Being Your Own Marketing Strategist
When I bring up writing newsletters or making posts on social media, sometimes my clients say “I don’t want to annoy people”, my response is often “get over it!”
It might sound a bit harsh but the reality is that your job as an independent artist doesn’t stop when you complete a piece. You are your own advocate and marketing strategist.
So - how do you get over the feeling of not wanting to annoy people?
I encourage you to reframe what you think happens when someone gets an email from you in their inbox.
You, like me, probably get loads of emails from corporations, non-profits, and political groups, and that IS indeed annoying. What is different about getting an email in my inbox from an artist is that I get to see what is happening in someone’s art practice - which is a vastly different thing than being sold on a vacation package. What you’re doing by showing off your art practice is exposing the bright side of human existence. You’re letting them see into your lifestyle and see something creative and different than the normal never-ending stream of doom and capitalist gloom that we are all floating in.
Let’s break it down a bit. As the marketing strategist of your art practice, there are three marketing categories to keep in mind.
1 - Sharing your story
2 - Educating your audience
3 - Becoming familiar to your audience
Your Story - Telling your story is more than just a bio and artist statement. It is the beginning of how someone will start to connect with your work on a deeper level.
Why you make art
Who you are
A headshot
What community you are part of / who you make art for
Educating your audience is how you help people become invested in your work. Over time these folks function as your own little army of advocates / cheerleaders. Word of mouth is super powerful for building your network and the more your audience knows about your practice, the better.
Process info
Behind the scenes
Videos and images of process
Classes info
Artist talk info
Failures and successes
Becoming familiar TO your audience - This is one of the most basic pillars of marketing. If you can commit to posting and sharing info consistently, you are building trust and familiarity with your audience. This is the long game. Another way to describe familiarity is to call it redundancy. Redundancy is such a powerful tool because it might not be until the second time I see a post about something that I actually go and DO the action item. Having the same information in several places also makes it more likely that you get the information out to the different subsets of people in your audience.
Consistent newsletters and social media posts
A blog
Reuse material - leverage all the work you do in one platform in all your other platforms.
