An artist today has more opportunities than ever before in history. You can reach the entire world via the internet, you can create a local following via real life. You have tools at your fingertips that allow you to sell your works of art, work faster and reach farther.
You put your art, music, books and more up on Fine Art America, Reverb Nation, Amazon, Etsy, eBay and other sites. You talk about it on social media. Yet there’s only a trickle of sales.
How do you open the flood gates?
Yes, you need to promote yourself. But, there’s one advantage that you have: you are creative! You don’t have to follow the advertising rules that businesses use.
Which bring us to Tip #1 Advertising
Research and finding out what others did to succeed is worth your time and effort. Implementing the actions and tweaking it for your specific needs will reap you rewards.
Take for instance, advertising. You can try to do what an everyday business does but not get results. However, you can try to advertise as a creative and talented person and get noticed.
Art wraps on your vehicle, painting your vehicle, your music as ring tones on your phone, run contests (I do a “name the new Dreamscape” contest with very good results), put your art on your business cards, your music in your email signature, creatively dress like an artist, wear your own t-shirts, make clothes from your art, the list goes on and on!
For some inspiration on what you can do, listen to the interview with Tony Rockliff. He used his creative genius to reach the people he needed to in order to flourish in the music business. His stories and his ability to be creative boosted him forward in his many-decades, successful career.
You can also read Do These Names Ring a Bell…? for more ideas and inspiration.
Tip #2 Workspace
If you want to quit your full-time job and live by your art, you are going to need both a create space and an office space. Start small if you must, you don’t have to be fancy about it. A kitchen table, a laptop, a space in the dining room, part of the bedroom or even in the garage are all valid places to start out. Your two spaces can grow with your art business.
Keeping a daily routine of creating and working on your art business will result in more people interested and more sales.
Read The Top 5 Artist Business Organizing Tips to find out more.
Tip #3 Stay in Touch
The most vital thing you have to do is collect up the names and contact information of previous buyers and those that showed interest. Then stay in communication by email and mail. I use MailChimp as a service to do this. MailChimp made it very easy to write newsletters, also offers the Forever Free plan for up to 2,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month (with ads). The Growing Business plan starts at $10 per month for 500 contacts and unlimited emails.
As an aside, I don’t get paid for referring you. I’ve used MailChimp almost since the time it was created 18 years ago and I’m a fan.
Tip #4 Press Release
Every new work of art, in any field of The Arts, is news worthy. Any event, gig, grand opening, any endorsement, any new product you offer is all news worthy.
You want to be known not only in your local area but also worldwide. Press Releases are one very good way to do this. In newspapers there’s the headlines stories, main stories and then empty spaces that get filled with local information. You can be supplying local information.
Press Releases are well worth the effort to learn as you can increase your reach around the world without paying a dime.
Tip #5 Content Marketing
The internet was created to supply information. Every Google search you do, is for information. Every store or restaurant “near me” search is for information.
You have information to share. You can write about what inspires you, techniques you use or created, who you follow, how you arrange your work/create schedule, what you’re practicing and what you want to accomplish. There’s so many subjects that you can honestly give unique information and then share it on social media.
Information marketing, also known as content marketing, is an action that will stay online nearly forever. Sometimes you receive instant response to it, sometimes you get a flutter of new interest a year or so later. No matter what, you can’t go wrong because you are supplying exactly what’s needed.
Hopes this helps you with your art business.
You are welcome to contact me any time.
To YOUR Success,
ILIA