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marketing

The Art of Selling – and Selling Your Art

by Palle Schmidt 2 Comments

I recognize the need for an artist to be more mindful of the business aspect. But I’m feeling a lot of resistance to the whole product/market lingo and finding it hard to implement in my own life.

If people want to sell you something, you’ll notice that they all more or less follow the same model of proposition.

First they describe a problem that – maybe – you have. If it’s targeted marketing and not just the random (and annoying) TV or radio commercials, they’ll often get it right.

Then they will tell you who they are and their unique value proposition (USP), what they offer. And ultimately how they solve your problem.

Here’s an example: “Tired of spotty wifi? We here at TeleWhatever have 50 years of experience and a unique global network. We know how annoying it is to not have wifi. That’s why we offer 24-hour wifi for only 9.99 a month, that includes blah blah blah. Make sure you never miss out on an important cat video and sign up today with 25% off!”

This model is used almost everywhere. It is especially gag-inducing when used in selling medicine or insurance, where first they mention all the ways you could die horribly or lose all your stuff in a fire. That would suck, right? Luckily they happen to have a product that will save you from all this disease and disaster. Phew! A plan that most likely ensures their survival rather than yours, but that’s another discussion.

What I want you to take away from this, is this model for selling anything: Problem -> unique offer -> solution.

Whoops, did I say “anything?”

If you are reading this, you are either an artist or an aspiring artist. I’m taking a wild guess that you would eventually like to make money on this and not just have it as a hobby.

And here’s the problem:

Art doesn’t solve any problems.

No. Really. It doesn’t.

As Oscar Wild put it: “All art is quite useless”.

In other words, the sales tactics you can find online or read in books are invalid. You can’t use the above model to sell art.

You can’t focus group art either. Knowing what your customer wants makes total sense in the business world. In the art world I believe the opposite is true. Thinking too much about the wants or needs of the end user derails the artistic process and/or makes for boring art.

I’ve created this little Venn diagram (very marketing biz, right?) to illustrate the three overlapping elements of a creative career. Without the product (your art), nothing to sell. Without the audience, no one to sell to (And I’ve added the passion element, because it’s darn hard to produce art that you’re not passionate about).
What you CAN learn from business, is finding the right people to put your art in front of. I’d start with surveying whatever little audience you already have and figure out who they are and where they hang around online and offline. That way you have a better idea of where to market your stuff.
Art is a product just like any other. But it doesn’t solve a need or a problem. Rather it touches people in ways they didn’t know they wanted (that sounded inappropriate, but you know what I mean). Which is why normal sales tactics don’t really work.
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Any other artists out there feel the same contradiction or dilemma? Let me know how you think about marketing your art in the comment section!

Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: artwork, career, comics business, Comics conventions, comics industry, marketing, planning, selling, social media

Is the Free Content Model Hurting Artists?

by Palle Schmidt 4 Comments

Give away your best stuff for free and people will become fans, and a percentage of those fans will end up paying you. But is this really true? Can you put the genie back in the bottle?

We all saw how it happened with the traditional media. Whenever a news site put up a pay wall, we just skipped to the next – free – news source. When customers get used to getting content for free it’s hard to charge money for the same content later.

When I started this site, a friend of mine advised against charging money for it. People can find free comics tutorials on YouTube, why would they pay for it? Nevertheless, I have people paying for access to my premium program every month. People I am sure would NOT be paying for access, if I hadn’t already built trust with them through all the free content here and on the newsletter.

And speaking of building trust, have you noticed there aren’t any ads on this site? That’s because I made a conscious decision not to try and cash in by putting blinking banners and sponsored content here. This is my site and my message, end of story. The reason I can keep the site up and running is because of the awesome people who sign up for premium access.

If you’re a semi-pro artist I’m sure you use stuff like Instagram to promote your art. Some artists are wary of putting their content on these platforms as it might get stolen or copied. And while it certainly happens once in a while, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You can post work-in-progress or detail shots rather than finished artwork and your followers will be just as happy. Besides, the more loyal fans you have out there, the bigger the chance that they will let you know if your work shows up in weird places.

A lot of web artists are having success with Patreon or other micro funding sources and others again use their free online comic as promotion for a printed copy. It turns out that a lot of people are actually willing to pay for something you already gave away for free, because now they have a relationship with you and want to support the work you do. The pay-first-get-content-later model has been turned on it’s head and artists need to navigate this new world. But it seems a lot more people are finding ways to make money on their art without being chosen by the gatekeepers previously needed to connect with an audience. There has never been a better time to create your own job, even though it may be a patchwork of tiny income streams.

That said, I sometimes worry that by giving stuff away for free, you could be attracting the wrong audience. I mean, if people sign up to get something for free doesn’t mean they will ever pay you a dime. You could argue that the reason they go for your free stuff is because they are freeloaders. While posting our art on Instagram may very well help build an audience, it could also have a downside. Are we not just training people that art is something that should be available at your fingertips for free?

I realize this post doesn’t provide many answers. If there’s one thing I want you to take away, it is this: Be mindful of how and why you give away free content. Focusing your efforts on getting followers and likes on Facebook is not a sure-fire way to pay the bills. And unless you have a buy-button on your site (or a sign-up or support-my-Patreon button) you could very well be running in circles, trying to fill a bucket that has a hole in the bottom. You need to be able to capture some of those visitors, convert some of those likes and clicks into cash. Maybe not right now, but some day when you have a favor to ask, a book to launch or a Kickstarter that needs support. We all need to eat. And likes aren’t that nourishing in the long run.

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What’s you take on this? I’d love to hear your thoughts, just comment below. Thanks!

Filed Under: News, Pro Tips Tagged With: buy-button, clicks, earning a living, fans, followers, free, freelance life, freeloaders, freemium, indie creators, instagram, Kickstarter, likes, marketing, Patreon, sign-up

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