Internet Marketing for Artists?

In growing an arts enterprise internet marketing is as important and effective for artists as it is for any other product or service. It does however require an approach uniquely geared toward the artist's work. When we're creating art we're not inventing version 7.3 of the latest high tech gadget. We're creating art. We're creating original, one-of-a-kind, (often) tangible work. We're expressing ourselves through color and line and shadow - through voice inflection, through language. Art is personal - subjective and even intimate in it's reach. Art is not mass produced widgets or even a cool iPhone.

Hence, the marketing of an artist's work creates specific challenges.

"The Arts" is a broad category.
When marketing the arts online there are varying approaches that work better than others depending on the specific work. An artist's work might be on canvas, behind a camera, or as performance art. It might be a collective endeavor, it might be individual. It could be vocal, instrumental or written material. But whatever media or medium an artist employs sharing it via the internet can bring tremendous reward. But the process of getting from here to there can be daunting and time consuming. The internet and it's tools are high tech - in some ways might be seen the antithesis to art. This is not so. The internet is another medium for communication - as is art. The two are on the same continuim.

By way of a little background I'll share some of my story. I retired my social work career when my daughter was just a year old and went back to doing what I really loved - painting.

Fast forward twenty years; I'd been professional artist working the show circuit long enough that I decided to look around for another way to make a living.

I was lucky. I'd lived according to my own terms, I stayed home with my daughter, worked when I needed to, got lost in the creative process, got away on weekends, - and got paid for it - most of the time. Often, shows were great fun and I got to rub shoulders with an amazing array of talented people but...

... the cold, wet shows when nobody showed up and the ones where the promoter neglected to advertise, and the ones where the space was so small... at the end of the year when ends really didn't meet. And the gallery/studio I drove an hour to and from every day got to be too much.

In hindsight there were ways to do thing differently that might have worked better but every business faces problems. I figured I'd had a great run and I was lucky - most people don't love what they're doing most of the time which is what I'd had. So, I decided to step away from my talent as my work and find some other part of me to, hopefully, earn a living and maybe even get ahead.

Somewhere around three years ago a friend shared her excitement about a Network Marketing company (multi-level marketing, aka MLM)) she'd discovered. It didn't take long for me to learn enough about MLM to be interested in Ann Seig's ebook The Renegade Marketer I found it exciting. Bottom line was, use the internet. Let people who are looking for what you do - what you offer find and approach you. Forget about mass exposure -'blanket marketing' - and hope for the best. That's old school. Instead, learn what the best of the internet really has to offer - it can be an interactive tool where relationships are built.

I'd had a great website for a while but it seemed a little like setting up a beautiful gallery here on our 50 acres where nobody else lives. We set up a great shop in cyberspace wasteland. Everyone wanted to know if I had a website but very few people got to it. Unless I told them about it at a show. They still preferred my presence. I realized it was as much the relationship as the merchandise that mattered.

The online world today has changed. Both in attitude and action. There are more affordable tools and more effective training and much more effective outcomes using smart internet marketing. As the internet has matured people have become generally more comfortable, understanding and reliant on it. It is a part of virtually everyone's life.

About a year ago I found the perfect collection of tools for me. I am much smarter today than I was a few years back. To a large extent because of Renegade Pro. A comprehensive and affordable suite of training videos designed to help the novice or advanced internet user learn and master a range of internet marketing tools and techniques.

Originally Mike Klingler began building RenPro to train his MLM team. He developed a series of internet marketing training videos that are complete, comprehensive and easy to follow. Ann's book was published in '07 - she and Mike partnered soon after to bring the marketing arm (the ebook) and the training suite together. Together Ann and Mike offered an the answer to many MLM business owners' challenges - how to attract the people who are looking for what they have to them without harassing or having to resort to 'used-car sales' techniques.

PBN (Professionals, Businesses and Non-Profits) is the newest spoke of the Renegade Pro wheel. Anyone who understands the need to reach outside the old familiar marketing methods to bring their businesses into the online arena effectively and cost efficiently will appreciate PBN and RenPro.

PBN is being developed by experts in a wide range of fields to help our peers navigate the world of online marketing by effectively utilizing the resources available through the Renegade Professional suite of tutorials.

The skills taught by RenPro are as readily applicable to traditional business as they are to any MLM endeavor - including artists, promoters and non-profits using art related activity as fund-raising or community building efforts. PBN speaks directly to traditional small businesses - real bricks & mortar type businesses or home-based businesses (artists & craftpersons) and those related to the arts.

I am a PBN marketing specialist for Artists and Craftpersons and art related organizations. I am proud to help grow and develop these businesses via the internet. I am excited to know that even while life in the arts has become more challenging than it might have been in earlier times, there are options and the doors are still open.

The arts are alive.
And thriving. Provided we continue our work our children will find a way to know and express themselves in ways that no other form will satisfy. The arts serve a critical role to our way of life - to our culture.

But these are times of change and change we must. But we must not lose our art - it is our culture - our humanity. It is civility, it is rebellion, it is many voices. But in this time of massive change, we will do well to listen to Eric Hoffer's wise words,

"In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

In many cases it is time for those of us in the arts to step outside the familiar box - it is time to learn how to flourish in today's and tomorrow's world.