ART MARKETING MADE EASY | 30-Day Plan to Grow Your Art Business (Part One)

Art Marketing:

Marketing Your Art for More Sales (What does and does not work)

CREATIVES: This is a systematic plan to help your build your overall art business.

Art is a business.

Yes, any business owner will tell you that it takes many things to run a good, solid business. Your art business is no different.

You must work to grow not only your sales and profits, but your overall marketing, brand, reputation, etc.

To do this you must determine a few things and then everything you do should be within those guidelines.

For example, if you desire to build a strong online business, don’t waste a lot of time trying to get into galleries…at least right now. Get your online presence very strong, build some sales and galleries will be easier to target in the future.

If you want to be in galleries, then you will target different things (like sales, PR and a solid sales reputation).

They are similar but you will need to focus on each a little differently.

It will be 30 days of pure commitment, but if you do what it takes, you’ll be poised for a very successful trip.

Building a system for art sales

First, before we start, read the following statement and understand it:

The key to building a successful and solid business is to find a system that works for you and is repeatable.

It is a simple statement, and you may have heard it or one like it before, but it’s very easy to gloss over it or move past it to get to the “meat” of the program.

The statement itself is what this very program will give you: a repeatable system that you can use to build your own success and consequently give your more exposure, credentials and traffic to help you sell more art.

You’ve taken the first steps to develop a successful, solid business. This manual will give you the tools you need to start to develop the system, which you can repeat again and again, until your business is meeting your personal goals. There will be several steps to follow.

Art Marketing Made Easy is a system.

Surely you’ve heard that developing a solid system that really works for you is the key to success. Maybe you’ve tried other tools or dabbled with various tips, but unless you actually put it together as a roadmap to take you where you want to go, you’ll wander aimlessly (and needlessly) far longer than you need to.

First, get familar with the 28-Day Success Calendar

Before you begin, be sure to read through the 28-Day Success Calendar. Spend some time working with this Calendar and arranging the tasks to fit your schedule. Tasks are arranged in time blocks, ranging from 30 minutes to several hours.

For example some days may state that the tasks will take three hours to complete. If you are unable commit three hours on that particular day, flip it with a day within that same week that corresponds to your schedule.

One hour a day minimum is required

The point of the Art Marketing Made Easy is to take a one hour block of time each day at a minimum. If you have more time on a particular day, then by all means work with it!

What if you have a particularly busy week and just don’t have the time that week? No problem! The system is versatile. You may change the tasks within a particular week but do not change the tasks from week-to-week.

In other words, keep the same tasks within the same week, if possible, but your may move them around to best suit your needs and working schedule. If there is a week where you can only fit in a few hours of work, you can fit one or two tasks in and save the rest for the next week.

Your Blueprint for Building an Art Business

The 28-Day Success Calendar is provided to help you lay out a workable action plan that will fit with your lifestyle. Instead of just offering the marketing tools to help you grow your business, it will help provide a simple blueprint to getting the results you are seeking within a workable, realistic timeframe.

The Calendar is just a beginning. If you use it and work with the principles contained within it, you can continue to use one like it for an unspecified amount of time.

You are building a repeatable, fluid system

When you’re finished with your first 28-30 days, then what? Simple…just duplicate the tasks during the next 60 days to keep on the path. You’ll need to drop a couple of things (as they only needed to be done once), but you’ll find many more things to add.

Each month you should set up a similar calendar of tasks to complete. You will likely find yourself expanding some tasks as you get more successful. This will help keep you on-track and on-task.

Thanks, but this sounds too structured. I think I’ll just wing it.

You may be tempted to do the tasks without the calendar, but we strongly suggest that you use the Calendar. This is essential for best results. The Calendar has been developed to give you a systematic plan.

This is where small businesses often fail—they do not have a plan and they do not have a consistent plan-of-attack. This calendar is meant to provide you with both. It’s simple, it’s easy to understand and it’s already laid out for you to get started now!

As you progress through this plan, you’ll find that the tasks that are listed in the Calendar are fully explained one-by-one. This will help you understand each task, what is expected of you and why you should do it.

On the Calendar, you’ll find these tasks listed with a number in parentheses after each task. This number is to give you an idea of how long the task may take you to complete. This will help you an idea to help work it into your schedule.

For example:

Writing and sending out email newsletter to your list (1.5)

This will take you approximately one and a half hours to complete. It may take a little or a little less; this is an approximation.

Work the system into your schedule

We realize that sometimes you only have an hour or two to devote to something before you need to move to another area of your life (especially true if you have a “day job” and/or kids!). If it’s hard to get huge blocks of time in your day to devote to your business, this calendar will help move you along at a pace that works for you.

As this is a “recipe” for success and profits, we’ll list all key items as “ingredients.” They are priority components for a successful finished product: A profitable business.  

While you may wish to substitute ingredients here and there, we caution you to do this sparingly—the more you deviate from the ingredients list, the more you’re likely to finish unsuccessfully. Stick to the “recipe” for success and let it work for you! Let’s get started!

Be sure to subscribe to this blog to get all updated posts

TASK ONE: Dream Your Dream

Dream a Little Dream of Your Ideal Life as an Artist

One of the most important proponents of success is so simple it’s almost laughable: Know what you really want. (See, we told you!)

Define what you want your art career to be

Most people know they want “success” in whatever version they dream of, but they don’t nail it down. They talk about being successful, but they don’t really define what that means for them.

This simple step is one of the most important tasks in this system. Do it and we can pretty much guarantee it will set the track for you to follow.

Within your calendar of tasks you will find the assignment to create a “dream picture of your life.” This is a deceptively simple, but important step. Do not skip it. You may think it’s just a time-waster, but believe us when we say it will help you a lot down the road!

You may think it is adequate to just picture your dream life in your mind, but it is not. You will find that working with this system and committing thoughts, goals, dreams, and tasks to paper will help to cement them in your plan.

Do it, do it, do it!

When doing this task, be sure to have some quiet time to really decide what it is you want. You should take this time to be by yourself, free from disturbances. The reason for this task is to secure a mental image for yourself that you will be able to refer to again and again.

This image will be a picture of your life exactly as you wish it to be.

It will be as if someone took a snapshot of you living your dream artist life. It will only be of a moment in time, but after completing this task, you will understand that it will of a moment that you feel your life it just as you want it to be.

To complete this assignment, imagine a day in your “perfect life as an artist.” Write down answers to the following questions:

-What is your ideal art studio like? Describe it.

-How many art sales do you get each month, week, day?

-What do you love about your business?

-Do you spend most of your day working in your studio or are your happier with a part-time art business?

-Do your sales come from online customers or a gallery?

-Do you work events and art fairs or primarily sell online (or through local galleries)?

-Are you famous, a little famous, or not worried about that at all?

-How much time are you willing to spend working/marketing yourself?

-What is your monthly budget for marketing?

-How much money do you earn monthly or yearly?
 

Why You Should NOT Skip This Step

It may seem silly, but doing this step will help really solidify what your want and plant it into your brain.

When stresses and disappointments stack up against you, as they inevitably will, you can instantly recall this and remind yourself what you are working toward and what you need to make your life what you want it to be.

You can post it somewhere you can see it all the time to remind you of your goals and keep you on-track.

It is a simple, but very powerful task. Do it and just see where it takes you. It is fun and you may be surprised at what it is you find that you really want.

ART COACHING = MORE SALES

If you have ever wondered things like

-Should I spend time/money running Facebook ads

-Where are the best places online to get my art sold

-Should I start an art blog

-Should I sell my art on Etsy

-Is my art good for the print market

-How can I start making consistent money as an artist

These are just a few of the things an art coach can help you with.

Having navigated the art business and learned so much…SO MUCH…over the last decade (plus plus), I can help you avoid mistakes, guide you in the right direction and help to personally put you on the right track with your art.

CONTACT ME to see if your art is a good fit for my assistance!