It’s time to expand on last week’s post The What and Why of Blogging for your art business. I often compare this system of using a blog in your art marketing efforts to a wheel.
Think of your art marketing system as a wheel.
Your blog is the hub of the wheel – the central location for your art marketing and promotion. It contains all of the content about your art business. Every message that you want to share about your work is documented and stored on your blog. This content can include everything from the story behind a piece of art, information about your process, or details for an upcoming event. There is no limit to what you can share on your blog. You control the message, and this is the best place to craft and present all of your content. This is your home base.
The outside of the wheel, or rim, is your audience. These are all of the people that you want to reach with your message about your art.
The spokes are all of the different channels you use to get your message to the world. These channels are not limited to but can include things like social media, press releases, and direct mail. You write your message first on your blog, and then send it out to your audience through the spokes or channels.
These channels, in turn, direct people back to the your blog.
This back and forth activity gets the wheel into motion and moves your business forward.
Why this strategy?
But why worry about a blog, why not just pick some channels and post your work? Here are three good reasons why.
First, every spoke has its limits. You can only post so much text on Facebook before people tune out. You can send a press release out to your media contacts, but there is no guarantee that they will print or share the entire message. In both of these instances, you can share a link to your blog. On Facebook, you control the link. For a press release, most outlets will share our When people are interested, they will follow the link. Then, you have your opportunity to share the whole story. Every channel has a limit. Your blog is limitless. You can put any message you want there.
Second, you will be more organized.
Do you ever feel scattered when it comes to marketing your work? Where should you post what? I know I did until I implemented this system. Use your blog as your home base for your messages. Then, you can then systematically share information with your audience through whichever channels you want. Implementing this system for your art marketing efforts should reduce that overwhelmed feeling.
Last, but not least – Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a topic that warrants more discussion, but let’s start with the basics. SEO means that you optimize a website so that more people find it through organic or unpaid traffic when they use search engines such as Google. There are many things that you can do to optimize SEO. One thing that helps is to have a site with higher quality and frequently updated information. We will delve more into SEO later, but for now understand that If you are posting regularly on a blog, then you will naturally achieve this first benefit of providing high quality and fresh content
How do I get my wheel in motion?
Hopefully, you’re starting to see the importance of placing your blog based website at the center of your marketing efforts. Next up, we’ll cover some things to consider as you prepare to set up your blog.
Want to get into motion quickly? Consider my Artist Blogging Services.
