I’m going to be brutally honest in this post. If you are an artist or maker, and you are taking marketing classes with people who don’t know shit about photography or visual communication, you are wasting your money.
That may sound harsh, but the reality is, as an artist or maker, the number one tool you have for selling your work is your photography!
If your photography sucks, all the copywriting and online salesmanship in the world won’t save you.
And it’s not just enough anymore to have photography that doesn’t suck or is fine. Your photographs need to communicate the experience and value of your work. They need to show emotion and, in many cases, sensory qualities. The need to make your art impossible to resist.
So many online marketing experts will have you believe that the most important thing is what you say – your writing or the things you say in videos. And if you’re selling information or coaching or certain types of services, that is true.
But that is not true if you’re selling art or handmade products. In that case, your photos have to come first.
I know a lot of artists and makers are joining my class Sell Without Shame because they want to better learn what to say about their work. And we’re certainly diving into developing a verbal language to articulate the value of your work. But even more important, we’re spending a lot of time developing a visual language.
Because when you can communicate the value of your work through your photography, it takes so much pressure off your need to write stellar copy or talk about your work in video. It takes the pressure off of having to “sell.”
But if you’re working with a marketing expert that isn’t visually focused, they don’t get this.
And this is why so many artists and makers feel shame around selling. Because you’re trying to communicate the value of your art through a medium that is ill-suited for it. You’re stuck trying to find the right words when you should be focused on creating a visceral, emotional, or sensory experience through your photography.
Here’s the deal. I have lots of friends in the online marketing space. They are PR people and messaging experts and copywriters and podcasting experts. And they are damn good at what they do.
But when it comes to marketing for artists and makers, they are missing something.
I’m not judging them. They are writers and damn good ones. They know how to seduce people with their words.
But trying to have artists and makers seduce people with their words when they can seduce them with their images is a waste of time and energy.
And worse, it denies the ways we truly experience art.
I don’t collect handmade mugs because of what the artist wrote about them. I collect them for the way they look and feel. And the way they make me feel.
And those feelings aren’t purely verbal.
Sure, writing can help guide people to a purchasing decision. But it should always follow, not lead, your photography.
So the next time you are struggling to find the right words to describe your work, stop. And instead, ask yourself how you can create the right images instead.
Because when it comes to marketing art and handmade products, show, not tell, should be the standard, not the exception.
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One of the hardest things about improving your marketing photography is developing your own eye. But one of the best ways to do that is to get feedback on your images. Fortunately, in Sell Without Shame, I don’t just talk about developing your visual marketing language. I encourage everyone in the class to share images so I can give you honest feedback. So if you’re wondering how to better use your photography to “sell” your work, be sure to check out Sell Without Shame. The price goes up in one week, so now is the best time to jump in. (And yes, we’ve already started, but no, you aren’t behind. You can work through the content at your own pace and I’m always there to answer questions no matter where you are in the lessons!) Click here to join Sell Without Shame now!