5 Secrets For Marketing Artists.
Be unique.
People care about the money they are spending, and if you expect people to pay you for the work you are putting out there, you need to embrace your weirdness. Otherwise, people will look at your price tag instead of your work and search for the lowest cost. AND you don’t want to be in the lowest cost bracket. You want to be weird and unique. This is what draws people to you.
Become empathetic
If I am a cat food company, you better believe all my messaging will be directed to cat owners, not people who want to buy art. Sure those two may overlap at a certain point, but unless you are making art with cats as the main subject, you’re going to be shouting into a black void full of hairballs and kitty litter. Become empathetic and genuinely think about what problem you are solving for your people. What are their morning routines? What are their fears? What are their driving forces in life? Find those out and speak directly to those issues.
Share Love
You are an artist; you love your process, and yes, maybe you hate it sometimes too. Show what you love about your process, what drives you to create, and what you are excited about. People love to be in the loop in a field they might have little experience with. You want to captivate them and show them you absolutely love what you do. That kind of love is intoxicating and inspiring.
Tell your story
I’m not talking about a bio. That’s only part of it. You are much more than where you were born, your given name, and what you like to do. You have conflicts, passions, frustrations, longings, and all the things that make up humans. Learn to invite people into your story and build tension. At first, this can be difficult, but just take a week and write in your notes app all the things you encounter in your week that are tensions in your world. This is just building your ability to observe the world you live in. We all have tension; we just don’t think about it being tension, just life.
Stop being precious
Whoever you are looking through your Instagram story views for, stop. Stop caring if they saw it. Stop making content for them. Just embrace it. You are enough. Your work is enough and what they think of you is none of your business. Make work you are proud of, put it out into the world, and then go out and do more work. It’s honestly just a numbers game. If your work matters to your audience, you will do well. It’s not about growing a MASSIVE following. It’s about connecting with people you have. No matter how small, 100, 500, 5000 loyal fans of your work.