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This is specifically about what people like and when they will do something like buy an item or like a video.
What provoked this thought was me feeling all smug about my latest 'Are you bored enough...' video getting over 300 views and attracting over 20 new subscribers. Yes, I have low expectations and am easily pleased. Then I realised that a video I took of some random kids dancing in the street had over 8,000 views. It seems more people want to watch a flash mob pretending to be in a Glee movie than my carefully curated and produce infotainment masterpiece.
The other example is with my painting. It has been a quiet summer with other stuff occupying my time but then at a car meet a guy commissioned a painting of his car for his own birthday, out of the blue a lady emailed to say she had seen me earlier in Winchester and decided to treat herself to a painting. So two commissions in two weeks and the I was in Winchester on Sunday and trying to take a picture of my art display when a couple walked right into shot. I posted the phot anyway and then last night the guy messaged asking me to turn it into a painting. 3 in 3 weeks.
If I could maintain this rate of work I would be very happy. Any idea why or how this happens?
More importantly, any idea how to keep a similar rate of work/viewers coming in?
Consistently putting your work out there is a form of soft networking / marketing
People notice it. 3 months later (I find it's 3 months in my biz anyway) a handful of them decide they want it and that now is the time to procure it
Continue to put work out there, or you'll not be noticed and not have that [3] month cycle
It's that simple.
If you are serious in wanting to understand stuff for your specific small business - you could try and see if you could find some sort of budget / freebie CRM - have a look at the free offering from hubspot
Start sticking all the data in, contact details, how you met them, what interested them etc.. in 3 - 6 months you might start getting some useful data out that is specific to your business. You can then start doing stuff like campaigns via different channels to understand what works for the people who like your art. IF you get serious about it as a business you could even pay for some marketing and use the CRM to track responses and work out your ROI which will help you experiement to find out what works best. It'll help you understand your lead times / conversion rates and loads more
Or if all that sounds like hard work and boring you could just talk to other local artists 🙂
The web views, SEO.
The IRL stuff, the more you’re out there ‘selling’ the more commissions you’ll get.
My FiL does a bit of painting and has sat at a few stands - if you just paint pictures for fun and want to offload some because you;ve run out of wall space I think this is fine. IF you actually want it to be a business and earn a wage from it you probably need to be thinking carefully about where you spend your time and how effective it is (hence the CRM comment above)
You probably need to be doing more selling and marketing than actual art, especially if you are trying to establish yourself. once you have a presence and 'brand' then you need to switch to maintaining the brand rather than establishing.
There are loads of great books that could help. But it really depends on whether its a hobby or a business for you
It's all about putting yourself out there in as many ways as possible. You can't predict which particular 'thing' will blow up. For example I've spent large amounts of money advertising in an upmarket creative magazine and got virtually nothing out of it. On the other hand my Mrs. advertised my business on a local Mumsnet type group which I thought was utterly pointless and I was right.....for six months. Then I got a call out of the blue from it which turned into a job, which then snowballed into loads of word of mouth work. Still my biggest revenue stream.
Newsagents windows to 'following' someone else on Instagram, you just can't say which one will be more productive. Carry business cards and be ready for a bit of low key self promotion. You never know.
Okay, this is getting weird now. This is beginning to feel like someone, somewhere is doing a load of promotions for me that I am not aware of.
I have just been contacted by a gallery owner who saw my stuff at the Hampshire Open Studios week earlier this year and is interested in displaying some of my work in the New Year.
I am not complaining but three commissions and an unsolicited approach from a gallery, all within 3 weeks when I have done almost nothing for the last couple of months because of the bad weather. Last year I did loads of what is recommended abov e and while I sold a reasonable number of paintings, there were only 2 commissions in the entire year and no interest (from me or them) with galleries.
Have I died* and suddenly become famous?
*Would that be a good marketing strategy as it seems quite achievable?