Mixed Media Artists That Want to Make Money Series 2: Part 3 -- Free printable included!

Artists that want to make money, you are in the right spot! I apologize for the delay as I had originally planned to post this a few days after the last post, however, I wasn't sure if everyone had caught up on the prior parts of this series yet so I wanted to give everyone adequate time to absorb everything.

This is Part 3 in Series 2 where I'm about to give you tips as well as a free printable worksheet on a competitor analysis for B2C and B2B strategic alignment. This part is going to involve a lot of research on your part however, I will walk you through it to make it less painful! Start with your 2 biggest competitors: one that is B2C and the other that is B2B. Its basically going to be similar to a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis but with comparing your business to your competitors.





-This post contains affiliate links. When any picture that looks as if its a stock photo or an ad appears within this post and you click it I will secretly be doing a power "yes" if a sale or service is rendered, as I will receive a small commission and you be not be paying anything additional for this sale nor will I ever see your financial information, so its a win-win situation!

Once you have the worksheet ready to go, let's dive into how to start filling in all those boring squares. First I'm going to make it artsier!

I filled some of it out as an example to help you see where I am headed! I didn't add a ton of photos this time as its time to get down to business!

Who are your competitors? 

Viewing your competitors with a mindset that they are uniquely diverse from you within the same realm might help to honestly evaluate who these artists are or who these art vendors might be. Think of slicing into this being similar to how each human being lives on Earth, however, so extremely complex different from one another. Everyone and every business have their best qualities as well as areas where they need to improve and aspects of their world where things might become difficult in the future unless proper precautions are taken into consideration prior.

I used competitor X to represent a Business to Consumer competitor such as another artist who may have copied your original artwork but changed it slightly to "make it their own" and is selling through a different outlet. Competitor Y is used to represent a Business to a Business competitor such as you against another artist who has set up their own business and sells directly to another business.

You do not have to physically or virtually talk to your competitors as doing so might actually do more harm than good. That is not the point of this competition analysis. This should be used as a tool to further grow and enhance your art as well as your business.

What strategy are your competitors using?

What strategy are you using yourself? To find this out, just look at the business model canvas that you created from the last parts of this series and look at which square is the most overfilled. If you haven't read Part 3 or Part 4 of Series 1 please go back and do this before continuing further as this might not make any sense.

For example, if you have the customer relationships square overfilled and your writing is spilling into the customer segments area because you ran out of room then that is probably where you fulfill your value proposition and this is the answer that you want to put into this first box to the right of where you put either your name or your business name.

To find out which strategy your competition is using, look at where they ask people to go when viewing their social media or their blog. Pay attention specifically to where the funnel starts. For example, I filled in the B2C square with how I noticed they were getting subscribers to their website first before beginning to push any sales. This is actually a smart move especially if you want to see repeat visits, however, you must make sure the product or service that you offer when you get to the sales part of the funnel actually offers what you put in the value section of the business model canvas.

In the example, I put that their value proposition was a low cost, cheaply made, easy to "batch" product. Not meaning to sound condescending, Walmart's suppliers are making millions doing the same thing. Except that Walmart's suppliers are actually keeping those revenues and paying wages whereas when you copy a work of original art that is copyrighted piece by piece that revenue could be owed to the original copyright owner so be very careful if you decide to randomly attempt someone else's art or use images of their artwork to your benefit. 

What strengths do you have right now and what are your competitor's strengths?

What sets you apart from everyone else? What makes your art unique? What makes your business unique? This should be an easy square to complete and will be very beneficial when writing your artist statement, your mission, vision, and goals as well as branding your business. For example, I add beach glass to all of my canvas paintings as its a part of my business as well as my brand. I also have a business degree which I already mentioned which doesn't get me any further unless I actually utilize it.

To find your competitor's strengths look to see what they have sold already. Even if their sales are not high you can still get a feel for what they are currently doing as well as looking into them further on social media and if they are advertising for art sales or asking for people to follow them or subscribe to their website/blog or wherever they are selling their art.

Where are their weaknesses at?

What are you doing as an artist that could use some improvement? This part might be really easy if you are constantly trying to evolve your art and your business. If you have hit a roadblock and seem to be stuck in a rut on where you are going wrong that's ok because right here right now you are going to take a good look at what you are doing right now and make a huge change. If you use Google analytics or rely on the stats wherever you are selling or have been measuring them yourself its time to take a very close look at where on the graph a huge drop occurs. Once you see where the huge drop happens then its time to investigate what you were doing prior and what you did that created that gap. It might even be as simple as the time of day that you uploaded your art or blog.

Sometimes analytics give nothing away to make you realize where the problem area is. I'm a complete introvert, I keep to myself and observe. Its been very difficult to "get out there". When I say this I'm talking about even promoting via social media through commenting. I'm getting better though as I know feedback to others and myself is very important and have learned to not get too into each loop but just enough to make an impact.

Your competitor's weaknesses are not going to involve analyzing stats but to be very observant over a span of about a week. Notice what their basic business etiquette is in relation to customers if they are heavily advertising too much in areas that they do not have built up yet, or if their reviews seem somewhat fabricated. Also, what other product are they offering? If they are offering anything to niche and obscure away from their main value proposition then your intuition will guide you further than the logic here.

It's important to not get stuck in this section but to improve your weaknesses and turn them into opportunities as well as your competitor's weaknesses can also be potential opportunities of yours as well.

What do you forecast as being an opportunity in the future that you do not currently have? What do you forecast your competitors doing in the future that you haven't accomplished yet but still have time to?

As I mentioned above, keep the markets in mind when it comes to seeking new opportunities. Even if you do not have your business established as an artist that is fine. It's actually awesome if you are doing this prior to launch. On the other hand, I did not as I wish I took my own advice and did this before I started the process of uploading all of my art online and now I'm recreating all the descriptions cringing at what I had written before and wondered why certain artworks weren't selling yet. The more detailed and down to earth in each of the boring squares on the worksheet the better this analysis will work out in your favor.

I have had sales, however, I didn't receive them consistently until I turned the weaknesses into strengths. I know it sounds so cliche but its true. As this could also be a threat to my own business as competitors could easily know what to do and swoop in, the world of art sales seem to work in a different way that took me a while to get used to.

Back in the first part of this series the very first post I wrote about how important it was to take time off and find your motivating "muse". This is going to be what the buyers see, they are going to not only want to just view your art but also be able to connect to it with or without you. I took this part way to literally when I first heard it a long time ago. I thought that the art collector literally wanted to know my entire story.....anyways, they want to be able to connect to it in their own way and it's up to you to open that door for them. That is the message that this part should send!

How is their future forecast going to threaten your business?

If your competitors are doing a radical change as in opening up a whole new world....then both you and I should be scared! Its usually never radical like that though, normally its something small that travels like a ball of yarn unraveling.

This is the area where you should step back once you add something into this box and reassess the entire situation. This is why I wrote this into the box here. This is very vital!

I'm hoping that this was helpful in your mission as an artist and that you will gain more sales by going through this analysis!