Step Up Your Art Marketing: Building a Research System
This week’s Artisan Advantage video explores Step Two of the free guide, “7 Steps to Marketing Your Art to a Niche.” We move from identifying your niche to building a system for using research to guide your marketing strategy.
Weekly Video Recap
Here’s a quick recap of the key takeaways:
Research is an ongoing process. Don’t think of it as a one-time thing. As your art and career evolves, you must keep learning about your audience.
Set clear goals for your research. What do you want to understand about your niche? Are you looking for event opportunities, commission work, or something else? Make a list of your goals and keep it handy.
Organize your research. A spreadsheet (like Google Sheets) is a great way to capture and categorize the information you find.
Identify your research hotspots. Make a list of online resources you’ll check regularly. Your list could include industry media, local publications, or relevant social media groups.
Schedule research time. It’s easy to get lost in the research rabbit hole. Block out dedicated time in your schedule to keep things focused.
Future episodes will delve deeper into these topics, including a specific research template and strategies for finding the best online resources.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already, grab your free copy of the “7 Steps to Marketing Your Art to a Niche” guide.
Consider the Appearance of Your Blog-Based Website
Before you get too far down the road with your artist blog, it’s essential to take time to consider the overall appearance of your blog.
The best approach is to keep it simple and allow your work to be the focal point. Sometimes artists add unnecessary elements that distract or cause people to bounce away. Examples of this would be a busy patterned background, music, adobe flash – anything that is distracting or makes your site hard to load are not beneficial to building a thriving home base.
Most blogging platforms will allow you to select a theme for your blog. This theme will set your site’s overall look, feel, and style.
Some platforms include these elements in a template. Most themes and templates allow for some customization, but you want to make sure you choose one that lends itself to your work and goals.
A suitable theme will have built-in elements that make it easier and quicker for you to do certain things. For example, some themes lend themselves to displaying work in a portfolio or gallery format, as one example of how you might choose a theme.
Choosing a theme can be overwhelming as you will typically have many from which to choose. Consider some of the following as you hone in on a theme or template for your site.
Here are some things to consider for your artist blog appearance.
Does it allow your work to be the focus?
Can you use a custom header that features your work front and center?
What kind of customization does it allow?
Do you like the layout?
Would you like your blog to have a sidebar?
Do you like the color schemes and fonts available?
Each blogging platform works a little bit differently. Below are links about themes and templates for some commonly used platforms.
Thank you to the MidAtlantic Pastel Society (MAPS) for inviting me to present Building a Dynamic Web Presence during their member meeting this week. Founded in mid-2016, MAPS is dedicated to promoting and understanding pastels as a fine art medium. The society provides members with fellowship, support and growth through bi-monthly programs, workshops, critiques, other educational training, and opportunities to exhibit. Interested artists can learn more about becoming a member here.
Are you interested in scheduling a presentation for your artist organization? Please get in touch with me at becky@artisan-advantage.com.
Happy New Year! We’re a week into the New Year, and hopefully, you are motivated and excited about the year to come.
Sometimes the end of the year is so hectic that it is helpful to sit down and review upcoming plans for the next twelve months after the start of the year. I have an annual subscription to Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner. Being a subscriber, I receive regular emails with advice for planning, goal setting, and more. This week I received an email about the concept of an annual preview that might be helpful for your visual art business. If you’d like to learn more about conducting an annual preview, you can listen to this episode of the Lead to Win Podcast.
Do an Annual Preview for Your Visual Art Business
Some of the things you can do to preview your art business for 2022 include:
List your biggest wins. Wins could include reaching sales goals, holding a fruitful show, receiving an award, or anything else you consider a success this year.
Make a list of all the things that worked for you this year. Then, make a list of things that didn’t work. Is there any particular social media platform that is working better than another? Are there activities that are panning out into opportunities or sales for you? What do you want to keep doing in 2022? Likewise, which actions should you reconsider or stop doing?
Did you have written goals in 2021? Have your reviewed and rewritten them for 2022? If not, do it now.
Review your calendar for the upcoming year. Map out the significant events and milestones you need to hit during the year. Make sure you list out all events, exhibitions, and deadlines to map out your preparation.
Consider your daily rituals. What can you do at the beginning and close of every day to keep your business on track?
Consider your ideal workweek. Can you map out what you should do every week and when you should do it to keep your business on track and reach your goals? For example, you can map out studio time, marketing time, and any other activity that will get you closer to your goals.
Doing this review and giving thought to pre-planning will set you up for more likely success in the year to come.
Check out the Full Focus Planner
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a big fan of the Full Focus Planner. If you are looking for a planning system, I recommend that you give it a look.
Stay in Touch
I’d love to stay in touch this year. Join my weekly newsletter here.
It’s December 1st! Make this last month of the year count.
Year-end reviews and planning for next year are always a hot topic this time of year, and I encourage you to do that.
In addition to a year-end review and planning for the next year, there is one critical activity I’ve got in the habit of doing every year. This activty ensures that I hit the ground running in January. It also helps me stay on track during a month typically filled with holiday events, parties, and travel. I like to refer to it as a “home-stretch” plan.
What does this “home stretch” plan entail?
As the year is coming to a close, a home stretch plan is simply a quick list of things that I would like to accomplish before the end of the year. I consider outstanding projects that I would like to wrap up. Then, I think about things I would like to have in place when I hit the ground running in January.
Before Thanksgiving, I sat down to figure out my “home stretch plan” and came up with the following priorities for the next four weeks. Some of the things on my plan included:
Make health a priority with healthy eating and exercise, mindful of the many opportunities coming up to indulge.
Helping my daughter tie up some loose ends regarding her post-graduate plans after high school.
Finish a product that I’ve been working on for too long now. It’s time to get it done.
Finally, make headway with or possibly (but realize it might not be realistic) complete my new website.
Keep it Simple
I like to keep it simple. Yes, I have holiday planning and other things to do, but these are the four things that I am focusing on going into the New Year. I use it as a reference to make sure I make time count during this busy month.
It doesn’t take long to do. Give some thought to your “home stretch plan” today so you can make these next four weeks count and hit the ground running in January. Leave yourself plenty of room for rest, relaxation, and holiday cheer, but help yourself get a leg up so you will feel ahead of the game on New Years Day.
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