You have your family, your friends, and some past buyers…
.. but you’re still trying to find NEW people who will buy your art.
You know your people are out there.
But how exactly do you find them?
And how can you get them to notice your work?
Well, first — here is one area where you may be wasting too much time and energy:
No One Is Searching for You
Having a beautiful and up-to-date artist website is super important.
But “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t work.
Unless someone already knows your name
(and how to spell it),
they will probably never find your art through a Google search.
So please do not waste hours or money trying to make this happen.
No matter what type of art you create,
you are up against online galleries that spend a lot of money on SEO
[that’s “search engine optimization]
so they can rank on the first page of search results for that art category.
They have full teams doing marketing —
and you’re just yourself, trying to rank high enough to be seen.
The odds that collectors will ever find you this way are extremely low.
Even if you have the most stunning artist website on the Internet,
if no one can find it,
they can’t buy your artwork.
So if your potential collectors can’t even find you with a search,
what’s the point of even having a website?
A Better Way to Find Your People
What if you found a way…
to get in front of people who share the way you look at the world,
who resonate deeply with what you believe in,
but who haven’t seen life through your eyes as an artist?
And what if you could get THOSE people to visit your site?
When you partner with someone whose audience aligns with yours,
you can quickly reach many of your potential future collectors at once.
They Built an Audience for You
There are hosts who have spent the last five years building a loyal audience:
– Newsletter writers
– Podcast interviewers
– Facebook group admins
Instead of building your own audience…
…you can piggyback on their audience for free!
Don’t think about an audience of “art collectors”.
Instead, think of “people passionate about a topic that underpins my art”.
It may be abstract, like “a feeling of peace”
Even better if you can be specific, like “portraits of ancestors”
Start with the keywords that describe the essence of your art:
- If you sculpt totems – think people into mythical history
- If you make wildlife photography – think people into nature conservation
- If you paint abstract portraits – think people into psychoanalysis
All you need to do is find the right audiences, and connect with the audience owner.
Audience owners are always looking for new content to share with their audience.
And you are going to bring “the eyes of the artist” to that topic that fascinates them.
You will simply talk or write about that topic you are both passionate about
— from your artist perspective.
And naturally, a percentage of the audience will want MORE.
So to those you will give them an opportunity to buy your art or join your workshop.
Plain and simple.
—
With the right search techniques,
you can build a big list of potential promotional partners to approach —
who have the ideal audience to be featured in.
Once you have your list,
the next step is reaching out to the person who owns that audience.
No One Is Searching for You, Part 2
If you’re like 99% of artists, this part is a struggle:
Following up.
It usually goes like this:
You’ve created your list of people to reach out to (yay!),
and you bravely fire off a message to a few of them.
But days pass… and you don’t hear anything back.
“Oh well, that didn’t work.”
You make a mental note to write again, just in case they missed your first message.
Except you don’t want to be a pest, and now it’s been an embarrassingly long time.
If you quit now, you are making 3 big mistakes at once.
- Not having a system to keep track of who you contacted
- Not following up with them
- Not reaching out to enough potential partners
And maybe even #4 — taking the rejection personally.
If you want to grow as a professional artist…
it’s time to change.
You see, when you reach out to enough potential partners,
it doesn’t matter if most of them say no.
For you to gain some career-changing opportunities,
you need only a handful to say,
“Yes!”
And when you take direct, consistent action like this,
you’ll start creating doors where others only see a wall.
Our students have gotten amazing results this way
when they use our tools to go after their biggest art career goals:
If you’re wondering exactly what to say,
next time we’ll be talking about crafting your pitch.
That’s business-speak for how to talk to a potential partner
about what you can share with their audience.
Remember that your artwork depends primarily on you —
but your career opportunities outside the studio depend on you AND others.
And your pitch will be the key that unlocks those hidden doors.
