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 | 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
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by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 10, 2023 | Artist Blogging 101, Artist Websites, Learning, Your Artist Statement, Your Hub
All the Ways You Write about Your Art
Have you considered all the ways that you could potentially need to write about your art?
While preparing for my upcoming Art Marketing Round Table, I thought about all the different ways an artist might need to write about their ar
Reasons You Might Write For an Art Business
Artist Statement
Bio
Blog Post
Website Content
Press Release
Workshop Outline
Prepare for an interview
Artist Talk
Email Newsletter
Exhibition Proposal
Social Media
Grant Application
Forget Need…writing about your art is good for business!
But let’s forget about NEED for the moment. Yes, there are times that you will be asked or required to write something to do something for your art business. But, consider this. Writing is good for your art business. Writing about your art prepares you for speaking and answering questions about your work with interested collectors.
Join Me for a Free Art Marketing Round Table on Writing for Your Art Business
Dig in on this topic at an upcoming Art Marketing Round Table – Writing for an Art Business.
This event is FREE, but space is limited.
Register here!
by Rebecca Sciullo | May 3, 2022 | Artist Websites, Your Hub
If you are looking to earn a substantial income from original art sales, you are likely looking to build a collector base. A collector base means that you have a group of people serious about following you and making repeat purchases of your work. But, how do you do this? How do you turn the random purchase here or there into a thriving collector base?
First Start with Your Website
Many artists tell me they want to “sell” their work, but I can’t find it when I look for their work online. In the past, it was possible to make sales without having a place where people could view your work online. However, that is no longer the case for most visual artists looking to sell work.
Use your Web Presence to Build Credibility
When thinking about building a presence online, creatives consider many factors, but one that may not seem so obvious is credibility. Dictionary.com defines credibility as the quality of being believable or worthy of trust. It helps to have credibility if you want to build a collector base.
Credibility as an artist can mean a lot of things to people thinking about purchasing your work, such as the following:
Will I get what I paid for?
Is it worth it?
Will this work increase in value?
Has this artist been recognized?
Will I be happy with the quality of my purchase?
While you probably are a credible person, there is no way for a stranger who finds you online to know this unless you give them reasons.
Here are some ways that you can show your credibility through your web presence:
- Share press releases and media coverage about your work.
- Post testimonials from happy customers.
- Provide images of your work in situ in your clients’ homes and businesses.
- Share awards and honors won.
- Outline special commissions or projects.
- Show images of you at work.
- Offer information about events where you are showing your artwork.
- Share information about the galleries that show your work.
One of the best ways to share this information is by sharing it first through your blog. Then send it out through your social media channels. As people view the progress you make and read about the activity, they will naturally begin to understand that you are a credible artist, and they will be more inclined to purchase your work.
A detailed blog that follows what you are doing ends up being a powerful living resume to which you can refer people when they want to learn more about what you’ve been up to over time. At this point, you’re not just telling them – you’re showing them what you do.
Where do you start?
If you’re not already in the practice of using a blog-based website and social media to make sure people are aware of what you are doing – thus bringing credibility to your work and business – start now. Most web-building platforms, such as WordPress.com, will allow you to create a blog page easily. Then, with a knowledge base or tutorial, you should have your blog up and running in no time. For more information on blogging, read my Artist Blogging 101 Series. For news and updates, please subscribe to my newsletter here.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Please note, there are affiliate links in this list for some of the products and services that I recommend.
by Becky Sciullo | Jan 19, 2022 | Artist Blogging 101, Your Hub
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.
WordPress.com – all about themes.
Understanding Squarespace Templates
Weebly Support – Themes
Wix Help – Themes
Get Help!
Would you like help getting started with an artist blog? Join my email newsletter for tips and programs on this topic.
Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Oct 12, 2020 | Artist Websites, Your Hub
What happens when you neglect your artist website?
Working with artists, I’ve visited countless artist websites—and too often, I come across sites that have turned into digital ghost towns. These are active websites with no sign that the artist is still actively working. The telltale signs? The same artwork displayed for over a year, the most recent blog post dating back several years, or an event calendar showing openings that have long passed.
I get why this happens.
Juggling studio time, art creation, and website upkeep can feel overwhelming. Technical issues, updates, and content creation take time, often getting pushed aside in favor of more immediate tasks. But if you want your website to truly represent your practice, it’s crucial not to let it become an afterthought
How to Prevent Your Artist Website from Becoming a Ghost Town
1 – Set a Schedule to Update Regularly
Reserve time each month to review and refresh your site. Even small updates—like uploading a new piece or updating your contact information—keep things looking fresh.
2 – Post Regularly, Even if It’s Brief.
Platforms like Squarespace and WordPress offer simple blogging options, perfect for sharing recent work or news. Consider setting a goal to post at least once every few weeks to share updates, even if it’s just a quick note on what you’re currently working on.
3 – Keep an Eye on Your Events Calendar and Blog.
Avoid outdated event listings and empty blogs by making it a habit to review and archive older entries if they’re no longer relevant. This keeps your site looking current without needing constant additions.
How to Bring Your Artist Website Back to Life
If your website has turned into a ghost town but you’re still active as an artist, here’s how to revive it:
1 – Start with Small Updates
Begin by refreshing your homepage with recent work and a current bio. Adding new artwork and updating your contact details go a long way.
2 – Reactivate your Blog
If you’ve neglected blogging, don’t stress about the gap. Pick it up again and publish new posts, aiming to build up a collection of 10-15 fresh entries before widely promoting the site.
3 – Revamp your Gallery
Refresh your portfolio with your latest work, remove old or irrelevant pieces, and create a streamlined, professional look.
Why Keeping Your Artist Website Current Is Worth It
A current, well-maintained website is one of your most powerful tools for sharing your art. Not only does it allow viewers to see you’re active and dedicated, but it also gives you more control over how your work is presented. Keeping it up to date can make a big difference in creating opportunities and connecting with people who appreciate what you do.
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