The Circles of Art Marketing - Part III
Your Inner Circle is made up of your best customers and superfans
This article series is designed to give artists a strong framework to anchor their online art marketing efforts. If you follow this framework, your goals for social media, for email, for your website, for each thing that you do online will become crystal clear. It will help you stop floundering or guessing or trying “a little of this and a little of that” and get you on the right track to convert followers into fans and fans into customers.
If you are just joining us, I suggest you catch up on the earlier articles in this series:
OK, let’s dive into today’s topic which is your Inner Circle made up of your best customers and advocates…
Now that we’ve examined what it takes to turn “your art” into a product. Let’s take a look at how you use the other rings of the Circles of Art Marketing to market and sell your art.
In general, the further in a circle is, the more valuable it is to you. Your art is the most valuable thing you have (in this framework), next is the ring that turns your art into a product, then comes your “Inner Circle” (these are your buyers and most loyal supporters), then your audience, and finally people who are aware of you and your artwork.
We’re going to work our way through the circles from the inside out, but keep in mind, in most cases, your customer’s journey is going to be the other direction. They will move from the outside in. In the next section of the book, we’ll show you how to put it all together and move people through the following stages: Unaware of you -> Aware & Interested -> Part of Your Audience -> Buyers and Your Inner Circle.
Let’s start by looking at your most valuable collectors and supporters, aka your “Inner Circle.”
Your goal with your inner circle is to connect with these people personally until they purchase again or promote you to others. And, while not technically a business goal, you will probably become friends with many people that are in your inner circle. By “connect personally”, I mean (mostly) personal texts, emails, phone calls, etc. Not newsletters or other mass broadcasting methods.
You’ve probably heard of Kevin Kelley’s idea of “1000 True Fans:”
To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only a thousand true fans. A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free YouTube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.
Kevin’s essay made shockwaves across the Internet as it crystallized, in many creators’ minds, for the first time the following thought: “that’s doable.”
For the first time, creators of all types saw an achievable path to make a living from their art. And moreover, one that did not rely on any gatekeepers’ permission.
But, I'll let you in on a little secret.