Why are live art shows so effective at selling work?

Live art shows force you to do proper merchandising, which most artists skip in their day-to-day marketing. They create a forcing function: you must order inventory, have physical samples on hand, stand next to your work, hold up prints, and talk about your inspiration and the characteristics of different media types. This is fundamentally different from posting JPEGs on social media. During a live show, you’re doing everything right—showing real products, explaining details, connecting personally with viewers, and making it easy for them to understand what they’re buying. The effectiveness of live shows proves how powerful proper merchandising is. If you applied these same principles to your regular marketing—always showing physical prints, talking about your work, explaining media types—you’d see dramatically better results all the time, not just during special events.

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Asked by artists seeking effective sales strategies · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2021-10-20