Dear Circle,

The other day, I was talking to a friend — a creative, fairy-of-the-woods type — who happened to be working on attracting more people to hire the company she works for. And somewhere between the second chai and the third tangent, she confessed:

So I shared with her one of my favourite frameworks — simple, practical, ancient in marketing years. It’s called the 5 Ps of Marketing, and the second I laid them out, she lit up like a glowworm at a networking event.

But, Xav, what are the 5 Ps?

A strategic framework to help you understand how to offer your work to the world, with clarity and alignment. It's not a spell, but it does work like magic when you actually use it.

1. People – Who is this for? (Your audience, clients, buyers, humans.)

2. Product – What exactly are you offering them? (Be specific. A painting? a tote bag? A transformative event?)

3. Price – What’s the value, and how are you positioning it? (This says a lot about you.)

4. Place – Where can people find or buy this? (Gallery? Instagram? On a mountain at dusk?)

5. Promotion – How are you telling them about it? (This is where most artists get stuck.)

🍶 Storytime: Meet Lena, the photographer

Lena is prepping a pop-up show for her new series — dreamy portraits of dancers in abandoned spaces. Her goal? Make real-life sales at the event and grow her collector base.

Here’s how she uses the 5 Ps:

• People: Dance lovers, fine art collectors, movement nerds, moody aesthetes.

• Product: Signed, limited-edition prints (framed and unframed).

• Price: Tiered pricing to make the work accessible, while honoring its value.

• Place: A local art pop-up, plus a QR code that leads to her online shop.

• Promotion: She does a teaser countdown on Instagram, sends a newsletter, and partners with a dancer influencer who shares BTS of the shoot.

Boom. Strategy.

Don’t be fooled: promotion is an inception of strategies.

Promotion is my personal obsession. (Marketing nerd alert. I have a degree for this.)
But here’s what most artists get wrong:
They jump straight to promotion… before they’ve figured out the other Ps.

Don’t start with “How do I sell this?”
Start with:
– Who’s it for?
– What is it?
– What’s the value?
– Where should it live?

Then — and only then — do we talk promotion.

Promotion is an ecosystem. It’s a strategy within a strategy. It’s… Inception-level strategy layers 🌀

Types of Promotion – A Quick Peek

Promotion isn’t just Instagram. It’s a buffet of tactics — all with different flavours:

• Advertising – Digital ads, posters, reels, billboards (yes, even that).

• Sales promotions – Discounts, early access, collector bundles, flash sales.

• Public relations – Press, blog features, event partnerships, content marketing.

• Direct marketing – Emails, DMs, postcards, whispering it into someone’s ear at a bar.

• Word of mouth – Still the queen. Make it easy for people to rave about you.

We’ll break these down in a future post. But for now?

The goal isn’t just reach. It’s the right reach.
And when you get the right reach… that’s when you get rich. 🤑

Xav’s Final Take

When you know your 5 Ps, everything else becomes clearer: your message, your presence, your energy. But what happens next? How do people go from “Oh, that’s nice” to “Shut up and take my money” to “I’ll come back for more”?

That’s where the marketing funnel comes in.

📩 Read the follow-up: The Artist’s Funnel — Turning Awareness into Loyalty

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🤝 Curious about how I help artists like Lena bridge the gap between artistic passion and market success? 

If this resource resonates with you, you might benefit from working more closely with me.

I'm Xav—artist mentor, creative director and co-founder of Artist Ally. I work with artists 1:1 to build strategies and experiences that align with their values, personality, vision, and long-term career goals.

If you're an artist who wants to make your path clearer, your practice more sustainable, and your voice louder, I’d love to help.

Let’s navigate cities—and your career—together.

🌐 Visit our website to learn more about my work mentoring artists and developing their brands.

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Keep going down the strategy hole.
You can hold my hand if you want.
— Xav 💜