“You see the world has changed. You don’t need to sell at events and galleries anymore,” says artist turned marketer, David Emmons, in a new YouTube ad. “You can go directly to your customers, and, more importantly, they can come directly to you.”
But how? Well, David then flips over to his computer screen and walks you through the process of setting up a hypothetical Facebook ad, showing you exactly how you would drill down to find the perfect prospects to run the ad to.
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“I don’t care what you create or how unique your work is; I can teach you how to find tens of thousands of your exact customers—and in most cases, millions—and have them going to your website.”
“Specialty small business owners don’t realize that the internet has changed. This is not the internet that it was just five years ago. There are free tools available to you that enable you to have online success—when you know where they are and how to use them.”
“And that’s why you need a mentor. A guide. Someone just like you who’s already succeeding online and teaching it to others. Someone who’ll show you the step-by-step clear path to follow for a sustainable online business.”
But can’t you just Google how to do this and figure it out yourself? Nope, he says. There’s too much information today. The last thing you need is more of it pulling you every which way. What you need, is a guide.
And what better guide than someone who’s already walked the walk, David asks, before suggesting you sign up for his “free” masterclass.
After you sit through that, of course, he’ll try to sell you his paid program, called Artist Marketing Formula. It’s basically just a “how to run Facebook and Instagram ads” course, but tailored to artists, craftsmen, and speciality small business owners.
What’s it cost? That depends. The Basic package is $797. The Pro plan, which is David’s most popular, is $997 or two payments of $549. It comes with extra tutorials, a Facebook group for support, and one live group coaching call per month. Or, you could go Premium for $1,497 or two payments of $799. Here, you get everything included in Pro, plus 10 one-hour, private coaching calls.
Should you buy from David Emmons?
Maybe. I think it’s a fair offer. And I think Dave comes across as credible and sincere. I honestly didn’t see any red flags in his marketing.
I did, however, come across one negative review about his training, which read: “I wasted $1,000 with David Emmons who is selling a class to artists to learn how to put ads on Facebook.”
“He claims to make 635 sales per month and a six figure income.”
“I diligently went through the whole class, made the changes, business page with FB, paid for some ads, but quickly figured out that the only one making money was Facebook.”
“When I wrote to David to ask about this, he cut me off from my ‘lifetime’ access to the course and will not answer my emails.”
“So beware artists! Everyone wants to take your money. They all have the ‘easy’ answer, the one step solution, etc. There is no ‘easy’ answer; there is hard work,” they argued.
And that’s the only thing I’d echo, is that Facebook ads, in my opinion, are not what they used to be. Yes, the targeting is still awesome. Sure, on paper, it seems like it’d work. But they’re just so damn expensive nowadays. It’s getting harder and harder to turn a profit.
Not saying it can’t be done. And perhaps, with David’s help, you can. But it’s not the slam dunk he’d like you to believe it is.
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