FineArtViews - The AMP Newsletter

Hi There,

Selling art is a unique experience for both the artist and the buyer. It can't be easily replicated to meet mass market demands. At FASO, we focus on cultivating real marketing and sales tactics that our artists can use to market and sell their art.

In the article below, I lay out the 6 C's of Art Sales which has been proven to produce high art sales for our artists. After you read the article, please let me know what you think. And, don't forget to send in your questions so they can be answered in an upcoming newsletter!

If you're struggling to sell your art online or just want to boost your art sales, click here to sign-up for a free trial of FASO today.

By the way, for my latest thoughts on art marketing, posted daily, please follow me on Twitter.

I sure hope you're enjoying FineArtViews. If you are and want to support us, we'd sure be appreciative if you'd click here to forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague.

Enjoy,

Clint Watson

There is a secret to produce high art sales, which must be done IN ORDER:

1. Craving

You must have a craving to produce art. As Hugh MacLeod says,

If you don't have a craving this strong, it's probably time to think about doing something else.

2. Creativity

Nurture your craving by acting on your creativity. In other words, create.

3. Competence

Lack of sales frustrates many artists more than anything else. Often, a lack of sales is caused by poor marketing strategies or, simply, poor execution of those strategies. But sometimes, a lack of sales may indicate a more fundamental issue: that the artist has not yet reached a basic level of competence in their work.

In other words, your art must be competent in order to sell. Think about it: Let's say you paint wildlife, and one of your potential markets is deer hunters. If you've not properly mastered depicting the anatomy of a deer, your target market will know. And your work won't sell.

Or, at a more basic level, if you've not reached a level of competence in mixing and painting colors in your landscapes - people will be able to tell that something is "off". Invest the time necessary to become competent at your craft. Find people who will be honest with you (even if it hurts to hear) to critique your art. [1]

4. Community

After achieving competence, as people discover your art, you will find folks who are interested in your creations. Let's call these people "fans." Or, in modern guru-speak, your "tribe."

You're the leader of this tribe and it's up to you to be organized and keep track of who these people are. You need to have an organized contact list and an organized email list.

When someone expresses interest in you or your art, you need to add them to you contact list and make them part of your community.

Community precedes conversations which precede commerce. If you are not organized about this process and are not actively leading your fans, then you don't yet truly have a community and your sales will be lackluster. [2]

5. Conversations

It's been said before that "marketing is conversations" and, indeed, you should be constantly initiating conversations with your community.

That's one reason email newsletters are so powerful, as your community grows, each newsletter you send goes to more people and each one should spawn replies which initiate conversations between you and your community.

Of course, blogs, social networks and good old-fashioned exhibits are all other ways to spawn conversations.

6. Commerce

If you've done all the previous steps: you're satisfying your craving by expressing your creativity. You've put in the hours to develop your "chops" and are producing competent art.

You've been nurturing your community and are having regular conversations with them. If you're doing all these things, commerce should follow. And that means sales.

Until next time, please remember that Fortune Favors the Bold Brush.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic

PS - If you're still not ready to pull the trigger and sign-up for your free account, click here and join us for an upcoming webinar and ask us anything that you want to know about the FASO platform before joining. The webinar is on June 23 at 12:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM CT / 10:00 AM MT / 9:00 AM PT.

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[1] Competence is the bare minimum level of technical proficiency needed to sell. The journey never stops. The good news is that the more masterful your art becomes, the easier it is to sell.

[2] Good art galleries have, traditionally, filled this role for the artist, that is, the role of being organized and leading a community of fans. The caveat for you, as an individual artist, is that the gallery's job is to lead their tribe, which benefits you only when the needs of their tribe and yours overlap.