Lennon Bone argues artists should stop chasing views and build a profitable small business instead. Map your actual buyers, make content for them specifically, and communicate clearly and often. His community made over $75,000 in art sales in seven weeks.
Most artists seem to believe that more followers or more views equals more sales. But what if I told you that that might be the very thing that's keeping you broke? Think about it this way. How many times have you had a post get you more views, but it didn't equate to more sales? Or how many times have we seen other artists go viral but still struggle to sell? I work with artists who are focused on selling consistently. Just in the last seven weeks, our community has pulled in over $75,000 in art sales. Colle so, so proud of the work that these artists are putting in. But they're doing it not because they went viral and not because they hacked the algorithm or found some unlock to social media. The main thing they did is stop focusing on getting all this attention and start focusing on attracting the right people, the right buyers. Now why does this matter so much to me? Because I see artists told all the time, just focus on increasing your follower count so they'll end up wasting months, if not years chasing likes and trying to crack the Instagram code. And who told them this? Most of the time it's social media marketers who don't even sell art. They're trying to sell social media views and they convince them that going viral was the key. But here's the real truth. You can't have a big art business that works until you have a small one that works. So what could be possible for you if you stopped trying to be big and started trying to be profitable? Because you and I both know that if just being the biggest created success, then every artist with, you know, hundreds of thousands of followers would be killing it. But more followers won't magically turn into more buyers. Just like having a bigger gallery space or a bigger concert venue won't sell art that nobody wants. And we're going to talk about how to do this. But instead of chasing size, consider first chasing profitability. Because when a small business is profitable, growth isn't a struggle, it's inevitable. So how do you actually attract the right buyer so you can be more profitable? I'm going to give you three ways and then we're going to look at this even in more depth. After I kind of go over the high level view, the first thing is stop posting and marketing for everyone. And even more so, and I hate to say it this way, stop just doing things that are only for you. The process should be for you, but the content that you put out should be for your buyers. So instead of posting for the masses, like, talk to your Buyers. This means you're going to have to map them out, figure out what they care about. You know, it's really valuable if you're at art markets or in galleries or at concerts or wherever you do your art business. Go talk to the people that are there and ask them what they're into. Like, what is it that they get excited about? What. What is it when they're online? If you're not at these markets, then do it in your DMs. Find friends that aren't necessarily artists, but you know, would align with who your ideal buyer might be. Just talk to them, learn about their habits online. And number two, use those conversations to make content that speaks to them. And to go back to what I talked about in number one, like, this is where the process should be for you, but you're really speaking to them as the potential buyer, trying to get their attention and start conversations. Most artists try so hard posting things that they think people want to see instead of having these real conversations first and then using that data to move forward. But I promise, when you start posting about things that your ideal buyers care about, like their values, their world, their beliefs, you'll stop getting just other artists and you'll start attracting people that will connect to you and will be more willing to purchase. And the third thing is just learn to communicate. Well, I'm a big believer that this is our biggest struggle. We think that the right hook is the thing that's going to fix it, or the right length of video or a certain graphic or a certain type of B roll, but it's really just good communication. So figure out who your person is, figure out the message that you're trying to get across as an artist, and get really good about communicating that over and over again. And the more you do that, the bigger you'll grow because you're in one consistent lane and you're improving a few things versus constantly learning new things. So let's give you some practical steps here, just in case you're not at a market this week or you're not, you know, out doing something where you get to connect. Just dig deep and say, if I could only have one person in my car, you know, one ideal buyer, who are they? Think about three things that they're probably interested in. You know, that they may scroll through and stop and watch online. And then ask yourself, how can I make content pieces around this and use that as an opportunity to lead them to my art? Because I don't want you constantly changing what you're doing in terms of marketing to where you end up burning out and frustrated and not actually getting anywhere. I'd rather you get really good at one message, doing it over and over so it's less work over time. So if you're done focusing on views all the time and ready to start thinking about your people and really connecting with them in a different way in a more heartfelt way so it doesn't feel slimy when you're selling your stuff, type I'm ready in the comments below. So I know that this resonated in some way. And when it comes to marketing your work, there are a number of mistakes that people make, but I've come across seven really, really important ones that will ultimately, I hate to put it this way, but just kind of keep you where you're at, where you're not making any progress. And if you watch this video right here, I go over these seven mistakes and this is not like, oh, you're not posting consistently or you don't have a good hook. I'm talking about the real things that matter. Because as we talked about today, those things, the hooks, the content that you're putting out, will only resonate when you do the things we discussed in today's video. So check out these seven mistakes and I'll see you over in that video.
