The Starving Artist is a Myth: How to Sell Art Online, Find Your Your Ideal Buyers, Eliminate Dependency on Agents & Galleries, and Keep More of the Profits for Yourself. by Cory Huff TheAbundantArtist.com
Positioning your art in your market The very first thing is that your art needs to be really good. Now, really good can mean different things to different people – and I'm assuming that if you are reading this, that you feel that you have a reasonable amount of confidence con fidence in your artistic ability, ability, but perhaps have a little trepidation about saying that other people find your work to be good. go od. Many artists have a hard time marketing themselves. It's okay to feel that way. way. One of the mistakes that most artists, (heck, most business people in general) make is trying to sell everything they do to all people. When you try to be all things to all people, you instead water down what you do so that it loses a lot of its impact. You have to focus the presentation of your work to make it stand out. When you do this, you will start to gain confidence in your artistic message and in the fact that people love your work. In fancy MBA schools, students learn to develop de velop things called Unique Selling Propositions (USP). This is nothing more than a name for the expression of what makes you stand out from everyone else. I'll use myself as an example. When I started working for myself, I wanted to be an Internet marketing consultant. I had several years experience working for other people, and I had learned a ton so I was ready to strike out on my own. I floundered around for about a year, telling everyone I was an Internet Marketing Consultant. Then I met a couple of great mentors by the name of o f Dave Dee & Alexis Martin Neely. Neely. Dave is a magician and a serial entrepreneur. I connected with what he was teaching right away. Dave & Alexis told me that I needed to be more focused. They asked me the following question, and this is the first key to your US P: Who is Your Ideal Client?
Before I tell you how I answered that question, I want wan t to ask you something. Who is your ideal buyer/collector? Go ahead, write down your answers to the following questions. There is also a work sheet you can use on page 35. Out of all the people who have purchased your work, who did you enjoy working with the most? Out of the people who have purchased your work, which sales were the most profitable? If you haven't ever sold any art, what would you imagine is the answer to these two questions? Where does the answer to these two questions intersect? Who was the most fun and the most profitable? Now, what would happen to you if you only ever sold art to these people?
You should be able to narrow this person down pretty specifically. specifically. Your Your final answer might look something like, “My ideal buyer is 45 – 65 years old with an income upward of $100,000 per year. year. He has some experience with art, having purchased a few pieces before but is now looking to add to his collection and exploring the work of artists that he admires. He is an avid golfer, enjoys bright colors, and also owns a pack of doberman pinschers.” If you're a painter who does a lot of dog portraits, this person might be an ideal client!
I told Dave & Alexis that I would really love to work with artists, since I am an actor and my wife is a painter, and I really love creative people. I believe that the Starving Artist Artist mentality that so many artists have is just wrong and a total myth. They told me I should bill myself as someone who works with artists and I was like, “But wait, I can work with anyone. What I know can be applied to any business. I'll lose a bunch of customers!”
You, as an artist, are probably thinking the same thing right now. “If I focus on one group of buyers, I could lose all the rest.” I'm going to show you how that's exactly the opposite of what will happen.
When you start focusing on your ideal client, your voice begins to be more authentic to them. If I start telling artists that I am also an artist, and that I focus on helping artists learn about online marketing, that has a lot more impact than me just walking up to any person and saying, “Hey I'm an Internet marketing consultant. Hire me.”
I see artists do this all of the time. They put their work out at a fair or on a website with no thought to who is going to be in the audience. They show their work where all of the other artists show, show, they do what all of the other artists do. The really successful artists put a little more thought into it.
As an artist, this can take many forms. Instead of saying, “I'm a painter” or even, “I'm an oil painter,” a portrait artist might say that you “paint people's dreams” or that you “create paintings that capture the essence of childhood.” Whatever gets you really fired up and passionate when you're painting, that's what you should do. Think about people peop le like Thomas Kinkade. As much as artists love to hate him, everyone knows him as a s what? Right, the Painter of Light. Your Your USP should be simple and direct. Mine is right at the top of the Web site – Dispelling the Starving Artist Myth. Of course, people will ask what that means, because becau se it's a little vague, right? That's exactly what you want to have happen. Your Your USP should be interesting enough that people want w ant more information. See how this works? “Hi, I'm Cory. What do you do?” “Hey, I'm Eleatta, I paint people's dreams.” “Whoa, really? What does that mean? How do you do that?”
Imagine where this conversation goes next...
So now that you have their interest you have to tell them what w hat you do. You've You've already started to differentiate yourself, but this is where you really eliminate their interest in any competition or in working with other artists (some of you are going to turned off by that last statement – but in truth, your collector only has so much money or time. You You need to seal the deal or o r they're going to move on to the next artist, or art dealer, who won't have the same qualms you do about selling their work). For me, when someone asks how I Dispel the Starving Artist Myth, I say, "I teach artists that by eliminating dependence on middlemen like galleries and agents they can build a fan base, sell art directly to their fans, and keep more of the money for themselves." Pretty awesome, right? Which artist in the world would NOT want to do that? I've never had an artist tell me they wouldn't want that.
You can do d o the same thing.
For example, what does it mean to 'Paint someone's dreams?' One of my first artist clients, Eleatta Diver, does this. It's her unique selling proposition (and she told me I could use her as an example). She tells people that she interviews people, gets to know them, and then paints a unique commissioned portrait that displays the hopes, dreams, conquered fears, and passions that they have inside of them.
Now, I'll ask you, would you rather have your portrait done by a portrait artist...or someone who Paints People's Dreams? I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of portrait artists out there who interview their buyers - but how many of them Paint People's Peop le's Dreams? Probably none, right? Suddenly she's no longer a portrait artist, she's in a league all of her own, an d she has no competition. Then its just a matter of whether or not the client can afford her work, because she's in so much demand that she can charge a premium for her work. This is how you start to build a brand, a nd your first step to online marketing success.
Here's your next assignment. Write this down. What is your unique s elling proposition? What do you offer to that ideal client that they really want? If someone asks you what your USP is, what will you tell them?
Have a good one? Here's what I want you to do. Message me on Twitter Twitter at @AGoodHusband. If you're not on Twitter yet, then you will be at the end of this ebook. ebo ok. Send me an @ reply with your USP. USP. I would love to read it. I might even ask you to tell me what it means...
