The new edition of I'd Rather Be in the Studio has launched. Here I am with signed copies ready to be stuffed and mailed to their new homes.

On the inside front flap of the 2011 edition of I’d Rather Be in the Studio is a No-Excuse Weekly Self-Promotion Routine.

My wish for you is that you develop a routine that becomes second nature. You don’t balk or make excuses. You do the work because it’s ingrained as part of the art career you are building.

Here’s the checklist that appears on the book flap:

☑ Review marketing plan and create the week’s strategy

☑ Send thank-you notes

☑ Update art inventory database

☑ Add names of new contacts to database

☑ Mail 5 postcards to people you need to stay in touch with

☑ Recommend someone on LinkedIn

☑ Call or send a personal email to someone you haven’t spoken with in a while

☑ Attend an art opening or gallery talk (introduce yourself!)

☑ Carry a stash of flyers or postcards wherever you go

☑ Post two or three times to your blog

☑ Comment on five other blogs

☑ Add new images to Flickr or Facebook

☑ Engage fans on Facebook page

☑ Tweet something nice about 7 people on Twitter

☑ Follow up with leads and opportunities

☑ Stay on top of finances

☑ Check in with the Artist Conspiracy

My list is general and could be adapted to any art business or career. Customize the above items to fit your needs.

Unless the self-promotions tasks work for you, you won’t do them and you will never develop a routine.

What does your routine look like?

One of the excuses in my book – excuses that keep artists from promoting their art effectively – is “I don’t want to bother people.” You know what it feels like to be bothered and you don’t want to do that to anyone else.

But don’t err to the other extreme. People need to see multiple marketing messages (in a variety of locations) before they act. You need to cover all of your bases. No single person will see the same message across all of the platforms you use.

So, where do we draw the line when promoting our events? (By events, I mean exhibits, sales, openings, open studios, trunk shows, gallery talks, classes, and workshops.)

I propose the following breakdown.

Annoying – Horsefly Buzzing Around Your Head

• Multiple email “reminders” for the same event
• Corrections to those email reminders because you left something out of the first one
• 49 tweets in a row promoting your art
• 15 Facebook updates that tell us how excited you are about something coming up
• Promoting your event on someone else’s Facebook page

Informative – Covering All of Your Bases

• Announcement in your newsletter or email
• Postcard sent in the mail
• Feature on your blog sidebar or website events page
• Sprinkling of mentions in blog posts that relate to the event
• Blog post devoted solely to the event
• Special email announcement focused on the event only (no other news included)
• Email reminder the day of or the day before the event
• Facebook event
• A few tweets a day that are varied (varied message, varied time of post)

What have I missed?

You send out an email, and you think you’re done.
You post to your blog, and call it a day.
You share an update on Facebook, and bask in your brilliance.

Before you take another bow, heed this cautionary tale.

I was alarmed to see this tweet from Deb Trotter in my Twitter stream:

I say “alarmed” because I thought I had been doing everything right to promote the Artist Conspiracy without going overboard. Some of my key actions have been:

• Launched a test group so that a number of members were in place when the Conspiracy opened up to new members.
• Devoted an entire newsletter – Conspire Against the Myths (February 16) – to the launching of the Conspiracy.
• Organized a live, free call to talk about the details of the Conspiracy. This February 23 conversation was recorded and is still available to listen to.
• Add a Conspiracy update at the bottom of each newsletter and to the sidebar of the Art Biz Blog.
• Mention the Conspiracy in my tweets (#artistsconspire) and on Facebook.

Still, Deb, one of my most loyal and longtime readers, didn’t find out about the Artist Conspiracy until April 11 – nearly 2 full months after my promotions began and more than 3 months from when I started whispering about it online.

Deb isn’t oblivious. She’s busy! She doesn’t catch every newsletter, tweet, and post. No one could.

Your Fans Are Busy

Your online followers and real-life fans are also busy. They delete and ignore at will.

Whenever you’re tempted to think that telling someone something once is enough, stop and remember this story I’ve shared. Then repeat this mantra to yourself: 
Once is never enough.

People must see your message multiple times in multiple places in order to “get” it.

That doesn’t mean you become annoying. It just means you cover all of your bases and vary your words and delivery.

Fortunately, the Artist Conspiracy isn’t a one-time event, but an ongoing membership program for artists who desire a higher level of success. Anyone can join at anytime. Therefore, Deb didn’t really miss anything when she joined us recently.

How much marketing is too much? Chime in below.

©Caroline Harnish, Mural.

I met Caroline Harnish at the Dorset Marble Quarry in Dorset, Vermont earlier this week. Well, we kinda met.

She offered to take a photo of me with my parents and we returned the favor for her.

We chatted a bit about the beauty of the area and the quarry and then started to go our separate ways. She was visiting from South Carolina.

As we turned our backs to her, Caroline said in a soft voice, “Take a look at my website: MuralsByCaroline.com.”

We hadn’t talked about her being an artist or me doing what I do. She had no idea that I wrote a book on self-promotion for artists or that I write this art business blog.

She was just doing her best to share her art.

I hopped in the car and jotted down her website address. Of course I’m going to take a look.

Caroline, it was nice meeting you.

Think you could do what Caroline did and share your website with strangers?

Mailing List = The people you know or want to know

Mailing List = Buyers, collectors, supporters, gallerists, curators, writers, critics, friends, family, and other artists

Mailing List = Receives email and postal mail from you

Contact List = The people you have contact with

Contact List = Your mailing list + your social media friends, connections, and followers

Contact List = Receives tweets, wall updates, blog feeds, event invitations on Facebook, etc. from you (in addition to the mail and email if they are also on your mailing list)

Most artists have postcards printed from time to time, but very few consider a postcard strategy.

Where do postcards fit in your marketing plan?

Think about adding postcards to your regular self-promotion efforts. Email, Facebook, and Twitter are great, but you should mix things up a bit. Get offline from time to time and interact in the real world—especially when it comes to your marketing. Send postcards to your mailing list three to four times a year.

Vala Ola, Sensuality. Bronze, 29 x 11 x 11 inches. ©The Artist

Postcards are relatively inexpensive to print and mail. Yes, postcard mailings still cost money, but they’re cheaper and more personal than buying an ad. Postcards are real mail sent to real people who know and like you. They have an image of your art on the front (hopefully with your name there, too) and are likely to stick around longer than email in an inbox.

“What if I don’t have anything to say on a postcard?”

Ha! That’s a cop-out. There are endless reasons to send postcards—as if staying in touch isn’t reason enough. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Events
This one is easy. Send postcards as invitations for exhibit openings and closings, sales, arts festivals you’re participating in, open studios, tours you’re leading, and workshops and classes you’re teaching.

Announcements
Mail postcards trumpeting awards you’ve received, a recent acquisition by a corporation (get permission), completion of a public art piece, new gallery representation, new studio, new address, new baby, new book, new pet, or new you.

Holidays
It’s easy to send postcards for the usual holidays, but you’re more creative than that! Don’t forget your favorite artist’s birthday, your birthday, a holiday related to your niche, and Happy July 23rd! (I’ll bet nobody else gets Happy July 23rd greetings unless it’s their birthday.)

FINAL WORD: Don’t wait for something big to happen to send postcards. Send them three or four times a year as part of a marketing strategy to keep your name in front of your fans. Get out the calendar and see what makes sense. If you need to get straight with your plan, take a look at the Blast Off class. Grab the lessons online at your convenience beginning May 19.

There’s more about using snail mail in Action 9 of I’d Rather Be in the Studio!

Are you hiding your accomplishments? If I visit your website or blog, would I know that your work was on the cover of a magazine, featured in an article, or that you received an award?

I’m not talking about a list on a résumé. I’m talking about graphics and photos. As a visual person, you can surely relate to the power of an image. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? If it is, you’d better have (or get) some pictures up on your sites.

Before I go any further, let me be perfectly clear that any images on your site should NOT compete with your artwork. You should show off your art above all else. It should be front and center. Photographs and graphic elements are always subservient to the art.

Okay, now we can get on with things.

What do you show off?

I spilled the beans a bit in that opening paragraph, but let’s go back over it for clarification.

Jane Wilcoxson, Marlina. Acrylic. ©The Artist

If your art is on the cover of a magazine or pictured in a newspaper, tell us about it! Scratch that. Don’t tell us, show us! Scan it or take a photo of it and share. Just remember that you are dealing with copyrighted material and be sure to get permission where necessary and to give proper credit before you share it.

If you received a grant or an award, let us know! If you accept the honor in person, get a photo. If there is no physical trophy or if the “trophy” requires reading glasses to see, just get a photograph with the presenters—perhaps in front of a sign with the event title.

If your award won’t be presented in person, snag a JPEG or image from the presenter’s site (if it’s a good one and with permission) to use for your own.

Don’t forget installation shots of your exhibits or displays. Solo exhibitions yield nice photos, especially when they’re captured by a pro. I have a client whose work was in a juried exhibit and was THE feature work. It was on the wall underneath the title of the exhibit. Photo op!

Where do you show off your accomplishments?

If you have a website, you can spotlight your feats on your About, News, or Media Room pages. On a blog, you can do the same if you have Pages capabilities. You might also add one or two images to your sidebar. Of course, this is after you have written a post with all of the details. The sidebar image can then link to the post for more information.

Don’t forget to add these pictures to your fan page on Facebook!

FINAL WORD: Don’t wait for someone else to show off your achievements. We might eventually uncover the juicy stuff in your résumé, but don’t make us work that hard. Show us with an image.

The podcast is an audio version of this post.

I’m on a roll now! I’m writing about the first four things you should do when you want to sell your art. They’re not necessarily steps in the sense that one comes after another. Think of them as things that you need to cross of your list before you can do anything else.

Step #3: Connect with other artists

(The following text is adapted from I’d Rather Be in the Studio!)

Many artists do not have sideline cheerleaders in the form of friends or family. Some people just don’t get us! If you’re in this predicament, you must seek or establish your own cheering squad. Without some kind of support system, you will find yourself beaten down and constantly on the defensive. Sometimes you can obtain such support by getting involved in existing artist organizations. If you aren’t familiar with one in your area, contact your local or state arts council, which you can find in the resources of the National Assembly of State Art Agencies. You can also check out the National Association of Artists’ Organizations.

Being around other artists builds your confidence and sustains you emotionally. In addition, you will hear about opportunities you never knew existed if you hadn’t been part of a group. You’ll hear about them before they are ever published! You will also be eligible to apply for grants, awards, and exhibitions sponsored by the organization; be introduced to new art products and materials; and receive business advice in many areas (software, accounting, taxes, copyright, and more). Most importantly, with the right organization, you’ll make contacts that lead to the next step on your career path. As you are learning, contacts play a seminal role in your success.

John McCaskill, Flight of the Hummingbird. Monotype, linoleum, and woodcut, 26 x 38 inches. ©The Artist

Before you join an organization, make sure it’s a good fit for you. Don’t join just for the sake of joining, which can end up being a waste of time and money. Attend meetings as a guest and consider where you might fit in. Before you join an organization, you should do research. (A complete checklist of questions to ask is in the book, page 189.)

You aren’t joining just to be a member. You are joining to become involved. If you’re uncomfortable in an organization, you won’t reap the benefits of your membership. If you can’t find the right fit in an existing organization, bring together a group of artists who meet regularly for the purpose of supporting each other. Form your own ArtBizConnection.com artist salon for more structure.

Perhaps becoming a member of an artist organization that meets regularly in your city is not for you or isn’t enough for you. You might consider “joining” a community on a part-time basis in a distant locale. You can escape once or twice a year to be around like-minded artists in artist communities, sometimes called “colonies.” Some people think of spending time at art colonies as vacations, but they are working vacations. You attend to be inspired and to learn from your peers. Another take on “getting away” is participating in an artist residency with an organization or at a venue. Learn about these opportunities in art magazines, discussion groups, and online lists.

The more you’re connected with other artists, the more opportunities you’ll discover.

See the other 3 steps:

Step #1: Devote Yourself to a Studio Practice
Step #2: Create Your Mailing List
Step #4: Start Writing About Your Art

Are you a second-career artist?
Did you do something else before diving into your art career?
If so, your previous life and connections may be more beneficial to your art career than you thought.

Keith Murray, Old Glory. Oil on canvas. 36 x 24 inches. ©The Artist

Artist Lanie Frick called me this week to confess a story that broke her heart. She had been in a different line of creative work before devoting herself to fine art. A few years ago, she decided to burn the sales receipts from that business. She couldn’t imagine that she’d ever need those again. Then she read my book and had a bit of a bad day. She realized that all of her previous customers’ names and addresses had been turned to ash. It dawned on her that those contacts could be very valuable to her now.

Lanie was right, and she wanted to share her experience in hopes that it might help out another artist. Perhaps it will help you.

Regardless of the type of work you did in another life, every contact you have made is valuable. And if your contacts purchased something (anything!) from you in the past, they’re even more precious. There was a reason they bought from you. Maybe a friend referred you. Maybe they liked YOU. Maybe you delivered on your promises. In the end, they trusted you. If you came through for them, they’re more likely to buy from you again.

This earlier contact is a connection to you and whatever else you may do with your life. It’s a connection to your art. You may think that your art would be of no interest to earlier contacts, but I urge you to think of it differently. Think of these earlier contacts as connections–however weak–that hold potential. If it’s true, as I’m fond of quoting, that everyone knows 200-250 other people, then you don’t want to neglect a single person with whom you have a solid relationship.

Not only do people who know and like you want you to succeed, they will also be disappointed if they hear about your work from someone else. And you don’t want to disappoint them!

KNOW THIS———-~> Connections, regardless of how insignificant they may seem, are critical to your success.

THINK ABOUT THIS—~> Are you including everyone on your mailing list? Or are you assuming–perhaps incorrectly–that certain connections are separate from your art connections?

DO THIS————~> Include your previous connections on your mailing list. Invite them to your openings, share your good news with them, and ask them for support. It’s all about cultivating collectors, which happens to be the name of the next online class that begins July 8. If cultivating collectors is on your list of To Do’s, take a look at the class content.

Tell us about your previous connections and listen to the podcast on the Art Biz Blog.

Postal rates just went up in the U.S., but that’s no reason to stop sending mail. It’s more important than ever to use regular mail in conjunction with any email messages you’re sending out. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you shouldn’t neglect buying stamps.

Deb Schmit, Highland Dreams Oil on canvas, 12 x 16 inches. ©The Artist

Above all, regular mail won’t be considered spam. People have all kinds of filters set up for their inboxes these days. You can’t be certain your email messages are getting through. While you might grumble about the reliability of the postal service, there is no doubt that it’s far more reliable than email.

Likewise, regular mail can’t be accidentally deleted. It doesn’t take much to get frustrated by an overflowing inbox and delete a load of messages at once. It’s harder to accidentally throw away a piece of mail.

According to the CAN SPAM laws in the U.S., you must provide an easy way for people to opt out of an email list. But . . . people on your contact list won’t opt out of receiving regular mail as they might with email.

Another thing regular mail has going for it is that it has a personal touch. Email messages are often sent in bulk and seem impersonal.

Real mail stands out. Everyone is relying on email these days! Email messages get lost in bundles of other messages in inboxes.

On the other hand, we smile when we receive a real piece of mail with art on the front of it. We delight if the mail contains handwritten notes or addresses. “Wow! Someone cared enough to personalize this!”

KNOW THIS———-~> Good old-fashioned mail should be a part of your marketing efforts.

THINK ABOUT THIS—~> When is the last time you sent a mailing to your entire list?

DO THIS————~> Don’t neglect regular mail. Add postcards, thank-you notes, holiday cards, and “surprise” letters to your marketing strategy.

You can get more ideas for using regular mail this entire week and listen to the podcast on the Art Biz Blog.

The Summer Blast Off class begins June 3. Stay focused and set priorities with us.