I've been in a few of those sales funnels. I learned some things. But most of what they had to say didn't work for me. Or, the landscape has changed so much that the advice was out of date almost as soon as I started to implement it.
Here are a few things to consider.
1. Just because your friend got lots of sales from what they did, doesn't mean you will. You have attracted a following that resonates with what is unique about YOUR art and personality. It's rare that you adopt a strategy and it works overnight. It's more common that you adopt it and then collectors begin to notice you over time. Trust and stick with whatever you are doing for a few years before you call it quits. You started doing it because you thought it sounded like a good idea. Let it play out fully to see if you were right.
2. The BEST marketing is word of mouth. Hands down, it's the pot of gold every self employed person benefits most from. Social media companies know this. It's why the posts that get the most engagement the fastest are the ones that are most successful. Who do you trust to say good things about you? Have you asked them to say good things about you?
3. Trust your own reactions. Think about how you would react to your own marketing. Would you notice and spend time reading that newsletter you put out last week? Or would you skim it and ignore it? What could you do to make the next one more engaging? Would you swipe past your own posts? What can you do to make them more eye catching?
4. Trust in testimonials. They help you sell your art and they are free. A testimonial can be verbal or in writing. Verbal is when people tell their friends how great your art is. Written is when they send you an email or card and share compliments, or when someone shares your posts. A testimonial can even be silent, meaning you never hear about it. That's when suddenly people you don't know are on your newsletter list, or a collector displays your art prominently. Try looking at these often overlooked testimonials as much as you look at sales. Then think about what you can do to get more of them.
5. Trust your instinct. Your gut is sometimes smarter than your rational brain. If you are not enjoying doing your marketing, odds are it won't be very effective. Someone who sits in front of a shopping plaza gleefully painting, with a smile on their face and engaging with passerby's is probably going to sell more art than someone who exhibits at an expensive art fair and sits in a shaded corner of their booth hating every minute of it. (That would be me.)
6. Trust in business partners. How can you co-promote more? Are there other businesses you can work with to share news and posts and marketing materials? Or, can you partner with a society or a handful of artists of your own choosing to promote each other? People pay more attention to me if I am recommending a friend's art than they do when I am asking them to purchase my own paintings.
7. Trust that everything that needs to be done, will in fact be done. Don't fall victim to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Just because you haven't tried every marketing method out there, doesn't mean you have to. In fact, it's often better to stick with one approach than to be bouncing around with several at once. Focus.
8. Trust in an outline and then build on it. The AMP marketing plan that FASO lays out for us, and all of the free AMP videos under the marketing tab in our FASO sites, is a great place to start. Depending on how much time you have, you can try expanding on each of the steps in that plan. Experiment with tactics you see others using. If you find that some aren't working for you, skip them for awhile. If you are reading this, you trust FASO, and you don't have to pay any extra money for this information.
However you approach marketing and sales, it should be a way that is unique to you, and not a part of your day that you dread. If you are consistent, over time you will attract a tribe of art lovers who find you interesting and they will begin to share compliments. This is how great artists, the ones who have legacies with longevity, are born.
In my opinion, the number one person to trust when choosing a marketing and sales strategy, is YOU!
What marketing advice and tips have worked for you? What have you trusted in that has resulted in better sales and opportunities? We'd all love to hear about them.
