Between an art consultant who I had hired and a gallery owner who liked my work, both determined that while developing my resume’ through competitions and exhibitions, that I should pursue placing my artwork in the “corporate art market”. With this knowledge, it was then just a matter of researching, locating and compiling those individuals and firms who specialized in selling to the corporate art  market.  I was matching my abilities to my target market.

Even though marketing my work to the corporate art market was not my ultimate goal, in the interim, it was achievable and realistic for me to promote my work  to this target audience.  The same may hold true for you, if your target was art galleries that exclusively handled abstract art, why would you bother with galleries who just handle photography, 3-D art or with an art gallery that only handle artists in a certain region or in a certain price range?  The more that you understand your target market, what they want, how they operate and how to reach them, the more successful your art marketing program will be.

Who is your target market, what do they want and expect from the artists that they like? How will you locate this market and how will you make contact with them?  How do they like to be contacted by artists?  How will this be achieved? Will you approach and have them take notice of your art through art galleries, art competitions, online galleries, art reps or in many of the other forms of marketing that this may take?  There are a lot of questions that will be need to be answered by the artist before any marketing program can be formulated.

The artist is simply matching their abilities and their goals with that of their target market.  To do anything else, or to take a “shot gun” approach is a huge waste of the artist’s time and usually a waste of their money too.

Out of all of the steps in the marketing process, defining the artist’s target market is the most important of all!