Art Marketing: A Major Topic for Painters: Part 2
by L. Diane Johnson

Your Marketing Plan in Action - Market Analysis

In Part 1, we tackled the challenges and importance of developing a "marketing plan" and building a "kitchen cabinet" whether you are already selling your or are still exploring the possibilities of marketing your art work.

Now it's time to implement your plan. For those of you who were not with us at that time, read the first article in this series titled, Art Marketing: A Major Topic for Painters: Part 1 in Plein Air Wear Reading Room.

With a working knowledge of your purpose and mission, you need to analyze your market. That is, who are the people you are targeting to sell to and where are they located? It’s one thing to know you paint great horses, but you have to identify your audience (i.e. horse lovers) and venues where you can sell the most paintings. Will you sell your horse paintings at dog shows? Perhaps. But more than likely you will sell them at equestrian events, galleries that cater to horse imagery, or horse associations/clubs. Think outside of the box here. What about horse collectors? Those who collect particular types of horses in any form, including fine art, places where horse-lovers meet, or even advertise in their publications. In a future issue we'll discover strategies for selling direct on your own vs. through galleries and the like. But for now, we'll try to cover the waterfront on tapping your all-around ideas.

How do you find places to sell your work? Be as creative here as you are with your paintings. Use every resource you have to locate where potential collectors may reside. Use your local Yellow Pages, the Internet (one of today's richest resources), local bookstore or library for publications related to your genre both for advertising and outlets for sales, your studio or home for direct shows/sales to the public, ask around by word-of- mouth, etc.

Ignore those places where your work would not fit in lieu of the best. For instance, when I was first seeking gallery representation I targeted a major city, Washington, D.C. I visited every gallery in the city except for obvious places like craft or print galleries. One gallery I walked into had huge abstract paintings on the walls. As fast as I went in, I walked out. Why? It was obvious that my representational works would not fit in this arena. Some galleries however, sell both non-objective and representational works. Nevertheless, I passed over the ones that featured abstract or outsider art, narrowed my list down to just three galleries would approach. It was worth the trip. I landed a gallery just a block away from the White House where my work complimented the other artists represented.

So spend some time between now and our next issue identifying your audience and thinking about places to sell your work. Even if you already sell, you want to re-evaluate your strategies periodically as your work matures or is more in demand. In the next issue we’ll discuss distribution channels - practical and targeted for your work.