What Every Artist Ought to Know About Marketing

[Level: Intermediate]

I used to believe that one first needs to be a master before thinking about popularity, so I literally locked myself from outside and just do what I want. When I learnt about marketing, my whole perception about this changed!

Do you know there are more moderate quality product out there that are equally or more demanding than the best product in its category? Think about a more famous product, you can almost guarantee to find a higher quality, similar product, yet it is less known.

So will the best quality product triumph in the end? The answer should be obvious.

I’ve conducted personality test against artists, and the results unanimously show most artists to have introverted personality. This is the gift, as well as the curse of an artist. We are connected more through our work, but less through people in which makes artists naturally bad at marketing themselves. While all these famous product that we know, market themselves like no tomorrow.

No, I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t do your best in art. But if you were like me, you might want to rethink about how you should build up your name. Which is essential in building your career, as what we usually hear, it’s not how many people you know that matter, it’s how many people know you!

Here are some common mistakes that we artists like to do but preventing us from marketing ourselves naturally:

1. Don’t Like to Socialize

   No one will know remember who you are and what you do, even if you are just a moderate artist, talking and connecting with people will increase the chances of people knowing you. Go to events, get out from your comfort zone and talk with people, if you don’t know what to talk, focus on what you can help for others. Every first few steps are not easy, but you can begin to ‘run’ after a few trial and error.

2. Love to Compare Our Quality

   We often think we are the best, when we see other artist can be potentially better than us, we’ll try our best to find mistakes. Just to prove that if we are able to find some mistakes, we are better. It’s ridiculous to do such thing, it not only jeopardizes our opportunity to connect with other artists, it really brings you no benefit other than self gratification. Let’s learn to support, motivate and congratulate each other.

3. Not Good at Expressing

   As artists, we cannot escape from getting opinions, critiques and reactions from others. Learn to be patient, and respect their opinions, doesn’t mean that you have do what they say. So learn when to take things seriously and when not. If you can connect well with your audiences without letting your ego take over your emotion, you will get better impression from them. Chances are people will talk about how good you are, words of mouth can be your the best marketing media, you don’t want to blow those chances.