Seth Godin knocked it out of the ballpark once again with his short blog on the humility of the artist.  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/01/the-humility-of-the-artist.html 

            I can tell you from my own experience that I am repeatedly humbled throughout the year.  When I apply to shows, to festivals or to other venues where I might sell my art and I am rejected, I have a small downcast moment.  Just one.  

            Ok, maybe two.

            Yes, yes, I do know better.  But still.

             However, it is equally true that I am enriched, excited, jazzed, wowed and awed by the enthusiastic response of many people to my Art.  Whether they buy or not, the folks who can't look away, who are mesmerized by my art, who are made happier by looking at my art, are my favorites.  Who wouldn't love these folks who immediately "get it"?

     My undisputed favorites, however, are those folks who purchase my Art.  These people, most of them total strangers, have taken their hard-earned money and paid it to me for a piece of my Art, a piece of my creativity, a piece of my heart.  I cannot begin to describe how wonderful that feels. 

             All of the rejection that the world has to offer is offset when one stranger loves my work.

              This is the life of an artist.  

    You know what I mean by target buyers, right?  Those folks most likely to buy your art.  So, who are they and where are they?  How do you find them?  And how do you help them find you - and your fabulous Art?

            If you’re like me, you’ve met many of your buyers.  I have shown my art at many art fairs over the years and therefore have personally met many of my buyers.  However, there are others who have purchased my art through my gallery, Artists on Santa Fe Gallery.  I’ve never met those buyers and may never be able to.  So, how do I direct my focus, my advertising, and my social media efforts in order to let my target buyers see (and buy!) my work?

            Wish I knew. 

    But I do know that simple demographics do not tell me much. My buyers reach across all age groups and all sexes, although a majority are women.  Does the fact that the majority of my buyers (so far!) have been women mean that I should ignore men?  Most certainly not.  After all, often the men who were not the actual purchasers had veto power over the art purchase.  On many occassions, the guy was the initial “spotter” who brought his wife/signifcant other over to see my art.  The woman may have been the actual purchaser but the guy was the one who fell in love with my work.  

I really do not know the financial status of my buyers.  Are they middle class?  Upper middle class? Rich and famous?  Ok, they probably are not rich and famous.  All I really know about them from a financial perspective is that the charge on their credit card went through just fine.

             So, how do I (and you!) figure out how to focus our energies so as to reach our target buyers?

            Seth Godin wrote a blog post this morning about this exact thing. 

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/01/who-are-your-customers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+27s+Blog%29

Seth says that simple demographics don’t tell you anything.   You need to know where your buyers hang out, what they like and what they talk about.  This is easier with the advent of social media.  However, it is difficult if you're like me, committed to just about as much as you can handle.  I'm blogging, tweeting, facebooking and google plussing already.  I only have so much time.  Following my buyers around on social media (aka stalking) is time consuming and potentially completely unproductive.  Not to be a snot about this but can't they follow me?  Do I really have to go follow them?

            It is interesting that this issue should come to the fore now for right now I have the great good fortune to be working with a company, Geowize, who may be able to help me out with this issue.  More on Geowize in a future blog post.  But take a look at their website if you're curious. www.geowize.com.

In the interim, while I wait to chat with Geowize, do you Dear Readers have any suggestions on the topic of how to find and market to your target buyers?       

             I just read a book entitled “The Thank You Economy” by Gary Vaynerchuk.  The author’s concept is that the world has changed (duh!) and that a substantial thank you to clients is required for success.  Ok, so far so good.  I agree. 

            One of his examples on how to properly say Thank You is a burger joint who gave away burgers to their social media followers on Twitter Tuesdays and Facebook Fridays.  Again, so far so good.

            Here’s the question.  How do I apply this Thank You concept to the Art Business? 

I already hand write thank you notes.  I used to print off a picture of the art that the client had purchased and slipped it in the card as the front picture.  However, I ran out of time to do this so I now simply write a thank you note on Moo.com cards with a piece of my art on the front. 

Unlike a burger joint, I can’t just give away all of my art for a day.  The only variation on this theme that I can think of is to create a small piece, 8 x 10 or smaller, on canvas board (read: inexpensive) and send it as a gift to clients who purchase big pieces. 

Have you, dear readers, any thoughts on this issue?  Have you any unique art-ish ideas for lovely thank yous?