Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday morning.
Six Art Marketing Ideas
1 – Figure out how to createmarketing moments with your online presence.
2 – Research what other artists are doing with their websites. Seek out artists working in your niche, medium, or another area where you relate. Do they have a useful page that you could also add to your site? Or, so they organize their gallery in a way that would also work for your work? You can get all kinds of marketing inspiration through research.
3 – For your events, including virtual events, make sure you add them to event discovery sites such as Eventbrite or Facebook Events.
4 – Also, for events, don’t be afraid to reach out directly to groups or organizations where members might be interested in the event.
5 – Social media platforms are becoming search engines. People search for business and contact information within social media platforms. Be sure to have all pertinent information on contacting you and finding your website in all of your social media profiles
6 – Consider niche platforms to promote your work.
*This is an post from April 2020 that has been updated.
How to Choose a Platform For Your Artist Blog
Before you can start blogging, you need to decide which platform you will use. Your platform is the software or system that manages all of the content that you publish. Platforms can also be referred to as content management systems or website builders.
Do you already have a website?
If you have a website for your art business, it may already have a blog function built-in. Many artists build sites on blog platforms but don’t use the blogging feature. If this describes your website, then it isn’t too difficult to start blogging. For artists, some common platforms with blogging features include Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, FASO, WordPress.com, and WordPress.org.
By using the Help or Knowledgebase of your current website platform, you should be able to find detailed instructions on how to use your blog feature.
Do you need a new website?
If you are happy with your current platform, don’t reinvent the wheel. However, you have an outdated website that does not offer a blogging feature, or you are starting from scratch, you need to decide on which platform to build your blog. If you have a site but find the platform difficult to use or not meet your needs, consider a switch.
Recommendations.
My top choice for both artist websites and blogs used to be self-hosted WordPress.org. WordPress.org is the most popular platform in the world. It offers the most flexibility for design, and it is what I use for Artisan Advantage. However, it takes longer to master than some other platforms. And, it is self-hosted, which means you have to find pay for a service to host your site. WordPress.org gets easier to use over time, however, so if you can commit to a longer learning curve, then it might be the choice for you. If you choose to go with WordPress.org, then I recommend checking out Christina Hills and her Website Creation Workshops.
Most of the artists that I help are eager to get started and don’t want to invest a large amount of time learning a system or building a site. Platforms that offer a more straightforward setup and more than adequate features for your blog based website include WordPress.com, FASO, Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix. Of these, WordPress.com and FASO are my favorites for artists.
Your blog will never be perfect. You will always be changing and improving. In my years of blogging, one thing I learned is that sometimes you just have to start.
If starting a blog for your visual art business is something that you’ve wanted to do, I encourage you to get started today using one of the resources above or following allowing with Artist Blogging 101.
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
Happy February! Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday morning
Six Art Marketing Ideas
1 – Spend time creating and scheduling social media posts for the coming months. Did you know that you can pre-schedule your social media posts for the week or month ahead? Some platforms like Facebook allow you to do it right in your account, or you can use a service like Hootsuite to schedule more than one platform at once.
2 – Have you finished a series of work while staying at home this past year? Did you a specific body of work as a result of the pandemic? I’ve noticed that magazines and newspapers are focusing on human interest around activity during these strange times. Why not put together a press release about this work and send it to targeted media outlets.
5 – Think about your website and blog visitors in three categories. First-time visitors, repeat visitors who’ve never purchased from you and repeat visitors who have bought from you in the past. Think about how you can speak to all three groups when putting out content.
6 – Create a collaborative social media giveaway. Join together with several artists to coordinate a giveaway of your work. Each artist can choose one item to promote. Work together to develop a plan on how people will enter and how you will determine the winner. This could be a great way to cross-promote while gaining new followers.
You’ve probably written at least one artist statement. Have you ever written an artist blogging statement? If you haven’t, and you blog for your art business, you need to write one.
What’s an Artist Blogging Statement?
An artist blogging statement is simply a written statement about the purpose of your artist blog. What will your blog do for your business? How will it help you to reach your goals? It’s your guide to staying on track and purposeful with your artist blog.
Do This Before you write your Artist Blogging Statement.
Your artist blog should move you closer to the vision you have outlined for your art business. If you haven’t written out your vision, then I recommend you do this first. Then, once you have outlined where you want to go and the steps you need to take to get there, your blog can support that vision.
More Help Writing Your Artist Blogging Statement
For more information about writing your artist blogging statement, check out this video. Then, if you’d like the free resources I mention in the video, drop me a line at becky@artisan-advantage.com.
Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday morning.
Six Art Marketing Ideas for your Monday Morning
1 – Ask your followers on social media to either vote on or suggest a title for a new piece of art. Generating more comments will increase your exposure.
2 – Holiday marketing campaigns are not just for end of year holidays like Christmas. Use your holiday marketing strategies to market around smaller holidays throughout the year, including times such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s day, and more. You can get creative and consider lesser known holidays and observances as well.
4 – If you are a visual artist who focuses on work featuring a specific geographic region, consider a “hyperlocal” strategy. Join your Chamber of Commerce or other local business group. It’s possible to participate in many things virtually these days. Make sure you are a part of the local artist registry. Immerse yourself in your local community.
5 – Are you missing live interaction with current and prospective collectors? Hold an artist talk over Facebook live. Announce a specific date in advance, then prepare a list of frequently asked questions to answer.
6 – Instead of always releasing one work at a time, consider releasing work in a series. Then, be deliberate in how you present the work to generate more interest and income. As a result, creating art with a common theme often encourages repeat purchase.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
1 – Figure out how to create marketing moments with your online presence.
