Last Saturday I had the luxury of attending ARTpreneur, "a one day conference dedicated to helping artists succeed in business". Though some of the guest speakers had great leads for research I'd like to Google my way through in the future, my fellow artists in the audience also had some golden nuggets.
A print-maker from Montreal told me the best marketing advice she had received was from a lecture by Laura Russel.
Russel instructs artists to shamelessly self promote. Whenever you meet someone new you should only talk about art. Don't tell them about your spouse, what you ate for breakfast, or any of that stuff. You must ensure that the one thing they leave the conversation with is the knowledge that you are a passionate artist.
Mixing this with the base tones of the ARTpreneur lectures, this doesn't mean that the person you're talking to should think that you're a big headed buffoon that they can't wait to get away from. Now when I say you should only talk about art, this doesn't just have to be your own art, though that should enter the conversation. It's best to present yourself as a fountain of information that can provide them with new perspectives, and entice them with tidbits of information following their interests. You must also couple your passion for art with the desire to get them to care about your brand. Your brand is not only your product or service, but also who you are as an individual, what makes you and your product different from other brands, and why they should care about wanting to learn more about you, from you, and have a new found appetite for the information you can provide them.
Russel also followed up her small-talk agenda with some soul-searching questions for artists:
- Do you really want to sell your art?
- How much money would it take you to part with your pieces?
- What are you willing to sacrifice to make sure they sell?
