Click here to read Part 1 of this post, Your Art Doesn’t Exist to Solve a Problem.
I want to expand on my last post, because I can imagine after reading why I think we, as artists and makers, should ditch problem solving marketing, you may be wondering how exactly to sell your work instead.
What does a marketing strategy look like that doesn’t involve reminding people of their problems? What should you say about the work? And how should you get people to buy?
The good news is, selling your art without resorting to problem solving marketing doesn’t have to be hard. (And once again, I’m using a broad definition of art that encompasses craft and design as well as fine art.) In fact, I can sum it up in two steps:
1. Create a visceral response.
2. Make it easy (and exciting) for people to buy your work.
Now this deceptively simple strategy does contain some nuance, so I want to break it down further and give you some ideas you can employ in your own marketing.
1. Create a visceral response.
One of the reasons that I think problem solving marketing doesn’t work is that it completely ignores one of the main reasons people buy art. They like the way it looks.
The flip side of that is that not everyone is going to like the way your art looks. And that’s ok. We all have different tastes and aesthetic preferences. The goal isn’t to please everyone. It’s to create a strong visceral and emotional response in the people who will eventually buy your work.
So how do you do that?
Primarily through your photography.
Thanks to visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, it’s never been easier to lead with an immediate visceral response to your work. Photography also plays a key role in selling on your website (far more than your product descriptions) and it should take center stage in your email marketing and on your blog. (Despite what you may have learned from info-marketers.)
Because photography is so essential to marketing, I think that improving your photography is one of the most worthwhile things artists and makers can do to grow their businesses. (The other, which also relates to the importance of creating a visceral response, is to continue to develop their creative voice in the studio and make new work.)
But it isn’t enough to simply take good overall images of your work. (Though these are important.) Instead, you need a range of images designed to evoke that visceral and emotional reaction.
These include enticing details of your work, images that show human interaction with the work, and images that show narrative or give context.
Enticing details are important because these are the images that allow us to get up close and personal and experience things like texture, detail, and depth – all of which help to create that visceral reaction. (And help to bring the work to life, especially on a small, flat phone screen.)
Images showing human interaction with the work are essential because we’re better at reading emotions from body language than we are anything else. Most makers of wearable art understand the importance of showing their work on people, but visual artists and object makers can also benefit from the implied emotion that comes from integrating a human element into their photography.
Showing narrative or giving context for a work can take a lot of different forms, from flat lays featuring props to images of your art in real life situations. These works may not have the immediate impact of a great detail or human element, but they help to tell a story and create a deeper emotional connection to you as the artist and the work itself.
Now, you can combine these types of images with some written storytelling designed to further enhance the emotional appeal of your work. But I find that, unless you’re really a natural creative writer, this is challenging.
So, for the time being, I’m going to absolve you of trying to create emotion in your writing. Save it for your images, and focus on showing, rather than telling, when it comes to your work.
In fact, I’m going to encourage you to take a less is more approach in writing for your marketing, because as Michael Findlay says in his book Seeing Slowly, “unless used creatively and imaginatively, language fails art.”
If this makes you wonder what you should be writing about your art, this is where #2 comes into play. Your goal in your captions and marketing copy should be to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy your work. But know that, in this way of approaching marketing, what you write is secondary to the images you show of your work.
So if you’re trying to get away from marketing as problem solving, spend more time asking “what should I show?” and less time worrying about “what should I say?”
2. Make it easy (and exciting) for people to buy your work.
Now that you’re focused on getting people to have a visceral reaction and fall in love with your work (which, admittedly, is a process, not a one and done act), the second step should be simple. Make it easy (and exciting) for people to buy your work.
First, you need to remove barriers to purchase.
It’s amazing to me how often I still come across an artist or makers website where it is so difficult to buy their work. In the age of Amazon and one-click purchases, customers no longer want to work to make a purchase. Which is why, instead of worrying about how to “sell” your work, your first strategy should be to make it as easy to buy as possible.
The best way to do this is to limit the number of clicks it takes from the moment someone lands on your website to the moment they can click a “buy now” or “add to cart” button. A good rule of thumb is no more than 2-3 clicks from home page to purchase. (For example, on my web page, you can click on a product category from the home page, then on an individual product, then add the product to your cart. That’s three clicks.)
Now this assumes that you have “buy now” or “add to cart” buttons on your site. If something is for sale on your site, someone should be able to click a button and make a purchase. They shouldn’t have to email you or fill out a request form. Of course, if something is sold out or coming soon, you can give them the option to join your mailing list so they don’t miss out. But if something is currently for sale, make it as easy as possible to buy.
Making it easy for someone to buy your work also means giving them as much information as possible. And once again, the best way to do this is not through writing, but through photography. Images that include a human element or real life context help to show size and scale, which are some of the biggest barriers customers have when contemplating a purchase online. (And since most people either don’t read or can’t visualize, images that show scale are always more effective than listing dimensions in a product description.)
Once you’ve made it easy for people to purchase, you can increase sales by building anticipation for new work.
One of the most effective strategies I’ve found for selling more of my work is to create a visceral response on social media before the work is available to purchase.
This means using images like enticing details of work in progress and human interaction with pieces not yet available to get customers excited and then telling them when and how they’ll be able to buy. (Typically, my how involves joining my mailing list, as it’s the best way to ensure someone is really interested in the work.)
The reason this strategy is so effective is because it separates that immediate visceral response from the down to earth crash that comes from committing to a purchase. By separating these two moments, the customer has already decided they like something and are interested, and making a purchase when it becomes available becomes a forgone conclusion. Plus, it actually makes the buying process more exciting!
Finally, whether you’re sending an email about newly launched work or directing customers to your website to purchase something that’s already there, make sure you are giving them clear instructions about how to purchase.
Most artists and makers, unsure of how to write and sell, end up writing long, convoluted emails and social media captions, never actually asking for the sale or specifically telling customers where to buy.
Instead, you need to trust that your photos (not to mention the work itself) have done the hard work of selling by creating that visceral and emotional response. Your final job is to simply and clearly point your customers to the place where they can make the purchase.
That means spelling it out in your email marketing (with links that say things like “click here to shop now”) and on your social media (with captions that say things like “click the link in my bio to shop). While you don’t have to do this with every social media post (though you should do it in every email), making it a point to actually tell followers where to buy on a regular basis (I like to make sure I’m doing it every few posts) is a critical part of the process of marketing your work.
Problem solving marketing assumes that you have to give your customers a reason to buy. That puts you in the mode of having to sell. But when you focus on creating a strong visceral reaction to your work, you can shift from needing to sell to simply making it as easy as possible for your customers to buy your work.
Marketing then becomes a creative act as you try to elicit the same emotional reaction that your work creates. Instead of a separate (and sleazy feeling activity) marketing becomes an extension of your art. Which means you’re much more likely to put in the marketing work needed to grow your business AND your customers are going to have a more positive response to your marketing.
No icky marketing tactics or problem solving necessary.
Struggling to see how your work has value if it doesn’t “solve a problem”? Check out this post!
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Tired of one sized fits all business advice that doesn’t really apply to artists and makers? Click here to get my exclusive Free Training: How to Sell your Art (of Craft) Without Resorting to Problem Solving Marketing
