How to Learn Art Marketing in Comfort and Sanity

Just as with how you approach art marketing mastery, your vision for your career is personal. You can be a serious hobbyist, have high ambitions for a full-fledged career, or something in between. What matters is if you are satisfied with your direction and progress.

For some artists, it’s all about the work, and marketing be damned. For others, getting their art seen and sold is a high priority, which makes mastering art marketing essential for them. It’s your choice and sometimes it’s a lifestyle choice, too.

I bet you never ask this…

Is There Such a Thing as an Art Business Success Formula?

I wrote this simple business success formula for artists. “Create compelling art, then connect to a receptive audience who will respond to your marketing and buy your work.” It’s art business success theory reduced to its essence. While the recipe is simple, we all know the reality. It is hard to both create artwork and to dig up the energy and time to market and sell it, too.

Human nature is at work. Many a right-brained artist can spend countless hours in creation but will get bored in minutes when working at left-brained marketing tasks. If that’s you, it’s okay. It’s who you’re are… it’s your human nature. Happiness and satisfaction are the byproducts of embracing what you know about yourself and going with it.

I’d love to know your reaction…

What Are the Best Answers to “How to Market My Art?”

• Bear down and do the marketing work or find someone who will do it for you.
• Keep art making a serious hobby, and don’t stress over marketing any more than suits you.
• Take the long view and chip away at building marketing skills to sell more art over time.

Whatever you prefer there are no poor choices. Any option is viable if you are satisfied with the decision. You decide. Let others offer opinions, but never let anyone shame you for your choice. Take comfort in knowing you can move between your options at will. Many artists do.

You instinctively know a simple formula becomes complicated as you take more actions. Likewise, you know worthwhile achievements rarely come easy. It’s always about having a plan and being smart about working it.

What Is Your Best Option to Get Your Artwork Seen and Sold?

If you are in a big rush to create success around your art, then use Option #1 above. There are plenty of books, courses, and art marketing gurus to help you. If you are happy making art but don’t need to grind to make sales, give yourself the approval to be a serious hobbyist. My advice to you is to remember that just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s okay to be content. The last option is to move toward getting your work sold, but at a pace, that doesn’t make you crazy.

I want to emphasize my point above; there are no bad choices. It’s a decision only you can make. Follow the path your decision puts you on knowing if it stops working for you, or you want to change for any reason, that you can change direction at any time. Your peace of mind is what matters.

You Are the Boss of You

You can’t make your best work when you are unsure or unhappy about the direction your career is going. Take as long as necessary to evaluate your options. Make your best-informed decision. You are not working on a timeclock operated by the big boss. Never forget, “You are the boss of you!”

While I have no desire to be your boss—and you wouldn’t want it or let me anyway—no matter what you choose, I can help you. There are always things you want to achieve and learn. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all marketing solution for artists. It took a change in my awareness to be able to say that out loud with conviction.

How My Perspective on Art Marketing Has Changed

I’ve been a serious student and proponent of marketing for decades. So, it seemed logical to me that systemically learning and applying art marketing techniques is what every artist should do. You could see it in my books, blog posts, and my online art marketing courses.

I believed and then still do now that my advice on how to market art is helpful for all artists. What I now know is doing all that marketing is not what most artists want to do. Naturally, we all want the benefits of marketing. But for some marketing makes them very uncomfortable, especially if they feel pressure to do it all at once. I get that now like never before.

I used to market my Art Marketing Mastery course with the implied assumption artists would progress through the lessons and only stop when they complete the last. And, further, I fantasized every artist would zealously apply every tool, tip, and technique they learned from me along the way.

Did You Hear the Giant Popping Sound?

Then one day, I heard a giant popping sound. It was from my head, leaving my butt as the realization of how wrong my assumptions about what artists want and what they are ready and capable of doing came clear to me. I came to understand I was in misalignment with what artists wanted from me and how I was presenting what I have to offer them.

It was both painful and freeing all at once. Painful in realizing I had seen things so wrong for so long. It was liberating to know all was not lost, merely different. That is, I didn’t have to despair that I created all these art marketing lessons, only never to offer them or see artists use them again. It was a matter of recognizing how most artists prefer to operate and adjust to meet their real needs instead of the needs I perceived for them.

Choose Your Adventure

My Art Marketing Mastery course has tons of terrific content. It all aims to help artists get their work seen and sold. I’ve always known there is so much there it can feel overwhelming to think about learning, much less, actually putting all the knowledge into practical application.

The good news is you never have to cram. You can choose what you want to learn and when you want to learn it. And besides choosing your adventure, you can also choose the pace to work it. The advantage of having lifetime access to the content takes away the pressure to work faster than it is convenient or to worry that if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

Go at your own speed. Follow the path that suits you best. Another bonus is that nearly all the content is evergreen. This means the information is not trendy stuff that soon becomes irrelevant. What you learn now will apply in years to come. And, in years to come, you can go back to gain new tips and tricks or to relearn something you began with in the past. Either way, you choose the art marketing knowledge you need now with the comfort of knowing the rest is there for you when you need it.

One Big Change Is Coming

The price is to get lifetime access is at the lowest it will ever be. I set it there in response to the terrible Covid-19 pandemic. It is my way of helping artists cope with life-altering changes the virus has thrust upon us.

A significant benefit of joining the course has always been the twin lifetime membership in the private Art Marketing Mastery Facebook group. It’s a place where I have given answers to hundreds of questions from artists about more than 50 topics, including:

• Art marketing
• Print publishing
• Licensing
• Galleries
• Publicity and promotion
• Email marketing
• Contracts
• Copywriting
• Social media
• Selling art
• Websites for artists, and more

Group Access to Cost Extra Soon

My consulting sessions are $100 per hour. I frequently get artists who are happy to pay the fee because they need help or have specific art business or art marketing questions. If they asked inside the Facebook group, they’d get the same answer and advice, but it cost them nothing extra. While I would like to be able to continue to offer this service to artists who join the Art Marketing Mastery course, it’s not feasible. And to be honest, it’s not me being fair to myself with my time at the current low price.

Concerns about too many artists having free access to me via Facebook is the reason I’ve taken a low-key approach to market it. That’s because I did not want to get overrun with new students who joined at a price that is lower than my hourly consulting fee. Sometime very soon, membership in the private Facebook group will not be included in the cost of the course. It will be available for an additional to-be-determined price.

Join Now to Lock-In Lifetime Access to the Course and Private Facebook Group

Free lifetime access to the Facebook group is going away forever for new students. Soon, it will be sold with the option to pay monthly or annually. To make the offer more appealing, I will be adding new services within the group. Regular live stream events, Ask Me Anything sessions, interviews with artists and top art marketers, and more.

The good news for those who join now is they get lifetime access to the course and the Facebook group at the lowest price it will ever be. You’ll get in on any new extras I add to the group, which makes this deal super sweet.

I don’t have an exact ETA on when the changes will go into effect. That said, I hope to make the transition as soon as possible. If you had thought of joining before and hesitated, or are just considering joining now, it’s my best advice to get now.

Join the Art Marketing Mastery course today.

Start learning at a pace that suits your needs. You don’t have to follow the suggested path. You can jump in to learn about getting referrals, email marketing, social media, or dozens of other art marketing topics now.