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Today we look at the subject of advertising in art magazines.  This article is an updated version of one I wrote several years ago.

In today's environment, most people ignore magazine advertising.  In fact,  it's widely accepted that "Print is dying" and being replaced with online publications.

However, I think that makes taking a second look at the medium of print even more compelling, especially for original fine art.  Opportunities are often found by looking not at what everyone else is doing, but by looking at what everyone else is ignoring.  That is the reason that Warren Buffett says, of investing, "Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy."  And print magazines, while reaching less people, reach very targeted audiences.  Think about it - these are people willing to pay to see beautiful art and artists in print.

I once attended an art gallery panel discussion and one of the topics was advertising in art magazines.  Every single one of the five gallery owners agreed that advertising in art magazines is "important" because it "develops name recognition" for the gallery.  They all seemed to agree that a gallery should advertise repeatedly "as much as possible" to increase the "reputation" of the gallery.  That's a lot of money to throw at something to simply to increase your "reputation"!  Especially when most galleries ask their artists to split that advertising cost with them.  I say there is a more disciplined approach that is more results-oriented. . . 

Those of us who've advertised in print publications have all been told (usually by the publication's salespeople) what they think we need to do to be successful with our advertising.  When we whine about not getting results, salespeople are quick to say that we must advertise repeatedly to get results.  Those who sell ads want us to sign contracts to advertise on a consistent and repeated basis.  I don't agree.

Don't misunderstand me, consistency is great....if you are getting results.  However, if an ad does not generate results, my experience has been that simply running it again is a waste of money.   Remember Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Yet that's exactly what many salespeople advise...for you to be insane.  I recommend a different path and am a firm believer that every single ad should generate measurable results ... not necessarily immediate sales, but there should be some real, measurable results.  Let's walk through what I propose.


Step 1 - Identify the right publication

The first mistake artists and galleries make is not carefully identifying the best places to run their marketing messages.  While the best place is always going to be their house mailing lists, one needs to think carefully about which publications would be most likely to reach their target audiences.  When moving to print publications, much more thought should go into the where.  I recall reading once about an artist who planned to advertise in local newspapers.  That smells like a huge waste of money and time.  Newspapers are not targeted to people who buy art.  A better plan would be to find publications that have art collectors as subscribers and, better yet, try to find publications that are most likely to have the type of people who have bought his artwork in the past.


Step 2 - Design a compelling ad

Most artist and gallery ads all look alike:  Name at the top, a current image, some contact info at the bottom.  Boring.  No compelling offer or message, and every ad looks like all the others.  Essentially, unless someone just loves the one image the ad is displaying, they flip right past it.  I know, I do it all the time.  It's almost like the art magazines have become "catalogs" with each advertiser paying for one page in the "catalog"  This problem stems from the fact that most people think "Run Ad, Sell Painting."  And that's the wrong strategy.  

Here's the correct strategy:  The purpose of running the ad is to get contact information of potential collectors.  I suggest artists and galleries think about how to structure their ads to capture the contact information of those people who would be most likely to buy their artwork.  

Perhaps this could be a small free gift that the collector could get by going to the artist's or gallery's web site.  Perhaps it could be inclusion on an exclusive list of people who will have first shot at purchasing work in the next show.  The idea is that it should be an easy "baby step"....a free or low cost step, mainly to ascertain interest and get contact info.  After all, if I see a Mercedes in a car magazine I don't pick up the phone and say "Put it on my credit card." No, I order more info, get a catalog, go see it at the dealer, get on a mailing list, etc.

Let's move on to the image shown.  People always think it has to be an available image.  That stems from the incorrect "Run Ad, Sell Painting" mentality.  What you want to do is figure out which image was the most popular painting that you ever created.  You know, the one you could have sold 25 times in one night -- that's the one.  Display your most popular image with a message that reads, "Come to my site and register for exclusive preview access of my next show".  Always try to pick the image with the most appeal, rather than one that is simply "available."  By limiting yourself to an "available" image, you often don't offer the most appealing image possible.  And, even if your most popular painting ever is available when you create the ad, it's always sold by the time the ad comes out anyway (due to the two to three month lead time when placing an ad).

A good way to measure your results is to provide s unique URL specific to this one advertisement. The site visitor could only access the exclusive offer at the specific URL.  This is so that you can actually count the number of people who came from this specific advertisement.

I also recommend including a phone number.  Serious art buyers often want to call and ask questions.  Phone contact has the added benefit of allowing you to learn a bit about the person.  You can discern how serious a prospect the person is and, even better, what types of images are most likely to appeal to this person.  Be sure to take notes! And be sure to get their permission to add them to your mailing lists...both email and snail mail.  Phone responses are much richer than an anonymous email address given online.

Now you have an ad that you can measure.  You know how many subscribers the magazine has.  And you can count how many people register from each specific ad that you run.


Step 3 - Refine and Repeat

The next step, once you've targeted the right publication and have designed an ad that is producing results, IS repetition (The magazine ad  salespeople should love that!).  At this point, you might try adjusting various aspects of the ad. The free offer might be adjusted.  Try out a different image (if it's potentially more appealing), etc.  Once you've figured out the "best" combination that pulls the most people per insertion -  run it as often as you can afford, making your ad rep very happy indeed.  In fact, we have done this in promoting our service, FASO Artist Websites.  Since our clients are artists, we've run in magazines aimed at artists, not art collectors, but the idea is exactly the same.  We  can look back on each ad and tell how many people signed up for the free offer and how many of those people went on to become paying customers.  We usually make an upward adjustment when thinking about if the ad was "worth" it, because paying customers tend to refer other paying customers.  So, for example, if you get five buyers for your art work from a particular ad, you might ultimately garner anywhere from 5-25 more buyers if you handle getting referrals correctly (but that's another article).


Step 4 - Nurture Your "House" List

Now that you have a list of potential buyers (known as a "house" list), you can do so much more than just "make a sale." You can do all kinds of stuff on a regular basis until you convert as many of those prospects as possible into buyers (and ultimately regular buyers) of your  artwork.  You can segment your new "house" list into original buyers and print buyers.  You can offer note cards, books, posters to those who can't buy originals.  You can also provide free information on a regular basis to "nurture" this group.  If some part of the list happens to be artists, instead of blowing them off with the "artists don't buy" mentality (which is wrong by the way), you can save those names until the point that you have a workshop to teach, or a book to offer artists.....you get the idea.

If all of this is done, then frequency and consistency will pay off....and the artist's or gallery's "reputation" will be built with those people who really matter - the people most interested in buying art work.

However, if the ad isn't compelling, if the image isn't appealing, or the ad is in the wrong magazine, then no amount of frequency or consistency is likely to make much of a difference in sales.  


Sincerely,


Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS:  When I was part-owner of a national art gallery, what I have outlined here is not what we did.  Our ads looked pretty much like everyone else's.  I wish I knew then the things I know now . . . .

PPS - The image at the top is the cover of Southwest Art magazine.  I don't think they'll mind if we use the image, especially if we provide a backlink: if you think your work might be a good fit for their magazine, we encourage you to contact Southwest Art and ask about ad rates.