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| The Marketing Guru Myth By Clint Watson |
| Note: We live in a very different world than we did a week ago. The seriousness and deadliness of the dreaded c-virus has become much clearer and it has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The policies and practices around trying to slow the spread of the disease have increasingly been put in place. We've had runs on staples in the supermarkets. The stock market has officially entered a bear market. The economy may be sliding into a recession.
We, at BoldBrush, are more committed than ever to supporting artists during this time. Our entire team is focused 100% on whatever we can do to help you market and sell more art. Whether that represents a desire to replace income lost from reductions at a day job, or an increase in selling for a full time art career, we are here to support those efforts. I will be expanding upon what those efforts are in an upcoming newsletter.
A silver lining in the dark cloud of these times, for many of us, is more time to focus on our art and our art marketing, at least online art marketing. If you're in that situation, it's important to make the most of your time and focus your efforts in those activities that have high returns relative to the time invested. It is critical that you focus on those marketing efforts that are likely to have the most impact.
So today I want to help you avoid wasting your precious time on marketing efforts that, for most artists, have low returns for the time invested.
There is a dangerous myth about art marketing out in the world.
To explain the myth, you have to understand a concept we call the "Marketing Advice Firehose".
The Marketing Advice Firehose is the overwhelming deluge of advice artists receive about how to market their art. It can be overwhelming to the point of being almost paralyzing. There are lots of well-meaning people with a marketing background, who are eager to advise artists on how to market and sell art. I applaud the fact they want to help artists, but it leads to a big problem.
The problem is what I call the "Marketing Guru Myth."
The myth goes something like this, "Marketing is marketing. And I know how to market shoes on Amazon/information products/software/medical devices. So I can do some good and teach artists how to market art!"
The problem is that you can't market art like you market other products. You can't market art like you market shoes on Amazon. You can't market art like you market information products. You can't market art like you market software. And you can't market art like you market medical devices.
Art marketing is unique to, well, art. And, although it does share similarities to marketing other types of luxury goods, it is still unique. I say this as a former gallery owner whose gallery sold millions of dollars of art.
The Marketing Guru Myth leads to some dubious advice for artists.
For example, just think how many artists subject their brand new site visitors, who are eager simply to look at beautiful art, to invasive and in-your-face newsletter signup popups before the visitor has even seen one piece of art.
That's the exact opposite of how one should treat a valued customer who may be purchasing an expensive, discretionary luxury good. Why do people recommend that artist do that?
Because the newsletter popup tactic works well when you sell information products. And that is what most marketing gurus sell. And unfortunately some of them are falling into the "Marketing Guru Myth" of thinking what works for information products will work for selling art.
Here's another pervasive myth: How many times have you been overwhelmed while a marketing expert tells you that you need to put time and effort into optimizing your sites for search engines in a process called "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO)?
SEO works great when you're selling Nike sneakers on an eCommerce platform. But putting much effort into SEO, with a few rare exceptions, is a waste of time for most artists. |
| I've covered the "SEO Myth" extensively over the years and kind of become known as the "anti-SEO" guy. But that's because I know what activities work for marketing art and, for the most part, SEO isn't one of them.
In fact, SEO Guru Aaron Wall says, "Some things do not make sense to push algorithmically, and some leads have very little value. I don't think SEO is a real solution for most live artists. SEO doesn't really get too many people talking about you."
But, guess what SEO works really well for? Information Products. And many people recommending artists spend time on SEO are selling courses, videos and white papers to artists. So they naturally recommend what works for them. However, it's a myth. The Marketing Guru Myth.
So what DOES work in marketing art?
We will be sharing many ideas in upcoming articles. But if you've followed me for long, you know that it involves reaching out to existing fans and collectors. Building an email list. Sending an email update to your followers on a regular cadence. If you haven't started an email list and a basic newsletter. You need to. Right away. We'll be sharing additional ideas of what to do with that list and those newsletters, and other tactics, in upcoming articles.
For my lastest thoughts on art marketing and sales ideas I highly encourage you to Follow me on Twitter, that's where I publish ideas and opportunities in real time.
Click here to follow me on Twitter
Until then, please remember, Fortune Favors the BoldBrush. Stay safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Clint Watson
BoldBrush/FASO Founder and Art Fanatic
PS - I mentioned we are working hard to add additional marketing and sales channels tools and options for fine artists. The first one launched this week. If you are a FASO website customer, you already know about our free monthly BoldBrush Painting competition. We've added a new option to offer the pieces for sale, right from the competition site! When you make your entry, simply click the checkbox giving us the right to offer the piece for sale and we'll pass interested parties through directly to your website to check out. Stay tuned, more coming soon.
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| Editor's Note: Want to sell your art? A professional and secure website can be your most valuable tool to help you sell your artwork. FASO is the largest provider of premium artists websites engineered exclusively for elite artists. We make it easy to build (even for non-techies) and maintain, we include SSL for all of our websites at no additional cost and we provide you with some great art marketing tools that automate many common marketing tasks for you. Get Started with FASO today free for 30-days, click here. |
| Clint Watson is a former art gallery owner and founder of BoldBrush, known for FASO Artist Websites, the leading provider of professional artist websites, the $38,000 BoldBrush Painting Competition and the free daily art marketing newsletter, FineArtViews. As a self-proclaimed "art fanatic", Clint delights that BoldBrush's downtown San Antonio, Texas office is full of original art, as is his home office which he shares with his two feline assistants Kiara and Lilly. You can connect with Clint on Twitter, Facebook or his personal blog at clintavo.com. |
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