Why do most artists fail when they say they want to target high net worth buyers?

When artists ask about targeting wealthy buyers, it’s never really the first thing they’re asking about—there are three common underlying issues. First type: They want the gallery model to work on their terms—wealthy buyers coming to them like they did in galleries, keeping 100% of the sale instead of a 50/50 split, retaining customer information, but doing absolutely zero actual marketing work. Second type: They’re willing to do some marketing but they’re really looking for a shortcut—they’ll post on Facebook once a month or change a bio link, but won’t commit to the regular, consistent, diligent marketing that actually works. Third type: They’re honest about the difficulty and genuinely willing to do the work—these are the only ones who can succeed. The problem is that most people want the result without the consistent effort, and there simply are no shortcuts in marketing that provide good ROI.

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Asked by artists seeking wealthy buyers without doing the work · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2021-02-03