Art Marketing

My Considerations and Motivations 15 years in the Making

I will tell you up front, I am no marketing guru, as my modest (yet, thankfully, very supportive) online following and my experience-based marketing knowledge will surely show. I admit that these days I am grateful for the freedom to randomly market when I want, how I want, with the hope that I will connect with a few folks along the way. It wasn’t always my approach. After years of struggling to survive with an artistic self-employed career, I know what it’s like to focus marketing on dollars. However, I have found being authentic in my art and my approach is the best way to find meaningful connections that keep me engaged in my work while giving me the energy to keep sharing and reaching out to the world, ever hopeful.

Strategies in Art Marketing - a personal view

As a result, after more than 15 years making and promoting my art, I have slowly come to rely on the following tenets for my marketing strategies: Share what I love, be professional yet approachable, use the social/marketing tools I enjoy using (while rethinking the tools I find frustrating), and stay centered in the art making.

Have I always followed these tenets? No. Do I keep trying? Absolutely!

Sharing What I Love

Whether it’s my favorite successes (or failures) in creating or simply little unexpected joys that entice me away from my studio - I like to share these moments. They are the experiences that define my art and hopefully bring a deeper understanding to my audience about what I make, how I make it, and why I make it. A recent simple example: We recently had a snow day here in Corvallis. I LOVE snow days! I immediately left my studio table, put on my boots, and trekked to our nearby wetlands. I found such beauty and joy in this moment that I felt compelled to share it, and snapped this lovely photo. I then thought, why not share this joy in person? I started a Live Instagram feed. (Then, of course, all being spontaneous, my phone was not fully charged and died just as I was signing off.) But, I had this photo, the fun of sharing the snow with a few other people, and as a result, a chance to broaden my reach* on a marketing platform simply because I love the snow.

*Using all available aspects of Instagram (such as IGTV, Reels, IG Live, Stories, and traditional posts) will be rewarded by their algorithms (according to Why your Instagram Engagement Kinda Sucks Right Now by Rachel Reichenbach).

Be Professional Yet Approachable

Being professional can mean many things. Before turning to art making as a career, I spent several years in some aspect of customer service. I have a natural disposition to try to please people which made me good at customer service, but unfortunately didn’t promote the most positive mental health strategies for myself. Older and wiser, right?! Being a self-promoting artist meant I still had a hefty amount of customer service to provide, but at least it was now on my own terms in my own timeframe. Today, my approach to customer service is to be respectful to myself, my profession, and my peers, as well as my customers. I can disagree with people and decline requests (being able to say no is a necessary skill, but difficult for those of us who are people pleasers) while maintaining courtesy and respect for all parties - myself included.

Part of being respectful is also expressing the thought, time, and commitment given to your profession. It’s often in the unnoticed details where we shine. I don’t know about you, but if I regularly do a chore in my house (like clean the floors), it doesn’t get noticed. If however, I let it go - it’s quite obvious (especially when you have pets)! I think of creating (whether it’s my art or content or marketing materials) in the same way. If I use care and thought throughout the process - for instance, using quality art products and sealers; proof reading my writing for content, spelling and grammatical errors; re-working and re-imaging layout and construction of projects and materials, using tools that provide relevant options for myself and the customer - the end result will be more polished, professional, and functional even if the extra effort is for something nobody will notice. I will feel good about what I create and will be excited to share it. Because the alternative? Will most likely be noticed. And it won’t feel nearly so good. At the same time, there are two very important caveats - don’t let perfection impede completion and MISTAKES HAPPEN. I would argue in order to create, mistakes are even necessary. It’s where we learn. Where we grow. I find it important to admit, embrace, and then learn from those mistakes. And then do it again. We’re human, after all, and often learn by repetition. And, luckily, being imperfect is quite interesting and approachable - for we all make mistakes!

I admit, however, I do find “being approachable” the more difficult piece of my self-promotion goals. I do believe it’s an important part of sharing my work, as the work itself is so personal. I want my viewers to understand the process and intent to more fully understand the art. If my viewers feel compelled to follow my work, I want to make that personal connection which can be difficult for me. I tend to process interactions over a longer period of time than is conducive to in-the-moment environments. I often find myself mulling over conversations hours and days later to consider a heartfelt and complete response. I’m not especially verbally quick on my feet. I think in imagery, and verbalizing what I see can be difficult. Hence, I’m not comfortable on camera. I’m not comfortable being interviewed. I’m not especially comfortable in person, either, but my customer service background usually enables me to jump into conversation with people (which I quite often thoroughly enjoy and have made some lovely, meaningful connections that way). However, as I get older, I find my discomfort and personal inhibitions to slowly give way to finding fun and a little intrigue in the process regardless of my sometimes (often?) awkward appearance and discomfort. I will get it wrong. I will show and accept my flaws. I will hopefully pick myself up and be a better person and artist for the effort. While providing approachable moments to my audience may not be a natural part of my marketing skill set, I am willing to try. I want more people to see and understand art, understand the process, and appreciate what artists bring to our world, our communities, our conversations, and into our homes. I want people to see the joy but also the sacrifice in the making. I believe providing access for people to peek into my world of art making and ask questions about my work and processes is one small step in sharing the passion of this profession as well as in my own creative journey.

Use the Marketing I Enjoy

With all that being said - these are the primary marketing tools I have chosen to use and how and why I use them to keep the process enjoyable and manageable.

MailChimp - my newsletter is available HERE
I resisted setting up an e-newsletter for my customers for several years. I didn’t enjoy the process of requesting and collecting emails during in-person events (which was all I had back in 2006) and I always felt a bit too disorganized to maintain and promote it. It wasn’t until free email marketing services started becoming readily available in combination with more of my art presence being online that I finally decided to offer this service to my customers, and over time, have given my newsletter subscribers more benefits as a thank you for following my work. Currently, I include exclusive links to new art releases, offer exclusive discounts, share upcoming events, and my latest studio news. Providing a few inside peeks and perks has made the process especially fun for me and hopefully more fun and interesting for my fans as well!

If you want to create an e-newsletter, it’s important to choose a delivery method which is secure and reliable, and allows customers to easily sign-up or unsubscribe. I actually had an artist add me to their “newsletter” and then proceed to share all customer emails with the recipients (I’m assuming unintentionally) and then not provide a means by which to unsubscribe. (I had to email directly and ask to be removed - which is not ideal, and can be rather uncomfortable for the sender and recipient.) You also want a newsletter provider which can look professional on a variety of devices (phones, tablets, desktop computers…) A few added bells and whistles are also nice (like integrating with an online shop or social networks and offering free accounts up to a certain # of subscribers). I have found MailChimp to give me what I need, and it’s free (at least within the number of subscribers I currently have).

Instagram - you can follow me HERE (Jenlo262)
As a visual person, this platform was probably the easiest for me to embrace. (I had tried to get excited about Pinterest when it first came out, which seemed like a natural fit for a visual person, but I didn’t find it intuitive and it eventually dropped off my radar (even though my images live-on from other people posting on Pinterest or links to my initial posts there). With Instagram, however, I found it simple and intuitive and now with its new IG LIVE, IGTV, Stories, and Reels offerings, it has become even more interesting. I plan to learn and make use of these various tools for two reasons: it will boost my visibility (see my note above in “Sharing What I Love” regarding marketing with Instagram) and, more importantly, it will help me to engage more meaningfully with my audience with each baby step I take in learning and understanding the breadth of this platform.

YouTube - you can find me HERE
I have been on this platform since the beginning of my professional art making in 2007. I only used it sporadically over the years, but after trying out some live painting events over this past summer and creating a virtual art opening showcase for my work back in April, I have come to realize it’s more multi-dimensional than I realized. While I am definitely more comfortable with creating short time-lapse videos of my work (especially when I can stay off-camera), I’m working to gain comfort within the broader context of this online medium and venue. I hope to offer more LIVE painting events (especially over the summer with plein air painting) and one or two virtual gallery shows in 2021. I also hope to dive into other forms of art, including very basic and limited animation, which could find a home here. (This might take awhile, since I’ve been threatening to work on these projects for years! I remain ever hopeful. :)

What Else?
Of course there are many more free (and paid) ways to self-promote depending on what you’re marketing. The all-familiar platform, Facebook, was my product of choice for a number of years - it had my target audience, was fairly visual, and was easy to use for self-promotion with its shopping, advertising, and events tools. I have since decided to discontinue using it, however, for many reasons including my personal feelings about the company as well as the better mental health which came with my disassociation. There are also platforms such as TikTok, Twitter (I have an account but only occasionally use it for marketing), Substack (right here!), Vimeo, and I’m sure many others I’m forgetting to mention here. For myself, I can only maintain a select few without hiring help or going completely mad, so I will be keeping it simple with my choices above for now. (If YOU have a favorite, though, feel free to add it in the comments below with your reasons for using it).

Stay Centered in the Art Making

Finally, with all that said, the most important marketing advice I can provide is that nothing replaces the hard work and care taken with making your best art. If you put the art making first, the rest is easier. (Not easy, mind you.) I have seen too many times artists who want to know how to market their art before the art itself is ready to market. It takes time to build a cohesive body of work, to understand the philosophy in your creative process and the work ethic required to put forth a focused creative expression in your art. But when you create fearlessly with your whole heart it can be a more meaningful, rewarding - and yes even more successful - experience to share your artistic path with others.

Please note: I recognize there are many reasons to socially share art beyond traditional marketing/selling of work. My thoughts on marketing are rooted in my career as a professional artist. I thoroughly enjoying seeing all the makers out there, naturally sharing what they make with joy and enthusiasm. Know the beauty of your creative community is contagious and keep up the great work!