I repeatedly see the same mistake. Chambers of commerce, tourism leaders, arts council directors and small business departments have every good intention of helping starving artists promote themselves. However, they bring in the wrong kind of speaker.
An artist is the wrong kind of person to talk about promotion. They typically enjoy the opportunity to tout their own artwork, their challenges - their story. However, they many times don't know squat about Internet promotion, advertising, networking, market research - and the list goes on.
Now don't get mad at me. I come from a long family of visual and performing artists. I've lived around artists all my life - personally and professionally. However, they usually don't understand the bottom line; that's why so many are called "starving."
MARKETING TIP: If you want to help the arts community, do your research to find someone who knows their industry, but also has a strong grasp on how to make a dollar.
An artist is the wrong kind of person to talk about promotion. They typically enjoy the opportunity to tout their own artwork, their challenges - their story. However, they many times don't know squat about Internet promotion, advertising, networking, market research - and the list goes on.
Now don't get mad at me. I come from a long family of visual and performing artists. I've lived around artists all my life - personally and professionally. However, they usually don't understand the bottom line; that's why so many are called "starving."
MARKETING TIP: If you want to help the arts community, do your research to find someone who knows their industry, but also has a strong grasp on how to make a dollar.
1 comment:
You are right on the money. I run into the sad fact of life that 80% of artists I deal with would LOVE to make a good living, but don't have any desire whatsoever to do what it takes to do it.
It's hard to get an artist to understand that ART IS BUSINESS. And as an entrepreneur, the artist MUST have good business practices.
Post a Comment