I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Monday Marketing, I research, plan, and evaluate my marketing and promotion activities.
Art business coach Alyson Stanfield suggests that artists look to build conscious connections as a foundation of a profitable art business. That means “rethinking the belief that gallery representation will solve everything. Or that posting on Instagram every day will magically get you what you want.”
What are conscious connections? Stanfield explains:
Conscious connections aren’t transactional. They aren’t about “getting,” although they are often mutually beneficial. They are intentional relationships that help you achieve specific goals.
They go beyond casual acquaintances and require a deeper and more personal level of engagement and commitment. This is what they look like:
- A collector who bought from you years ago and still raves about your work, but hasn’t heard from you in a while.
- A realtor who commissions small works from you to give new homeowners, putting your art into dozens of homes.
- A podcaster looking for fresh stories. Your journey could be just what their audience needs to hear. (Ahem … )
- A young curator eager to build a resume. Supporting them now could mean exhibitions or introductions later.
These are conscious connections. Not casual contacts, but intentional relationships that expand your reach and open new doors.
When you’re selling some original handmade piece that might cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, this makes sense. You need to build one-on-one connections.
But if you’re looking to sell mass market, easily reproducible items (a memoir for example), this doesn’t work, does it? You need an entirely different approach.
That makes me think that selling my (eventual) books and selling my original art will require two different kinds of marketing activities, to reach the audience in the size and way they each demand.