Lesson Three: Activate

It's time to set some goals and create your plan.

A goal is what you want to achieve.

A plan is how you make that happen.
A plan is always better when you have a goal.
A goal is nothing without a plan.

Goals and plans

In Lesson One you answered the question 
"Why do you to want to sell your art?"
The answer to this question is one of your goals.

Maybe your answer to that questions was, "to pay for art supplies." Great, how much did you spend on art supplies last year. Make an educated guess if  you don't know.  To make the math easy, let's say you spent $1,000. And let's say the typical price of your artwork is $250. That means you need to sell four pieces at $250 to pay for your art supplies.

Create your plan with that goal in mind.

Your plan might look like this.

You will:

1. pick 4 to 8 pieces to promote.

2. have good photos of those pieces.

3. create written copy about each piece you can use in emails, on social media posts, on a website or as a product description.

4. decide how you will promote the pieces. Will you use social media, have a studio open house, look for other venues to show your work? Will you create a website or online store?

Each one of these steps will have it's own set of steps. I call that a plan within a plan. 

In Lesson Two we established that you needed to build relationships with people in order to develop your "know, like and trust" factor.
Your goal might be,

When people introduce me to others, I want them to say, "this is my friend, _______ he/she is an artist."

Your plan is the action steps you'll take to make sure your friends know your artwork is an important part of your life.

Such as:

1. show up as an artist on a regular basis in person. 

2. share your artistic journey with friends, family and potential customers.

3. Let people know your artwork is for sale by using email, postcards, the internet and social media posts.

4. Decide what actions you need to take to make steps 1, 2  and 3 happen. (the plan within the plan)

  

Things to consider as you create your goals and plans.

• To start with, keep your goals and plans simple.
• A plan that's right for you doesn't involve should-s. You are going to do it, or not.
• You might feel a little nervous at first.
• It will open your eyes to the fact that you can sell art without being all Selly-Selly.
• A plan that's right for you will not be right for somebody else, because it's been created by you, for you alone.

Let's review

Here's what you've done so far. You can put a big fat check mark next to these and celebrate the fact that you are getting started!

• You've created a log of your paintings and you've started to write down things you can say about them.
• You've created a list of people who you want to know about your art and you'd like to invite to shows and other art experiences, either by post office or email.
• You have photos of artwork you'd like to feature and sell.
• You've made some business decisions to help make the sales process for you and your customer a great experience.
• You are clear (or getting clear) about your pricing.
• You are setting goals and creating a plan(s) to achieve them.

Remember, you are taking the first steps, the decisions you make are based on what you want to happen now and in the near future. They are subject to change as you and your artwork changes.

If you plan to use social media as part of your plan consider the following.

1.  What social media platforms do you enjoy using?
If you don't enjoy it, you won't use it.

2. When and how often can you add to your social media feeds?
For example, it might be easy to post after your art class every week.  You'll have pics from class and possibly a new piece to share. If you schedule time each week to create at home, post your results and say something about the experience.

3. What kind of content do you like to share? 

• Photos of your work for sale?
• Work is progress that shows you as a hard working artist?
• You with other artists in classes or at art openings? 
• Gold star if you said yes to all of these! :)

4. What posts are getting the best results?

• What post are getting comments?
• Which posts are getting likes or hearts? 
• Which posts are resulting in questions about sales?

Note: When a person comments that they "Love" a painting, or throws up a red heart, it doesn't necessarily mean they want to purchase. However, it's worthwhile to record who responds to certain paintings. There might be a time when that painting is going on sale or will be in a show and you want to give them a heads up. 

Example: I'll send an email that goes something like this.

Hi {Name},
I thought you might like to know that the painting, Palm tree by the sea, that you've admired is now part of the March Madness sale on my website. (along with some other fun paintings). The sale goes public tomorrow, but I want to give you first dibs :)  Here's the link

{something personal here}

{appropriate closing}

your name

One of the benefits of social media sites is that you have a chance to show your work to a large and diverse group of people. You are able to show your artwork to people who live far away and nearby. Which site(s) is getting you that diversified audience?

Some ways to approach your social media schedule:

Decide the minimum times a week you want to show your artwork.

Block out some time and plan 3 or 4 social media posts. Select photos and write what you want to say. Let it sit a day.
Come back and review.  Is the writing interesting? Is the photo good?  

Take out your calendar and schedule those posts. And share them on the days you schedule.

Does this mean you can't be spontaneous with your posts? Absolutely not!  If you want to jump in with something fun the minute it happens great.  Your friends and fans will probably love them.  I think a mix of both is good.

My Social Media Plan

Your face to face plan: How are you showing up in-person?

What art openings are you attending in your area?

Are there any art guilds or organizations you could join?

Are there any local art and craft shows or fairs you'd like to participate in? You can start small at local farmers markets or artisan fairs.

Can you have a show at a library or other public space?

Can you host a sale at your studio, or with other studio artists?

Are there any local co-op galleries you could join?

The benefits of doing any of the above in-person things are that you get to see how other people react to your artwork and the work of others. Talking to someone face to face is a real relationship builder. You can also listen to what people are saying about the artwork and you can see what is selling and for what price.



And don't forget you have to create art!

Your starter plan should include

• Time to paint on a regular basis, schedule it, do it!
• Scheduled days to post on social media, an alert in your phone helps.  i.e. I'm going to post about my artwork twice a week, the day of my art class and on ______day.
• Knowing what's going on in your local art community and participating.
• A postcard with an image of your artwork on the front and space you can write a note on the back. Use these for thank you cards and when you want to send someone a note.
• A calendar with the dates and deadlines of local shows you will be participating in. It also has the dates and times of art openings and lectures or forums you want to go to. Again, an alert in your phone calendar helps.

Don't make your plan too complicated at the beginning. Doing a few things on a regular basis will get you better results than over committing, burning out and giving up.

Consistent effort brings consistent results.  Your artwork gets better the more you work it, your plan to sell your art will get better the more you work it.

It doesn't have to be complicated, it just has to be done.

There's one final lesson you have to learn and it is the Ninja trick that will make you stand out and shine brighter than the other artists like you who want to start to sell their work and create opportunities for themselves.

And it's super easy and very effective.

Find out what it is here.