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Originally Posted by Heidi Maiers
Have any of you ever placed an ad (full/half/quarter page) in a magazine? If so, did you get the results you hoped for and was it worth it?
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Heidi...I copied and pasted the following from my own new member thread...if you want to read more you might want to go pg.#6 of that thread, .... there was a conversation about this issue there. The first couple of paragraphs will fill you in on my "business history" if you will.
18 years ago, I approached my local bank for a loan to build a studio on my property. I was armed with a year's worth of signed commission contracts complete with down payments. The bank was carrying the note on our farm and house and knew how much equity my husband and I had. The loan officer (someone I knew well) said, "Joy, I would fell more comfortable about this if you would bring in your husband or father."
Mind you, I was (and still am) the bread winner of the family...my husband worked for me full time and "my Daddy" had not had anything to do with my finances since the day I left home after graduating from high school!. My father had never even lived in the vicinity!
So my husband went to the local lumber yard (this was before the days of Lowe's or Home Depots here) and struck a deal with them to finance the materials so we could set about building the studio by ourselves.
A few years and many unveilings later. We went to the bank again ...this time we mortgaged everything we owned...even so, the maximum we could borrow was just $72,000. In just one year, we spent every penny on additional training, an ad campaign, a web site, brochures and
advertising through magazines. It did serve to boost my career, I received national commissions as my work came to the attention of important collectors. In the years that followed we continued to take those same kinds of financial risks.
I have supported my family entirely "by the brush" for more than 20 years now with my husband (and master framer) of 27 years working full time with me. We are both from poor families who do not support (or even approve) of our good efforts as artists.
It has been a modest, bohemian lifestyle... (albeit colorful, exciting and intellectually stimulating). It was a challenge to raise our three children with such an unstable income. They learned to be clever, working their way through school and earning academic scholarships. Our children are grown now and are on their own financially. Like us, they will probably never inherit money or know the security of even a modest trust fund. Perhaps they will make a little money by selling the rights to my work someday.
Looking back, we would have been better off financially by investing that borrowed money in the stock market during the 90's, but we were trying to build my career. (It truly does take money to make money, but in art...it takes money just to live as an artist and to even lose money!).
Our goal was to secure important portrait commissions to insure my place in history and to make just enough money that we could continue to pursue "the artist's life".
If one has a steady income to spend on constant advertising and marketing then eventually they may flood the market with enough information that they become "a thing". But without serious funds (or the backing of someone with funds) it is unlikely that any artist will ever make much money on artistic merit alone! Women and other minorities must face the additional obstacle of prejudice and sexism.
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Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth
Fascinating post, Joy. Thanks so much for sharing it.
It sounds like you found the ad campaign to have been worthwhile. Can you tell me where you advertised and what seemed to work best?
It also sounds like you're saying that an artist has to keep at it, always advertising, never letting up, in order to keep things going. Have you found that to be the case, or did those initial successes lead to enough high profile work that it was all the jump start you needed and became self sustaining after that?
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I often ponder those ads, (which were in Southern Accents and Veranda.) I did secure commissions, as a result, from heavy hitters in New Orleans, Tampa, Shreveport, Nashville, Chattanooga, Dallas, Washington D.C., New York City, Martha's Vineyard and other less notable locations...however the cost of running such a campaign was so staggering that my profits were not as substantial as one might hope...but as a woman trying to enter a male dominated field, I felt I had no choice. ( In 1996 the cost of one full page was $18,000
if you ran it 3 times in one year!) Southern Accents was the most succesful venue for me. Indeed the ads along with a flurry of awards and articles in American Artist magazine and The Artist Magazine served to bring my work into view of many clients. Unfortunately, the costs of such ads have increased to such an extent that they are no longer a viable option for me. (Full page ads run $30,000 to $40,000!)
I do still receive commissions, through word of mouth from past portrait commissions that I received from the ads.
Heidi,
My advice is to study the data that the magazine has collected through their subscriber profiles. Find out how large their subscriber base is and then look for solid, informative data about those subscribers...the magazine should send a packet with that info. The data should reveal the income bracket of their subscribers, how much they spend a year on fine art and even what percentage of the subscribers regularly commission fine art.
The price that you mentioned, $1000 to $2000 per ad
actually is a small chunk of change in the world of advertising...so you won't be losing much even if you don't realize a commission right away. Keep in mind that these magazines have a long life, people keep them around for YEARS. I have received inquiries many years after running ads in Veranda and Southern Accents.
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