The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
334 - 5-Minute Mentoring: Should Artists Pay for Advertising?
As a business owner, you know that marketing and advertising are vital to growing your business.
You’ve got to be able to get out in front of your ideal client, show them what you can do, and get them excited to buy.
But how far should you go?
Should you invest in Facebook ads? Print advertising? Billboards? One of those airplanes that pulls the banner behind it? ✈️
There are as many advertising opportunities as there are stars in the sky… ✨
But it’s hard to know what kind of advertising - if any - is right for you.
The truth is, there’s not a clear, simple answer to this question. The answer really depends on your art, your audience, your preferences, your marketing plan, and your budget.
On this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, I’ll give you my thoughts on the pros and cons of artists paying for advertising. I hope this episode will help you be better prepared for when it’s time for you to make this decision for yourself.
Could you use some guidance on how to build a business that helps you thrive spiritually, artistically, and financially? Here are 3 ways I can help:
1️⃣ Get my FREE Guide, “5 Biggest Mistakes Artists Make When Pricing Their Art”
Struggling to price your art in a way that feels authentic to you and your faith - but still makes you money? Make sure you’re not making any of these mistakes!
Download here ➡️ https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/5-biggest-mistakes-when-pricing-art
2️⃣ Read the Book: Check out my book “How to Price Your Art: Pricing with Confidence for Sales & Profit” on Amazon ➡️ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098TWCXDS
3️⃣ Create Art and Profit: Discover how to create the art you love while still providing for yourself financially in my “How to Price Your Art” workshop.
Get more details here ➡️ https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/how-to-price-your-art-evergreen
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https://www.youtube.com/mjtommey to watch the podcast on YouTube!
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Do you ever wonder about paying for advertisement for your art business and whether it's worth it or not? Well, I'm going to give you some insight on that today here on 5-Minute Mentoring.
UNKNOWN:Music
SPEAKER_00:God created you to be. Hey, my friends. So glad that you're here with me on another episode of 5-Minute Mentoring. I got a great question today from a woman that's in my mastery program, which is our upper-level mentoring program. She got asked by a magazine that probably a lot of people would know. It's a big artist magazine. If she would be interested in doing an editorial article with them. And she was like, yeah, awesome. And then she was like, well, yeah, it's actually going to be like$1,400. And she was like, oh, Hmm. Like you want me to pay for this? And they're like, well, yeah, it's editorial, but it's advertising and you get this and this and this and, and dah, dah, dah, dah. So she came to me, you know, in our, in our private group and she was like, what do you think? You know, should I, should I do something like this? And so. Here is my take on that, because I know a lot of us get asked to advertise in different magazines and online places, you know, all over the place when you're an artist, you know, whether it's a local magazine or a local radio station or a TV station, or maybe it's a national magazine or podcast or, you know, website, something like that. And it's always a challenge for artists to figure out, well, should I be paying for advertising or not? All right. The ever, ever consider anything that's not completely aligned with your target market, all right? That is, who is your client avatar and are they reading, looking, listening to, watching whatever platform you're considering? Because if that's not the case, if it's just awesome, like, oh, this is a big artist magazine and they want me to advertise in there and I'm so honored. Well, okay, big deal. Is your client, potential client there? All right. Number two, then, are you going to be portrayed in a way that's really special that sets you apart from others as opposed to just having, you know, a quarter page ad or a half page ad or something like that? One of many, many, many. All right. Because again, the more competition that you're up against in a magazine or on a blog or something like that, the less chances that you're going to have to be, you know, actually seen by your client avatar. All right. So that's a Those two things right there usually, I would say, kind of take out 90% of the advertising opportunities that are out there, especially from a paid perspective. Because more than likely, you get put into a magazine or you get put onto a website and you're just one of many, many, many, many, many other artists and you really lose the special and the connection factor. Now, for this artist in particular that I was talking to, this is a paid editorial. So from this perspective, I'm like, okay, this is potentially kind of a cool idea in that you're getting an editorial about you. They're going to show images of you and your work, talk about your story. There's an opportunity to build connection and that sort of thing, which is all awesome. However, this is the question that I put to her. If you are okay with, with the budget that you set for your marketing and everything, if you are okay with spending$1,400 and And you know that this opportunity is, although it's cool, it's pretty much a gamble because you don't know if your clients are out there looking at this. You don't know. You just don't know. A magazine may have a big reach, but is your potential client there? Are you special enough to stand out? Is the work that you're doing going to be recognizable and special enough to really stand out? Does it make sense for you to do it? That's one side. The other side of that is, again, if you're committed to spend$1,400, is that$1,400 better spent on something that you're doing that's already working? Now, this artist in particular already has a great studio in her local hometown. She's teaching. She's busy with that. She's got a gallery. Her work is selling on a regular basis. To me, if I had to spend$1,400 on marketing, I would tend to ramp it up in my local area because she's already doing things that are working. So say, for example, she's already advertising in a local magazine there or on a local website or whatever it might be that she's already getting traffic for. What would it look like to increase the budget with that? Get a bigger opportunity there? What would it look like to enhance the experience of her students or be able to enlarge the experience of her students so that maybe She's able to use that money to maybe teach in a larger space, maybe use that money to enhance the experience that they've had, maybe use the money to advertise in another area locally that she knows her ideal client avatar is already in where they've already potentially heard her name before. See what I'm saying? If you're going to spend that$1,400 or whatever the money is, Is that the best place to spend it? Again, a gamble that, oh, it's a big art magazine, it seems really great, as opposed to, Can I use this money to turn up what is already working in my local area or in the marketing that I'm already doing? For example, if she was already advertising on Facebook and having great results with that or Google ads or YouTube ads or whatever it is, would that$1,400 be better spent by putting it toward that and getting more of an assured return on her money? All of that goes into when you're thinking about spending any money on marketing. I just thought this question would be really helpful for you guys to think about as you're considering this year, whether you're going to spend money on advertising that is just kind of a gamble or actually increasing the opportunities that you're already doing that are working in your art business. All right. Hey, listen, I hope this was a blessing to you. I love you very much. Until next time, remember, you were created to thrive. Bye. Hey, my friend, it's Matt. Listen, real quick before you go, I wanted to let you know that we've just launched the website for our 2022 Gathering of Artisans conference. I know, can you believe it? I'm like, I'm so ready to get back together in person. And listen, the website's got all the details about this year's workshops and speakers and more. Listen, if you've never been to Gathering of Artisans, all I can say is there is nothing like it in the world. Imagine three full days of creating in the studio with other Christian artists and Being taught by master artists who not only love Jesus, but are super talented and anointed artists and teachers in everything from painting and jewelry to fiber art and writing, mixed media, glass, and a whole lot more. It's over 40 different workshops to choose from. And if that weren't enough, imagine then ending each day with powerful times of worship in God's presence and inspirational messages for creatives from leaders like my friend Alan Arnold, who's been right here on the podcast. with me several times. He's the author of The Story of With and other books that you'll know. Also, my friend Luke Allsbrook, who is a renowned artist and has an incredible story of how God's led him through his life as an artist. And even little old me, I'll be there as well, sharing with you each night in leading worship. Listen, all of that wrapped up in four days of community and connection with other Christian artists here in the mountains of Western North Carolina at the beautiful Ridgecrest Conference Center. Now, like I said, all the details about this conference are on our website at gatheringofartisans.com. And since this event almost always sells out, I want to encourage you to go ahead and pre-register. What that actually does is it allows you to get first opportunity to register for classes before we open the doors to the public. And the best part, no money is required until we actually open registration in April. So go ahead right now to gatheringofartisans Get pre-registered. Again, no commitment, but you get in line and it gives you the opportunity to register before everybody else when we open the doors for that in April. And then start putting together your ideal schedule for the conference, for all the workshops that you want to take. And listen, I hope you just start getting excited, inviting a friend and making plans to be with us in August at Gathering of Artisans 2022. All right, my friend, go to gatheringofartisans.com and I hope to see you in August. Alright, bye.