Advertising your art as an artist.

I don’t type in this blog very often, but a phone call today has prompted me to share some information with you all. Art advertising nouveau, a la Warhol, has relied heavily on both advertising with money and more importantly on the buzz factor. The only way to create buzz is to get the word out. It takes a lot of time and effort to think of new ways to create a buzz around your art, and then execute those ideas. This article is for artists trying to market their art.

First, if you don’t have some sort of agent who can focus on all the nitty gritty of advertising, marketing, relationships with galleries and dealers, mailing lists, etc., you don’t always need one. It really does help. People don’t negotiate as hard and they respect the prices you give them when it’s not you giving them. It does help to have a rep, or even a second voice to close the deals, but if you’re your own artist/broker/marketer, you’re not alone. It’s a common complaint. I know you want to focus on your trade. Up-and-coming musicians will tell you that they want to focus on the music, not booking and advertising. Sadly though, most all need to do so in order to be heard. The same is true for artists. To act as your own agent, here are a couple of pointers:

1) Keep a mailing list of people who’ve purchased your art and create a newsletter from time to time. Printing full-color documents and mailing them is not nearly as expensive as it used to be. If you can afford a color laser printer, it will save you money in the long run as your cost per page will go way down. If your mailing list grows into the thousands, look into mailing at a Bulk Rate through the USPS (or something similar in your own country).

2) This might not apply to you, but create prints. Many art-printing facilities will charge a crazy rate and require you to buy 100 or more. It has been my experience that if you can find a way to get your art into a high-resolution digital format, there are small companies even in the smallest of towns that have very expensive, high-end printers where you can get one or two printed at a time. There is a sign shop here in Fort Collins. They charge around $10 dollars to print a full-color 1200dpi document at 24″ by 36″ on canvas paper. The printer can print on paper as wide as four feet and as long as you need. It’s much easier to go ‘on-demand’ than to pre-pay for 100 or more prints.

3) When you have prints created, let the pimping commence. People will tell you to donate your artwork. They will say to look for new construction sites and contact the people/companies in charge of decorating those new businesses. I’ve tried working with people this way and it doesn’t normally work. You have to contact maybe 100 to 1000 people to have that +/-1% conversion-rate pay off. If you’re serious about it and are good on the phone, sure, call these people. It does work, but man, it’s a pain in the butt. You’d be more successful using your own creativity. Certainly you’ve heard of Bansky. His tactics are only a fraction of the ideas you could come up with. Putting one of your paintings up in an art museum for media attention is a good idea, but certainly you can come up with something more creative. Get crazy. Get media attention. Get recognized.

4) Advertise. Where? Good question. I’ve heard that artists do not do well in major magazines. And it’s expensive, $500 to $1500 for a small ad that will appear in a sea of other ads and art. We have an art catalog that we mail out quarterly to 20,000 people…. not to pitch us, but it seems to work as we do have a lot of repeat advertisers. It’s currently only $200 to contact 20,000 art buyers. My only suggestion is to gauge your market. Who do you think would be interested in your art? What is the typical profile and where do these people frequent? Advertise there. What do they read? A great tactic we’ve done in the past is to bulk advertise in specialty magazines. For example… if you have a great painting of a boat, why not partner with five or six other artists to get a full-page color ad in a boating magazine? Sure, the full-page ad might cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $4000, but like I said, get creative.

Artists tell me that it is nice to hear my suggestions. I think it’s because so many tell them to join co-op galleries, do traditional advertising, get your name out to people that you’d like to do commissions. Yes, those are fine ideas, but if you’re your own rep, trying to do many of those things can be a full-time job that costs a lot. Yes, you should be a part of art-shows and get your name in front of those who support the arts, but I must say that as a successful dealer, some of my best buyers have never been to an art show. That market is the one you would be best to target.

Alright, I’ve typed a lot and have been juggling phone calls. I’ll give more art market and ‘art for investment’ suggestions later. Feel free to join this blog’s subscription. I sometimes don’t get anything out for weeks or months, but I try.

Best of luck, and let me know if you have other suggestions.
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Jeremy Mooer is owner and operator of GalleryFront.com and can be contacted at jeremy@galleryfront.com

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