Narrow Your Focus: Using a Matrix to Improve Art Marketing and Sales

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Time in the studio is typically not the hard part for professional artists. But finding the time is. Marketing, generating interest, and pursuing new opportunities (grants, residencies, shows, sales) are the parts of sustainable art business that feel like a grind. If you’re overwhelmed by the pressures of online marketing, you’re not alone. Social media, email campaigns, your website—it can feel like you need to be everywhere. But the truth? You don’t. The key to getting a practice off the ground is to narrow your focus on what actually helps you improve art marketing and sales. 

Here’s where a Focus Matrix can help.

Start With Clear Goals

First things first—what do you want to achieve? Are you looking to build followers, increase sales, or just get your work in front of more people? You need clear goals to know how to focus your time and improve art marketing and sales efforts.

Marketing Goals: Growing your leads, engagement, and getting people to act (signing up, clicking, buying).

Sales Goals: Turning those leads into buyers and building connections that convert.

Make them specific. Not “more followers,” but “100 new followers by the end of Q4 2024.” Not just “more sales,” but “sell 10 pieces through my online store by the end of the month.” The clearer, the better.

What’s the Focus Matrix?

The Eisenhower Matrix (aka Impact-Effect Matrix) was originally used by President Eisenhower to prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance. This “Focus Matrix,” adapted from this, is a decision-making tool that helps identify where to narrow your efforts. We adapted this concept to art business activities based on two criteria:

Performance: How well is this working right now? Is it delivering results that improve art marketing and sales?

Impact: How much does or could this contribute to your goals now or in the future?

Here’s how the quadrants break down and some examples we commonly see for each, (assuming, for example, that the primary goal is to make sales—these may differ for you):

  • High Impact / High Performance: This is where you want to be. These are channels where your efforts are working and directly generating sales. This might be in-person meetings, gallery events, or your email list where people respond and buy.
  • High Impact / Low Performance: Lots of potential, but not delivering yet. Maybe your website shop is set up well, but it’s not getting the traffic you need to sell prints of your work.
  • Low Impact / High Performance: These work but won’t change your world. This could be that local art show you enjoy going to but rarely make a substantial sale. Or, if your goal is more sales, it could be your Instagram—you’re getting tons of followers, but it’s not translating to impactful sales, and it’s not clear how it would.
  • Low Impact / Low Performance: The time-wasters. A Twitter account for visual artists that gets little engagement. Ads that don’t create conversions. A specific gallery/broker relationship that takes tons of maintenance and produces no impactful sales.

Apply the Focus Matrix to Narrow Your Efforts

Take stock of everything you’re doing. Instagram, LinkedIn, Etsy, email newsletters, blog posts, local fairs—map it all out on your Focus Matrix. This will help you see where you can improve art marketing and sales by identifying what’s working and what’s not.

If your goal is more sales (hopefully more specific than that), ask yourself:

  • Where are sales coming from?
  • Which platforms are paying back the most on your investment?
  • What’s draining your energy without giving much back?

Create an Action Plan

Now that you’ve plotted everything out, it’s time to act:

High Impact / High Performance: Put more energy here. If Instagram is driving sales, invest in better content or engage more with your followers. If email marketing works, send more newsletters. For example:

  • “Post three engaging Instagram stories per week highlighting the behind-the-scenes process of my art.”
  • “Send a biweekly email newsletter featuring new artwork, upcoming events, and exclusive discounts to my subscribers.”

High Impact / Low Performance: Worth your time to fix. Optimize your website for SEO. Commit to posting regularly to drive traffic to your site. These areas have potential if you put in the effort to improve art marketing and sales strategies. For example:

  • “Invest time in optimizing my website store with SEO keywords related to my art niche.”
  • “Create one post a week about a piece or product available on my website.”

Low Impact / High Performance: Maintain these with minimal effort. Attend local art shows that give a good return or are easy to go to, but no more. Start recycling content on your social media accounts.

Low Impact / Low Performance: Cut it out. Free up your time and energy. Don’t be afraid to drop that platform that isn’t working.

Prioritize Your Action Plans that Improve Art Marketing

Start with High Impact / High Performance first. That’s where you’re already seeing results and have the best chance to improve art marketing and sales even more. Then, move to High Impact / Low Performance—these could be big winners with more effort. Don’t get stuck on low-impact tasks; they’re distractions.

Side note: Be honest with yourself about your motivation to invest time into low-impact channels. Does social media impact your sales or provide a confidence booster? Do you feel respected among peers? Neither of these are bad things, but identify exactly how they impact your goals before investing too much time blindly.

Final Thoughts

The Focus Matrix isn’t just about eliminating what doesn’t work—it’s about putting more energy into what does. Regularly revisit this process, refine your action plan, and watch how much more intentionally you can improve art marketing and sales.

If you want more guidance on how to apply this to your work, join us at one of our coworking sessions or schedule a chat. Let’s build a focused, effective path towards a sustainable art business and practice.

Banner art credits: Jael Killing Sisera, c. 1460 is a pen and ink with watercolor on laid paper piece by an unknown Austrian 15th century artist. According to the book of Judges, Jael invited Sisera, the commander of an oppressive army into her tent and killed him with a tent stake. The demure pleasure depicted in what is otherwise a graphic story, captures the ideal spirit for letting go of low-impact channels wasting valuable energies.

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The Art of the Artist Statement (How to Write an Artist Statement)

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An artist statement serves as a written expression of your artistic practice, providing insight into your work for audiences who may encounter it in various contexts such as exhibitions, grant applications, or teaching positions. Artist statements are an extension of the art itself. It is similar to an abstract, something that summarizes the concept, influences, labor, and purpose of your work. Compelling statements often reflect a similar vulnerability as the work itself. Just as there is no right way to make art, there are different ways to write an artist statement.

Here’s a breakdown of what writing an artist statement might look like, when it’s used, and how to craft your own.

What is an Artist Statement?

Here’s a blurb taken from the Creative Independent that gives a great, concise definition—“An artist statement is a not-too-long series of sentences that describe what you make and why you make it. It’s a stand-in for you, the artist, talking to someone about your work in a way that adds to their experience of viewing that work.”

  • An artist statement is a piece of writing inspired by or directly from you, offering insight into your artistic work. 
  • It is written in the first person, distinguishing it from artist bios, which are typically written in the third person. 
  • Both artist statements and bios represent you as an artist, conveying your artistic identity and intentions even when you’re not present.
    • Your “artistic identity” may be different than your bio or personal narrative. There is a difference between the “you” in your bio and the “you” of your artistic identity that people can decipher from experiencing your artwork. When you write an artist statement, you get to decide how much or how little of your personal narrative is connected to the artwork.

Let’s take an example scenario.

Alicia is a life-long cross-country swimmer who enjoys taking trips to tread international waterways. She also works as a photographer of marine wildlife for National Geographic while maintaining an active art practice making photorealistic graphite drawings of the rising water levels and pollution she encounters along her travels.

Alicia’s artistic bio might highlight her role as a photographic journalist, her love of swimming, and her climate consciousness. However, when she writes an artist statement for her drawings, she may underscore, along with the media and processes, her concerns for our environment and the health of global marine ecosystems. Her “why” is to raise awareness for marine life and waterways. Her “artistic identity” is the part(s) of herself that defines her art-making.

Writing an artist statement requires space to reflect, analyze, compose, edit, share, and revise. It may include sources, ideas, and materials relevant to your current artistic practice. It will evolve as the artist evolves. Processes change. Interests change. Perspectives change. Feelings change. Skills change.

When to Write an Artist Statement

An artist statement can accompany a single work, a body of work (or series), exhibition, or entire practice. 

  • Some instances where you need to write an artist statement include:
    • Exhibition submissions,
    • Grant applications,
    • Teaching position applications,
    • Fellowships,
    • Magazine and catalog features,
    • Websites,
    • Personal studio practice, distilling
    • Selling a work of art
  • They are a point of connection, and for many, an entry point into your work. 
  • They provide guidance to audiences, publicists, curators, and critics, directing attention to the key ideas and concerns in your work. Writing an artist statement can also be integral to your creative process, helping you articulate your artistic vision, work out your intentions, and even suggest the path forward in the studio.

Though it presents a challenge for some artists to write an artist statement, these statements hold immense value for creatives. Sitting down every so often to translate the silent or solitary artistic labor, which consumes countless hours, into words is something you can weave into your weekly or monthly professional dashboard. Taking time consistently to identify specific audiences, feelings, and efforts will help you to verbalize the essence of your creative journey and effectively convey the importance of your piece in as many words as can fill one paragraph.

The Recipe for Writing an Artist Statement

Take inventory—gather your ingredients.

  • Identify the content of your work
    • (This is like a formal analysis, call out what we see, the visual subject matter)
  • Explain the form of your work
    • (Including materials, processes, and traditions)
  • Describe your artistic process
    • (And provide visual or auditory descriptions)
  • Discuss influences on your work
    • (Whether cultural, historical, theoretical, personal, or biographical)
  • Key ideas, issues, struggles, and goals within your work
  • Clarify the thematic focus of your work
    • (Setting it within a specific time and space)

Put it together. Expand on the chunks of information you compiled about the work. Think about it in three parts:

  • Formal content—visual analysis, what you see, what you used to make it, how you made it, how long it took
  • Contextual Information—what inspired you to make the piece, did anyone influence your work, what was happening around you that could have had an impact on the work,
  • Interpretive Moment—why did you make it, who or what is it for? Do you want to tell the audience something to take away?

You can organize these parts however it feels most natural to you. You’ll see in some examples that artists weave the components together depending on what they are using the statement for.

Tips for Writing an Artist Statement

Keep your artist statement on file and update it as your practice evolves over time.

  • Consider your audience and aim to make your work more accessible and understandable. Don’t dumb it down, but DO use language that most people can grasp without a PhD.
  • If you’re uncertain or exploring new ideas, don’t hesitate to express it in your statement.
  • Be authentic and avoid overly complex language or jargon.
  • Keep your statement concise, straightforward, and honest.
  • Make the reader want to learn more about your work without over-explaining. Leave room for the audience to want more or to insert their own meaning.
  • Avoid relying too heavily on quotes unless they are directly relevant to your work.

Editing and Refining Your Artist Statement:

  • Seek feedback from others, including friends, colleagues, faculty members, (or us!)
  • Read artist statements and writings of artists you admire for inspiration.
  • Keep a journal and integrate writing into your artistic practice to facilitate the process.

Wrapping Up

Learning to write an artist statement is an ongoing process that evolves alongside your artistic journey. By following these guidelines and continuously reflecting on your practice, you can create a statement that effectively communicates your artistic vision and engages your audience.

If you are ready to work with a team that can help you get into the studio doing what you love, let’s chat. Or join Coworking with Creatives, a series of free virtual workshops to help artists and creatives build sustainable businesses.

Banner art credits: Martha, c. 1835 is an oil on canvas piece by an unknown 19th century American artist. From the folk art tradition, with its flat, two-dimensional rendering, typical of many self-taught or primitive artists. This simplicity of form makes it easier for digital processes to create clear lines and blocks of color that frame and draw out the rich texture.

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Enhance Desire for Art: From Status Quo to New Life

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A patron is a customer, and a good one at that. Museums are in that category too. If we allow ourselves to see that even as artists we are in business, we can utilize the tools of business to grow our creative practice. We need to communicate that we exist to enhance desire for art—our art. 

We may not like to see ourselves as marketers or even worse, sales people, but we are. Being good at business means more time in the studio. 

Thankfully we don’t have to come up with new concepts in sales and marketing in the same way that we do for our masterpieces. We can harness the hard work of folks who study messaging to build our strategy and develop our plan. Billy Broas has provided a simple framework to do just that. The five lights bulbs are a powerful blend of obvious, versatile and easy to implement for any business to build an effective messaging strategy.

A critical step in any relationship is to recognize where someone is at. If we don’t know where someone is presently at in their journey through life, it is hard to intersect and connect with them. Your voice is heard when it is directed to where someone is. In the case of a customer the two locations we are most interested in are the starting and ending position, pre- and post- acquisition of your art.

The two light bulbs that speak to these two places are the customer’s status quo and new life.

Market New Life

It might be easier to think about the new life first. The post-acquisition experience includes the value your work brings to the audience—and your work has a litany of value. A deep eye roll may be warranted but we need to get serious about considering the “value” of art, more particularly your art. Your art enriches others by offering new perspectives. It expands thinking. Your art enhances feelings others chase. Potentially, your art is pleasing to the eye. 

Not to mention, someone owning your art titillates your senses too. Joy is a mystery of present science in that it isn’t conserved. Giving joy to others also brings joy to the giver.

The new life your customer will have with your art might be: 

  • Nuanced, with added perspectives
  • Vibrant and playful
  • Confident and powerful
  • Elevated in status, envied by peers
  • Filled with beauty

Your audience will experience something with your work and you can communicate through your “marketing”—words and images. Good messaging should enhance desire for art by showing your audience the present for what it is and a path towards a new life that includes your work.

Upset Status Quos

If you have clarity on the new life that your audience will have with your work, you likely have some idea of what is missing in their present status quo. Their walls are boring. Their mental framework may have gaps in understanding. They may be missing the fullness of a life of emotion. They may not be seen by others. Your message can kindly (or not) remind folks of where they are presently.

The status quo of your customer without your art might be:

  • A home devoid of energy
  • Unable to say what’s on their mind
  • Eager to express frustration but unable
  • Sensing others don’t understand them
  • Feeling less then on top of the world

Your work is incredibly valuable if your customer is in a place like this. You can bring them out of it. Although this list feels sad and salesy, with some thoughtfulness about your value you can find messaging that empathetically speaks to your audiences’ lot in life, and shows them you want to help them move to a better place. 

It’s sometimes hard to express how, but your work adds value to the world. The better you can communicate how it upsets the status quo, and creates new life for your audience, the less salesy “marketing” will feel.

Better messaging is a critical part of converting inventory on the floor into artworks on someone’s wall. 

Keep Going

Do you want to move beyond the frustration of seeing your artwork not sell? Read on for more social media strategies to enhance desire for art—your art—and take you towards a more sustainable business and more time in the studio.

You can also join the Burkholder Agency for our next Marketing Monday session. We work with you to let people know your great art exists and increase the desire your audience has for it.

Banner art credits: Textile Merchant, c. 1840 is an oil on canvas work by an unknown American 19th Century artist. The piece is presumably a commissioned portrait of an unknown textile merchant from the Northeast. It is a good example of the style of American primitive painting, although “primitive” is an unnecessarily diminutive classification. The paintings appear flat because of the figuration and consistent (unrealistic?) lighting in addition to the fascination with background details, even if they distract from the subject.

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Why doesn’t good art sell? (Sales messaging.)

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Every year 1.3 trillion dollars of bad products and services are sold.* Is there that much value in innovation for one specialized task that only takes 3 seconds without it? Does that “inventor” really make a living that way? We have all bought some snake oil in our lives—but why doesn’t good art sell?

This likely fuels frustration for you as an artist. So why is bad art selling when mine is not? 

Why does bad art sell?

Less than stellar creativity likely sells for a few reasons. 

First and foremost, people know that it exists (even if it isn’t good). They see it. They hear about it. They experience it for themselves. A message about the work has gotten to the audience to let them know that something was made. The artwork is being marketed.

Secondly, they desire the object enough to part with their hard earned money to bring that poorly composed artifact into their home. A message has moved them to the point of a transaction—even if it’s not a wise decision from our perspective. The artwork is being sold.

Great art still needs good sales messaging.

Why doesn’t good art sell? It probably doesn’t have good sales messaging.

To sustain yourself as a creative person, your messaging is a very important part of your practice. First, we need to communicate that we exist (marketing) and we need to communicate the distinct value, and cause for desire, that our work produces (sales). There is a good chance people know that you and your work exist. If not, that is a good place to start. Let people know that you are making things. And yes, there are ways to expand who knows about you. But, how do we enhance the desire for our work?

Next, your practice should have a strategy for increasing the connection your audience feels to you and your art. This includes patrons, collectors, customers, fans, and even curators and museums. You have an opportunity to create more resonance with the way you present yourself (e.g. on social media).

Start with a framework to simplify sales.

There are many tools to help you develop a plan and draft tactics for your marketing and sales. Billy Broas has been studying messaging for years and offers a simple framework he calls the 5 light bulbs. Each bulb helps illuminate distinct values to customers. He is bold enough to say that nearly every effective piece of commercial communication includes at least one of the bulbs.

The five light bulbs of Billy Broas’ effective sales messaging are:

  1. Customers Status Quo
  2. Things they have tried (to move to a new life)
  3. Your approach (to move them to new life)
  4. Your offer (How they can get your approach)
  5. Customer’s new life

Briefly, the light bulbs expose a journey that a customer is on. At the start they are in a less than satisfactory position and at the end they are in a better place with your product or service. Each bulb can be translated into simple statements and images or can be an involved conversation and meeting. The bulbs can help you show your audience where they are at, what they desire and how they can get there.

Keep going.

Do you want to move beyond the frustration of seeing your artwork not sell? Read on for more steps about marketing art that can take you towards a more sustainable business and more time in the studio.

You can also join the Burkholder Agency for our next Marketing Monday session. We work with you to let people know your great art exists and enhance your audience’s desire for your art.

* A completely fabricated statistic. Few would fund a study that likely undermines the economy and embarrasses many. AND it makes for good messaging. 🙂

 

Banner art credits: The Peddler, 1632 is an etching by Dutch artist Johannes van Vliet (born c. 1610). Originally created for reproduction, the digitalization and reinterpolation of 16th-century etchings aligns with an original facet of their purpose. These works were intended to be viewed primarily as reproductions, rather than as the ‘negatives’ of the plates themselves. The final images were subject to the various materials, collaborations, and limitations inherent in the reproduction process. Returning to these etchings with the digital tools of reproduction could be one simple way to reawaken them with integrity.

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Social Media Strategy for Creatives: 3 Steps Toward Success

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Social media strategies for creatives can be overwhelming, but don’t need to be. Major social media brands have been built on the impression that everything—and anything—of importance can be found on their platforms. This is overwhelming and not entirely true. Nevertheless, markets, buyers, and potential customers (of any industry) still look to social media to assess quality and value.

As an artist, your “brand” is very personal. Is it possible to build an authentic social media presence and meet your business goals?

Here are three foundations steps toward building a successful social media strategies for creatives.

Your Social Media Mindset 

Before we get to those steps, let’s begin with a simple mindset check.

Do you agree with any or all of the following statements?

  • “Social media is how I will get discovered.” 
  • “Social media is the most important validation.” 
  • “My social media following determines my value.”

Not only are these not the whole truth, but they can be debilitating. These ideas can paralyze entrepreneurs (especially creatives) with self-doubt.

Instead remember:

  • “Social media is one tool I use to build my audience.” 
  • “Social media gives people who already love my work one more way to engage with it.” 
  • “My audience and I determine the value of my work together.”

Don’t confuse being a successful creative business owner with being a social media influencer. Being an influencer is not a bad thing, but it’s a different business model. A sale is a sale, and a following is a following. Is your goal to sell art or sell influence? The models may overlap at points, but ultimately the value of an artistic legacy is unlikely to be measured by likes.

The right mindset makes social media a tool to use, instead a tool that uses you. It will be easier to build campaigns that drive purposeful success and audience growth.

Now, let’s explore important steps for successful social media campaigns. 

Step 1: Understand Your Audience 

Social media is vast, but an artist’s biggest impact is typically among niche or local audiences. (This is not a bad thing).

Identifying niche audiences helps entrepreneurs to think strategically (and realistically) about how social media can be used to achieve business goals. The better you know your audience, the better you can create meaningful connections and tailor your content to them.

Choose one existing audience and unpack their identifiers. If you haven’t defined an audience or thought about a marketing plan before, you must (for growth in any domain).

Start simply with everyone who owns one of your works. How did they find out about you? If it wasn’t on social media, was there a specific point when they used social media to interact or learn more? In traditional marketing speak, this is called a “touch point” on the “customer journey.” If an artist can identify details about how and why existing collectors used social media to learn more before purchasing a piece, they can use insights about those “touch points” to encourage collectors on their journey toward a purchase.

From here, work more broadly to group existing collectors and prospective clients into larger audience segments based on shared interests or demographics. What do they engage in on social media? What are they looking for?

Ask questions, using polls or surveys on social media, to collect information to start with. The simplest things provide helpful feedback even if the response is low.

Identifying how an audience is focused on a particular aspect of an artist’s work doesn’t mean they don’t see the work’s true or “whole” value. No one will see your work the way you see it. Be prepared to cultivate a social media expression that may take time. Accept the challenge to see your work from different perspectives. This can be constructive, not destructive.

Step 2: Create Good Content (Messaging and Calls to Action) 

With an audience in mind, unpack your brand and value proposition. Start from the broadest statements of value and work, and narrow in on how your target audience(s) might relate most strongly to specific aspects of your work based on their unique identifiers. 

Create content by breaking it into two pieces: the message and the call to action.

The message should be the part that comes naturally from you, your story, and the story of your work. The message answers “What do I do?” “How did I do it?” “What do I want to share?” “Why is it important?” “Why should others care?” This is the part where you offer your audience value whether it’s a tip, an accomplishment to share in, or an anecdote to enjoy.

The call to action comes less naturally, but it is an essential part of good content. Calls to action (CTA) are not desperate pleas for attention when you’re engaging with the audience who already values your work. This should be a nudge to show audiences how they can support an artist they follow.

Define your desired outcomes of the content.

Create measurable goals. If the goal is to sell work, does work sell because of post likes? Or because of face time spent with prospective collectors? Encourage the forms of engagement proven to help achieve the desired outcome.

Ultimately, the message provides value to the audience, the call to action guides how they reciprocate that value to the creator. 

Step 3: Plan, Post, and Repeat 

A great campaign is made up of good posts, but how are they put together? Social media algorithms are complex, even mysterious. But throughout the algorithm’s evolution, all successful content has shared one thing: consistency.

A consistent social media plan will be built on structures that already exist for the business. If there is a schedule for your studio that includes events, deadlines, or even personal events, that schedule should dictate content. Work backwards from events to create stories focused on the journey to the event. Connecting the content to the actual work makes it easier to create calls to action with concrete impacts.

Determine a post frequency objective that’s based on the amount of time you can invest in creating content. Don’t anticipate every day will open up for a spark of inspiration. If it takes 30 minutes to create a valuable post, and scheduling a 2-hour content creation session per month is all that’s reasonable, then your objective should be one weekly post. If it’s possible to schedule a 2-hour content creation session weekly, consider making your objective 4 weekly posts.

Frequency is unique to each individual’s resources, but consistency can be achieved at all levels. If social media is a persistent challenge, consider investing in a content calendar or scheduling tool. The best tool for organization will be the one you use. However it gets done, setting aside time to plan out and create valuable content ahead of time will be the best way to create a consistent social media presence.

Once planned content is in place, check back and use comments and messages to organically deepen engagement with your audience.

Collaborate and Grow

Art has been around for longer than social media and modern markets. Social media is now an essential for building a successful creative business in the modern world. Artists must keep adapting. Creative businesses have a unique opportunity to use these tools in ways to grow the influence and impact of art.

Like studio schedules, social media strategy for creatives will be unique to each artist. But all good content creation is built on simple concepts: target audience, messaging, calls to action, and planning for consistency. Master these basics and start connecting.

If you’re struggling to discern your expression, look to peers whose content you enjoy. See what’s working for them and ask how it may or may not work for you. Our co-working sessions are an opportunity to connect with creative professionals with different approaches and goals across a full spectrum of experience. Our fellow creatives help us grow and adapt to industries like social media which change quickly and often.

 

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Art Business Marketing: Goals and Measurement

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Art Business Marketing is not a mystery. Growing your audience in ways that are true to you can be easy and enjoyable. Let us show you how.

This post is Part 2 of a multi-part series. Subscribe to our Business of Art newsletter to receive notification when additional posts are published. 

 

In the first part of this series, we discussed the basic parts your marketing plan needs to have. In this, and a few future posts, we will go into more detail about what goes into each part of art business marketing and how to put them all together. Think about it like drawing a roadmap with a clear destination, a pathway to get there, and measurable milestones that you can track to determine if the plan is succeeding. 

In this part, we’re going to talk about goals, the clear destination, and measurement, the milestones along the way. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you go back and read Part 1 before reading this.

Let’s dive in! 

Goals

As we mentioned in Part 1, goals need to be specific and measurable. This is where you want to think about the big picture of what you want to accomplish. 

Some examples of goals could be:

  • Increase sales by 10 percent.
  • Hold 2 gallery openings in a year. 
  • Secure 3 commissions. 
  • Earn $50,000 total revenue. 

Spend some time thinking critically about what you specifically want to accomplish. For example, let’s say you want to sell commissions. Who do you want to sell them to? Do they need to be a certain type? A certain dollar amount? A certain size?

A key part of developing goals is making them realistic. If you’re just starting out and you’ve never sold a single piece in your life, then going from $0 to $100,000 is very unrealistic. Instead, focus on what you honestly believe you can achieve. 

Although these goals may not look like marketing goals, they will significantly influence how you approach your art business marketing. These specific destinations will help you define the audience and customers that you will need to engage during the year. To reach these goals you will need to think about: what galleries you want to show your work in, who will commission you, and who are the customers that will buy your work to generate your revenue. These details are important to your roadmap (marketing plan) for success.

 

Measurement 

 

Your goals will determine what you need to measure. In our map example it is helpful to measure the miles you have traveled towards your destination, it is probably much less helpful to keep track of the number of cows you pass.

For example, if your goal is increasing sales by 10 percent over the previous year, it’s easy to measure whether you’re on track to meet that goal or not. If last year you generate $20,000 of revenue in your art business, this year you want to increase thatto $22,000. Another way to see that is about $200 extra of revenue generation each month. This might mean one more customer or 4 more print sales.

The trick here is to make sure you’re measuring things that are actually important to meeting your goals. We call these “metrics.” So if your goal is to increase sales, you may not find it useful to measure and track things like social media engagement—unless they correlate to closing sales.

An easy way to do this is to document your process. You can choose any tool/place to do this. For instance you could set up a spreadsheet where you can add monthly stats such as sales figures, website traffic, social media followers, etc. At first, it might seem like busy work. And you may start by tracking things that only seem tangentially relevant to your goals. But over time, patterns will start to emerge. Over time, the more data you track, the more you’ll be able to judge whether they contribute to your success. Using social media followers as an example, you might find that whenever your Instagram follower count grows by 5 percent, you get more sales. 

Keep in mind that metrics are finicky. What works today might not work tomorrow. That’s one reason why it’s a good idea to review your marketing plan—and any results you achieved—on a regular basis, which initially may be quarterly but as your business grows you may find it helpful to check where you are at more frequently. 

 

Need help putting this all together? I’m here to help! Check out my Coworking with Creatives workshops or contact me to discuss how I can help you market your art. 

 

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Making Myths and Luxuries: Branding Lessons for Artists

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In the corporate world, we talk about “brand” to discuss a company’s identity. Much like human identities, there are many brand possibilities for companies. Brands can be fun and playful, irreverent, serious, etc.

While the word brand might be too stiff or formal for an artist’s business, artists still have an identity. And developing your identity is key to being successful. For artist entrepreneurs, it can be fun and valuable to explore what identity they want their business to have. Artist branding doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

 

What Is a Brand?

We often think of a brand as a logo, but it’s a lot more than a stylish symbol. A common phrase in corporate marketing is, “A brand is what your customers say it is.” In other words, a brand is the emotional connection between the company, its products, and the customer. A brand is complex; it is the essence of a company and the relationship of that essence to its audience. 

When customers buy something from a brand they like, they’re not just buying a product or a service. They’re buying meaning, something that goes beyond function and reflects on how the customer views themselves. 

 

Something similar can be said for art. 

 

Certainly, most people don’t buy art for its functional value the way they buy, say, a pair of shoes or a car. They buy art for how it makes them feel. A big part of that is the storytelling that happens around the art, what I like to call the Myth.

 

Myth Making for Artists

What makes one artist more well-known than another? Is it that their work is better than others? 

Sometimes a revered artists work IS better, but likely what makes an artist more well known than another is differentiation! More often than not, it’s the myths created around the artist and their artwork that heighten the audience’s value of the creative output. In branding, we call this “myth” a brand story.

 

What is a myth, exactly? 

 

It’s more than a story. Myths often have some common characteristics, including:

  • A story with a nearly unbelievable—but still possible—arc. 
  • An origin, a transformation, and an expansive possibility

Myths are created to teach us, to inspire us, and to help us understand our own experiences in the world. The ability to craft and articulate a myth can be very valuable to an artist seeking to sustain themselves through the sale of their artwork.

 

For artists, this usually translates to:

  • An origin story somewhere between truth and fiction, but that showcases the artist’s humanity. It is where you are from in all aspects. Your hometown, your family, your friends and colleagues, and all the unique things and experiences that make you, YOU.
  • A transition where they experience concepts and learn skills to turn ideas into things. It is how you emerged as an artist. Your early experiences. The teacher that recognizes your talent. The training that refined you. The critique that made you. The transition is the awareness of you as a creative force.  A vision of things yet to exist. The artist has dreams of concepts, ideas and inventions that will enrich them as a creator.

 

So how does myth making translate to selling art? To understand this, it’s important to understand what type of business you want to be and to develop a myth that embraces the type. 

 

Three Types of Businesses

There are essentially three types of business: Commodity, Premium, and Luxury. Let’s take a quick look at what each of these are. 

 

Commodity Business 

Commodities are interchangeable goods or services. Their price is controlled by the customer, who can buy any number of products or services that are nearly the same  from a selection of vendors. For example, it doesn’t matter whether they buy the store brand of sugar or a name brand. The product is essentially the same and the creator has no control over the price.

 

Fine art is rarely sold as a commodity, though there are certainly websites where artists can sell various quality prints of their work as a commodity. This might be most akin to an unlimited print run.

 

Premium Business

A premium business sells differentiated products or services based on quality of material, skill, or customer support. The prices are often tied to what the market will bear, but is also greatly influenced by the quantity and expansiveness of offerings that supply has created in the marketplace. The creator has some control over the price, although the peers that they are competing with will influence price as well.

 

For an artist business, a premium business model can make a lot of sense. The artist often selects ideal materials for their creations and their skill is often high caliber. Together, the quality of materials and expertise of craftsmanship to make a work of art can command premium pricing, although your price may be influenced by your fellow premium peers.

 

Luxury Business

Luxury businesses are distinguished from the other types based on often irrational, subjective reasons. Products and services in this category are driven by scarcity, usually manufactured, and priced much higher than the value of the materials or skill needed to create them. In some ways, luxury products transcend reality by enabling the customer to be, think, say or do something beyond themselves. 

 

Think of almost any high-end luxury clothing brand where it’s all about the designer’s name and the brand rather than the material of the product or the skill of the person actually making the goods (either by hand or using machines). 

 

Art easily lends itself to this category, and much of society also sees art as a luxury. Not only is art a perspective, expression or manifestation of an idea that reflects the buyer, but its supply is greatly limited, it is usually unique, and only the artist has the skill and experience to create it. As a luxury brand, the artist and their business team can have significant control of the price.

 

Where Does Your Artist Business Fit In?

So what do these three types of businesses have to do with making myths? Oftentimes, the myth defines the business type. In other words, your art might be totally differentiated from every single piece of art out there. But it is your myth—your story, your skill, your experiences, etc.—that defines whether your art is a commodity, a premium product, or a luxury experience. How accessible your myth is to your audience also plays an important role. If no one knows the myth–or understands it–it kind of doesn’t exist!

 

Keep in mind that you may work through all three of these types of businesses over your art career. You might start at the commodity level, maybe churning out similar, less differentiated work at first. Then, as both your artistic vision and business skills mature, you might morph into a premium business, making fewer pieces (i.e. reducing supply) and growing the perceived value of your work. Finally, you might further refine your model to develop luxury pieces and services, such as painting commissioned murals in a customer’s home or designing Diadora’s next show line.

 

Ultimately, the direction you choose to take your business is yours. But if you need guidance in refining your vision and understanding how to build a business that supports your art, I’m here to help. Contact me to discuss how to build your income as an artist in a way that aligns with your artistic vision.

 

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How to Build a Marketing Plan for Your Art Business (Part 1/x)

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This post is Part 1 of a multi-part series about marketing. Subscribe to our Business of Art newsletter to receive notification when additional posts are published. 

One of the most common questions I hear is “How can I sell my art?” And while that’s an important question that every artist needs to find a way to answer, I find the more appropriate place to start is, “How should I market my art?” 

“Marketing” is a nebulous topic that frequently isn’t taught in school. And while some may be naturally gifted at drawing attention to their work on social media channels, those activities don’t always equate to actually marketing their work. In fact, being good at social media is just one aspect of marketing and sometimes may not even lead to sales.

In order to successfully sell your art, you need to approach marketing strategically. 

What does that mean?  Marketing requires critical thinking about who your audience is, the best ways to reach them, and all the steps they will go through to become customers. Good marketing is a series of activities that are part of the pathway to transaction.

Let’s take a closer look at the framework that  supports an effective marketing plan. In future posts, we will look at actionable steps to implement a marketing plan. 

 

A MARKETING PLAN FRAMEWORK:

GOALS

Audience

Message

Channel

Market conditions

Strategy

Tactics

Measurement 

 

Before we get into “how to build a marketing plan,” it’s important to understand the parts that make up a marketing strategy. While there are many different approaches to building a marketing strategy, here are the critical pieces that I’ve found are invaluable for artists to include. 

Goals: What are you trying to accomplish? 

Yes, you want to sell more art. And that’s a fine goal to have. But it’s not enough for a marketing strategy. Goals should be both specific about what you want and measurable. 

To define goals, think both about the steps needed to achieve those sales (drive more traffic to your website, have X number of gallery showings, etc.).

As you see above, there is a link that flows from your goals all the way to your action and outcome (more sales). 

 

Audience:  Who is your artwork for? 

Often when I ask an artist this question, many  will gleefully respond, “Everybody!”

Yes, artwork can be enjoyed by all people, but not everyone will value it. Nor do you want everyone to value it, as that likely means it is too average and does not transcend as great art. 

Furthermore, it is impossible to market to everyone. There is no message that will speak to every person the globe over, and there is no place–physical or digital–that could put your work in front of the entire world population. Your audience is a group of people who recognize the value of your work. 

More particularly your customers are those who value it AND are willing to pay for it. Keep in mind that some audiences may not be direct buyers, but rather people who can help you get in front of buyers, such as galleries. 

When defining your audiences, include things like age, gender, geographical location (if applicable), other artists they like, and other activities they enjoy. Income level is also good to include when building audience profiles, particularly if you have a desired price point for your work in mind.  With clarity on who your audience is, the rest of marketing becomes easier.

Messaging:  What do you want to say and how do  you want to say it to your audience? There are key things your audience wants to know about your artwork. There is context you can you provide to your audience that invites their engagement with your work. What details about materials, process and your philosophies add value to the experience of your work? Messaging is where you can, and frankly where you will need to differentiate yourself from other artists. 

Channels:  Where do your audiences hang out, both literally and figuratively? 

Hint: Social media is not the right answer. That is akin to saying my audience hangs out in the ocean, and if I start swimming I will probably find them. 

Channels need to be tangible places to connect with your audience. What social media platforms do they prefer? What hashtags do they follow?  Do they visit any particular art venues on a regular basis? What publications do they read? Where am I likely to personally, in physical or digital form, encounter my audience?

Market Conditions: What are people who are purchasing artistic experiences looking for? 

This can include information about what type(s) of art your ideal customers like, but it should also include general market conditions that may affect your ability to sell art. For example, when there is an economic downtown, art purchases tend to drop. You don’t have to be an economist, but a general awareness of market conditions will help you to properly communicate with your audience. 

Strategies: How will you reach your audience?

Marketing strategies define your approaches to growing your audience and increasing your sales. This includes things like developing a stronger online presence, building relationships with more galleries, participating in online art forums, developing an email list, creating stronger visual assets to communicate your values (brand) etc. Strategies, although large in scope, should be very specific and should directly support your goals. 

Tactics: What work do you need to do today to move towards your goal?

Often confused with Strategies, tactics are the specific steps you need to take to put your strategies into place. That might be “Create a daily Instagram post” or “Send a monthly newsletter.” 

Measurement: How do you know if you are getting closer to your goals? 

Good goals are measurable, but you also need to know what to measure. For example, if I’m driving from Baltimore to San Francisco, I know the route is going to be about 3,000 miles. Throughout my journey, I can easily glance at a number of mile markers, but that will only tell me how far I’ve gone on a specific highway. 

A better method would be to note down my odometer’s starting point and estimate the number it will be when I arrive in San Francisco. That way I know how far I’ve traveled at any time and can estimate how much further I have to go.

Measuring your marketing is similar. You need to know what you want to measure and how you will measure it. For example, if one of your goals is to grow online sales by X percent, you will need a way to track all your online sales, AND to measure its growth over time. Good analysis doesn’t cause paralysis, good analysis enables good growth.

This is the framework for any good marketing plan. Check out future posts for an overview of how to put these together to form a single, cohesive plan that gets results! 

 

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