Right now I can assure you that people are still buying art. My clients are selling art. I’ve sold my own art. The art market continues on.

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I wanted to get that out of the way because I’ve seen so many artists blame the economy for a lack of sales and, while it might require extra effort to sell in some locations, the economy hasn’t stalled.

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So if your art is not selling, it’s time to take another look at your art marketing. People can’t buy your art if they don’t know it exists and is for sale, right?

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There are three ways to market your art: passive, active and a mix of both.

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Passive marketing involves putting out posts, doing lives and just making content. It’s passive in the sense that your audience has to find you through coincidence, hashtags and the algorithm.

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Active marketing involves going out to connect with the people who might be interested in buying your art. You use your ideal collector avatar (ICA) to help you pin point who is most likely to be interested. You use your long term goals to connect with the big fish.

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In marketing, as with anything else, who you know makes all the difference.

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The mix would be creating content and spending time each day actively connecting with your ICA.

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Now I’m a fan of both because when you connect with someone, you want them to see your art as interesting, actively being made, and you as being the kind of person they want to get to know.

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You can’t sell if you don’t have an audience and while passive marketing has its place, it does take more time to build up.

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So here’s what I want you to do: think about your 3 and 5 year goals for your art business. The big, hairy scary goals, and go connect with the people who could help make that possible.

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Don’t pitch them or anything, just follow or friend or connect (depending on the platform) and leave them alone. Let their curiosity work in your favour.

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I once had an author client do this. She really wanted her book to get into Elizabeth Gilbert’s hands. I had her research Elizabeth’s staff and connect with them. Through one of those connections, she was invited to speak at a retreat that Elizabeth Gilbert was keynoting at. And the two not only met, they clicked beautifully.

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It only took a couple of months to put this into place, it was so fast. Had this author not done the active connecting, she’d still be waiting to be noticed.

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Life is too damn short, and goes by too damn fast, to wait to be noticed. Go and make people see you.

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List ten people, big names if that’s your desire, who could be amazing connections for your art. Go and connect with their staff if they have any, or with them directly. Then continue to post as you normally would. Do it again and again and get ready for some big magic to happen.