Waiting.

Neither being an introvert nor being afraid is an acceptable excuse for not networking. Unless you have a reliable partner, you have to carry your own art marketing water.

A crucial step is to make a plan to achieve recognition with your best, and most highly valuable prospects. Then work on your networking to get introductions. Know in advance what you want and from whom you want it. This will keep you from wasting time pursuing phantom, useless prospects. Having a thought out strategy on how to ask for help, get referrals and introductions, and producing an affordable means to reward your supporters is what will make your networking successful.

Give First, Then Get.

People are naturally inclined to help those who have first helped them, or given them something. If you seek in your networking to help others first, the gain to your art career on the backside will be magnified. As you meet more people, it becomes easier to connect others. You can build a reservoir of good feelings and reciprocity by being generous, interested and helpful with others before you ask for their help.

No One Is Saying This Is Easy.

With determination, you can overcome virtually any obstacle. Proof of this is evident in abundance from people who refuse to let handicaps and disabilities keep them from making a difference with their lives. Researching to determine how other successful artists promote their art is the first step. You don’t hesitate to learn art making techniques from the best artists. Make it a habit to learn how top artists operate their art businesses.

Whether you learned how create art in school, or you are self-taught, you instinctively know the struggle to win awareness, create demand and sell your art is a constant battle. Your path to success is paved with your intentions and actions. Committing yourself to a disciplined approach towards making your art and marketing your art, and giving both adequate amounts of your time and energy,  is how you will make your art career thrive.

Success Never Rests –The Journey Never Ends.

I recognize these words are not systematic instructions on how to do the things discussed above. Moreover, there is much more to a successful art career than what is covered here. Nevertheless, if you can use these thoughts to wrap your head around how you want your art career to look in five or ten years, and what methods you will use to help you get there, then you will have made a good start.

For ongoing help, keep reading posts here, search the archives on this blog, and listen to the free art marketing podcasts offered by Jason Horejs and me for meaningful details on how to put meat on the bones of ideas presented here.

Art Print Market Success Webinar.

For those of you interested in how to make the most of the art print market, I am giving a live, interactive online class next week. You can sign up for this 2-hour webinar for either Tuesday evening or Saturday morning. Alternatively, if you can’t make it, you will receive a free download and resource guide as part of your registration. Learn more, or register here.

Filed Under: Art Business Tagged With: , ,

New Art Print Market Webinar Announced

February 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Discover Art Print Market Career Opportunities

Xanadu Gallery Presents a Live Webinar with Barney Davey

If you want to gain inside info about how the art print market works, and if you and your work are right for it, you are in luck.

Sign up to participate in a 2-hour live art print market success webinar today.

This interactive 2-hour broadcast is designed to prepare you for success selling your work in the print market. If you have ever considered entering the fine art print market (and every painter and photographer should), you will find this intensive workshop tailored to your exact needs.

Here are five examples of the powerful, practical career advice you will learn:

  1. Insights for creating your best work for the fine art reproduction market.
  2. Making smart informed art print career choices.
  3. Assessing limited vs. open editions.
  4. How coordinating your marketing magnifies your success.
  5. Creating synergy with publicity, websites, email, and social media.

Get the lowdown on getting your giclee prints to markets

  • Finding & working giclée printers.
  • How to use a blend of traditional and new marketing tools
  • How to create direct distribution, online and alternative marketing
  • Why working with galleries is still important

Learn from examples of successful print artists

You learned many of the best techniques from studying the most talented artists in your field. It is no different when it comes to learning about how to build a successful art print career.

You will find out how spotting trends boosts art careers with tips on where to find them. Dispel myths about how only some kinds of art, or genres, are the ones that sell well as art prints.

Webinar download and resource guide included free with your registration

Participants will receive a complete download of the webinar for future reviews. You also will receive a resource guide with valuable links to art print market resources.

Join in the interactive Q&A to get your questions answered before the broadcast ends. Participants also will receive a handy resource guide that will include links to artists, references, services and products mentioned during the presentation.

Register Now! Only $29.95!

Choose either Tuesday, February 12 from 4 pm – 6 pm Mountain time, or Saturday, February 16 from 9 am – 11 am Mountain Time.

 
       
   
PayPal
 
two ways to register:
Click on the button next to your preferred session
Call toll-free 866.483.1306		  $29.95
 
 
             
             
             
       
Two sessions available: Tuesday, February 12   register for workshop
Saturday, February 16   register for workshop
What’s the start time in your timezone?
Timing can be a bit confusing- use this table as your guide for the start time in your timezone.
There will be one, two hour broadcast on each of the days and it will begin:
Tuesday Session Start Time Saturday Session Start Time
6 p.m. Eastern 11 p.m. Eastern
5 p.m. Central 10 a.m. Central
4 p.m. Mountain 9 a.m. Mountain
4 p.m. Arizona 9 a.m. Arizona
3 p.m. Pacific 8 a.m. Pacific

Filed Under: Art Marketing, Art Prints / Giclees Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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