The #1 Marketing Strategy for Your Art Business
The number one question I get asked by artists is how can I market my art?
And the answer is simple…
Get out there and show your work.
Showing your art is the #1 most effective marketing strategy for growing your art business.
It puts your art directly in front of people who get to take it in and feel all the feels.
Marketing is giving value for free before they buy.
When you are out there showing your work, so many people will get a chance to get value from your work for free….which will lead to subscribers, engagement, followers, opportunities, and sales.
But, the idea of getting out there and showing your work can bring us some resistance for many artists…
What shows should I do?
Start with your local community shows and build off of them. Look for emerging artist opportunities. Host an open studio. Ask for wall space at a local business. Just start somewhere.
Where are the shows?
There are places to show your work all around you. Tapping into artist communities and centers, either locally or online will help you find new opportunities to show your work. And you can always create your own shows.
What should I bring with me?
You, your art, and your stories, along with key decisions about your art such as how much it costs, what the sizes are and your process. You’ll also want a way to display your work if its an outdoor event, or a way to hang or display your work inside at a venue. None of this needs to be fancy….you’ll learn along the way.
Doing shows costs too much.
Start small. Do the local shows to get your feet wet. Set up at local farmers markets. Host your own events and open studios. Doing shows doesn’t have to come with a lot of overhead. And for the shows that do require higher booth fees, and hotel stays, instead of finding ways that they cost too much, focus on why they are worth every penny instead.
I need the shows to be worth my while.
It’s not the shows job to make it worth your while…it’s yours.
If you show up and sit around waiting for people to buy from you, there is a high probability that you will not get out of it what you had hoped. Remember, shows are the best marketing strategy you have…and its up to you to make them work for you.
It’s too much effort.
What are all the steps that go into showing your work? Write them down? Which steps feel like too much effort. We forget sometimes that every single thing we do can be broken down into small doable steps. Figure out what they are and decide how you’ll plan for each one.
I’d rather just build an online business.
This is an example of all or nothing thinking which is usually brought on by a stressfull situation. Perhaps you had a bad show, or had bad weather at a show, or had someone say something to you that felt bad at a show, or had to sit though a show where no one showed up…and you’ve decided that shows aren’t for you and you are going to focus all your efforts on online marketing.
What if instead, you did both?
The people who meet you out in the world will then be able to get to know you better thorugh your online presence and engage with you and deepen the relationship with you, and you’ll continue meeting meeting in real life.
I need a bigger body of work first.
What you have right now is enough. It’s never about the quantity. I once did a show with just one piece and it was such a show stopper. People needed to understand why there was only one piece in my booth and I didn’t stop talking about my art all weekend.
I need a more consistent body of work first.
What is already consistent with your work? What connects the work all together?
I need my display to be better before I show.
I started with a folding table, a tent and green garden wire to hang my work from the tent frame. It doesn’t get more basic than that and I sold work. You have to start somewhere, and where ever you are right now is perfect for the collectors ready to buy from you right now.
I’ve shown my work in the past but it didn’t work.
Looking to the past for evidence of what you can and can’t do is going to significantly limit you on what you accomplish in this world. Our past successes and failures are there just to inform us and help us grow. Take the success and learn from the failure and stop using it as evidence as what is and isn’t possible for you. Everything is possible. Whatever you want IS POSSIBLE.
There are no shows right now.
There are always shows. Let that creative brain of yours go to work on ways to get your art out in front of people.
This is a bad time of year to do shows.
There is never a bad time of year to do shows.
Now that we’ve talked through some of the resistance areas…here are the top 10 reasons to get out there and show your art.
It’s high value marketing - in person experiences create lots of ways for them to engage with you and the art and feel the energy of that.
Showing your work leads to selling conversations which lead to you being able to make offers to help them with your art.
It gives you a deadline to work towards in the studio…more art is made when there are shows on your calendar.
It’s practice talking about your art and answering questions so you get better and better at finding the right sentences to use when talking to people in real life or online.
It’s a platform to build content around. Doing shows will enhance and amplify your reach online.
It teaches you organizing and planning skills by creating a sense of urgency around getting things done.
It gets you out of the studio and away from your computer screen so you can see people engaging with your work, and getting clearer on how your art impacts other people.
It forces failure and rejection and teaches you that failure and rejection are just part of being a professional artist, and it’s ok to feel all of it and keep going.
You grow your network and all that comes with it like future opportunities, connections, shows, and sales.
You give people a way to come to you when you put yourself out there vs. trying to chase people down to buy from you.
