Stop! Before You Do Anything Else, Set up Your Art Inventory System
This week’s Art Is An Advantage video discusses the importance of an artwork inventory system and the options for setting one up.
Weekly Video Recap
Setting up a system to track your art inventory keeps you organized and makes you more efficient in the long run.
Options for Your System
Here are some options for keeping track of your artwork inventory:
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are the tried-and-true method of organizing data, and they can serve as a simple yet effective way to inventory your artwork. Programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets allow you to create customizable tables to input details such as artwork title, dimensions, medium, creation date, pricing, and location. While spreadsheets offer flexibility and familiarity, they may lack specialized features tailored to the needs of artists. But they are a great place to start quickly organizing your information.
Hybrid Platforms
Hybrid platforms such as Airtable and Notion are examples of cloud-based platforms. They combine a spreadsheet’s simplicity with a database’s functionality, allowing you to organize and manage data flexibly. It offers customizable views, real-time collaboration, templates, integrations with other apps, and automation features.
Art Inventory Software
If you seek a more comprehensive solution, art inventory software provides specialized features explicitly designed for managing artwork. Platforms like Artwork Archive offer robust tools for cataloging artworks, tracking inventory, recording sales, generating reports, and creating online portfolios.
Online Platforms and Marketplaces
Many online platforms and marketplaces cater to artists looking to showcase and sell their work while offering inventory management features. Websites like Etsy, Saatchi Art, or your artist website can serve as platforms for organizing your artwork inventory.
How to Choose
When considering options for inventorying your artwork, evaluate your needs, preferences, and budget. The best inventory solution for you could depend on factors such as the size of your art collection, your level of technical expertise, your budget, and your long-term goals as an artist.
The Bottom Line
Whether you opt for a traditional spreadsheet, a dedicated software solution, or an online platform, organizing and cataloging your artwork will streamline your administrative tasks, enhance your professionalism, and help you maximize opportunities.
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For Artists Who Feel Lost in the Art Marketing Maze. Research Your Way Out.
This week’s Art Is An Advantage video explains how research can help you ditch scattershot marketing approaches in the art marketing maze and find the perfect marketing tactics for your unique art style.
Weekly Video Recap
Use targeted research to find your way out of the maze and develop an effective marketing strategy for your work. Here are three examples:
1. Researching Audience
Who are your ideal collectors? Are they young, tech-savvy professionals who frequent online art marketplaces? Or seasoned collectors who value the experience of a traditional gallery setting? Or is there a niche you are targeting related to a cause or subject matter? Research demographics, artistic preferences, and buying habits to paint a clear picture of your target audience.
2. Finding Marketing Channels
Once you know who you’re looking for, determine where they spend their time online and offline. Are they active on specific social media platforms like Instagram or attending art fairs focused on a particular style? Research the channels most frequented by your target audience to maximize your reach.
3. What’s Going on in Your Space?
Research is about more than just your ideal collectors. Look at how successful artists in your style or medium are marketing themselves. What platforms do they use? How do they present their work online and offline? Analyzing successful strategies can offer valuable insights that you can use to adapt to your unique work.
Research for Your Art Marketing is an Ongoing Process
Remember, research is an ongoing process. As your audience grows and evolves, so should your marketing strategy. By dedicating time to research, you’ll gain a deep understanding of your target audience and the channels that resonate with them. This knowledge will transform your marketing efforts from a guessing game to a targeted, practical approach that gets your art seen by the right people.
This week’s Artisan Advantage video discusses Step Two of my free guide, “7 Steps to Marketing Your Art to a Niche”and how to use targeted research for your art marketing strategy. Watch this video where I overview an example of researching around a specific goal.
Video Recap
This week’s video overview shows how to get started researching a specific goal, using the example of finding art opportunities within a specific geographic location.
Short Tutorials to Guide You
I’ve created a series of practical tutorials to accompany this video, which will be posted on the Art Is An Advantage YouTube Channel as they are released, providing you with hands-on guidance for your art marketing research.
This week, we recap all of the videos covered for Step One—Identify Your Niche—as we prepare to move on to Step Two—Research.
Even if you already have a niche, growing and refining your audience is important for career and business growth. Following the steps we’ve outlined so far can help you do that.
Identifying your niche and audience is not a one-time project but an ongoing journey of assessing, researching, experimenting, and refining.
In the past four videos we’ve covered my process for finding an audience for your artwork – including steps from assessment to research and experimentation in finding an audience. Now, it’s time to turn these steps into actionable strategies.
Finding an Audience for Your Art: Video Recap
Once you’ve experimented and seen what resonates with your audience, take note of what works. For example, with Robert Yonke’s Bluegrass Painter project, press releases to niche media resulted in a swift and positive response. Identifying successes lays the groundwork for strategy development.
It’s important to remember that not every experiment will yield immediate success, and that’s perfectly normal. In fact, setbacks can be valuable learning opportunities. When faced with a setback, take the time to evaluate why things didn’t go as planned. This could be an indication that adjustments are needed, or it could be a sign that the approach isn’t the right fit.
When you find a strategy that works, it’s not enough to acknowledge its success. It’s time to amplify your efforts. For the Bluegrass Painter, this meant doubling down on press releases, reaching out to potential clients, attending relevant events, and crafting tailored social media strategies. By building upon their successes, they were able to extend their reach and deepen their connection with their newfound audience.
In future videos, we’ll explore these strategies in more detail and explore how you can implement them effectively to continue growing your audience and expanding your reach.
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