The Original Sin of Art Marketing

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The Original Sin of Art Marketing

“The artist's task is to save the soul of mankind; and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. Because of the artists, who are self-selected, for being able to journey into the Other, if the artists cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found.”

- Terrence McKenna

The original sin in art marketing is thinking that the art business is like any other business.

Artists are noble creatures who aspire to manifest inspiration for the benefit of all. Nobility is born by discovering our unique abilities, our true calling, and mastering them to their full potential in the service of others.  And that is exactly what artists must do!  Since the purpose of art is to allow humans to send inspiration, energy, and subjective knowledge to one another across space and time, it must be understood that art is sacred.  And we don’t market the sacred in profane ways.  Yet most marketing advisers, coaches, and gurus try to convince artists that they should market their art like the common products of the world.

Your efforts to market and sell art will fail, or, at least, fall short, if you don’t internalize this idea.

Here is the biggest difference between an art practice and all other businesses:

In a business, the customer comes first.  In an art practice, the customer comes last.

Marketing art is less like selling iPhones, and more like finding a partner on Tinder.

Normal products solve a problem.  Art does not (except for the problem of the deep hunger to create that  the artist feels if he doesn’t create it).  Art exists to inspire, not solve a problem.

All products have some element of personal preference.  Of aesthetic appeal.  But art, from the customer’s point of view, is almost all personal preference (barring the case of a specific piece needing to fit over the fireplace or couch).

For example: Let’s pretend that I need an iPhone because my old one broke.  I prefer, let's say, a black phone.  But they are out of stock and I’m offered a 10% discount if I take a space gray phone.  I’ll probably take the discount, because what I truly care about is solving my problem.

But now, say I just fall in love with a piece of art.  I feel the energy.  I feel the vibe.  I have no problem  to solve.  But I want the art.  I prefer it.  The entire sale is based on my preference for that particular piece of art.  If you say “sorry I just sold it to someone else,” it will be difficult to then say, “but you can have this other piece that you passed up earlier for a 10% discount.”  I probably will pass on it again.

This misunderstanding about the difference between an art practice and a normal business, is the reason why many art marketers and coaches aren’t quite getting things correct.  Marketing art, being completely different from normal products, requires a completely different approach.  And most marketers and coaches get that approach wrong because they come from a business background.

How many times have you been asked to “think through the persona of your ideal customer?”

How many times have you heard, “What problem does your art solve for your client?”

Have you been asked to identify your “Blue Ocean?”

Have you been offered an “Art Marketing ‘formula’?”

The question you should actually be thinking about is, “What am I inspired about?” and “Does my latest piece capture the vibrant energy of inspiration that started it?” And, at the point of creation, the customer had better not get in your way!

But those logical, rational, mudane methods are the approaches of business people who view art as a commodity.  But art is not a commodity at all!  Each piece you produce is a unique inspiration, lovingly crafted by your hand, with the inspiring idea having been filtered through your unique perceptions to create your vision.  At the crafting stage, you aren’t thinking about the customer at all.  In fact, even if there is no customer, you would still create your art!  Because it’s part of what you have to do.  It’s the reason you are here!  Each artwork is like a child that you have birthed, and you must find that child’s partner when you market it.

When business people teach their methods to artists, the results are predictable.  They’ll point you to marketing methods like “storybranding.”  And they’ll point to tactics that work for Amazon.  They’ll take the wonder and elegance of the art on your website and pollute it with invasive popups.  And “new customers get a 20% discount!”  (Why would you discount your child?  And even if you did, why would your past buyers, the most important people on your list, be the only ones to not get the discount?  It boggles my mind, it is an obvious exploitative and extractive marketing technique.)  You will be asked to “optimize your SEO.”  (mostly a waste of time).  You will be given any and every tactic under the sun for social media (and they will turn you into a jester that works for the algorithm).  You will be asked to analyze ridiculous analytics.  You will be told your site only scored a “63%” on some made up test or another (who cares?).

For the most part, you will charged to be taught a random assortment of a bunch of half-decent ideas if you were in any business other than art.

Forget all that stuff.

There is a better way.

And we call it The Circles of Art Marketing.

When I owned an art gallery, we didn’t do most of that stuff above, because we were selling art.

You know what we called ourselves, internally?  Matchmakers.

Each painting and each customer had different interests, stories, needs, budgets, etc.  And our job was to make the match.

This is why selling art is so difficult, even for professional gallerists.  Difficult, but certainly not impossible, and, potentially, much more fun than selling anything else.

And, if you are marketing your own art, you can forget most of the stuff out there and focus on making the match.  

This is what we preach, and teach.  This is what we write about.  This is what our BoldBrush marketing community is about.

You are an artist - part of the nobility of the online economy.  Don’t allow Instagram, Google or the latest course or coach to turn you into a jester working for big tech companies.  Instead, hold your head high as a child of God, taking part in the ongoing creation of the beauty of the universe and market your art in the way it deserves to be marketed.

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Creatively,

Clint Watson
BoldBrush/FASO Founder
Creativity Fanatic

PS - if you are a paid BoldBrush subscriber, you can get the current PDF version of the Circles of Art Marketing Book by clicking the button below. Please note, the current PDF is an earlier draft and the final book has a different organization, has several more chapters added, and will be edited. However the current PDF has all of the major concepts (though they will be slightly renamed in the final version):

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If you are a FASO member (But not a BoldBrush Paid Subscriber), you can get the PDF here.

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