You say you can't do this, but I know you can
What if our problem with finding customers isn't about our reach but our view?
“I’d love it if I could make a living from my art, but I fear that my niche is too small to support me. But that’s ok, though.”
This is a quote shared on Threads from an artist I know, and the moment I read it, I knew I had to talk about it because I am sure countless other artists feel something similar.
Niches are an interesting topic because we always look at them with personal bias. For instance, I know that a reasonably large niche is people who like cats. I also know that people who like Maine Coons are a much smaller segment. I have an opinion about the ratio between those two niches, but I have no factual data to support my opinion.
Like my friend, my art might fit within a particular niche of abstract art. I may have an opinion about how many people appreciate my style, but that is based solely on my experience of only sharing it with the same pool of people. There may occasionally be outsiders who stumble across my work, and those folks may appreciate my art, but they typically don’t become buyers immediately.
You might think the next question should be, “How do I reach new people?” That’s an important question, but we need more pointed questions answered first.
What am I currently doing to promote my work?
Of those things, what is or isn’t working?
Is there anything I’m not doing that I know would be more effective?
We’re Using the Wrong Lens
Our biggest constraint isn’t reach but our limited view. We perceive our issues from the restricted lens of our own experiences. We make assumptions based on the small percentage of individuals we’ve interacted with over time and try to extrapolate based on skewed data.
We tell ourselves we can’t reach more people because we haven’t ever reached more people. Isn’t it more likely that we haven’t tapped into the right collector base?
There are approximately 330,000,000 people in the United States. Over 75% of those are adults. 1 in 3 of those adults owns a cat, roughly 82.5 million people.
There are estimated 70 breeds of cats in the United States, and if partitioned equally, each breed has a population of 1.75 million cats.
Maine Coons are a very popular breed, but let’s assume a modest 3 million Maine Coons in America.
Cat people are a passionate group, and they love to buy things for their cats and about their cats, but a conservative guess would be that 15% (450,000) of those Maine Coon lovers will buy at least one thing related to their cats.
Of those people, 10% are rabidly passionate and will buy anything Maine Coon whenever they see something.
If you were the type to make things for Maine Coon cat lovers, do you think you could build a business off of 45,000 passionate, repeat customers?
It’s Not About the Cats
If you love cats and think that’s something you could pursue, get down with your bad self, but this isn’t about the cats. This is about seeing the bigger picture.
Of the 245,000,000 American adults, I’m guessing 90% have at least one piece of art on their walls, and 75% or more have multiple works of art in their homes or workplace.
Let’s guess that any art micro-niche would have a fanbase of at least 1%. But what if only 10% of those fans would appreciate your specific art if they saw it? Now let’s assume only 10% of those people have the level of discretionary income to pay $100 or more for art.
NOTE: Most art lovers have crossover interests and will buy from multiple niches, so the percentage is probably higher than I’m theorizing.
That’s nearly 25,000 people paying you a minimum of $100 for your art. Some would pay more, and some would buy repeatedly.
What if you only needed to reach 1,000 of those people in the next year? Would $100,000 a year be enough of an income boost?
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more
painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
-Anais Nin
My numbers may be off in one direction or the other, but the fact remains we haven’t done enough work to find the right customers. Imagine if we opened our minds to the possibility that there are better ways to reach these potential collectors with tools we haven’t used and strategies we’re reluctant to try.
Selling on different marketplaces
Using a newsletter to stay connected
Learning how to use advertising tools on Facebook, Google, and others
Connecting with others on apps with lesson algorithmic constraint
The potential is there, and it will require us to educate ourselves on these strategies and then execute them consistently, not expecting instant results but dedicating ourselves to them, knowing the reward will take time to earn.
Otherwise, we continue to do what we’ve always done, expecting a different result, or worse, become complacent to the idea that we cannot do any better than this.
That is a false narrative, and it’s time for us to do something about it.