by Rebecca Sciullo | Dec 5, 2023 | Blogging, Your Hub
Ideas for Blogging about Your Art Business
Blogging is an invaluable tool for you to make a connection with your audience. Yet, deciding on blog topics often poses a challenge. Here are twelve ideas to try on your artist blog.
1 – Artistic Process Insights
Reveal your creative journey from inception to finished artwork. Share materials, techniques, and emotions that drive your art. For example, Artist Amy D’Apice showcases her process on the Art Conspiracy Blog.
2 – Art Tutorials
Educate your audience with step-by-step tutorials or video demonstrations, empowering followers to enhance their artistic skills. Check out tutorials like those by Maria B. Paints and Katrina Crouch.
3 – Artist Interviews
Collaborate with fellow artists, spotlighting their work, experiences, and creative philosophies. This content introduces readers to new talent and expands your network. Here is an example from Auntie Betty Illustration.
4 – Artistic Challenges
Document your exploration into new styles, mediums, or themes. Share the journey and growth this challenge brings, like Scott Young’s Portrait Challenge.
5 – Art in Daily Life
illustrate how art influences your everyday life, from home decor to fashion, reflecting your artistic perspective.
6 – Art History and Influences
Write about artists, art movements, or historical periods that inspire your work. Explore the connections between your art and the broader artistic world such as this post by Adrian Reynolds.
7 – Exhibition and Event Updates
Keep your audience informed about upcoming exhibitions, art fairs, or events. Share experiences and thoughts about each event, like those these by Mea Rhee, and Sarah Soward.
8 – Art Book and Product Reviews
Offer honest insights into books, tools, or products that have impacted your artistic journey.
9 – Personal Growth and Reflection
Share personal stories shaping your artistry. Explore how art has facilitated personal growth and learning experiences.
10 – Artistic Challenges from Readers
Engage your audience by encouraging them to suggest themes or challenges for your artwork.
11 – Artistic Philosophy
Delve deeper into the meaning behind your art. Discuss themes, symbolism, and messages embedded in your work.
12 – Share Awards and Accomplishments
Celebrate business milestones, awards, or media features to showcase your achievements like Robin Maria Pedro.
Remember, consistency is essential in blogging. Establish a posting schedule that suits you and engage with your readers to build a supportive community around your art.
Want more ideas and help for your art business? Join the Artisan Advantage weekly information drop here.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Jul 10, 2023 | Blogging, Channels
Let’s Talk about Blogging and Email Newsletters
Email marketing was one of the topics covered recently in an Artisan Advantage Art Marketing Roundtable was email marketing. Coming up in August, we will be talking about blogging for an art business.
Artists have asked me, do I need both for my business?
Ideally, it would be best if you eventually worked to have both tools working for you in your business.
Before we dig into why you would want both and how they can complement each other, here’s a review of where they are similar, where they differ, and how they relate to your business.
Two Distinct Platforms
Content and Format
A blog is a website or a page on your website where you can publish various types of content, such as articles, tutorials, artwork showcases, videos, and more. It typically offers a collection of posts organized by categories or tags, allowing visitors to browse your content. Your blog can be an excellent place to share new work and information you can repurpose in many ways (more on that later!).
Email Newsletter: An email newsletter is a regularly sent email that contains updates, announcements, promotions, or information about new work. It is typically a shorter format than blog posts and is delivered directly to subscribers’ email inboxes. Your email newsletter should only go to people who have agreed or requested to receive it. For your art business, a regular email newsletter can keep your customers and contacts updated with new work, events, and any announcements you want to get out to them.
Communication Channel:
Blog: A blog primarily functions as a one-to-many communication channel. You publish content on your blog; visitors can access and engage with it by visiting your website. Then, they can leave comments, share posts, and interact with other readers.
Email Newsletter: An email newsletter is a one-to-one or one-to-many communication channel. You send newsletters directly to subscribers’ email addresses, allowing for more personalized and targeted communication. Subscribers can reply to the newsletter or engage with specific calls to action within the email.
Audience Reach and Engagement:
Blog: Blogs are typically accessible to anyone with internet access, and content can be shared across various platforms, like social media, to reach a wider audience. Visitors can discover your blog through search engines, social media, or links shared by others. Engagement happens through comments, social media shares, and discussions.
Email Newsletter: An email newsletter is sent directly to subscribers who have voluntarily provided their email addresses. It offers a more direct and intimate connection with your audience. While the reach is narrower than a blog, the engagement is often higher since subscribers have explicitly opted to receive updates from you.
Use Your Artist Blog and Email Newsletter to Complement Each Other
Both platforms can complement each other, with a blog serving as a content hub and a newsletter helping you maintain direct communication with your audience. Integrating both allows you to provide a variety of content formats on your blog while leveraging email newsletters for more personalized updates and building stronger relationships with your subscribers.
Don’t Miss a Post
We’ll continue to explore email marketing and blogging for your art business. Don’t miss a post by subscribing to my weekly email newsletter here.
To learn more about how to use both of these tools effectively together, join in August’s Roundtable on blogging.
by Becky Sciullo | Nov 3, 2021 | Artist Blogging 101, Artist Websites, Blogging
Is your Artist Website Ready for Holiday Sales?
Halloween is over, and thoughts have turned to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
With news of shortages on the rise, holiday shoppers will reportedly get started earlier than usual this year. So make sure your artist website is ready. Here are some things you can do to make the most of the 2021 holiday shopping season smooth rather than chaotic.
First, Get Your Web Pages Ready
Update your How to Purchase page. If you don’t have one, devote a page to holiday shopping providing information such as cutoff dates for sales. Alert your customers trying to receive their order on or before December 24th of important dates for that to happen. Make sure you keep in mind shipping carrier deadlines. December 15th is a pretty good bet if shipping within the US, but make sure you research your particular situation. You could format this page in a Frequently Asked Questions format.
Make sure all of your work is listed on your site and up to date. And, if you are using a shopping cart, make sure the buttons are working.
Consider offering gift cards, which can be done through providers such as Square, or you can create your own.
Then, Prepare Your Blog Posts
Your artist blog is a perfect place to promote your products and services this holiday season. Here are some examples of the kinds of posts you can share to help your readers and maximize holiday sales.
Share new work to stay top-of-mind as people are browsing the internet for gift ideas.
If applicable, highlight different price points that might accommodate different pricing levels.
If there is any way to draw upon seasonal elements, do it. For example, if you create functional pottery, show images in holiday settings. For jewelry artists, highlight your creations paired with festive outfits.
Don’t forget customary campaigns like Black Friday and Cyber Monday and write some blog posts around these themes.
Share pertinent shipping dates in a blog post.
If you have a large local or regional following – consider highlighting local events that your followers may be interested in attending.
Don’t forget a plan for thanks and seasons greetings. At Thanksgiving, post a blog thanking your customers, followers, and fans. You might even want to send cards or offer a small token of appreciation for larger clients, but even a blog post will do. Just do it. You can do the same for Christmas and the New Year.
Get Ready for Art Sales
For all of these ideas, prepare them in advance! You will likely be too busy to focus on them when the time comes for them to post.
Share Your Ideas
Do you have an excellent idea for a holiday blog post? Share it by sending it to becky@artisan-advantage.com.
Photo by Artboard Studio on Unsplash
by Becky Sciullo | Jun 25, 2021 | Artist Websites, Blogging
Dorit Brauer is an award-winning author and artist. I had the pleasure of meeting her in early 2020 when presenting to a local art league. She recently emailed me news of her acceptance into a competitive art exhibition, along with this blog post. It’s worth sharing as a great example of how to blog about an event.
Sharing Her Story
Blogging is a great way to give followers a glimpse into your world, whether behind the scenes in your studio or sharing events such as Dorit does in this post. Some points to note:
1 – She provides background information about the show and the significance of being chosen for it.
2 – She offers good visuals in the way of images and video.
3 – The video allows people who can’t attend in person to get a view of the exhibit and the perspective of her art within the show. Also there is a fun twist encouraging viewers to take a close look at her work.
4 – She makes good use of hyperlinks, linking to the venue, the Hoyt Art Center, should readers want to visit, within the post and also provides links to related blog posts.
And, finally – a shameless plug – Dorit found this opportunity by reading my email newsletter🙂 (If you’re not already getting it, I’d love for you to join here).
A Dynamic Website
Please spend a few minutes on Dorit’s website, and learn that she is an energetic artist living out her creativity every day. Her site is a perfect example of a “dynamic website”!
Thank you, Dorit, for sharing your work and inspiration with the world!
by Becky Sciullo | May 24, 2021 | Artist Websites, Blogging
Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday morning.
Five art marketing ideas.
1 – If you have a live exhibition set up, you can also turn it into a virtual show. Photograph it and then make it available online for people who can’t visit in person.
2 – Take advantage of what others are saying about your work by adding a press page to your artist website. Provide links to articles, blog posts, and other media mentions that lend credibility to your work and give people more information about you as an artist.
3 – When referencing your website’s pages and other internal information in blog posts, make sure that you use hyperlinks to make them easy to access. Internal linking also helps with SEO.
4 – Demographics vary, sometimes widely, for social media usage. Make sure you are investing time in the platforms that make the most sense for reaching your target audience.
5 – When visiting with customers and fans in person, make sure you invite them to subscribe to email newsletters and social media profiles. You can encourage tagging while they are with you by offering a special gift as a thank you.
Learn More
Monday Morning Marketing Ideas is a weekly blog post series to offer ideas that you might use in your business. Thoughts provided cover a wide variety of medium and marketing methods. Some may seem a little crazy. Others, you might say, now why didn’t I think of that? These are simply ideas that pop into my head or come across my desk as I work through the week. I don’t always have time to write an entire blog post on the subject, but I thought they might be worth sharing.
For even more ideas and information, join my weekly newsletter here.
by Becky Sciullo | May 3, 2021 | Artist Websites, Blogging, Learning, Social Media, Tools
Here are some marketing ideas for your Monday Morning.
Seven Art Marketing Ideas
1 – Set up an art loan program where people can make arrangements to rotate art and refresh their walls for a set monthly fee.
2 – Feature up to ten pieces of work in a collection in an Instagram carousel post.
3 – We spring clean our homes. Why not spring clean your business, ultimately making you more effective at marketing and selling your work. Step back and take care of some of those things that may have become cluttered or that you don’t deal with very often.
4 – Take your audience behind the scenes by sharing an insight into your process. Still images are great, but short videos are even better.
5 – Invite followers and readers to “ask me anything”. It’s an engaging way to open up a conversation with them and get insight into what your audience wants to hear from you.
6 – Use a mind-mapping tool like Mindmeister to help brainstorm ideas for anything from blog post ideas to finding an audience.
7 – A downside of Instagram is the inability to share links other than in your bio. Here is an excellent idea on how to get more out of that one link.
Learn More
Monday Morning Marketing Ideas is a weekly blog post series to offer ideas that you might use in your business. Thoughts provided cover a wide variety of medium and marketing methods. Some may seem a little crazy. Others, you might say, now why didn’t I think of that? These are simply ideas that pop into my head or come across my desk as I work through the week. I don’t always have time to write an entire blog post on the subject, but I thought they might be worth sharing.
For even more ideas and information, join my weekly newsletter here.
