So let's look back at the past year or two.  People who started working from home pivoted, ordered things on their computers, home schooled their kids, created virtual work spaces, and actually saved a lot of money.  Many of these people, since they were spending so much time at home, began projects around the house, beautified their homes, and sought out entertainment and enrichment online.  Reports are that artists who already had the infrastructure and presence to sell online often did as well or better in their 2020 sales than before the pandemic began.   

This was a wake-up call for us, since in our art business, we really hadn't built that online presence to the degree that we could benefit from this sudden shift.  We had websites, and online stores, but virtually no content available, and nowhere near the reach we needed.  We overhauled our websites and online shops.  We started marketing like crazy, filling social media feeds with our faces and our artwork.  We created new content online through YouTube vlogs, video and audio podcasts, and a weekly blog.  We joined online groups of artists and art collectors, we participated, joined in, commented, and did some guest appearances.  We did all that in the past year and a half, and have noticed that we are slowly building a base of followers and collectors.  

For me the real struggle is not shoveling out the money to advertise, but rather knowing where to shovel.  I think many of us conflate the terms marketing, sales, advertising and publicity.  I think they could all arguably be part of marketing, but the other have very different strategies and outcomes.  If we can agree to use marketing as the larger term, the umbrella under which the other terms shelter, then what do the other terms mean?  I look at any marketing strategy as forward-looking.  While marketing as a whole enhances the knowledge of and presentation of my art and my career as an artist, advertising becomes the precise steps that I take to present and sell my paintings, and enhance my visibility as an artist.  So there may be any number of advertising campaigns employed to achieve one marketing goal.  So then what is publicity?  Well if advertising is forward-looking, then publicity is about right here, and right now.  If advertising is about planning, then publicity is about responding.  So let's just talk about advertising.  I mean planned, calculated, and measurable ad campaigns.  What does that look like for an artist?  

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Season 1, Episode 20
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“Conversations for Freelance Creatives” is a weekly blog/vlog/podcast that creates a community, a conversation, between creatives in all sorts of fields at all sorts of levels.  We want to discuss what we’re learning, what we’ve experienced, and whom we’ve met in our journey of running a freelance creative business. John Bishop is a visual artist living in Houston, Texas. His work is largely abstract, and explores how to turn mythic, archetypal symbols into individual experiences allowing us to see them in a new way, with fresh eyes. Bogdan is a videographer and fine art photographer who constantly seeks to stretch the boundaries of traditional photographic work, with the added flare of his artistic eye.  Both artists’ work can be seen online, or at their studios at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street, in Houston.

John Bishop: http://www.johnbishopfineart.com
Bogdan Mihai: http://www.bogdanfotoart.com
Bogdan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bogdanoninstagram/
John’s Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/johnbishopfineart/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnBishopart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/johnbishopfineart
Buburuza Productions: http://www.Buburuzaproductions.com