Omnichannel Marketing this Q4

In this episode of the Art Business Morning Show, Patrick delves into the critical topic of Omnichannel Marketing for artists in Q4. He outlines a fundamental equation for business success: product times attention, illustrating the importance of both elements in growing an art business. Through real-life examples, including successful emails from Steve, Linda, and Eiker, Patrick explains the role of incentives and scarcity in driving sales. He further emphasizes the power of attention using high-profile cases like the Kardashians and Cristiano Ronaldo, who monetize their massive followings on social media more effectively than traditional revenue streams. Patrick underscores the importance of omnichannel marketing strategies to maximize the reach of your message across various platforms and prepare for the biggest art-selling season of the year. The session ends with a motivation to capitalize on this unique market opportunity caused by the pandemic and other economic factors.

Podcast Transcribe

Patrick Shanahan: All right, coming up on today's edition of the Art Business Morning show, we're talking about Omnichannel Marketing this Q4, specifically the equation, attention, and Omnichannel Marketing. All right. All right, as the intro music plays through, welcome everybody to another edition of the Art Business Mornings, the show that will put you on the path to a six-figure a year plus art business.

That's the goal. And so I wanna start with the mailbag. You ever get emails? I do. Let me read a few. I got an email from Steve. Steve said he's been an artist for 30 years. He's considering using our service. He sold well over $500,000 worth of art over the years, mostly in galleries, local fairs, and shows.

Wonderful. I said, Steve, wonderful, incredible even. I tell Steve his future business is gonna come down to one simple equation, okay? I also got an email from Linda. Linda's been selling at a co-op. She's in a co-op gallery. Those sales have dried up, however, as nobody is coming to the gallery anymore.

She's been at it for two years. She's a little bit over the 5K mark, and she wants to grow her business. So I give Linda a few pointers about what to do about the co-op situation, and then let her know her business comes down to a simple equation. Then I get emails from Eiker. Eiker says he wants to get started selling his art.

People have told him for years it's amazing. Wanna venture what I tell Eiker? Okay? Hey Eiker, I said, your future business, once you validate your art, and let me send you a resource on how to do that, is also gonna come down to a simple equation. So I wanna talk about the equation. Many of you have likely heard me mention this, but it's sort of important as we're rounding the corner to Q4 here, biggest art selling time of the year, et cetera, et cetera.

Now, let me get to the equation. So turns out this simple equation, it not only applies to every artist and photographer the world over, okay, but it also applies to just about every business out there. Once you have validated that your product is something the market wants and will pay cash money for, then the equation dictates how big the business will be.

What is the equation? It's really... Even before the same equation that I'm always ranting about, it's really just the product times attention. After you've validated your art will sell, that's the product, you multiply it by the attention that you have and that you could get, and that equals the size of the business, okay? Nuanced to our particular situation, trying to sell art and photography online and off, it really comes down to the sale, right? And so, for us, the equation is as followed, and it's A plus B, you know, you could even put your little parentheses brackets on it, right? A plus B multiplied by C, okay? A and B can just be thought of as psychological devices to get human beings to take action. A is incentive, okay? In our case, it's the discount, monetary or otherwise. Yes, it could be 25% off, but also free shipping, or the good old BOGO buy one, get one free, or it can be hand-signed by the artist, that can be the incentive.

So it could really be anything, but most often it's percentage off, right? That's the incentive, the incentive that we're using, we're leveraging to get human beings, our prospective buyers, to take action, okay? B, so that's A. B is scarcity. In our case, it's the fact that the incentive is going away.

It expires in 24 hours, or two days, or one week, or today only. And collectively A and B, again, are just psychological devices to get your prospective buyer over the line and buy. Without them, you don't stand as good of a chance as with them, right? So once we have those two summed up, how well they will work is just a fraction, or just a factor of multiplying it times C.

C, in our case, is attention. So A plus B times C, times attention. If you have the most amazing A and B that's ever been created in the history of a sales process, they're gonna be completely meaningless if you don't have any C. Stated another way, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around, does it make a sound? Right, that age-old question exactly.

Nobody knows because nobody heard it. No one was there. It might make a sound, it might not. I don't know, I wasn't there. And if you don't have any attention, nobody is gonna see your super sweet incentive or scarcity, no matter how good it is. So the equation, which I might add removes any and all of the emotion out of your business.

It's just maths. It's just maths, that's it. It's got nothing to do with anything else. It has nothing to do with who you are, your race, your religion, your socioeconomic status, your political standings, whether you drink, or smoke, or love puppies, or are extremely talented, or not. It's just maths, that's it.

And you know, for all of the times that you are not running a sale in your business, the essential element in all of this is really just the attention piece. With it, you can do absolutely anything. You have all the power. Without it, you will struggle, right? And you are just gonna struggle. So let's talk about attention, and celebrities, and Instagram, although attention is not by any means, isolated to Instagram, okay? Hot off the wire, and I gotta switch my little screen-sharing tab.

I'm doing screen-sharing. Hot off the wire, okay? The Kardashians did not renew their TV deal. What? How is that even possible, right? I thought it was super popular. And yes, it was. How do I know that? My wife told me so. A very interesting story here, so I think it's worth mentioning, and I really wanted to bring this up 'cause it underscores my attention piece and I talk about the Kardashians all the time, for very important reasons.

But number one, let's talk briefly about perspective. Namely, how long it takes to build up a serious art business. I had to do some googling today, but here's what I found out. "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" ran for 19 seasons in 14 years. 14 years, 19 seasons, you know, regardless of what you think of them, being followed around and having your life invaded by these cameras all the time.

Nick Friend: How are you doing, Meryl? Good to see you.

Patrick Shanahan: All the time in your business, making you look small, and petty, and ridiculous, right? But, you know, say what you will about this drama-filled, plastic surgery loving, sex change having family, they're hard workers and they understand perspective, right? You know, you're in year two of your art business, or year five and you're not selling $100,000 a year, which you think you should be and you wanna complain, and you're looking for someone to blame.

Bottle that BS up and take a look at the Kardashians. 19 seasons, 14 years. 19 seasons, 14 years, right? They grind it. So they're due a bunch of respect, but if you look at my little article here and it says, "Kim Kardashian," this is from the, where's it from? The Daily Mail. "Kim Kardashian tells David Letterman "she makes more money on Instagram "than in a single season "of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

"In a single season, right? She's getting paid more money on her paid posts on Instagram than an entire season of the show, okay? And evidently, they were making, I think, $4.5 million per season, each member of the family for that show. And here's 39-year-old reality star telling David Letterman that she did not renew, they did not renew the show because she's making more money on her sponsored posts on Instagram than she is for having those cameras follow her around.

Kim, and the rest of the Kardashian clan, whatever their names are, have the attention. So now they can do anything, right? They can literally do anything. And let's shift gears out of the Kardashian land into a world that selfishly I care about. I'm a huge soccer fan. My team's actually playing in two hours today.

But anyway, huge soccer fan. Turns out that the world of soccer, football for everyone else not in America, has some Kardashians of their own. Citing quickly, and I'll switch gears here in my little tab. I'm trying to make these things more interactive. So if you're listening to this on the Podcast after the fact, I'm doing screen shares.

You're missing screen shares. Subscribe on YouTube. Anyway, Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest grossing soccer player on Instagram. No one's saying he's the best in the world. He's in that argument for sure. Top three, top two, however you wanna say it, but he plays for an Italian club named Juventus, and he makes more money per year on his Instagram posts than he does on his official club salary.

I hate these like Forbes, and like highest earning articles, 'cause I know they're all BS and they don't have the numbers correctly. But according to this, he's making $47.8 million per year on his Instagram posts, and he makes something like $30 million a year on his salary. So he's making more money, apparently $950,000 per Instagram post.

And what that means is like, he'll partner with Dolce and Gabbana and wear Dolce and Gabbana's

shoes or some other nonsense in a post and he'll get paid $975,000 US for that. I mean, that's just insanity, right? You know, attention. With it you can do absolutely anything. Shuan Sol's asking me if it's Man United.

No, not Man United, Chelsea. I mean, of course it is a little Christian Pulisic. But anyway, I bring all of this up, and I cite some of the biggest players in the Instagram game, Kardashians, Cristiano Ronaldo, not to discourage you with your six followers, or Art Storefronts with our 13,000 followers who we're very proud of, or whatever we have.

I bring it up just to say, it's actually the true currency in today's world. It is the true currency in today's world. How much attention do you have? Let me come at it another way. It's decision time. We're gonna play a little game called, Which Would You Rather, all right? I, right now, am the genie that just popped out of the lamp.

Okay, and I can either give you $1 million cash right now, or I can give you 10 million Instagram followers, engaged Instagram followers, not the bots or something like that. How would you answer that question? How would you answer that question? What about you, Jake Abud? How would you answer that question? Would you rather take the million dollars cash in your bank account direct right now, tax free? Or would you rather take the 10 million followers, engaged followers on Instagram? What are you gonna take, right?

And what I'm telling you is, that is not even a question, that's up for debate, okay? Not for me, it shouldn't be for you either. I would be able to earn many, many millions with that follower account over months and years, and would be able to continue to go back to the well again, and again, and again.

Because, attention is the currency. It's just the currency in today's day and age that we live in. And I think the good news in all this, it's like, okay, yes, I just cited some extremely sexy and flashy numbers and people at the top Kardashians, Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest, right? But those are just numbers.

You start growing them, you'll work at it, 19 seasons, 14 years, and you're effectively building the ability to sell whatever you want in the future, right? Like, whatever you want in the future. So, enough about attention, let's pivot it and discuss omnichannel marketing (laughs). And Merrill Cohen's like a dream.

Nick Friend: It is but you know, I cite those crazy numbers honestly, for my own perspective, to just understand, we're all just in the attention business, and the more you have, the more you can do. And the mass of the mass, whatever you have is whatever you have, the more you grow it, the bigger your business goes.

Patrick Shanahan: That equation at the top dictates the success of every single solitary business out there. For the most part, validation comes in how big your niche could go. You know, conversion rates and these things. But fundamentally, when you realize the attention is the whole ballgame, it sort of changes the way that you think about everything.

And it should change the way that you think about everything. Because, the flip side of the attention argument is, it doesn't have to be yours. You can go and get it somewhere else. A gallery, a local gallery in your town can have the attention, right? You know, the shows and fairs can have the attention.

And you're like, "I don't wanna market. "I don't wanna do anything. "I just wanna to plug into their little world "and take their attention." And you can do that but the larger point is, the Kardashians. I mean, the TV people came in, right? And the TV station, whoever produces that show, Bravo, or whatever it is.

I could just imagine them coming in or you know, coming into the Kardashian house and saying "Hey, we wanna talk business." Do you know who they are? They're the gallery. They're the gallery coming to the Kardashians and saying, "All right, here's the terms of the deal. "I'm gonna sell your product in my venue "because I own the attention.

"I'm gonna take 50% do you want that deal?" And guess where the Kardashians are now? "Bravo, love ya. "Art gallery, love ya, appreciate ya. "I don't need you. "Because guess what I did? "Over those 19 seasons and 14 years, "I siphoned off enough attention for myself, "that I have more of it, and I can make more money "than you can even provide for me.

"Not only that, if COVID hits, "or some nonsense happens again, "and, you try to change the rules on me, I don't need you. "I've got the attention, I've got the attention." It's profound, it's amazing, right? So, how, why... Let's get off the attention for the most part and discuss omnichannel marketing because this is just one step down the stack, right? And again, I suppose the definition is called for here.

You have whatever attention you have, okay? Our next job is how to most effectively get the attention we do have to pay attention to whatever we're doing, our sale, our message, our art, our photography, right? And so this is where omnichannel marketing comes in. And you have an email list, a Facebook page, a personal Facebook page, an Instagram account, a Twitter account, a YouTube account, a snail mail list, a text message list, whatever you have, any combination thereof.

Okay. Omnichannel marketing is just taking your message and through a coordinated effort, a coordinated effort, everything working together in these various different channels, you try to get as much of the attention as you have to see your message. That's it, that's what omnichannel marketing is. And it's got a lotta layers to it.

It's got a lotta nuance to it. It's got a lotta trade craft to it, okay? But it's fundamental, and it's especially fundamental when we are now entering the biggest art-selling time of the year with the force multiplier, the COVID panic.

Nick Friend: How you doing, Gretchen, good to see ya.

Patrick Shanahan: So it's a huge deal. So I believe omnichannel marketing is fundamental to getting the attention of the attention you do have no matter what, okay? Whatever you're doing, a live art show, a physical gallery show in a retail presence, yes, a sale or even a regular old post talking about your process, understanding omnichannel marketing just makes you better at getting the attention of the attention you do have, okay? It's a process.

Like anything else, it's a muscle. You have to build it up. Building where we are in the year, I have to teach my customers how best to do this. I need to explain it. They, me, we, you, all of us need to be getting better all the time at doing so, okay? It's how we're gonna get the attention of the attention we do have and ideally new attention all year long, year in, year out.

Then it's just that simple. It's math, right? Like we, Art Storefronts need to do that. You need to do that. Amazon and Walmart and Ford Motor Company all need to do that, too. It's all just about attention. So we're gonna be hammering on this particular topic like we do every time this year.

As the Q4 holidays are here, we need to get ready for those that listen to the podcast. You should go back in the feed and see the topics that I've covered on this before. That still forms the fundamental basis of the playbook that we're gonna leverage. For customers, coming up this Thursday, I'm gonna be teaching this on office hours, and we're just going to keep pounding it, hammering it and getting better at it, right? And you know, like we do every time, this year it's so important with Q4 coming.

So step one in all of this process is just to take inventory. Take inventory, simple list. What do you have? You have an email list. You have a personal email list. That can even work, but ideally, a business list. You have a personal Facebook page likely, perhaps a Facebook business page, perhaps an Instagram account, perhaps Twitter, YouTube.

Just list out what you have at your disposal. Does not matter the size or the follower counts. You have what you have, right? All year long, we teach you how to grow those numbers, but now is the time for the harvest. We are gonna execute our biggest sale of the entire year, huge deal, huge deal. So get your list together.

Think through the channels you do have available, the marketing channels that you do have available, and get ready, and then what will follow on upcoming episodes and pretty much everything that Art Storefronts does, is both how to think of, as well as how to execute omnichannel marketing, okay? I'm gonna teach you what all this looks like, how to plan and execute on it, and it's gonna be ready, set and go, Q4 is here.

We end on some good news though. And the good news is yes, we're still in the middle of the pandemic, okay? Even better, we're in an election year. One of the most contested contentious elections we've ever had in our entire lives. Seems the virus is coming back, right? You got Fauci telling people not even to have Thanksgiving.

And if that's the case, more lockdowns, less people going out and shopping at physical retail, more people are at home and staying home, more people are leaving the cities for suburbs, bigger homes with white walls, okay? The economy was pretty good before COVID hit, a great many of the available outlets with those folks' money having to be spent are gone.

So events, travel, date night, restaurants, et cetera, and none of those activities are happening, so that disposable income is staying in the household. So, as stated, we believe a perfect storm for art and photography is coming, okay? The chum is going to be in the proverbial water something fierce. There is going to be a buying frenzy whipped up.

Every online eCommerce merchant from here to there is gonna be going full blitz, okay? People are gonna be in buying frenzy time because there's not a whole heck of a lot else to do. You're not going on a skiing trip for the most part, right? You're not going to any big concerts, any big events.

It's literally just stay home and do the family gym. So yeah, I think phenomenal, phenomenal time. And you know, it doesn't matter. You are who you are in your business, okay? What is going to be the single solitary best opportunity all year is coming, likely of many years, okay? So it doesn't matter where you're at.

It doesn't matter if you're just getting started and you've not sold a piece. It doesn't matter if your business is over 500K, anywhere in between. The most important thing that you can do is make sure you have a line in the water this season. The results will be what the results will be, but it looks to be one of the greatest Q4s in the history of the art and photography business for all the aforementioned reasons and what we've been ranting on forever.

So I want you in the game. I want you in the game, no matter what stage of the game you're at. The strategy and tactics are gonna be coming, the explanations are gonna be coming, how best you can leverage it. If you don't have any physical inventory, you better get some, right? You don't sell 2D images.

For everybody else that is set up, there's gonna be some different techniques and tactics and hacks that we're gonna get into, but it's coming, it's coming.

Nick Friend: And thank you for that, Meryl, I appreciate it. Meryl's telling me I'm so positive. I'm so positive because I see it as the greatest opportunity for you guys and your businesses.

Patrick Shanahan: It's come along in a long, long time. All the data backs me up on this. This isn't my little finger in the air like I know any damn thing. It's just going to be huge in luck, you know. I get that some people are like, well, I don't have a big business and I don't have a big list, and I'm just getting started in this and that, doesn't matter, okay? Doesn't matter.

You just got to make sure you're in the game, and my job is to make sure that whilst you're in the game, you're playing with the latest, greatest, up to date and best in class tactics to try and capture as much attention as you can. And that's where we're at. So it's exciting. It's an exciting time.

More on this is coming soon. In the meantime, thanks for listening. And as always, have a great day.