Arts Professional Story: Adam Thurman

Tip 1: Embrace Your Inner Entrepreneur

Consider the following quote:

“Artists are by nature entrepreneurs, they’re just not called that. They have the ability to visualize something that doesn’t exist, to look at a canvas and see a painting. Entrepreneurs do that. That’s what makes them different from businesspeople. Businesspeople are essentially administrators. Entrepreneurs are by definition visionaries. Entrepreneurs and artists are interchangeable in many ways.”
- Bill Strickland, CEO, Manchester Bidwell Corporation

Nothing depresses me more then seeing a talented artist who is letting their talent waste away because they feel like they are unable to mix their skills with the principles of entrepreneurship. If you are an artist you are ALREADY an entrepreneur! Now it’s just about transferring those skills from one side of the ledger (artistic) to the other (business).

If you can take a blank sheet of paper and create a fabulous poem, then you can determine who your target market is. This is a key marketing function.

If you are talented enough to look at an empty stage and visualize a piece of musical theatre, then you can determine your own artistic brand, which is yet another key marketing function.

If you can do those two things, you are well on the path to generating more money from your artistic work through effective marketing.

Tip 2: Define Your Target Audience

The definition of “A Target Audience” is: the group that you have decided to direct your marketing efforts toward. Ideally, these are the type of people who will be naturally inclined to purchase your work. Here are some questions you can ask yourself right now to help determine your target audience.

1. Is the primary audience to my work male or female?
2. How old are they?
3. Generally speaking, what is their average income?
4. What fields do they work in? Are they professional? Blue-collar workers?

The goal here is to be as specific as possible. This is also one of the biggest challenges. I did this exercise once with a friend of mine and she was very hesitant to participate because she thought her art was “for everybody” and she didn’t want to leave anyone out by narrowing her target market.

You may have that same feeling about your work.

Remember that your target market is just the people you are going to focus your marketing efforts toward. If people outside the target market come along and want to be a part of what you are doing, GREAT!

For example, if you are a painter and the audience for your work is primarily young collectors in their early 30’s, that doesn’t mean that a couple in their late 60’s will not see your work in a gallery and want to purchase your work. It just means that the couple wasn’t the focus of your marketing.

So, don’t be afraid to define your audience as specifically as possible. It will save you a ton of time, money and energy in the long run.

Tip 3: Define Your Artistic Brand

Brand. That’s a word that often gets artists running towards the hills. For many people, branding is just a fancy way of tricking people into buying something that they don’t want or need. While branding is used that way by some companies, it doesn’t always have to be the case.

Here’s an exercise for you: for the next few days whenever someone mentions the word brand, replace it with the word promise.

At the end of the day that’s all a brand is. A brand is a promise between you and your audience.

Maybe the promise is:

“My work will always challenge you and make you think.”

Or

“My work will make you laugh and forget about the troubles of the day”

Or

“My work will bring your community together around a common purpose.”

It doesn’t matter that much what your promise is - what matters is that you DO promise something and that you ALWAYS try to deliver on that promise.

The Value of a Promise

You and I live in a world where there is just way too much of everything. Want to see a play? Here are your 100 options. Want to purchase a piece of pottery? Here are the listings of 10 potteries in your town and another 1,000 of them online.

In a cluttered world, people want some feeling of certainty. They need some feeling that the decision they are about to make is the right one.

Your brand . . . your promise, can give them that feeling of certainty. If you are a theatre company, your brand can assure your audience that no matter what particular play you are mounting, it will always be challenging and complex. Your promise as a photographer can let your audience know that every picture you take is designed to help them see the world in a broader and more exciting way.

Will you always achieve that goal as an artist? No. But if you can convince your audience that you are always TRYING to achieve that goal, then they will be supportive of you.

So here’s your homework for this step:

1. Take three products you love and try to figure out their brand
2. Take three products you despise and figure out their brand
3. Then take a step back and try to figure out what promises you would be comfortable making to your target audience

Those promises are the building blocks for your brand.

Conclusion:

Three tips. Give them a try and you’ll find yourself well on the way to more effective, more enjoyable arts marketing


Adam Thurman is the Director of Marketing for Court Theatre, one of the largest nonprofit theatres in Chicago. He recently led the marketing efforts behind one of the highest grossing shows in the institution’s 50-year history. He is also the President of Mission Paradox, a consulting firm that focuses on arts marketing. His clients include the Chicago Cabaret Professionals, the Civic Knowledge Project and a variety of other arts organization.

 

He is also the author of the Mission Paradox Blog, the #1 Arts Marketing Blog in the world.