Answers to Marketing Questions & Next Week's Plan of Action

Okay. Start of a new week. Last week was productive (finished my rough draft of current novel) and eventful (watched my three year old accidentally grab a guy's crotch in the middle of church as she lost her balance)(at least he doesn't have to worry about having the same humiliating experience happen with his kids, as those parts of his body no longer function after Victoria's fall-and-grab).

And next week should be good too. My editor gets back into the office after being out with baby-having last week, so hopefully I get more news on LAMENT's cover (which should be appearing soon, sometime this month I think) and I get to go see Lunasa (world's best Irish band, people!) in concert. Nice!

This week on the blog I'm going to be doing a three-parter on commissioned portraits, from both client and artist perspective. So if you have any questions on that, stick 'em here in the comments.

Oh -- and before I answer the questions from the marketing posts, I want to say hello to the visitors from Ann Kullberg's colored pencil mag FMP, where she nicely named this blog her website of the month (very flattering. My husband had to push me through the living room door today as my head was too swelled to fit comfortably). Anyway, hi, Ann's people!

Okay. Onto the questions from the comments -- pinch me if I missed one. These are edited for typos and insane numbers of punctuation marks.

I am curious, you say that you won't sell in local shows (I only looked at them for exposure anyway) but I was wondering why don't you sell there? Is it the target audience just isn't a "buyer" as such?

This is a good question. In my original post, I said something along the lines of "enter local shows but don't expect to see any money from them." This has definitely been true -- in my experience. One has to keep in mind the location of the shows when analyzing this statement, both the city and the hosting establishment. A "local" show in an artsy town might net you sales. But usually, I find that free local exhibitions gather a lot of lookers but not a lot of buyers. I think I can remember two pieces I've sold from local exhibitions, and both were after the fact, after the buyers had had time to mull it over.

This is why I think that more pieces don't sell in exhibitions in coffee shops and libraries, etc. Imagine yourself as the buyer (this is a great exercise anyway). You're not actually a buyer, by the way. You're a coffee-thirsty patron. You walk into the coffee shop. "Whoo! Cool art by an obviously awesome girl named Maggie Stiefvater!" You love the style. You love the colors. It's inspired. But when it comes down to it, none of them grab you by the throat. You think you'd probably buy one if it was the right image -- but it's not there. These are all tea cups and you want a streetscape. Or vice versa. But you take the card that clever Maggie Stiefvater has made available, and then you pass that info on by word of mouth or file this information away for later use when you are buying Christmas presents.

Not an immediate sale! You have to woo people, and that means you have to give them time. But don't expect your exhibition to pay you anything -- unless you're doing an opening. (I really recommend the book TAKING THE LEAP -- it's over in the sidebar of this blog -- for a lot of basics on openings, etc.).

Say you are starting work on a new series and you only have one or two finished pieces. What is your take on entering one of the pieces in a juried exhibition - you know, one of the ones where you only get to have one entry? Would you wait until you had other pieces from the series showing different places (your rule of three)or would you enter this new, kick-butt piece into the show?

Hmm. I had to scratch my head and think on this one because I've never had quite this situation. I'd be tempted to go ahead and enter that kick-butt piece into the show, because jurying is generally a long process. By the time they decide your piece is, indeed, kick-butt, you can have the rule of three satisfied and even if it doesn't get in, you have your series well under way.

A question for you, how do you feel about joining art clubs? Would you get involved in any and all?

Ohhhhh. This is something that I don't normally talk about online on permanent record because (ssshhhhhh) I don't do clubs very well. I've never been a meetings sort of person. I don't do orderly and tidy and rules very well (I know, you guys could never guess this, right!?) . Anyway, needless to say, I don't belong to any clubs. But that's not to say I haven't thought about it, enough to have firm opinions on if I were going to join clubs, which ones I would.

Would: national clubs having to do with my medium. For me, that's the Colored Pencil Society of America, a large, active organization well worth looking into if you're a cp'er.
Would: Active local clubs with professional artists swelling their ranks. Active means not only actively meeting but actively scheduling group exhibitions.
Wouldn't: Pay excessive amounts for local clubs to pay for wall space.
Wouldn't: Join local club mostly populated by amateurs. Remember, people rise to the level of the people around them -- and if you're surrounded by equals, you'll stay where you're at.
Wouldn't: Join a local art co-op that required that I sat in the gallery for x amount of hours a month. I have better things to be doing with my time! That sounds snotty -- but it's true.

But I would say that the most important rule is you want to be in a club that you feel proud of all the members. You're associating yourself with them -- make sure that they, like a new pair of jeans, don't make your butt look big.

Have you had to deal with art theft yet? As in people stealing the work off your site ect, and if not, how would you deal with it?

I haven't had to deal with physical theft yet. I know most good galleries are insured against these things but a lot of artists have insurance themselves -- some art shows require it. I can't speak knowledgeably about this side of it.

However, I have had someone steal teaching threads off WetCanvas before (WetCanvas, if you're not familiar, is a wonderful, huge community of artists and definitely a club you should join) and publish them in Russian on another site. Another artist found them and alerted me. It wasn't just my work, it was a bunch of folks' threads all lifted wholesale and reproduced in a Russian-language art forum. Some of the artists e-mailed the website and demanded they be removed. I decided that I had put the threads up in public for teaching and I was still fine with them being up, as long as I got credit, and I e-mailed him saying so. I got a link back to my site and I still get traffic from there. Moral of the story, I guess, is be empathetic. Sometimes thieves are just thieves and you should blast them. Other times, they're ignorant and you can twist the situation around for good. Be sensitive in all things.

Do you have a cure for Studio Avoidance? I have a severe case of it and can't seem to get over it. I spend about 95/5% on marketing and am down to those four paintings, so I'm getting pretty desperate.

I saved this one for last, because it ties in with my rough sketch I posted tonight. Studio Avoidance . . . Artist's Block . . . I got this last year after doing a painting every single day for months. I was chasing eBay's art selling trends to pay the bills and frankly, I was burnt out. I gave myself permission to create pieces for me, and suddenly I was off and running again.

Likewise, I was sluggish in the studio for the last few weeks. Creatively drained from writing my novel and doing portraits. I'd had an idea for a series for a long time but it was very different and I didn't think I could pull it off in my style and . . . well, I just had all these reasons and doubts. But today, I gave myself permission to start that series. I don't usually do "meaningful" art, but this whole series is very much about something I believe strongly about: taking a chance, taking a leap, doing the impossible. And suddenly I'm excited and desperate to be in my studio again.

So that's my advice . . . give yourself permission to do something you've been putting off. Or sit down with a sketchbook and plan the exhibition you'd be proud for your friends to see. Imagine what it would look like if you took your personality and put it on the walls. We let self-doubt keep us from the studio and we shouldn't.

Marketing, Maggie Style, Part III

Okay. This is the third and final marketing post in the series (though I will answer all questions posed in the comments of all three posts on Sunday) and I have only two key phrases for you:

1) Marketing may be an art, but it ain't art.
and
2) If you're only exposing yourself online, you're only as good as Paris Hilton.

Do you like them? I took all of, like, two seconds to think of them and I think they're quite catchy. Not bumper sticker worthy, but still, I'm proud of them.

Anyway. First things first. Marketing may be an art, but it's not art. You can't neglect one or the other; It's crucial that you balance your art and marketing efforts. There's is absolutely no point in having a huge and lovely inventory that never gets sold because of ineffective marketing. And likewise there's no point in marketing yourself into the ground for an inventory of four paintings.

The amount of time you spend on each is going to vary depending on how time consuming your art making methods are and how efficient you are at marketing -- but I would say for me it's at least a solid 50-50. Sometimes leaning decidedly more 60-40 in the marketing direction. And if it falls below 50% -- you'd better believe my wallet feels it. Not right away, but a month down the road.

And while I enjoy marketing, I don't like it nearly as much as making art. (that's where the catch phrase comes in). And some people don't like it at all. But honestly, if you want to be a professional artist, you're going to have to find a way to make it palatable. Professional art and marketing -- inseparable. Until you get rich and famous and you can hire some guy with a snotty name like Theodorus Alexander Hamilton Ltd to promote you while you do the hermit artist thing.

Now, this is only vaguely related, but I want to rant very briefly about fine art snobbery because it irritates me and shoots many nice artists in the feet. I see a lot of this attitude: "I'm a fine artist, so I can only sell limited edition giclees with my images on it. If my work appears on any other sort of product, I'm selling out and I'm not really a fine artist."

I was going to preach a long few paragraphs in defense of getting your art out in as many creative ways possible -- including t-shirts, calendars, etc. -- but instead I'm just going to say this: think about it for two seconds. Seriously. I know those really big famous artists like Da Vinci and Vermeer etc. would never be caught dead on t-shirts etc., because that would devalue the original pieces, but . . . oh yeah, that's right. They're everywhere. Put your art everywhere too.

Onto my second amazing catchphrase. The one about Paris Hilton. I see a lot of artists who are struggling to make a living at it only promoting online. If they ask my opinion, I always say: get your work out in the real world. In my opinion, there is no replacement for real life exposure.

"But Maggie," they all say (and if I had a dime for every single time an artist tells me this I could hire Theodorus Alexander Hamilton Ltd right now) "but Karin Jurick/ Duane Keiser/ fill in the blank with some famous daily painter just has their online blog and they make x amount of money every day from their paintings."

Okay, no. Just stop right there. They don't just have their blogs. All of them do gallery pieces, or portraits, or private showings. Show me someone who looks like they do 100% of their marketing online and I will show you someone who does incredible marketing online . . . and incredible marketing offline. Read their blogs -- interspersed between their daily paintings, you will find mentions of their bigger pieces and their galleries that represent them and exhibitions and openings and magazine articles and . . . are you getting my gist here? You may acknowledge that you need help figuring out how to get your work out in the real world but it's just not right to say that you don't need to be out in the real world.

The internet is a wonderful thing for the professional artist. It opens up a tremendous amount of business and makes being a pro possible for many people (myself included). But it will never replace seeing the art in person -- seeing you in person. Because while you may be an amazing artist, there are a million other amazing artists out there, but 900,000 will never leave their studios or promote their art to the fullest extent. Don't be one of those 900,000. If you want this, really want it -- go get it. Don't go 50%. Go 100%.

All questions in the comments this week will be answered on Sunday, so ask away (or disagree with me too if you do)!

MARKETING, MAGGIE STYLE, PART II

I don't have a subtitle on this one, mostly because there's no real room to put a subtitley thing, but if there WAS room, I'd subtitle this post Hype, Consistency, & Flexibility. Don't wince. It's not that bad.

So, hype first. This is particular pet peeve of me in marketing and sales. Not just marketing of art, but of all things. I hate sales-speak and I hate ad copy that looks meaningful but is really just fluff. Example?

Evergreen Wallabies. The pet that gives back! Check out our family friendly Wallabies today -- they'll give you a taste of Aussie style! If you order one Wallaby before Valentine's Day (Wallabies make great Aussie gifts for your world-loving spouse), we'll throw in a free "Care Package" -- a value of $25.00!

What does that tell me? Nada. Zip. It's a bunch of buzz words and a time limit thrown in to encourage sales. It looks tacky, and moreover, it's the sort of marketing that Americans have grown immune to in a phenomenon that online sellers call "ad blindness." Obviously I don't think any of my charming readers would ever shove their product down someone's throat this way, but if you find that your marketing efforts tend towards the general and the impersonal, you might want to reconsider your strategy.

Okay, enough with hype. Onto consistency. I'm not talking about doughy versus crunchy here. Rather, I'm talking about branding. This links in very stongly with my earlier post series on artistic style. If you take away only one thing from these posts on marketing, take this one away: you need to build a brand for successful marketing, and you, baby, are that brand.

Let's say you have ten different places you're pushing yourself. One's a gallery, three are public hangings (no jokes about Jack Sparrow here, please), and the rest are various online ventures. If you're displaying watercolor florals at one, acrylic macro still lifes at another, and pen and ink military art at the rest, you're really only marketing your military art. The other two efforts are wasted. You're violating two marketing rules here.

1) You should always have at least three different places to find current artistic style that you're marketing.

2) You should only have one artistic style being actively marketed (for greatest efficacy).

Anyway, this goes back to the concept of branding. Think about some successful brands: Martha Stewart. Ikea. Pier One. I don't have to tell you what's on sale this week for you to guess what kind of things each of them have available, do I? They might occasionally have something out of character, but they've built their brand so well that you can say, "That doesn't seem like Ikea."

That should be you. Even if you don't have a consistent style yet, you should be able to eyeball the pieces that you have and see which ones hang together enough to start building a brand. Somewhere along the way, I got a great piece of advice from a successful artist. She said, "Professional artists always work in series." And this is absolutely true. If you work in series of 5-10 pieces, it gives you a nice body of work to market and allows you to change your style subtly from one series to the next. Let's say, for instance, that I wanted to market that crazy surrealist piece I'm working on for the Bauer/ Nielsen project. Ideally, I would do a series of them, using the same palette as my absolutely realistic stuff, but using the same concept as the Bauer piece. Then I could take that series and

• name it
• market it as a slight departure
• have enough images to build a "mini-brand" for the series
• have enough images to fill a booth with originals and prints that all look related (and thus look professional)
• have a cohesive series to present to my gallery, if I went that route (click here to see my interview with the owner of the wonderful gallery that represents me)
• subconsciously create a sense of urgency, because once that series is done, I'll be onto the next thing and the buyer will have lost out (this happened with my Cats of the Old Masters series last year)

Last point for tonight's post is: flexibility.

I know, flexibility sounds like the opposite of consistency, but I'm not talking about style now. I'm talking about keeping my ears open for marketing options. We all have in our heads the idea of an ideal marketing situation or an ideal client, etc. Well, sometimes that ideal doesn't come along. Professional art isn't like selling shoes -- I don't get all my income from one type of sales outlet. So I need to be flexible, always looking for new and interesting ways to market myself. You never know when something weird will turn up -- a festival you'd normally never think of going to, a commission for something that's really on the very edge of your style, a chance to be on the radio, a cheap billboard in your area, a really popular art group that you can weasel your way into, etc. It's hard to talk to would-be professional artists on flexibility because you don't know where you'll have to use it until you see it.

I can tell you this. Opportunities & work & sales don't come along by accident or good luck. I've seen too many envious artists simperingly congratulate other artists on their success and then snark about the successful artists' good luck behind their back. It's not good luck, folks. Sales and success come along because:

• preparedness
• consistent branding
• honesty
• a willingness to share your knowledge
• a passion for your product
• a desire to honestly please your client
• networking
• acting & passive marketing
• a constant drive to improve
• a willingness to listen
• and absolutely last on the list, because I really believe it belongs here and not at the top -- talent

The best artist in the world will starve on a diet of Ramen noodles if they don't have the above qualities and a mediocre artist who shines with all the others will happily dine on cookies and sweet tea.

Naming no names, of course.

Questions and comments?

Marketing Maggie Style - Part I

"Strawberries" - unfinished 35 minute sketch from my sketchbook/ done during my workshop
Copyright 2008 Maggie Stiefvater.
Remember to subscribe to the blog if you want a chance to win the sketchbook when I'm done with it!

Okay, I promised a mini-series of posts on art marketing, so here goes. I want to preface this like I preface all my advicey blogs: there are a million ways to do everything having to do with art, including the business of it, so take my advice and adapt it to what you do. Seriously. If something works for you, run with it like it's going out of style. If it doesn't chuck it. Nobody's grading you here on anything but results!

So, that out of the way, in this first post, I want to talk about diversity. Diversity is absolutely crucial in any art marketing plan. Unless you are a talking whale who does pastels and you land a spot on Oprah, I can guarantee you that you're not going to get all your marketing needs from one place. You're going to need to be like my dog Ginger -- everywhere.

However . . . before I talk about various places I've poked my head up for the sake of marketing, I want to talk about bad publicity. There is such a thing as negative exposure. Couple of examples?

• In the company of bad artists. I'm not talking about artists in a different style from yours. I'm talking about websites that mostly advertise artists who aren't yet at the top of their game. If you're at the top of your game, you don't want to be lumped in with them. Believe me, it is far better to have artists who are your equals or better all around you if you're paying for advertising. Don't be intimidated by other good artists -- I don't believe that a good artist truly has to worry about competition from other artists. You're a unique commodity.
  
• On unprofessional looking websites. Yours or anyone else's. It's far better to look elusive and unreachable than to be found on a two-color website coded by a ten year old that is called "Lola's Fine Art & Hairdressing."
  
• On a myspace page also featuring photos of you throwing up on your date after a party. This partially goes under the second heading, but the point of this one is that your business and personal identities need to mesh seamlessly or one of them has to get off the internet. Period.

Okay. I'm assuming that none of you would commit any of the above sins. Now here are a few ideas of places that you can use for marketing. I'll go into more detail on the next posts on marketing (which will be on Wednesday and Friday for those so inclined).

• a personal website to act as a professional portfolio (www.sitekreator.com hosts very nice template based ones)
• a blog that is at least 75% about your art and is updated at least twice a week
• on FREE artists' portfolio sites with good traffic (Painters Keys is one of these but there are other -- use Google, it is your friend)
• by posting on artists' forums with useful information and works in progress (WetCanvas & ScribbleTalk are just two)
  
• by reading other artist's blogs and commenting intelligently to drive traffic back to your blog (and to get to know other artists)
• magazine articles. write them and submit them - submission guidelines are on most magazines' websites and there are so many subject specific mags that you don't have a reason not to
• local exhibitions. find out where people display art locally and work yourself into it -- as long as it's free. DO NOT PAY FOR GALLERY SPACE. Note that you probably won't sell pieces at a local show. Doesn't matter. Exposure always pays off in the long run.
• national exhibitions. You will have to pay a jury fee for these. But find the ones most specific to your medium and subject and it will pay off.
• business cards. Make them beautiful and send them out into the world so they can keep working for you while you're sleeping.
• local festivals. I try to do a booth at my local town festival every year. It's tiny, but that's the good part -- word of mouth in a tiny town can do wonders. Big fish in a small pond isn't a bad thing.
  
• subject-related shows. When I want to get horse portraits, I do booths at horse shows. Find venues related to what you paint, whatever it is you paint, and make yourself known.
  
• eBay - if you think of eBay as a marketing tool instead of an income maker, you'll be a lot happier.
  

This is just a start -- but I do all of these things consistently. You'll notice that most of them don't cost money, and I'm inherently wary of things that do. Another note -- it takes awhile for these things to pay off. So sow the seeds now so they can start to bear fruit sooner rather than later

Questions?