In this ever-changing and fickle world, it is often very hard to get the balance right between creating and promoting. As artists, promotion of our work is not often our number one priority, and our focus is normally set on producing our masterpieces. When I set up Oya Arts, I spent hours, days, weeks and sometimes months, going over the smallest detail on my paintings. However, once I finally finished, I didn’t invest as much time in the promotion aspect, only posting a few pics of my work on Instagram, Facebook and  Twitter. Then I would sit back and wonder why the interest in my work was so few and far between. Sure, I sold a few pieces using that method, but not as many as when I started approaching the promotion with the same amount of vigour as I put into the creation.
Throughout this blog series, I will be outlining ten key areas that all artist should focus on collectively to promote their work. This blog series will offer marketing tips for artists and show you show to deliver a single message, through different sources.
Take a look at the blog post schedule below:
- Post 1: Building your website
- Post 2: Instagram updates and what they mean for you
- Post 3: The power of Facebook and how to use it to effectively
- Post 4: When and how to use Twitter
- Post 5: Is Ticktok just for kids?
- Post 6: The latest Linked In updates and how to harness them as an artist
- Post 7: Other social media platforms for artists
- Post 8: The do’s and don’ts of email marketing
- Post 9: Public relations – you don’t need an agent you can do it yourself!
- Post 10: The 411 on ETSY and other shop platforms
Marketing tips for artists 1: Building your Website
It’s true Google rules the world and when we talk about SEO what we mean is Google-friendly text and images. Each year, Google makes hundreds of changes to search and in 2018 alone, they reported an unbelievable 3,234 updates. This works out to be an average of nine updates day! Now how are we supposed to keep up with that? While most of these changes are pretty small, Google occasionally rolls out a major algorithmic update such as Panda and Penguin, which change the way that you have to create your content. Â
The latest update took place in October 2019. Interestingly called BERT, it works on a model that tries to learn and understand natural language so it can better appreciate and appropriately rank pages. So, what this means, is goodbye to 400-word blog posts that are full with nonsense copy and stuffed with keywords in every sentence and hello to longer, well-written articles, that add value to the reader. Â
In my first post, I will explain each Google update from 2000 until today in-depth and looking at how these will affect your website. Click here to get this article straight to your inbox.
Marketing tips for artists 2: Is email marketing dead or should we just keep on going?
If you are in Europe or the UK you couldn’t move two feet a couple of years ago without hearing those four dreaded letters, GDPR. Companies were going crazy, losing their minds along with thousands of email contacts. As a result, small businesses either killed their email marketing campaigns or didn’t even bother to start through fear of getting hit with a mammoth fine.Â
Well, I am here to tell you to relax, as long as you follow the correct guides which I will be explaining in Post 8 you will be OK. With the rise of information and news on the web, 2019 saw the rebirth of the newsletter. People wanted to cut through the noise and get relevant information to their inboxes. In this world of over information, a bite-sized newsletter with the best articles and the most important and relevant news wins. I have been seeing entire businesses popping up based on this approach, and noticing that businesses who once ditched this channel are now returning to it.Â
If this topic tickles your fancy, click here and sign up to be notified when this post goes live. Guess what, it will come straight to your inbox 😊Â
Marketing tips for artists 3: How to make sure social media stays social
2019 brought a decline in Facebook users, a growth in Instagram stories, TikTok bursting onto the stage like a reality TV star, and an upsurge of the social media detox. With this beast of a subject, I have broken it down into six posts which cover, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and  LinkedIn. I will then pull together another post which looks at more obscure apps that all artist should know about. and all others. Guess what? if you click the links on the channels you are most interested in, it will send the article straight to your inbox, so you don’t have to worry about checking back here, every day in anticipation 😊Â
Nonetheless, there is one main thing to take away for 2020. The private group is on the rise and it is here to stay. If you look at big brands, this form of communication is blowing up and as concerns over privacy settings increase, so do engagement and participation in more private social channels such as Facebook Groups, Slack communities, and messengers.
This opens a huge door for artists to create spaces that build staying power and promote meaningful conversations for and among customers. These are personal spaces, where you can sell your personal creations, through your personal stories. These are new environments where brand loyalty grows.
In conclusion
As a creative, marketing can seem like a minefield, but it doesn’t have to be. Once you break down each element and understand the components needed to make each segment successful you will start to see things coming together. Stay tuned and sign up for the next article where I will be explaining how to build and update a winning arts website for 2020 and beyond.
