Choosing Wise Strategies

The following article was written by Debra Keirce, a regular contributing author to The BoldBrush Letter.

Do you know the specific type of marketing you want to do?

Everyone has marketing advice. But is anyone really an expert in what will work for you?

My approach has evolved over my art career. I’m guessing you can relate to this. It’s why there is no single set of rules that works for everyone’s business. Forget that we are all selling vastly different creations. The target moves over time and factors like where we live, who we network with, how many resources we have, and even what we hope to achieve - all of these are like sands shifting in the winds.

I tried to do everything I heard about at the start of my art career. Maybe you are a marketing powerhouse and CAN do it all. The artists I know don’t have time to do everything and also create, so we have to choose. When it comes to marketing strategies, I have a "Do" list and I have a "Do Not" list. Some words of wisdom I got long ago, from multiple sources, were to do what you love and love what you do. For me, this helps me streamline all aspects of my business. 

Some facts - I paint and draw tight realism. Each piece takes me weeks to complete. I work on several projects at once. 

My “Do Not” List

Just as an example of a “Do Not” list, I currently avoid marketing strategies using the following tools:

• quantity discounts to encourage more purchases

• gifts in exchange for purchases

• discount sales or coupons

• different pricing for different venues

• techniques used to encourage impulse buys

• prints and printed materials like cards, mugs, calendars and other merch
  

There’s nothing wrong with any of the items on my “Do Not” list. I tried them all in the past. They are on the list because right now, for me, they are definitely not fun to implement. This is just the way I choose to run my art business.

My “Do” List

The marketing on my personal “Do” list includes the following approaches.

I focus on relationship-based marketing, emphasizing long-term connections, building loyalty and trust over time. I work with venues and collectors knowing that sometimes it can take years to produce sales.

That means I need to have the time and money to go into most situations knowing there will be no immediate sale. Having done this for 13 years straight now, it’s working. But it’s not for everyone. It requires an extreme amount of dedication and persistence. It was a labor of love for the first five years. Now, my sales are substantial and they grow yearly.

I am implementing luxury marketing. My fine artworks are luxury buys that are wants, not needs.

It’s important for me to remember that I’m not selling food or clothing or shelter. I’m not even selling functional art like jewelry or pottery. In some ways, because it touches peoples’ hearts, my artwork can be very comforting, healing, and even encouraging, depending on the situation. For some of us, a life without art in unimaginable. It’s about the experience for my collectors. The world needs beautiful art more now than ever. But it’s still a want, not a need, no matter how many times I forget that fact. 

So, I have to be careful when reading all the marketing advice about identifying and solving the need for my collector. In my humble opinion, my time is better spent improving my skills and letting my collectors decide if what I create will rock their world or not. This means I can share my improvement journey in ways that support a luxury marketing strategy. I can do this through long-term engagement, and create a lasting impression of growing competence over the years. I also get to experiment with ways to get better, which I absolutely love. 

This attention to serving the luxury market takes commitment, and consistency. My brand, including my mission, online personality, the way I present, everything about me, has to remain constant over time. In short, I don’t believe I can drastically change my brand, without impacting how this works for me. That’s posed some challenges over the years when I want to try new things. I hesitate to make them all public before working out the bugs.

I also  love to focus on content marketing. I create art that people buy for the way it makes them feel, not because it matches their décor. Even though I don’t personally love the social media part of this strategy, I feel it is important. I try to post content that offers understanding and conveys the emotions my art evokes. I post behind the scenes intel, and - more fun to me - I engage with my audience via emails and phone calls.  Because of this focus, the story and inspiration are integral to what I share about each painting. I think of this throughout my creation process. Even a title can tell a story about a piece. Side note - I offer my stories only to the people who want to hear them. Some buyers would rather form their own narratives.

Have you thought about streamlining your own marketing and branding? 

Is it consistent with the stories you want collectors to share about you? Is it consistent with what they find when they search the internet for you? Is it sustainable for you? When someone meets you at an opening and talks with you, or when they look at your website, is their impression aligned with your marketing goals? 

Does any of this resonate with you? You may be reading this and thinking that your business is the polar opposite of mine. That’s what makes this art world interesting. We each need to be ourselves. You do you.

It’s my experience that the people who my art appeals to keep coming back once they learn about me. The internet is a terrific tool for advertising, but there is also great transparency using it. We have to be careful to be genuine. The adoring public doesn’t like being lied to, so I have to be myself. I often wish I was more interesting, or had a more marketable persona. But, I won’t even try to be more than the art nerd that I am. I envy those of you who are actually really cool and get amazing numbers of likes on your super engaging Instagram reels! 

But for all of us with limits on our marketing talents, take heart! We can choose just a handful of ways to do our marketing, and the more practiced we are at implementing those chosen strategies, the more successful we can be. When you look at your marketing plan, can you love what you do and do what you love? I sincerely hope so. Choose wisely!

Debra Keirce

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Debra Keirce
www.DebKArt.com

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