Finding Buyers Part 1.
It’s a challenge! But if you are like me and want to tackle the business side of art, it can be a really rewarding journey.
The very first thing that you need to do is identify your Market. There are a couple of different approaches to this depending upon your art, your skills, and perhaps your politics. There’s so much to say about it that I’ve decided to divide this journal up into parts, in this first section I’ll give an overview of the two main approaches. And then I will concentrate more deeply in another journal entry.
This is where politics comes in. Some artists prefer to produce art that they feel is authentic to their own feelings, their own thoughts and their own experiences in life. They may have a prefered medium that they are evangilistic about, or they have a very individual and specialised skill that they have honed over many many years. This may be you.
Other artists have general skills, or specialist skills, and produce good art over a range of areas, media and subjects. They are not particularly attached to exploring their personal feelings and thoughts and do not mind creating works that have a mass appeal. They may be photographers or graphic artists, and are used to producing images that meet the expectations of a client.
Each type of artist can find a market for their work. But in the first instance you will be looking for a market that matches your needs and values, and in the second example you will be looking to match the markets needs.
Before you start to promote, or even present your work, it is very important to identify which type of artist you would prefer to be. Some of you may know this already! :)
You may also like to read Making a Fan Page
Bloomin' Arty
This sounds really interesting, I’m intrigued to know more!
Robyn Taylor replied
I am so glad that you are intrigued. And I am glad that it is of interest to you. I hope that people will benefit from these tips.
Sylvia Gonzales
Ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every bit of information we can get is so crucial to being better Photographers & Businessmen or women, Please tell me more!!!!
Robyn Taylor replied
Thanks Sylvia. I have put 3 Parts of this journal up today and will be continueing it on the morrow. :) I am really glad you are finding it interesting.
Jan Piller
This is great! Thanks Robyn! I’m trying to branch my sales out from RB (so far have my images in a restaurant and I’ve just been asked to supply some to a consignment artisans store nearby) I have no clue what to supply other than what people favorite here on RB and a couple of my favorites. But I hav eno idea what the people in these different towns are looking for and have no idea how to find out. I look forward to leanring more from you.
Robyn Taylor replied
Ah. Great this is a really good point. (oh yeah and I’m glad this is helpful). I’ll speak to this right now, because I really appreciate your question. What people favourite on RB will not necessarily reflect your target market because RB is populated by very discerning artists who have very sophisticated and well trained eyes/sensibilities.
The general public is not so well educated and can often respond to stuff that you would never have imagined them to. So you need to do some work on the ground around the town you are exhibiting in. Look at the shops that are in that town, look at how they are marketing and who to. Watch what kind of people come in and out of these places. Sit and listen …. I will write about this in Part 4. But if you are really keen you can buy, borrow or steal statistics for your industry and that town.
Jan Piller
Yah right – I live in a cornfield! hahahahaha seriously the restaurant is frequented by farmers and truckers and the city where the stor eis I’ve nver been to before. Guess I’ll go hang arond the district where the store is and see what people are wearing and where they’re shopping etc. That might give me a clue. Thanks Robyn!
Robyn Taylor replied
Yep, if it’s frequented by farmers and truckers they are completely different to artists. They would probably love pictures of farms and trucks ….. I’ll have a look at your work later, when I’ve finished writing my journal.
C J Lewis
Good points … find your niche :)
Robyn Taylor replied
Yep. Finding your niche is a very succinct way of putting it! :)
Jan Piller
Oh – now I gotta go out and find some tractors to take pics of! Now I have to figure out how to do that “artistically”! hahahaha
Robyn Taylor replied
Well, you don’t have to take photos of tractors if you don’t feel that matches your philosophy of being an artist. If you think that would be an interesting challenge, then I totally agree, apply your personal style to tractors … could be fun.
But you may still have a USP of your own that you can offer.
Talie Lines
Ahhaaa, right. so now to find these people :P
Robyn Taylor replied
Good Luck! :)
nexus7
Well, occasionally the fish bite, which is encouraging. I am sill looking for ways to make that a little more than occasional. This interest can sometimes be commercial, whereas for me the work is an inner-directed process. Perhaps I need to find our how to define myself a little better…
Robyn Taylor replied
Inner directed process, that is a really good way of describing the type of artist I was trying to describe as someone who has their own needs to meet. Yes, really if you can define who you are and what you are offering it will make it easier to put your marketing energy into the right areas, Otherwise it’s just willy nilly wasted precious energy! :)
nexus7
Thanks Robyn, defining what I am about as an artsit is still the most difficult thing, however. I nce attended a painting course that denigrated most of what I did as ‘decorative.’ And whilst I am happy to sell the occasional artwork to industry as an incidental thing, used to hate it when I got told by people looking at my ‘innder-directed work’ – my ‘soul work’ – ‘this would look good as a silk scarf’ or whatever.
Colleen Milburn
Fabulous – thanks for this, Robyn! I came over here through your link on FB!
Robyn Taylor replied
Thanks Colleen, so you are a Fan! That is so nice :) I am enjoying using facebook, it is fun and there are so many people form all over the world there. I am making something special for the end of the week!