How to Increase Your Online Reach by 285%

You know, it's one thing to sell your art in real life. It's another thing to try to sell it online. The buyers don't come to the Internet the same way that they do a market or a gallery. Right? And I hear a lot of artists say, well, Lennon, I'm not going to sell my work online because I'm not getting in front of people. People aren't paying attention. Totally get it. This last month, I put my clients through what we call a content sprint, where I mapped out 20 prompts for them to use to fill out with their own voice, their own ideas. We saw an average of 4% follower growth. The industry standard is 1 to 2%. And on average, we saw their reach increase by 285% and their engagement increased by 267%. And y', all, this isn't rocket science here. I'm going to give you how we saw this happen and what the plan is with my clients and throughout the rest of the year so that these views don't just get views, they get them sales of their art. If you're new here, my name is Lennon. I run a company called Stop the Starving Artist. And I'm on a mission this year to see my clients make over a million dollars in art sales. I think in our video last week, clients were at about $6,000 in sales. This week, we're at about $18,848. So not about exactly the number right over here. And again, this is in a month where we're focusing a lot on visibility. Because when you think about growing your art business, you need three things to happen. You need to get in front of people. You need to get them to like you and your art. Yes, I said it. They gotta like you. I'm sorry, you guys. Like, I know this kind of sucks, but if you think of any personal business, anything where someone, like one main person is running it, we want to know who that person is, especially on the Internet. Why is that? Well, because there's a lot of people out there doing some really shady crap, right? And so we can't get away from this idea of people need to get to know you and they need to like you and like your art. And the third thing is just making sure that you're making offers. What's an offer? It's just saying, hey, I got this art. I'm really proud of it. Here's the story behind it. Here's how you get it. But what I know to be true is that people don't buy art. They buy feelings. Seth Godin says it this way. If you go to the hardware store to buy a quarter inch drill bit, you're not actually buying the drill bit. You're buying the, the hole that you're putting in the wall and you're not even buying the hole. You're buying the shelf that you're putting up. And you're not even buying the shelf. You're buying the sense of pride and accomplishment when your significant other comes in and says, honey, thank you for doing this right. You're buying a feeling. And art is no different. And the faster way to get someone to feel something isn't by just getting them to view your work. I wish that was the case, but let's be very honest, it is a very small, small percentage of artists that are able to generate feelings like that. Right? Like, and I don't mean that as a downgrade to anyone else, but this is like the minuscule few. And so for the rest of us creatives that are out here trying to do the best we can, we can generate feelings in other ways. How do we do that? Well, we align our art with what I call a mission. Okay, So a mission is simply stating, I make art for this kind of person. So that blank, like what kind of transformation do you hope that they'll have from their experience with you as an artist? So we start everything here and then the content that we started to outline is all about really three things. One, your mission, your why. And so in this type of content, we're going to do something really, really simple. We're just going to state the mission that you're, that you're on. Like, don't overthink it. You know, I make art for this kind of person so that they'll hopefully get this like, and then turn that into a little B roll with text on the screen. Like make it very, very simple. You know, if this is you follow along, right? That could be a post. So stuff about that. Then you take that same idea and you can be like, alright, cool, I want to reformat this. You can do a talking head video where you basically say the same thing and tell a little story about why that is your mission. Beautiful. Very, very simple. Then we have a second type of post which is all about your values, okay. Where you talk about training just what you value in your day to day life. It could be family, it could be certain movies or ideas or things like that. And I've talked about this before and people are like, well, I'm never going to talk about Movies or, like, things that people connect with in this way. Like, you know, I'm an artist. Well, bless you. Like, if this doesn't align with you, you know, peace, like, you don't have to be here. I'm totally okay with that. You know, it's not a. There's not a one way to do this. This is just a way that works. Right? So what are the values that you have? It could be books that you're reading. It could be any of this stuff right now. Why does this work on social media? Well, because we are looking to be educated, entertained, and inspired in some way. And so when you make posts about your values, about family, about things that you're experiencing, about books that you're reading, about shows that you're watching, movies and documentaries that you're consuming, and you're doing things that relate to you as a human being, not just an artist. We get to connect with you as the human being. And remember when I talked about people connect with feelings? Well, we also connect you by proxy to the things that we already admire and look up to. So if I see that you like Stranger Things, and I'm a person that likes Stranger Things, I'm much more likely to. To also be drawn to you and want to come back and see what else you have to say. Right? Am I saying that you should be a content creator about Stranger Things? No, I'm saying don't inhibit your content to just one thing. So that's the second thing, your values. Then the third thing is calling out your person just directly, like, hey, if you're this kind of person, I hope you feel this today or try this today. Right? And likely this kind of person is very similar to you. So let me give you an example. So my wife was my original guinea pig of a visual artist, because I had artist friends that were saying, lennon, you should help us with this. And they did visual art. I was like, okay, cool, let's try it. And so I took Jamie. So what Jamie was doing was creating art, and she was sharing her postpartum depression journey with our second kiddo. And what she realized is she really wanted to bring moms together. That was something that she wanted to do. And so we did this same thing. What are your values? What are the things that people can relate to? What's your why? What's your mission? And for her, her mission was, I want moms to see that their imperfections can still be the thing that makes them a good mother. Right? That despite their. What society calls imperfect, they actually still are great moms. And so for her, these things that she would speak directly to her people would be things like, hey, if you're having to let your kid cry it out because, you know, they're dealing with this and you need a break, that doesn't make you a bad mom, right? Or, you know, if you need a moment to yourself, that doesn't make you a bad mom. Or, you know, don't be surprised if the kiddo bypasses dad and makes sure that they get the answer from mom, right? These are things that people like her, people, her ideal audience related to. And it was really cool because she was able to grow her account to just under 20,000 subscribers, which isn't huge, and was still able to get cold called and hired by Netflix family, get written up in HuffPost and Bored Panda, get offered two book deals, and then Covid hit. And all that of course went under. So there's a lot that can happen when you start to dial into a person in terms of building a personal brand as an artist, right? So that's the three types of content. You have your why, which is your mission. You have your values, which is in your everyday life. What do you value? What do you take in? And then your third one is speaking directly to, to your people, calling them in in some way. Now, how does this lead to sales? Well, there is a fourth type of content that I didn't want to give you just yet, but what we like to do is make sure that at the very least once a week, you're doing some sort of behind the scenes post. This lets people know the art that you're working on, how you're working on it, all those kinds of things. It can be a process video, it can be a little story, it can be. It doesn't need to be overthought. And then a little hack is when you're doing the other types of content, if it works, have your art in the background, have yourself working on your art as you're sharing this story, or have some B roll of you painting or drawing or writing a song or whatever as we see the text on the screen. So we're connecting with a human to human element. And we're all smart enough to realize if this is the thing you're doing, that's part of who you are. So now, by proxy, the mission that you have as an artist will start to directly correlate with the art you make, even if it's not exactly visually, aesthetically like right on point with the story. Why is that? Well, because you don't make art, you are the art. So everything that you make is a byproduct of your stories, of your experiences, of your values. So we encompass all that in a mission and we put that into some content buckets and we put all that out. And now people start to develop a bigger picture of who you are, why you make what you make and what you make as a whole. But that doesn't lead to sales. Lennon, you're right, it doesn't. Right. As we talked about in our last video, we have to make sure that we are making offers consistently. So now we finished our content sprint. So the whole goal is to taking these new people that we've gotten the attention of, continuing to build trust with them, continuing to maybe get some new folks in the door and now get strategic about in these behind the scenes videos or pieces of content carousels, whatever. We are now saying, hey, I'm going to have a release coming up pretty soon. Please let me know if you'd like to be on my email list and we can make that happen. And this is really simple, y'. All, like, don't overthink it. You can write their email down on a piece of paper, you can just DM them and like make it really, really simple. Especially if you don't have an email list yet. Because the most common thing I hear is like, Lynn and I shouldn't worry about sales yet. I don't have an email list. You get an email list by making offers, right? It's saying, I have this thing. If you're interested, let me know and then I'll put you on my email list. Make sense? So that's this month. That's all we're focusing on, is continuing to do content. But now the main goal is to get people on the email list. And then next month we will have a whole process for putting out a either a release or something that already exists on your email list. By the way, if you want to know about how I teach this idea of putting a big release out there, what this looks like, what the whole idea of branding looks like, how to put the post together, stuff like that, you can go check out my free masterclass. The link for it is in the description below. Takes about an hour to watch. And then in that I do talk about how we can work together. If that offends you at all, then maybe don't go watch it. Just take this information here. So a quick recap. The best way to build a sustainable art business on the Internet is by getting someone to connect with the artist as much as the art, because then they're way more likely to buy your work because you stand out. You stand out because we're getting to see your values, we're getting to connect with you as a human, we're getting to understand your process, we're getting to hear your story. And then the things that you say that we resonate with will be interpreted every time I look at your piece on the wall. So we want to make content that, that brings in people through your values, through your mission and talking by talking to them directly. Right? Then we want to create behind the scenes content as well that lets them know what you're working on. You use all of those content pieces to eventually start to put people into an email list. Then you let that email list know that you have something for sale. It's simple. The problem is when you take this simplicity and you over complicate it and you don't take any action. And so that's why in my community right now, I am literally baby stepping everybody through the whole process one at a time. And we're just starting with content, doing a whole month on that, then we're going to do a whole month on emails, then we're going to do a whole month on selling. And you know what? We're going to do it again, every quarter, again and again. Why? Because that's what businesses do. And you, my friend, run a small business. If you're trying to sell your art or you're selling your art, you run a small business. And so what a business does is have a system that allows them to sell something consistently. And you know, if you want to say, well, you're obviously not an artist or whatever, that's fine, I'm totally okay with that. One thing I understood pretty quickly is that I am better at marketing art than I am making it. And I'm okay with that. Do I still love to make art? Do I still love to make music? Do I still make money as a musician, as a creative, as a whatever? Absolutely, I do. And I'm so grateful for that opportunity. So if any of this resonates with you, I just beg you to just simplify things this year. Don't overthink it, get consistent, build a system and move forward. And if you want to have me walk you through that, I'd love to do that either through this channel, through my newsletter, which is free to sign up for. You don't even need to sign up to go read it. I'll put the link for that in the description as well, or check out the masterclass. Those things are all available for you. I'm just so grateful for you. And I am just so passionate about seeing artists make a living from their work, or at the very least, make money that allows them to, you know, fuel the hobby, fuel the creativity, you know, at least put money back in their pocket for all the work they're putting in. I would love to see more and more of that, and I am just positive that we could if more creatives looked at business a little bit differently. So I'm hoping I can help change your mind on that. Alright, I got to get off my soapbox now because I'm sure my retention is dropping. Sending you all tons of love. Don't forget, you don't make art. You are the art. I'll see you next time.