"If you build it, he will come." That might work in the fictional world of the movie Field of Dreams, but not in the real world. You may be a disciplined painter, but if you stay hunkered down in your studio, stacking up masterpieces like cordwood, it's unlikely you'll be buying groceries this month. Somehow, you either need to be discovered—or get the word out yourself.
Discovery is unlikely. Few galleries these days go looking for new artists since, by now, they already have a stable of painters who sell consistently. And unless you hang out your own shingle, no one's going to come to your studio to see what you've been up to. A safer bet is getting the word out yourself. Why not advertise?
I'll talk more about that in a minute, but first, let me warn you. What follows includes a certain amount of whining. But not to fear—I'll also give you advice on what, for me, works best.
There are several ways to advertise: word-of-mouth, social media, online advertising and traditional print advertising. Word-of-mouth is slow. You're depending on your last buyer telling another potential buyer about your work. The word gets out, but it's a trickle. You may wait years for the word to get to the right person. Strangely, for workshops, I find this actually works rather well; the person who enjoyed a workshop often goes back to tell her painting group, and suddenly I have a flurry of registrations for the next one, or they invite me to teach the group privately. But it's unlikely that a collector of art has any kind of "buying club" that will come to me. (Yet wouldn't that be nice?)
What about social media? My blog, plus posts on Instagram and Facebook—the three venues I prefer—bring me buyers and students, but it's difficult to say how many. When I ask people how they heard about me, most often they will mutter, "I dunno, I think on the Internet, or maybe it was a magazine...?" It's rare when they remember specifics. And although targeted ads placed through social media let you reach a particular audience with more accuracy than you ever could with print ads, I find the reporting inadequate. Though I can get some information on how many people "engage," it's difficult to get an accurate number for "conversion"—that is, of how many people actually buy something based on a certain ad campaign.
Over time, I've placed a few ads in Facebook and Instagram, but they seem largely ineffective. Although I can see that my numbers look good for "page likes," "people reached" and "engagements," I have to ask, Where's the beef? I've gotten few sales or workshop registrations. (Or maybe I've gotten more than I think. Remember what I said about memory and advertising.)
Well, what about online advertising? There are many sites where you can put your art up for sale and list workshops. I did this for awhile, but I was at the mercy of each site's advertising methods. I got zero conversions from this. My own web sites are far more effective. I've had web sites for art and teaching for 20 years, and my search engine rankings are high. (Yes, I have several web sites, for different purposes. For my main web site, I use Yoast for my search engine optimization [SEO] package.) Besides my blog and newsletter, my own web sites have been more effective than any of the online advertising sites in getting inquiries.
By the way, here's my take on online ads. I think many people just don't see the ads. (One report I read says that organic reach for social media is at an all-time low, mostly because sites like Facebook try to monetize everything.) I don't know if you're like me, but I have fine-tuned my consciousness so that I'm blind to online advertising. If it looks like an ad, I ignore it. If it's a video with an ad at the start, I wait for the "Skip Ad" button with my mouse poised, ready to click. If it's an ad that obscures an article I'm trying to read, I simply don't go there anymore.
Finally, what about old-fashioned print advertising, specifically magazines? As a reader, I like some magazine ads. I enjoy looking at one if it's well-designed with an attractive image. Also, it won't make a pest of itself, bouncing around and begging me to click it, but if I like what it says, I will probably visit the web site. For a potential buyer or student, the magazine may also stay around for a long time, giving the ad a longer life. Magazines also get passed down; I give mine to my students.
But there are downsides for the advertiser: circulation for most magazines is fast diminishing, and ads, especially for national magazines, are expensive. A full-page ad for a national magazine can cost thousands; a smaller, and less effective, 1/8th page ad, hundreds. And that is just for one ad, one time. Print ads are most effective if you run them over several issues and, well, you can do the math. I've spent a lot of money over the years on print ads. The only ones that worked were very targeted (e.g. workshop listings in media-specific magazines) and ran in every issue.
Many print magazines, seeing the writing on the wall, now offer a digital version as well as an online presence. If you find advertising in the print issue too expensive, you can buy banner ads, pop-up ads, pop-over ads or whatever the latest evolution is in ads, for a lot less. But again, how effective are these? Maybe not so much, since I, like many, am blind to them.
So what works for me? In order of effectiveness:
- Newsletter. This, of course, means I have a good mailing list of qualified potential buyers and repeat buyers. The newsletter includes not only news and events, but also lists upcoming workshops and retreats or special projects that might interest readers.
- Word of Mouth. This works best with my workshop business. Not so well for art sales.
- Blog. I try to keep up interest by providing not just the occasional painting or workshop offering but useful information on technique, products and materials, or business. Some people receive the blog via email or a newsreader; the actual blog site also includes a certain amount of self-advertising for workshops, books and videos, and paintings.
- Web sites. I keep these updated with new paintings and workshops, and I also try to keep my SEO practices in tune.
- Crosslinks. I make sure newsletters, blogs and web sites all have links to each other to make it easy for traffic to go from one to the other.
- Print advertising. I'm taking a break from this, but it has worked for me in the past.
- Online advertising and social media advertising. I still believe that, some day, I will get some good out of this, so I allow myself a small budget to play with. I try varying the targeting parameters to see if I get different results. And maybe I am getting some actual conversions out of this, but just don't know it. (Memory and advertising, remember?)
As I said when I first started this series on the business of art, "Your mileage may vary." You may find something else that works for you. If so, I'd love to hear it!
