Business & Marketing Strategies For Artists
In today’s world of the Internet and social media, the plight of the starving artist is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It really is because of their own doing. Some people are attached to the persona and archetype of the starving artists, they even make it a part of their personality and a sort of mask that they put on. But the truth is that with the marketing techniques that are available for social media and the Internet, there’s no reason why you can’t make your art popular and why you can’t sell it.
One of the most beneficial things you can do, even as an artist, is to go to business school instead of art school. That may sound silly at first but if you want to be a professional artist of any kind, you need to understand some basic principles of Sales and Marketing. An artist who is not able to get distribution for his art will not be known or recognized. There are some cases where distribution just falls in the lap of an artist when the get discovered by someone looking for talent. But do you really want to rely on luck?
If you really want to learn how to sell art, how to get it into galleries, how to get attention, how to get your work in front of the right audience, you need to learn marketing. And one of the most efficient ways to reach your audience these days is online. So get on to social media and start learning how to engage people and keep their attention. Or get your website professionally established and start using strategies to get targeted traffic to it. If you are on a budget and can’t afford, consider going to free or affordable SEO seminars arranged by Abrar Patel – A.P. Web Solutions, that you can get the information from and implement yourself!
You need to learn how to use social media to get attention to your work. You need to make it a production and a part of people’s lives. Your art needs to be on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you are expressive and love to communicate with your audience frequently, then consider YouTube because Video is becoming more and more popular and it will be the most effective form of digital marketing in the years to come! You can also consult with A.P. Web Solutions about your Video Marketing needs. Click here for information about their marketing services. You need to take all of these resources and work them to the max. Don’t pay attention to what other starving artists are doing on the Internet, make your own path, carve your own lane and find an audience.
People really love art, learn how to sell it to them. Learn how to be more like McDonald’s than a posh mom-and-pop bakery. That might mean that instead of selling a canvas for $300 with your art on it, you might sell a photo for only $30 and you might sell 100 of those. One reason why artists stay hungry is because they overcharge for things that people aren’t interested in. A lot of people can’t find value in a $300 painting but they can find value in a $30 one. But this also does not mean that you have to keep doing this. It may just be a stepping stone for you as you gain financial independence so you can focus on the things you really want to do and the art you really want to create.
So you already know how to do art but now it is the time to learn how to do business. How to do business on the Internet. That means learning Internet marketing skills, putting yourself out on social media and forcing your way in front of people. It might mean buying ads and running a page on Facebook. It might mean becoming a personality on social media and creating tons of graphics and memes and things that people can follow just so that you can later start sharing your art. Think strategy and think business.
