by Rebecca Sciullo | Jun 20, 2023 | Events, Learning, Planning, Productivity, Your Hub
Do you have a business plan for your art business? It might not be that unusual that you don’t. If you started selling your art as a side business and fell into it, as sometimes happens, you may not have one. Or, maybe you’ve been so busy working between producing work and marketing that you haven’t reviewed your plans in a while. The good news is that there is always time.
Reasons to consider writing or revamping your art business plan.
You need a strategic approach combining your artistic vision with a well-designed business plan to succeed. Here are some things a solid business plan will do for you.
A good plan ensures you to treat your art as a business. Many artists need help viewing their creative pursuits as a business, fearing that it might dilute their artistic integrity. Treating art as a business helps you to establish a professional framework, enabling you to focus on goals, identify target audiences, and allocate resources effectively.
Setting clear goals gives you a roadmap to success. By outlining your vision, then short-term and long-term plans, you can stay focused, measure progress, and adapt your strategies accordingly.
A business plan helps you to manage your finances. Your financial stability is vital for sustaining a creative endeavor. With a clear understanding of their finances, artists can invest wisely in their art and secure a stable income.
Your plan outlines effective marketing strategies. An effective business plan helps you identify a target market and develop effective marketing strategies, allowing you to tailor artistic offerings, craft persuasive messages, and utilize appropriate marketing channels, maximizing your reach and exposure.
It gives you accountability. There is something about putting your plans into writing that takes you one step further to sticking to them. Share them with a partner or colleague, and your commitment to seeing the plan through will increase.
Creativity at the Core, But Planning is Essential
While creativity remains at the core of your work, having a well-designed business plan is essential for sustainable success. It provides a strategic framework to support your vision, helps manage finances, enables effective marketing, and increases accountability. Unlock your full potential and create a solid foundation for your art business by investing time and effort into crafting a comprehensive business plan.
It’s Never Too Late to Plan
Join a free art marketing round table, where we will discuss doing a mid-year business review, productivity, and time management for artists.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Jun 14, 2023 | Learning, Planning, Productivity, Time Management, Tools
How’s Your Year Going?
Do you plan once for your year and then not look at it again for the rest of the year? If you do, you’re not alone. It’s not uncommon to make solid plans and then get so busy with your work that you don’t check back in to assess how things are going.
Or, do you not have a plan but rather roll with things, creating work and putting it out there on your website or social media, hoping something will happen? Again, you’re not alone. The good news is there is always time to start making a plan.
You may have a plan and want to be more productive and assess how to improve things along the way.
For all three of these scenarios, and everything in between, join an upcoming art marketing round table where we will talk about doing a mid-year review for your art business and sharing productivity and planning tips.
How to do a Mid-Year Review for Your Art Business
Planning is for more than just the beginning of the year. Artists should periodically take stock of how things are going and where they need to adjust their plans. Do this with a mid-year review. And, if you’ve never made a plan for your business, you don’t have to wait for the beginning of the year to start. Instead, learn strategies to get started with art business planning at any stage of the game.
This art marketing round table will focus on a mid-year review of your art business. We will discuss the review process and areas you should consider when going through this process. Discussion points will include assessing your performance, systems, and goals over the past six months. Then, take that information to determine areas of adjustment and improvement for the rest of the year. This comprehensive evaluation will guide your decision-making in growing a vibrant art business. Going through this process will help you to re-evaluate and clarify goals, optimize your practices, and foster a plan for business growth.
We will also discuss productivity and time management techniques.
Art Marketing Round Table: Mid-Year Planning – Wednesday, June 21, 2023
3:00 pm EST/12:00 pm Pacific
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/640713139247
Free Event to Help Your Art Business
This event is free, but space is limited.
For more information about upcoming round tables and other resources to help with your art marketing, please join my email newsletter.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Jun 5, 2023 | Channels, Learning
Email List Building For Artists
As an artist, cultivating a strong connection with your audience is essential for growing your business. One powerful tool that can help you achieve this is using email marketing. Sending email campaigns allows you to engage with your fans, share updates on your latest creations, and promote your artwork directly to those interested in your work.
Once you choose your email marketing system, you need a list of people that have agreed to hear from you. In order to build this list, you need to figure out ways to get people to opt-in or give you permission to email them. Perhaps you already have a list of clients and contacts that have given you their information, but you are going to want to have a good strategy for continuing to grow this list.
Below are effective strategies artists can use to build a healthy email list and connect with their audience.
Encourage People to Join Your List
To encourage people to join your artist email campaigns should include exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes insights into your creative process, tutorials, art tips, or sneak peeks of upcoming projects. You’ll motivate people to join your email list and stay engaged with your artistic journey by providing valuable content and incentives.
Optimize Your Website for Email Capture
Your website is a crucial platform for growing your email list. Include prominent and visually appealing sign-up forms on your website’s homepage, blog posts, and relevant landing pages. Keep the process simple and ask for minimal information to reduce friction for potential subscribers. Communicate the benefits of joining your email list to encourage sign-ups. Some artists use pop-up or slide-in forms to capture visitors’ attention and convert them into subscribers.
Leverage Social Media Channels
Your social media presence can be a powerful tool for expanding your email list. Encourage your followers to join your email list by promoting the exclusive content and incentives mentioned earlier. Use compelling calls to action in social media posts, such as “Join my email list to receive the first look at new art.” Pin a post on your profiles highlighting the benefits of joining your list and including a sign-up link. Additionally, consider running targeted ad campaigns on social media platforms to reach a broader audience and drive email list sign-ups.
Collaborate and Cross-Promote
Collaborating with other artists, influencers, or complementary businesses in your niche can effectively expand your email list. Explore partnerships where you can offer joint incentives or create co-branded content. For example, cross-promote each other’s email lists through guest blog posts, social media shoutouts, or joint giveaways. By tapping into each other’s audiences, you can reach new subscribers with a genuine interest in your artistic work.
Attend Events and Collect Emails Offline
In-person events such as art exhibitions, workshops, or craft fairs present valuable opportunities to connect with art enthusiasts and collect email addresses. Set up a sign-up sheet or tablet to allow visitors to join your email list on the spot—post QR codes with a link to a place on your website that includes an email opt-in. Consider offering a small incentive, like a free digital print, to motivate people to share their email addresses. Be sure to inform them about the exclusive content and benefits they will receive by being part of your email community.
Don’t Forget! Engage and Nurture Your Subscribers
Building an email list is not just about collecting email addresses; it’s about nurturing a community of engaged fans. Once people join your list, consistently providing them with valuable and relevant content is key. Send regular newsletters, updates about your latest artwork, upcoming exhibitions, and news about your artistic journey. Encourage two-way communication by asking for feedback, inviting replies, or featuring subscriber stories in your emails. By engaging with your subscribers, you’ll strengthen the bond and loyalty of your community.
Building an email list is a valuable asset for artists seeking to connect with their audience on a deeper level. By creating valuable content and incentives and working to engage subscribers, you can consistently grow a quality list of people interested in hearing from you.
Email Marketing Resources For Artists
For more tips on email marketing for artists, join my free weekly newsletter below. As a thank you, I’ll send you an Email Marketing Checklist for Artists.
by Rebecca Sciullo | May 4, 2023 | Artist Websites, Learning, Tools, Your Hub
Promote Your Art Business with Email Marketing
Email marketing has become an important for businesses, including art businesses. Sending targeted, well-designed emails to your customers and subscribers can help you build relationships, promote your artwork, and boost sales. However, with the wide selection of email marketing services available, how do you select the right one for your art business?
Identify your email marketing goals
Before diving into the selection process, assessing your art business goals and how your email marketing will support them is important.
Consider your budget
Email marketing services come in different pricing plans, from free to expensive. Starting with a free service should be fine if you are just getting started. Some services charge based on the number of subscribers or the number of emails sent, while others have a fixed monthly fee. Different services offer different features at various pricing plans, so you should be able to find one that meets your budget.
Evaluate the features
Different email marketing services offer different features. Some key features include email templates, list management, automation, segmentation, A/B testing, analytics, and integrations with other tools. List the features you need and compare them across different services.
Check the deliverability rate
The deliverability rate is the percentage of emails that reach your subscribers’ inboxes. A high deliverability rate is crucial to the success of your email marketing campaigns. Look for a service with a good reputation for deliverability and measures to prevent your emails from being marked as spam. This article from EmailToolTester reviews popular services for their deliverability rate.
Try before you buy
Most email marketing services offer a free trial or plan with limited features. Take advantage of this to test the service and see if it meets your needs. Make sure to test all the features you need and evaluate the platform’s ease of use.
Look for user reviews
Finally, look for user reviews of the email marketing service you’re considering. User reviews can provide valuable insights into the service’s strengths, weaknesses, and user experience.
Just Start!
In conclusion, choosing a reliable marketing service is important, but even more crucial is just starting. Use these tips as a guide, but avoid getting too bogged down with analysis. Searching online will find you many review on different services. I used Mailchimp for years and recently switched to MailerLite, and it was an easy transition. You can always do the same.
Get the Artist’s Email Marketing Checklist
Would you like more information like this to help your art business sent directly to your inbox? Then, please join my email newsletter here, and as a thank you, I”ll send you an Artist’s Email Marketing Checklist.
by Rebecca Sciullo | May 1, 2023 | Channels, Events, Learning
Selling Art Online: From your website to popular e-commerce platforms.
There are a lot of choices when it comes to selling art online. Online marketplaces like Etsy allow you to sell direct consumers without using your website. Online galleries such as U-Gallery will connect artists directly with collectors. Or, you can set your website up for commerce and directly sell yourself. Finally, some sites allow you to sell your original art and offer print-on-demand products such as art prints and greeting cards.
So, if you want to sell your work online, how do you navigate and decide which avenues to use?
Join a free art marketing round table where we discuss these options and strategies for deciding which ones to use for your art business.
Art marketing roundtables are informal but informative events where artists come together around a specific top related to marketing and selling art. There will be a short overview of the topic at the start of the session; then, we will jump into questions and discussion. Whether you’ve had great success selling online or are looking for direction, we welcome your participation!
Art Marketing Round Table: Selling Art Online – Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Please choose one time slot below:
11:00 am EST/8:00 AM PST
or
6:00 pm EST/3:00 PM PST
Free Event to Help Your Art Business
This event is free, but space is limited.
For more information about upcoming round tables and other resources to help with your art marketing, please join my email newsletter.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 17, 2023 | Events, Learning
Are you using email marketing for your art business?
Email marketing has been around for a long time, so it might get overlooked in your marketing plan in the face of new shiny marketing platforms. Or, maybe you used it once but dropped it as you got busier with other marketing tools.
Email marketing is still an essential part of an art marketing plan.
We discussed this recently at an Artisan Advantage Art Marketing Roundtable. The discussion included this list of eight reasons to use email marketing in your art.
Eight Reasons to Use Email Marketing for Your Art Business
1 – Quickly inform customers about new work, events, and any other news you want to share.
2 – It is easy to get started.
3 – It’s easier to engage with people than you might realize.
4 – You can connect with high-quality prospects.
5 – Increase visits to your website.
6 – It is a cost and time-effective marketing tool.
7 – Communicate effectively with different target markets.
8 – It can directly increase your sales.
If you missed the Round Table, grab this handy Email Marketing Checklist for Artists.
Join an upcoming Art Marketing Round Table.
Information on upcoming events can be found here.
