Marketing For Artists: Lesson 1

This is what I consider the hardest part about my business- marketing, dun dun dun. In simple terms, marketing is sharing what you have to offer with those who are interested. There's a lot to that, so I will start from the beginning and break this subject up into bite sized pieces and several future posts. So let's dig in.

Gain a healthy mindset about marketing.  It's helpful to share your stuff, so remember to have the mindset that you aren't pestering people, you're offering them something of value that they may need.

So now that we are in the right mindset let's follow the steps below to start marketing! 

Step 1: What do you have to offer? To begin marketing, you need to know what problem you are solving, what you have to offer and what makes you unique. It is normal to spend time, even years sometimes, discovering and refining what you have to offer. People will begin to notice you when you solve a problem for them or they can't find something like what you offer anywhere else. There are millions of artworks, so if you're an artist you need to know what makes your art unique so you can use that to get noticed. 

Step 2: Know your audience. Not everyone is going to want what you have to offer or sometimes even think it is valuable. This is completely normal.  Try not to  get offended because what you have isn't for everybody. Your job is to focus on who is interested. Put all your marketing effort into the people who care, not into trying to convince people who don't to care. 

Step 3: Open Communication. To get to know the people who like what you have to offer, open up doors for communication. The best way to make a product better is letting people review you, your company, and your products. That is why companies are after your reviews all the time, it makes them better and in turn makes your experience in the future better. It is a win-win situation.  Be open to negative comments, yes, some can be a personal attack, but honestly that just tells you who your customers aren't. In my first art tutorials people mentioned the music was too loud and that they didn't like that I sped up the video. This helped me know to soften the music and to not speed up my videos. Now I don't get as many complaints and people are enjoying my videos more. 

Step 4: The more places you can be seen the better. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could reach everyone who was interested in buying your product! This is the heart and goal of marketing. 

I would like to be more specific now, however every single one of you is different. In order to get results in your marketing effort you must understand that and a few other things. 

1. There are so many ways to market and everyone isn't doing everything when it comes to marketing, nor can they. 

2. Those who know marketing understand that the "this worked for me, so it should for you," is a flat out lie. Yes, it could possibly work, but not always.  A one size fits all does not exist when it comes to marketing. 

3. There is no marketing without effort and dollar bills put into it. If your looking to put your stuff on someone's platform you are going to have to pay for it. This because they have put a lot of money and time in building their platform or storefront. They need you support them and you need the sales with them to support you. It is a partnership.  But don't invest the money, unless you are getting more back with sales. 

So I want you to ask yourself this week these important things:

1. Who wants my product?
2. Where are these people?
3. How much does it cost to get in front of these people?

Next week I am going to dig into Social Media and how to use it for marketing. If you have any questions, please send them my way. Also share any topics you would like me to talk about in the comments.

Take Care, 
Ashley Krieger

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