Last updated on March 23rd, 2023
Artists are generally not known for their marketing skills. They are creative people who look for innovative ideas rather than the ways of taking out art to masses. But in today’s competitive art world, artists can financially survive only by actively promoting their artworks. Fortunately, they have quick access to digital marketing that they can explore to their advantage. But a sound marketing strategy should be first put in place for the desired results. In this article, we’ve shared what is digital marketing and how to develop an effective marketing strategy as an artist.
Conventionally, the only platform artists had back then to sell their works were expensive art galleries. Those who could not afford the galleries struggled to find buyers. But that has changed dramatically in the modern digital world.
Artists are no longer dependent on the reputed galleries. They can use digital marketing platforms on their own as an effective means for reaching out to their target audience to promote and sell artworks.
Eventually, digital marketing has come as a boon to the artists. They can send a word of promotion on social media and other digital platforms about their art anytime. What’s more, they get a quick response from the interested audience.
They know about the audience’s response in real-time. This helps them make necessary adjustments to their marketing strategy. They can even create new works as per the audience’s response.
Considering the power of digital marketing, don’t be surprised to know that the increasing number of marketers are pouring their resources into it. According to a survey, more than 64% of marketers plan to invest heavily in search engine optimization, which is part of digital marketing.
So, using internet-based marketing, an artist can connect with the audience at the right time in the right place. The artists can engage and interact with potential customers online. But before taking up digital marketing, first, know its different aspects.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is all about promoting products or services using digital channels such as social media, email, search engines, websites, mobile applications, web applications, online brochures, etc. The businesses use a gamut of digital tactics and channels in this form of marketing.
To get the best results from a marketing campaign, a clever digital marketer explores different both free and paid channels to support and overreach the goals. For example, content marketing is a form of digital marketing through which you can create multiple blog posts that help in generating leads such as downloading an ebook.
Through social media and email marketing, you can promote those blog posts and give more information to those consumers who downloaded the ebook. In this way, multiple digital marketing tactics work together to generate leads in a marketing campaign.
So, marketers use an entire spectrum of online marketing services. These include search engine optimization, content marketing, social media marketing, Pay Per Click, affiliate marketing, native advertising, email marketing, marketing automation, and online PR.
How Can It Help Artists?
Artists can benefit from digital marketing in varied ways. We can count multiple advantages that artists particularly have, but here the major ones.
i. Easy Marketing
Artists such as illustrators, photographers, painters, and even graphic designers mostly do not like to like to visit distant places just to market their works. But digital platforms or apps are readily available to them right on their mobile phone.
So, they can quickly use digital marketing channels to spread a word for their artworks to the global audience. There are no hassles and hurdles involved in using digital channels.
ii. Vast Global Reach
Digital marketing takes art products to a wider global audience in a quick time. Just after you launch a website for your artworks, you instantly become part of the worldwide market. Then, depending on your marketing efforts, every time you write a blog post, tweet, and use other channels, your new creative works reach a vast global audience.
iii. A Variety Of Channels To Explore
Unlike conventional marketing, digital marketing allows you to explore a wide range of channels to market your artworks. These channels include YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
iv. Low Costs
As compared to traditional marketing, the costs of digital marketing for the artists are minuscule. Most of the basic marketing steps you can take online without hiring expensive services of a marketing company.
For instance, just open a Facebook page and start writing something purposeful and useful about what your artworks and art style are all about. That step does not require you to spend much except that you need an internet connection.
v. Build Trust And Connection
With digital marketing, you can easily connect with your target art consumers and engage them with your new creative ideas. This helps in winning their trust. They will ultimately turn into your loyal customer. Just be open about your art products and share your thought with people more often.
Digital Marketing Strategy = Art Marketing Strategy
From the above discussion, marketing an art seems to be an easy task. But to drive more art buying people to your website or online store, you need to strategize each step. This means that a lot of research and strategic thinking will go into art marketing.
An art marketing strategy is about planning a certain way to entice customers to your website and to make them buy your artworks. So the strategy includes writing blogs and creating a lot of visual content that is aimed at the potential customers of your art.
Why Should Artists Learn Digital Marketing?
In today’s art world, the competition to grab buyers’ attention has increased manifold. Not everyone present on social channels is your customer. A minor section of the population takes an interest in buying artworks. The consumers in your specific field of art are even fewer.
So, when you narrow down to your specific art-field such as illustration or photography, the number of target customers is even lesser than the overall art lovers.
Therefore, with proper training in digital marketing, you can strategically target those specific customers. This way, you can compete well with so many other artists.
Moreover, by learning the key tactics of digital marketing, artists can do the marketing on their own without depending on a professional marketer. The artist can thus save money on paying the expensive fees of the expert.
You do not have to approach a marketer to post blogs and other promotional content. With a little training, you can be a master in creating the strategy and implementing it.
How Digital Marketing Can Help Artists For A Longer Run?
Artists rely a lot on digital marketing to take their creativity at the global stage. The wider is the audience, the higher are the chances of more people visiting an art website to know more about the artist and artworks. Many of them are likely to buy art. But that does not happen immediately after an artist starts digital marketing.
Digital marketing is a little slow process, meaning that it takes many months before the customers start visiting the website and buy. There are many stages of marketing before finally, customers have build trust in the artist.
So, a lot of efforts go into marketing an artist and artwork on social media and other online channels. You need to keep calm while executing digital marketing strategies.
The artist should work hard to maintain a good reputation online on different channels. And, that takes months. But it pays in the long run. When an artist’s reputation is well established, it becomes the basis to build a solid base of loyal customers.
Once this base is in place, it automatically generates leads, and customers continue to come to the artist’s website or online store to buy.
We can say that digital marketing helps establish an artist as a brand in the long run. When that happens, driving more customers to the artwork site and sales become a lot easy. Even if you are wondering how to start a career in digital marketing or learn digital strategies, following tips can help you to get started.
Tips To Create Art Marketing Strategy Aka Digital Marketing Strategy For Artists
Once you are well aware of the importance of digital marketing to promote and sell your artworks, know how to market them on various digital platforms.
Here Are Some Key Points To Consider:
01. Create An Impressive Online Portfolio
The first and foremost requirement for digital marketing as far as artists are concern is to put in place a remarkable online portfolio. The art portfolio is the site that your potential customers will first visit. They would like to know about the type of artwork you create and what style you follow.
Since your online portfolio should make a great impression, it should have your best artworks only. Do not try to include all of your works as they all may not be equally impressive. You should leave an impression on the visitors. Do not forget to include client testimonial, if any, in the portfolio.
02. Start Your Blog
Blogging is a surefire way to drive the attention of customers to your art. Create your blogging site, or write guest blogs for reputed sites. The blog is a great way to build a personal brand that ultimately helps in selling your art pieces.
In your blogs, write about the current issues faced by artists. Make people aware of the latest developments happening in your art field. Make sure that you write for the art buyers and fellow artists and not for yourself. This means that you should discuss current issues and give solutions to the community in your blog.
03. Launch A Social Media Campaign
Social media is perhaps the most significant platform that is home to millions of people. Many of them are your potential customers of art. If you can successfully target them on different social media platforms, you can reap the benefits. You will soon drive those people to your online art portfolio website.
So, start your Facebook and Twitter pages and post relevant content about your art and style. Think of starting your YouTube channel where you can show the world how art is created.
An advantage of consistently posting text and visual content on social media is that people start taking you as an expert in your field of art. But you need to talk about various aspects of art or design in such a way that it engages the readers.
04. Create Your Videos
Videos are perhaps the most effective way of digital marketing. People see you talking and projecting yourself as an expert in your videos, such as YouTube videos. Start your own video channel on YouTube and create dozens of useful videos for people.
The best way to drive customers from videos is to demonstrate how to create a particular artwork. You should resolve the viewers’ art issues in those videos. But don’t forget to write about yourself and your art in the channel’s description. Give your website’s link as well.
05. Submit Content To Article Directories
Article directories such as Ezine Articles and eHow are highly useful when you wish to reach out to the masses. Dozens of article directories are available to digital marketers.
You should write blogs and submit them to these directories, which thousands of people visit daily. You can take advantage of their massive audience by taking information about your art to them.
What is more, the submission of the article to the directory in your niche is free. So, you can increase your credibility as an expert artist without spending much. You are also able to build a community of artists that will help you drive customers to your art website.
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06. Do Some Email Marketing
Email marketing is amongst the most result-oriented digital marketing ways. All you need to do is to collect email addresses of potential customers of your art from various sources. Then, send email messages to them every time you create a new and unique art piece.
Or, inform them about the attractive price discounts you are offering. But make sure that you learn the art of writing emails that have a personal touch for the readers as that will engage them more with your artworks.
07. Pay For Social Media Advertising
If you can afford, explore Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest etc. to run your art business ads on their sites. You can easily build a great awareness about your art and online store with customers with these ads in a quick time.
08. Use SEO
Search Engine Optimization is a digital marketing technique that marketers use to bring their business websites on the top rankings of the search result pages. When a customer writes some keywords in Google’s search box to find your type of artwork, your website should appear amongst the top results for quick visibility.
That happens due to consistent optimization efforts. But you may need to hire an SEO professional to do this specialized job or you can learn about SEO through YouTube tutorials.
09. Paid Social Media Advertising
Most social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat will allow you to run ads on their site. Paid social media advertising is great for building awareness with audiences that might not be aware that your business, product or service exists.
10. Explore Pay-Per-Click Advertising
For artists who are starting new in the business of selling their art, Pay-Per-Click [PPC] advertisements are the most effective and affordable. While your advertisements are published on different online sites, you will pay only for those ads that the viewers have clicked on.
So, you get the best value for your money. Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are two of the popular PPC advertising sources that you should explore to drive customers to your art site.
11. Comment On Other Art Blogs
How about posting comments on other art blogs? Giving your opinion on an issue is what you like as an artist and analyst. So, turn your thoughts about art issues into a way to drive traffic.
As you make comments on art blogs, you are likely to get a response from the art community. They may visit your art site. But the comments should be interesting and thoughtful. You should also add a link to your website within the comment most often.
12. Participate On Online Forums
Online forums are places where people come frequently to discuss issues and provide solutions. There are several art-related forums. Pick the ones that are dedicated to your interest in the art field.
You should become their member to join their community. Then, project yourself as an expert by making thoughtful comments and provide solutions to the other members. This is a great way to drive traffic to your art website.
So, these are the key considerations for artists when they think of digital marketing to drive customers to their art website. Pay attention to each of these points and have patience as you will take time to get the desired results.
Most of your marketing worries are addressed well automatically if you open your online shop at PrintShop, which is a platform for artists from Designhill. This leading creative marketplace drives its massive traffic of potential customers to PrintShop.
So, your online art store at this site will also automatically get the customers in addition to the traffic you get from own marketing efforts.
Wrapping Up
Digital marketing is the way to generate awareness for your artworks. You can use marketing methods such as creating a portfolio, writing blogs, creating videos, using social media platforms, posting comments on forums and blog sites, etc. to drive potential customers to your art website and make them buy. But the marketing requires patience on your end as you will take time to win customers’ trust.
