Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.
Bruce Lee
Our goal, at BoldBrush (who runs The Sovereign Artist), is to inspire and help a million visual artists thrive and make a living from their art. So, of course, it probably is no surprise that we offer a lot of different strategies, tactics, systems and advice about how you can best market and sell your visual art. I’m sure that for most artists, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the turbulent, ever-changing, and growing ocean of art marketing information available to you. So, today, I want to discuss the most important strategy that everyone successful must learn:
Play to your strengths.
It sounds trite, but I’m extremely serious, and it’s taken me a long time to quit chasing different strategies and tactics and to start the serious work of creating a life that works for me, for my strengths, that leads to my definition of success. You see, I don't run my companies like anyone I know or like I read in any particular business book. But our companies run just fine and are, by any reasonable definition of the word, “successful.” The key is to figure out what works for you. You don't need to copy every system you see. Success comes from figuring out your path, not from copying particular tactics.
The mistake people make is that they try to make everything into a formula or system.
But, in reality, the system is: there is no system. The system is: be yourself, be human, figure out what works...for you.
If you want to copy a successful person - copy the one unique thing that they actually did: they figured out what worked...for them.
You can’t become an investor like Warren Buffet by simply living in a modest home, avoiding meetings, drinking Coca-Cola, and spending most of your day researching public companies. That works for Warren, because it plays to his strengths. But, for you to be successful, with your art, or anything else, is to create a unique "system" that works with your strengths. If you copy someone else's tactics, you'll not be playing to your own strengths, in most cases.
It is true, with so many different strategies and techniques out there, it can be tempting to simply copy what others are doing and hope for the best. But, the reality is that every artist is unique. Each artist has their own individual strengths and weaknesses. What works for one person may not work for another, and trying to copy someone else's approach will lead to frustration and disappointment.
Instead, as mentioned above, the key to success in marketing your art is to learn to play to your own strengths. So, set aside some reflective time to identify what makes you and your work unique, and then use that to your advantage. Every weakness can be a strength and visa-versa.
For example, if you are a particularly sociable person, then focusing on building relationships with potential buyers through in-person studio sale events, exhibits and fairs could be a great way to get your work in front of a larger audience. On the other hand, if you are extremely introverted, and prefer to work independently, then creating an online presence through a website or online shop and conducting most of your marketing via social media and email would play more to your strengths and personality. These are obvious high-level examples, but on a more nuanced level, what you have to do as we (and others) share strategies and tactics, is to figure out for each one “do I really need this?” and “what does my version of this look like?”
Think of developing your “business style” as being similar to developing your “artistic style.” In the process of developing your artistic style you had to determine if you prefer abstract or representational, loose or details brushwork, you had to gravitate to your medium, and you had to decide what subjects inspire you. You probably learned this by trial and error, and by learning from other artists works and then…..the essential point….you determined what was useful, and discarded what did not work for you, and lastly added what was uniquely your own.
You must do the same thing with marketing and sales.
One caveat - you may not simply decide that you can drop something essential because you don’t like to do it. That’s cheating. You have to figure out your own twist on it. As an example: every business needs salespeople and an art business, especially so. So you can’t simply decide “I’m not going to sell my art because I hate doing sales.” You can decide upon your own twist and how you will personalize tried and true sales methods. Or, you can admit to yourself that you hate sales and will never do it, and then find someone who can do sales for you (and no, you can’t expect your website host to somehow magically become your full time salesperson for a mere $10-$30/month). If you hate sales, maybe you will only sell through galleries. Maybe your spouse is a great salesperson. Maybe you can hire a salesperson and pay them a commission. There are a hundred and one different ways to solve this particular piece of the business puzzle. And you must solve it (to sell), but you are free to do so in your own particular way.
Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.
Until next time,
Clintavo
Very well said! (insert a Slow clap here ) I think as artists this is where we can thrive (if we allow ourselves to) and use our creativity to come up with new twists to getting these things done!
I'm still trying to figure things out. Hate the selling part but know I have to do it.