Three Artists In An Elevator...

I just got into an elevator with three artists: a painter, a photographer, and a graffiti artist.

• The painter is literally just getting started. Launched his online art business two weeks ago.
• The photographer is super established, she has a huge social following, and has some momentum. 
• The graffiti artist has been selling his work online for 20 years.
  
  

Turns out all three of them listen to this podcast and they recognize me.

Hey Patrick, we were just having a discussion about FB Ads and selling art. We're all in different places in our careers, but we wanted to ask if you could quickly give us your pitch on how to best approach FB ads.

"No problem," I say. "Good news here is my advice is the exact same for all three of you..."

Let's Get Back Into the Elevator

To answer my new friends in the elevator, big surprise here, I'm starting with an analogy...you ever see Casino? Directed by Scorsese and starring, among others, Robert De Niro?

De Niro has a line in that movie...

In this case the right way, the wrong, way and the way that I do Facebook and Instagram ads. Let's start by defining them.

The Wrong Way

This is the way 99% of artists and photographers go about it. The way I first went about it in my own career as a marketer.

It's a swan dive into the deep end. You Google around, learn a bit, then start running ads. You immediately go after COLD traffic (i.e.: people who are interacting with you and your work for the first time ever). You put your art or photography up, you optimize for sales, and you put some language in them along on lines of "buy now".

This way sadly is doomed for a number of reasons. These are the two biggest:

1. Most don't have the resources or the teaching on just how long it takes to learn Facebook and Instagram ads. As a result, most spend a little bit of $, lose almost all of it, and then quit.
   
   They didn't lose completely by the way, they learned a lesson they paid for, problem is they still have to learn a whole lot more lessons before they completely get it.
   
   BTW – this particular route, in my experience, is the same whether you are the one running them or you bring in a consultant, who is experienced but just does not understand how selling art works. You don't have years + company $ (i.e somebody else's) to play with. Makes it hard to be able to pay for this type of an education.
   
   
2. Facebook is laden with what I lovingly call "idiot taxes." They are spread all over the FB ads experience in a hidden fashion like some sort of sick and twisted game. If you don't learn them and how to avoid them it turns out you pay them and you feel like an idiot about it later when you do learn. Paying them also makes you quit early... see point 1.
   
   
   

There are other reasons, but those are the two biggest as to why artists and photographers fail going this route.

The Right Way

This is the conventional wisdom way.

You have a a product, i.e art, and you want to sell it.

So what is the direct route? You target buyers... i.e cold traffic and you immediately go for the sale.

99% of what is taught out there in FB ads land is this very route. You have a product to sell, that is what you want to achieve, you spend $ on ads and try to sell it. If you put a dollar into the ad marketplace then you want to get $2.00 out lets say.

In this example, "the right way," let's say you know what you are doing with ads, you are fully capable of deftly side-stepping the idiot taxes and, in contrast to the wrong way, you know how long it takes and you are prepared to stay the course. It's gonna go great right?

Sadly, no, not likely... why? 

Number of reasons here as well, let me give you a quick few of them and yes I realize this is controversial to say.

Yes I realize this will likely sting a bit.

Yes I realize I am gonna catch some flack for saying this ...

Phew, there I said it.

Let me plead my case then you can decide if you agree or not.

1) It's not really how art is sold.

It's just not. People are not on Facebook or Instagram flipping along with their thumbs, prepared to make impulse style buys of your art. On the couch, watching tv, distracted, see your ad, and pull the trigger on a 24 x 36" $500 print. Not happening.

The relationship analogy applies here. Trying to sell art that way, is like walking up to the guy or gal in the bar, introducing yourself, and asking them if they want to go back to your place.

Ok well what about all of those products that do do this and get an ROI out of cold traffic? You been on Instagram lately? What type of ads are you seeing?

In my feed its been...

What do they all have in common, the chinos especially, that art is missing?

They are impulse purchases.

You might actually be flicking your thumb up and down, decide you need this useless item, and pull the trigger. Not how it goes with art.

2) You are just getting started

You don't have a huge list of past customers to start with, or a big email list, a ton of purchases FB has tracked, lots of web traffic, etc. So you are gonna struggle with finding a winning cold audience to go after and especially if you don't have a niche that has a built in community that is easy to target; i.e you paint Rottweilers and you target Rottweiler lovers.

3) Your margins are likely not big enough

What are you selling.. prints? Perhaps you also have some originals?

Ok great. Chances are though, your margins coupled with how art sells online are not likely high enough to make FB cold ads pay.

Art is often a one-off sale. Not like you have a subscription models (your art for $39.99 per month), or a super high volume of purchases (150+ pieces a month), repeat purchases coming in on the regular (customers coming back to buy their 2nd, 3rd, 4th pieces all in a short period of time).

All of which are what you need to achieve a high ROI from COLD traffic.

4) Your funnel is not sophisticated enough

Part of this is AOV, your average order value. Yours is likely not big enough to justify going after cold traffic.

Another part is a properly diversified catalog of offerings and price points and different items.  How many items and price points do you have in your store? From entry level to insanely expensive and everything in between? With a huge spread of price points, you'll convert more cold traffic to customers - without it, you'll struggle.

Another part is your post-purchase activities: do you have a system in place to convert an original buyer into a custom commission? Do you upsell your buyers on a full series of prints after they've purchased 1? These are key ways to continue to boost ROI on your ad spend even after you've earned the big first sale.

Another part of this is follow-up marketing. Do you even have any in place? Is it automated? Does it scale? Are you emailing me and following up all the time? What about your warm audience targeting and re-marketing? After I leave your website, do your ads follow me around the internet, nudging me back to your site?

And yet another of this is your consistency in your marketing. If cold traffic is running you can't afford to fall off for 3 months.

All of this is totally overwhelming, and that's totally okay.

In most cases, artists are solo-prenuers. They don't have a staff of digital experts that are helping them build out this type of sophisticated eCommerce operation and that is totally A-OK.

Are some of these generalizations... sure, but I stand by the fact that starting with cold in either way - the "wrong way" OR the "right waY" is setting yourself up for failure.

Don't misunderstand.

You can make it using the wrong way or the right way, but the number who do is really small in my experience and they often have unique circumstances that stack the deck in their favor that other artists do not.

Generally speaking though, for most artists and photogs out there you are just getting started on Facebook Ads.

So let's finally get to MY way and let's stack that deck in your favor.

My Way

My way starts with a piece of content - this can be as simple as an email or a blog post. Important part here is that it's not a hardcore sales pitch. In fact, it shouldn't have any sales language in it whatsoever.

Here it is - the way that actually works:

• You email this piece of content to your list.
• You create a Facebook post for it.
• You turn that post into an ad.
• The ad has a daily budget that you're comfortable spending. It goes out to at least Facebook, but ideally Instagram as well.
• For the audience you target WARM traffic ... i.e people that have already interacted with your brand in the past.
• The big picture goal is to capture attention in the form of new email subscribers, website traffic, and social followers.
• You do this process consistently all year long with new pieces of content.
• When it does come time for the sales (like, say, in the fourth quarter) you hammer this audience with ads that are explicitly asking for the sale.

That's it. That is what I believe to be the most effective way to sell art online and off using paid advertising.

Best part is it's pretty easy to do and execute on.

Let's talk about why this actually works:

It's how art is best sold online - you build attention through content that helps your audience fall in love with your work. Then, when the time is right later on down the line, you ask that attention for a sale.

By starting with warm traffic it forces you to learn how Facebook Ads work and get the hang of things before you go after the more costly cold traffic that others are wasting tons of money on.

In order for this strategy to work, it also forces you to create non-salsey content all year long. This is a big one. This is the karate kid. You are Daniel-san and this process is Mr. Miyagi. At first, you think Mr Miyagi is turning you into an indentured servant with this paint the fence, wax on wax off business. 

Turns out, Mr. Miyagi starts attacking: show me paint the fence, show me wax on wax off. All of the sudden you can fight. Stated another way you can market.  By executing on this tactic it will force you to become a good and consistent marketer.

Finally, doing things this way forces you to learn how to market your art and grow your following. Which is why the consistency is so, so key.

If you can't excite, motivate and KEEP the attention of your warm traffic, you are never gonna be able to do so when you try cold traffic.

This system creates the demand that will turn your sales from where they have been into serious revenue opportunities.

This system will speed the creation of your lists – your website visitors, people that have opted into your email list, and yes customers too so that you can start making lookalike audiences to go after cold traffic.

Attention is hard to get and hard to keep. If you are gonna invest the time and creativity to create some content, you need people to see it. Email alone is not gonna get this done. So this solves for attention and helps you generate momentum.

The Chicken and Egg Problem

The Tactical

I have been having quite a few calls with Art Storefronts members lately.

Always a good idea to learn from the horses mouth as it were – what is the best way to teach thing tactically and specifically how to best make it approachable enough that people take action on the teaching.

What I have taken away from these calls, continues to inform the teaching. Specifically that in order to make it as approachable as possible, it's best to split these lessons up in the following fashion.

First, the bare minimum to get the marketing tactic in the water, later the advanced stuff after you have the hang of things.

So let's discuss what the bare minimum looks like, then we can talk about how we layer some additional tasks on top of the bare minimum to really get the most out of it.

You start with the bare minimum and get some confidence and then with some experience things that once looked complex become easy and you can add additional tasks on top of it.

The Next Level

Where Does Cold Traffic Come In?