Artists: The 4 Types Of Content For A Personal Brand

I have four types of content that I teach my clients to post, and I'm going to teach those to you today. And then I'm going to talk about how you take these four types of content and how that will directly lead someone to discovering your art, discovering how to purchase from you, and ultimately making you more sales. Welcome to the Stop the Starving Artist podcast. My name is Lennon Bone and I've seen artists in my community sell $331,066 in art, which is more revenue than what 60% of galleries make for artists worldwide. Which is kind of sad to me since those entities exist to make money for artists. But it also makes me super proud. And the things that we're going to talk about today are exactly the things that I teach my clients. So let's not waste any time. Let's. Let's get right into it.

So there's four types of content that I believe artists should be using to develop a more balanced, personal brand. And then we're going to talk about how you can take these four types of content and it will naturally lead them into discovering the art you make. Because a lot of people are like, well, Lennon, I don't understand how we get them to the art. Right, so that's what we're going to talk about. So the first type of content is what I call mission based content. So your mission is I make art for blank so they can blank. So I make art for moms who struggle with anxiety so they can see that they're more than, you know, their day to day frustrations. Something like that. Right. And this is the center of everything I teach. We start with a mission, always. Why? Because a mission, when you have that, you can have a content system that allows you to not have to have a separate story for every piece of art that you make, you can actually have, you know, one overarching story or one overarching bullseye that you're going toward that people can get behind. And now it frees up your art to go in multiple different places because we're seeing that this is really your mission as a human being, as an artist. It's not the mission just of the art itself. Like, not every piece has to align fully with this because. Right. We see that this is your mission as an artist. Right. Okay. So we have mission driven stuff. We also have behind the scenes. This is your process videos. This is your, like, things that you're working on, a story.

Of the art that you're doing, a sale that you're getting ready for. Any of that kind of stuff, right? Then you have values, right? Which is your values, okay? And this is what you stand for. What do you believe in? What are the things that you, as just a normal human being, love? What do you value outside of art? Now, why is this so valuable to people that are potentially buyers? Because your buyers, right, are going to love and align with your mission and values, right? And so what we're doing is we're allowing them to see you in that light and we're allowing them to get to know you. And, and we're also opening up if we look at our content as a thing, right, Rather than just having, let's say, a process video, right. That's down here, forgive my terrible handwriting, but let's say we have this process video, right? And who does that appeal to? Well, mostly artists. Why? Because artists are really interested in being educated or inspired by process videos. Whereas if we're talking about things that you value that could be living a more free life and what does that look like? That could be a certain stance that you have on a political idea that could be.

Loving chocolate ice cream more than vanilla. But these are the things that you get to talk about that we relate to on a human level. And now you're bringing in, you're opening the bucket to say, I can draw in more people with, with this type of stuff. A lot of people are going to align with this and then later they're going to be able to discover the behind the scenes and all the other things, right? So that's why values driven content is so powerful. Then you have the actual art. Now remember, there's only two things that we're ever focusing on and that is getting you in front of more people and making them more offers. So when you're talking about behind the scenes and art driven content, 9 times out of 10, this is giving you an option to either sell your work or giving them an option to fall in love with the work. So they want to sell or they want to buy it, and that's what makes this powerful. Now you say, okay, cool, that's great. But like, how you know, how do people know like what I'm. If they're just coming across a video that is me talking about ice cream, like, how are they going to know that I make art? Okay, well, let's talk about that. Because I want to look now at how content works and the journey that someone has when they go through your videos.

So you have a mission based piece of content that you do, so you do something about your mission, which is, let's say I make art for.

Overly anxious moms so they can feel more in tune with themselves. Right? I make art for overly anxious moms so they can feel more in tune with themselves. I'm making this up as I go, so I have to repeat it so I don't lose it. So if that's your mission, you know, you might talk about ways that moms are anxious or ways that you are anxious as a mom and how you're trying to overcome those things. Right? And let's say you do that, you know, one every three posts, something like that, right? Cool. Then you have stuff around your values. Remember we talked about this could be like television shows that you're in, things that you believe in, stuff that inspires you, that kind of stuff. And you do that one of every three posts or whatever, right? And then you have behind the scenes stuff, okay. And you do that once in a while and then you have stuff about the art. Now here's what happens, right? People aren't going to come into this in a linear order. They don't view content that way. But what happens, right? Let's say we find a piece of content and it's a mission based piece. If we like it a lot, what are we going to do? Well, we're going to go to your feed and we're going to look at what else is there and we may click on this one. Right. And that leads me to something about your values, which leads me to something about your art. Right. Which leads me to something about your mission. Or I might start here and then work my way down to this one and then over to this one. Right. So we have to understand that when we balance the content that we make in terms of what we're talking about, we give somebody a more holistic picture of who we are. And this is really how a personal brand is built and allows someone to see you as a human being, you as an artist, you in terms of like the process of your art and then the art that you actually make. And so, you know, a lot of people argue with me and they'll say, well, people like process videos, great, they're in here, right? But some people, that's not the thing they like. So we give them stuff that they relate to as human beings. Right. Some people aren't going to want to have you try to sell them a piece of art first thing. So it's better for them to come in the back door and find something based on, you know, your behind the scenes or your mission or your values first. And that's the beauty of having a more balanced content strategy. It keeps people from feeling like you're always selling to them or feeling like you're always, you know, just talking about your dog.

You know, we just had a gal. Do I want to say, like, close to $2,000 in sales with only 400 followers on her Instagram account? That's a big deal. Like, that's really cool to think about. And it was because they were very diligent about these types of things and then also going through and being consistent and, you know, reaching out to their people, having a plan on how they're going to actually, you know, make sure that their potential buyers know where to buy and how to get it. You know, they kept it very, very simple, but they also kept going when it felt like it wasn't going to work. And that's what led to them making the actual income. Because there's going to be a lot of times that you just feel like, well, this isn't working, but you've only done eight posts. You're like, well, this isn't working, Lennon. Well, you did eight posts, right? Like, of course it's not working yet. With something like this, you know, if we're looking at three pieces from each category, I would recommend that you do at least 50 to 75 posts, like, going through this process at least to start to get a grip on, like, what people are into in terms of your values driven content, what people are into in terms of your missions driven content, and then also getting better at the behind the scenes and the selling side of things. Because, you know, if you're not doing 50 to 75 posts, like, first of all, you're just not going to. You're just not going to make it work. You got to test. You've got to test. Marketing is just testing things. And I want you to be able to let go of this feeling that it all needs to be perfect. That's not what we're going for. What I told a client yesterday is, stop worrying about perfection. Instead.

Obsess yourself with being persistent. Stop worrying about perfection and obsess with being persistent. Right? And persistent doesn't mean, like, you got to show up and do this every single day, but what. What are you capable of doing? And be persistent. Keep going, keep trying. Because I get so many artists like Lynn, and I've been doing this a long time, and then I go look at your account and you've done 100 toast posts. Toasts. 100 posts. Total over three years. That's not that much, you know, not even close. Like, so think about it that way. You know, think about, like, persistence means also consistency because, you know, if people can't see you, if they lose track you, you keep disappearing and reappearing. How does that look to people? Even if it's only on a subconscious level, it looks like, well, where'd they go? What happened? Like, I don't know if I can even trust this person. Right? Or you just fall off their radar altogether. So hopefully this makes sense. I want to talk also in another video about the real value that you're bringing inside of all these posts. And there are four levels of value that you have to bring in order to make your business a success. And so that's going to be our next video. You can click on that here. If you're watching this right when it dropped, it may not be available yet. So keep your eye out for that. Check that video out and I will see you in the next one. Don't forget, you don't make art.