 Hello and welcome to this video. Now understanding these top five mistakes artists make marketing their art will be a total game change for you. Well that's what I really hope anyway. Now I'm sure if you're watching this channel it's because you want to sell more of your art or art services building art business or ultimately make a full-time living from your passion and one of the biggest stumbling blocks for most artists is of course the marketing. Now love it or hate it it's just not going to get the sales without it. I'm afraid so it's time to buckle up get super clear on a few things that we're going to be covering in this video and then of course start to take daily consistent action. Now in case we haven't met I'm Sophie artist coach and entrepreneur helping artists just like you to make more art sales by building a profitable business. Now please do consider subscribing to my channel so that you don't miss out on future videos and if you really love the content please do give me a thumbs up because it really helps this video and this channel to be seen by more artists just like you. Okay so just a quick personal note before we talk about those five mistakes you might be wondering where my hair is up. I never normally shoot a video with a hair up the hair is always down kind of looking floaty and nice in my studio. Well I got down here at cracker cracker dawn this morning because it's a super hot West Australian day. I recorded the whole video made loads of mistakes as you do recorded the whole thing sat down with a nice iced coffee ready to edit and none of the audio had recorded. I wanted to cry please leave a comment in the comments below if you have ever done anything equivalent to that and you just don't want to do it again right it's like I've got to do the whole thing again even the iced coffee is not really cutting it. Okay so without further ado let's look at those top five mistakes that artists make marketing their art. Number one not having a clear niche and target market. So think what happens every time somebody sees your product or service for the very first time do they understand immediately what you're selling and to whom. If they don't think it's for them or it's confusing in any way shape or form they are going to leave. So if you want to build a successful business make good money doing what you love then it's time to leave all those endless things that we know that you can do and choose one of them and hone it become great at it and niche down into it because at that point it's much easier then to carve out your section of the market. So your target market the people that love what it is that you do not all the other stuff around it and I get so many people say to you that I don't want to niche because what about somebody over here or what about somebody over here or I do all these different things look we're creatives we all do lots of things all right hidden over there is a weaving that I really just want to finish and put on my sort of side hustle hobby Etsy store if you like because I enjoy doing it am I going to make a big deal out of it no am I going to put it as oh I do this and this and this and this no 100% not and it's really important that you don't do the same thing. So one thing that you love and if you need more help on choosing your niche finding that target audience I'm going to put a link to a couple of videos that I think you're going to absolutely love if you haven't seen them already they're all about how to find your niche and how to find your target audience and I'll put links to those directly below this video all right so once you've done that then it's time for us to move on to number two mistake and that of course is not having a marketing plan and a weekly routine now for all you planners out there you're going to have perked up you're going to so be a plan a routine I love it but for all those creatives who like to go with the flow please before you press pause or delete or leave just hear me out because it's really really critical to your success you're here right because you want to sell more and that's going to mean doing some things that perhaps you don't love but you know there's possibility to turn that around when I started out in business I hated all this stuff I didn't want to do into this stuff at all and now I've learned to love it because I understand the marketing that I'm doing is leading to more people to see what I do and more opportunity for people to buy and become regular customers here's the thing most artists aren't doing anywhere near enough marketing some of them and it could be you that I'm speaking to are not doing any all right you create something you put it on the website and you go that's great my art's on this website and you're sitting waiting for the sales to happen so not going to happen you put on a show you hire a space in your town or city and you go great I'm going to have a solo show or maybe there's a few of you we're going to have a show we're in there for two weeks and you sit there at the door going oh there's somebody coming past there's somebody coming there's somebody coming oh they've bought credit pass all right leave a comment below if that's you look been there done that learn really fast that if you hire a space I used to hire a space back in Brighton in the UK when I first built my art business and every summer I'd hired this gallery space and because it was on the seafront and I knew that there were thousands of people walking past were they my customers likely not so I had to let people know I'll be on the seafront between these two times come down and check it out I have a special offer for you I'll have a coffee waiting for you come and sit with me come and see what I'm doing I had to send people there all right and that's the thing if you don't have a plan and a routine to help you do these things you're going to be that person who's going to spend money renting a space putting your artwork and sitting there watching the people walk past or you're going to spend money designing a website and having a website built you're going to put all your odds up and you're going to sit staring at it every day you're going to look at the emails you look at PayPal and you're going to go and your stripe account and go where's my money all right so in order to avoid all of that you've got to learn to love marketing and the first thing we need is a simple plan just last week actually I ran a live kind of walkthrough of my artist marketing plan that I have created for my art business academy membership members and a few members came and joined and we had the most amazing live session I walked everybody through the plan now even though they've got it as members and there's a training on how to fill it out pretty sure not everybody's done it so we had a fantastic time and there was a lovely lady who was struggling a little bit she does portraits and I said how about I built a whole marketing plan around your business or one way that you could build it she was like oh my god that's amazing so I did that for her and I really enjoyed the process does that make me a bit of a nerd yes possibly but I really love doing it and we really love that call so if you want to be part of that vibe if you're listening to all of this and you're thinking this is all just too much for me don't forget that below here I've got links to my art business academy monthly membership it's super easy to join if you click the link there's all the information it's got all the page what you get every month what I'm actually we get you get more than what's on there what you get every month what you have access to what you can do how you can use it all from $21 a month I mean it's pretty simple right and I love doing these bonus things so we're talking about marketing a lot at the moment the time of shooting this video it's February and we've done a lot of business planning there are lots of business plan pre-calls and now it's focused really on marketing this month and so we're going to do something I think later on in the month again around sales platforms or something it's a lot of fun but the other thing you could do if you don't want to do that is a little sort of link below here to watch my simple art marketing plan video that I made and you can start making yours there number three is of course not building your mailing list and keeping in touch regularly if you're a regular here you'll know that I love to talk about this all the time and if you don't do this piece it's going to be really hard for you to get any traction so every single time that you want to offer something that's solo show new items listed in your store whatever it might be for you it's almost like you're going to have to start from scratch you're going to have to attempt to market to what we call a cold audience there's people that don't know that's like you opening the door from that hired venue and waving at the people walking past going hello hello would you be interested in my art and they look at you kind of go not remotely interested in art thank you very much and you've got to keep doing that shouting through the door onto the street hey would you like until somebody goes oh yeah I quite like art I'll maybe come in and look at yours that's what you're going to be doing every single time from scratch so you get people who vaguely interested you know I like arts I'll come in let's see if I like yours they might walk around two minutes they're not really my cup of tea I'm out you know to keep shouting down the street hello do you like art do you like my art do you want to come in what a lot of effort all right it's not something I want to be doing so what you really need to be doing is building that list of people who are interested they're the people that go I like what you're doing I'm maybe never going to buy anything I used to have this woman actually when I first started my coaching business that I did after my art business I had a bit of a creative breakdown that's part of my story and I went into coaching and helping others and I used to have this woman come to the workshops and she used to say to me at the end thank you so much for that talk workshop she said you know I'm never going to buy anything don't you and it used to make me laugh every single time and I give her a big hug and I say it's not what it's about I love that you're here and I love that you're sharp and you're learning something every single time and it just used to yeah it used to really sort of touch me she did had to let me know I'm not going to buy anything so some people might join your list and they might never buy some people might join your list not read an email for years and then suddenly the timing is right they're like needs an art for my walls and down comes the email and they're looking at it going oh my god this new collection is amazing this is exactly what we want some people will engage and read it every single week sometimes they'll send you a message back well I really love what you you know let what you sent around on our email or I clicked your link and I looked at what you're doing over on your Pinterest board or whatever it is that you send them and that's key you need to keep in touch with them you can't just people can't just join your list and then you only send them an email when you have something to sell because that will be a disaster right we're not going to do that what you're going to do is you're going to give people the opportunity to join the list their decision their choice yes I want to hear more from you and then you're going to send them those emails like hey this is what happened in the studio it's something really funny it's a paint pot right all over there look what I managed to do with this or something like that or here's a blog I've written about the inspiration for my latest collection or I've just started offering workshops you know click here if you're somebody that might like be interested in workshops in the future you know whatever it's going to be you need to keep in touch it doesn't need to be a long massive great email because people don't read those can be short and sweet with some pictures and every now and then you can send out maybe like a summary newsletter type email with things they might have missed and then of course you will be making offers to them and that's what they're going to expect that's why they've joined the mailing list right so really every time I do have something new instead of going out to that cold audience and shouting out of the door you let them know right and then they have the opportunity of buying and a proportion of the will and that's kind of what we call the sales conversion so that email will convert into a certain number of sales and really all you're doing is you're building the list you're communicating regularly you're offering that list of warm people what it is you have on offer much easier I would say now if it's something you've not done yet have a free resource my 10 day mailing list challenge you get an email every day I think it goes something like that and it gives you the different sections you need to do to put your mailing list together pretty simple all right mistake number four not driving enough traffic to your listings or your offline places so traffic really is another word for people so imagine that gallery space we've mythically hired the door we've opened and we've called out onto the street those people are walking past what's known in the online world as traffic so you have a clear niche you have your target audience your marketing plan in place you've a mailing list set up and now you're still waiting for those sales you're like Sophie you said the sales would come and we're going whoa hold on a minute we've got a lot of stuff set up but we're not quite ready yet so we're not making the sales yet because not enough people are coming to see that that gallery space or solo show the beautiful listings the workshop that you have going on so your job now to create lots and lots and lots what we call traffic it can be free it can be paid for it can be what we call content marketing where you're writing a blog or doing what i'm doing making a video or it could be that you run ads so one way or a couple of ways to do this for free would be using a platform like Pinterest Pinterest is about to try and say two things together there Pinterest is a massive traffic driver to a site so if you'd like an updated if you'd like me to do an updated video on Pinterest please leave a comment and say yes please to the Pinterest video because I looked at the one I have I think it's two years old so it could definitely do with a refresh or of course YouTube you're watching it you're on here right you're looking for information so if you offer any form of like workshops or content that could be put into video this is a great way to send traffic to wherever what have I been doing all this video I've been saying I've got a free resource below here I've got this click below here right and what's happening is my mailing list is growing off the back of these videos every single month all right number five mistake artists are making when marketing or not marketing if they aren't is not communicating the benefits of what is on offer okay next big mistake is that hoping your product or service is going to sell on its own you've got all of this stuff going you've now sent all the traffic on top of that people are now at the door they're looking okay and and what we're hoping is we're sitting watching going my bank refreshing my bank account it's not quite happening yet because there's one more piece of the puzzle right if you might be lucky you might do somebody comes in and goes I want that one I love it it's great but is that going to happen consistently I'm going to tell you the answer that is a definite no it's not going to happen consistently right you're going to need to help that to happen and the way we're going to do that is focus on benefits over features because what happens is for example the online listing we go to online list your I know your original art your print your product whatever it might be take your piece of let's take a painting so we list the painting we put a picture of it we might now put a picture of it hanging in a fake room and then we put um the title and we say 30 by 40 oil on canvas with blah blah blah and here are all the technical bits that you and I love to know but your customer it wants to know the size and the price that's useful information now they've got the picture which they might have fallen in love with what if it comes at a two or three or five thousand pound dollar euro price bracket now they're looking and they're looking at the bit of information they've got the title of the piece maybe a couple of liners they know it's an oil painting like an oil painting they're fishing around kind of going I'm not really sure and then something happens the doorbell rings the phone rings and off they go sale doesn't happen all right as opposed to they're on there they love it they see it they see information about the painting the size the details the specs boring okay they love the painting not interested in that now suddenly it's a for example it might be this month free delivery it might be by this painting and I'll send you two free prints of the work to give out to friends and family nice okay that's a benefit but then not only that that's the benefit of the business that you're running what about a benefit of buying the original art itself so I knew you know and I wouldn't put this underneath I'd put this at the top this beautiful piece of original art it's going to be the central focal point of your room people it's going to be the talking point when people come to dinner it's going to light you up every time you come in that room supposing you do I don't know landscapes of specific areas so people would buy it because it reminds them they went on holiday there every time you come in the room you're going to be reminded of that amazing holiday that you had with your you know loved one or family or however you're going to phrase it and suddenly they're thinking oh my god you know and this collectible piece of art is part of just a small collection of 10 pieces you know it won't be offered again and still it starts to kind of build and they're getting excited now you could own one of 10 from this collection you know imagine imagine positioning it so that the light just falls naturally and every day you sit there at the breakfast table I don't know glancing across to the wall remembering that incredible trip I'm so grateful you have an original piece of art from a local artist hanging on your walls alright that's the difference between that and it's 30 by 40 oil on canvas alright that's just going to tip that person over the edge because they're thinking oh my god that's me I'm sitting looking at that every morning I'm looking at that having that memory or every day I'm being inspired by the color or if you do abstract you know every day you're going to see something new in the painting my challenge to you is every day you stand in front of this painting and see if you can see something new now suddenly their emotions are being triggered and people buy when the emotions are triggered right when we're looking at buying a washing machine we look at the specs because we want it to do certain things but the benefits then really is that you have the benefit of a good washing machine is that you have clean and reasonably well spun items they come out as good as new right that's the benefit but at the end of the day washing machine you're never really going to feel an emotional connection with a washing machine yes you want the features yes at the benefits if I buy this now it's got this this and this lovely and a piece of artwork that's been made it's a one-off it's collectible you know it's going to increase in price it's an investment buying original art is an investment these are the benefits these are the reasons why people are going to buy your product as somebody else's right and this is really the key that so many people are missing out on why because it takes a bit of time it takes a bit of effort to come up with this stuff that I promise you I promise you if you do you'll see the difference it's what's called the conversion so all these people are going to land on wherever they're landing they're going to see the benefit just like when they go through the door to your solo show and and they see the artist that's quite nice and you and you see them looking at something and you come up and you can sense can't you whether somebody wants conversation or not and you say oh I can see you're looking into that you know here's what inspired me about this piece and you start talking you're triggering their emotions the next thing you know they're getting their wallet out okay so we're going to remember that overall people buy benefits not features so if you take that piece away from this bit of the video then I reckon you're golden and by not doing these simple tasks you're just losing sales all right so look here's a task that you could do and I really would love if you would do just be open to the possibility that you could improve what you've got going so you're going to look if you got a website you're going to look at it with a critical eye or even better you're going to mystery shopper you get somebody else to come and look at it and say how does it look would you buy it what the listings work do they light you up do you feel like you want to buy it and really go through everything that you've got and if you've got an open studio or a show that you're setting up really look at it look at everything that you're doing you're running a workshop look at the flyers look at the presentation look at the whole package where could you improve is your customer going to be going oh my god I must have that and then you know here's the last thought on that if you've ever had that experience of I must have that what is it that got you to that place as cat was guaranteed it's a piece of writing that got your emotions you know going you were like oh my god I must have that item all right food for thought I reckon so I'm going to play this game again if you are still watching please put a comment below and say Sophie I watched right to the end I love you I applaud you thank you so much you haven't already checked out this video five things to focus on in your art business in 2024 and I'll see you on the next video take care goodbye