Art Marketing Circle VI

Your Audience

Jan 20, 2024

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OK, on to the article…..

Building an audience is far more important than “driving traffic.”

We’re finally (after a break for the holidays) continuing our members-only series outlining our Circles of Art Marketing framework. Since marketing will not work unless all elements are understood and practiced you need to think about all six circles as a holistic system. One circle alone won’t accomplish anything for you. Therefore, if you’re a new member, or missed what we covered previously, I recommend you catch up on the series at the following links:

Art Marketing Circle I - The Sovereign Artist

Art Marketing Circle II - Your Art

Art Marketing Circle III - Turn Your Art Into a Product

Art Marketing Circle IV - Sales

Art Marketing Circle VI - Your True Fans

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at Art Marketing Circle VI - Audience

Source:

As a provider of professional artist websites, the most common question we are asked at FASO is "How do I drive traffic to my website?"

I understand why people ask this question, but it's misguided. It’s the wrong question. Let’s ask the right one: what artists really want to know is "How do I use my website to sell art?" Which requires something rather different than "driving traffic."

You don't sell art by driving traffic. You sell art by building an audience.

And in the same way that noise isn't music, driving traffic is not building an audience.

In this section, we’ll walk you through what it means to build an audience.

The goal at the audience stage is to get members to join your inner circle by either purchasing from you or becoming such a loyal promoter of you that they actually become part of your marketing.

Let’s start by defining your audience.

Your audience is the group of people who know who you are and love what you do enough to give you permission to communicate with them in channels that you control. Your Inner Circle, discussed in the previous section, is part of your audience, but your audience is larger and includes people who have not purchased from you. You want to interact with your audience through channels that you own. And there are only a few online channels that you can own. They are:

Your newsletter & blog

Your website

An online community

A podcast

Using these channels, and perhaps others both online and offline, you will communicate and draw your audience further and further into the story about your art. You will send a regular email newsletter letting your audience know about new artworks and exhibits. You will share stories about what inspired you to create those new works. You’ll direct them to your website to see and purchase your works.

An artist typically thinks their marketing funnel looks like this:

1. Drive “traffic” to your website
2. ????????
3. Somehow the visitor signs up for your newsletter
4. ????????
5. Sales!

The problem is that you think that your art marketing funnel starts with your website. In reality your art marketing funnel ENDS with your website.

The real funnel looks more like this:

1. Invite people / Ask people to join your email list (the more personal the better)
2. Add them to your list
3. Send personal, timely and relevant emails that build anticipation, make subscribers feel special, have clear calls to action and multiple price points
4. CTAs drive people to your website
5. Sales!

Next week we’ll take a deeper look into an artist website and how it is best utilized. See you then!

Creatively,

Clint Watson
BoldBrush/FASO Founder
Art Fanatic
Apostle of Creativity

PS - May your life be filled with peace, love, and joy!