How to Enjoy Marketing Your Artwork
So one day you decided you were going to sell art.
You got excited, started creating beautiful work you couldn’t wait to start sharing with the world… when it hit you: YOU HAVE TO SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD. All of a sudden you realized the process of selling art doesn’t just automatically happen–but there’s a series of steps to take to get your art in front of the people who’d want to buy it.
Posts on Instagram, a website, good photos, writing…
oh my goodness, there’s so much writing…
but somehow you’ve clobbered together a few ways of getting your work out there.
Time and time again artists tell me how much they dread planning a nurture sequence to launch their newest body of work, writing their websites, or doing any sort of activity in which they directly have to speak about their art.
Most of these same artists tell me they LOVE writing (and are even good at it) and 1000% believe in their work... so, when it comes to marketing their artwork, why so shy to sell?
Let’s discuss how to market art in a way that actually feels good. An approach that feels aligned with your values and creativity and opens the door for meaningful connections between your work and your audience to unfurl.
Reframe Marketing
Historically, marketing has employed ethically-questionable tactics to shut down our critical thinking and push just the right buttons that trigger our vulnerabilities and insecurities. Just recently I intentionally opted into a very popular mindset coach’s sales funnel for research purposes. I witnessed NLP (neurolinguistic programming) being used without warning/consent, tripping psychological triggers left and right, promises of 6- and 7-figure income results (priming them to blame your mindset when you don’t get those results), and pushes for people to take out loans and max their credit cards in order to pay for the $15,000 program, etc.
Ew, David! That was a cringe-y experience.
If you’ve fallen into these sales funnels, it’s no wonder you freeze when it comes to sharing your art. If that’s what it takes, then it’s no wonder you don’t want any hand in that!
Marketing can be done ethically. So you’re free to leave those bro-marketers and girl-bosses behind as you embrace spreading the good word of your art to your people.
Fall in Love
Marketing art requires a degree of vulnerability. After all, you leave a bit of yourself in each piece. And selling it involves exposing those parts a bit more than you’re probably used to. The only way to push beyond the discomfort and the awkwardness of marketing is to fall in love… with your art... with your process… with yourself… and with the kind of people who are likely to love your work.
When you take the time to understand what it is about your approach, your aesthetic, your subject matter, your art that appeals to your specific audience, you can market from a place of generosity because you’ll know how your art fits into their lives and you can help them connect with it at a deeper level.
Marketing is an act of bravery and being intimately acquainted and secure in your process will help you gain confidence and courage to market from an authentic place.
Embrace Marketing
Artists are also being held back from marketing their own artwork for fear of putting off potential gallery partnerships. This is a totally reasonable fear, but let’s take a closer look.
Having gallery representation can be seen as a badge of honor that validates and legitimizes you as an artist. But this validation and legitimization of your art should exclusively be an internal process… Party of one, please!
When you find internal validation for your work, you’re able to take on risks that allow you to grow and expand like exploring new styles/media or... marketing your own art, including developing an SEO strategy, instead of playing it safe and staying where you are. You’ll stop questioning whether you’re creative enough or artistic enough and if your art is “good” or not and instead, you’ll stand in your power knowing you absolutely belong. And if you fail? You’ll be alright because you’ll have a steady well of self-worth to soften the landing.
Another big factor holding artists back is imposter syndrome. This is often a symptom of external validation seeking. And also–I’m looking at you, Struggling Artist Narrative!
A pervasive disease that gets to the best of the best, Imposter Syndrome can hold you back from finding the words, the will, and the way to share your art with the world. The thing is, there’s a good chance that it’s all junk stored in your head. You absolutely belong, you absolutely have a voice, and there is absolutely room for your art in this world.
Personally, the one thing that’s helped me with imposter syndrome is sharpening the saw, as Steven Covey would say. This means developing and perfecting my skills. Get good at getting great at your work and when Imposter Syndrome pops up, whack-a-mole it back into oblivion and get on with creating and marketing your awesome work.
Stay Curious
One of my favorite “hacks” for writing my client’s website or welcome sequence copy is to snoop around in their Instagram comments for what their audience is saying. Often, I’ll ask them to send out surveys to their collectors or biggest fans, and lemme tell you, the best copy comes from their mouths… (or rather, fingers because they’ve typed out answers).
Continuously banking the words of admirers and collectors doesn’t just feel good, but it also gives you raw matter and interesting insights to mold into your brand messaging. Poll your audience, send out short surveys, interview your top collectors. Their experiences will help you learn new things about the impact your art has had on their lives. Turning their comments into words for your website, a blog post, or your next newsletter will make marketing way more enjoyable.
And guess what, when other people like them read those words, they will connect with your art in a deeper way because they’ll feel like you’re speaking to them about what matters to them.
Stay Creative
There are so many ways to market your art! But you won’t know which one is the best one for you until you try a few different things. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Think about what feels sustainable and try that:
Write a series of emails leading up to your collection launch.
Write a blog about things that your ideal audience would love that are connected with your work.
Create a new freebie that’s a precursor to your upcoming online class.
Schedule a time to go live on Insta to talk about your latest release.
Create a video of your work.
Entice your audience with early bird access by joining your newsletter.
Host a giveaway or contest.
Pitch to be on podcasts that your audience listens to.
Think about how you’d like to be introduced to your work. How can you connect your work to your audience’s aspirations or desires? Dream big, plan ahead, and do what’s sustainable. Get support if you need it. I’ve worked with many artists to write their sales emails, nurture sequences, and set up collection pages on their website all done in a day. I take the busy work off their hands so they can work within their strengths.
Tell a Story
Not every collection starts off with a specific story or theme in mind. Sometimes, it develops intuitively along the body of work. Sometimes you don’t see it until you’re finished and can contemplate the whole journey you just went through. Sitting with your collection to draw out the meaning or story doesn’t always come naturally to all artists, but it is a great skill to develop because human beings are wired for story.
Sharing that story with your audience will allow you to find hooks or overlaps between them and your work, making marketing more memorable and meaningful.
When artist Courtney Kibby got on a mentorship call with me in preparation for her holiday launch, the idea came up of using her story of fighting over the family ornaments with her sister as adults. She turned that story into a brilliant Instagram reel and post in which she positioned her ornaments as the heirlooms her audience’s kids would fight over one day. The post’s call to action was to check out a blog post she wrote about caring for heirloom ornaments. And on that blog post she had links to her beautiful line of handmade ornaments. Such a lovely experience!
Another one of my favorite art launches ever was conceived by the beautiful Krista Coons from Her Name is Mud for her O’Keeffe collection of ceramic pieces. She drew inspiration from her muse, Georgia O’Keeffe not only for the art pieces but for the entire marketing campaign. Krista thoughtfully wove threads that connected O’Keeffe, her audience, and her art in the most beautiful way. Krista is a wonderful storyteller who took us on an insightful journey that culminated in the release of her gorgeous pieces. It was a pleasure to witness her extraordinary storytelling/marketing and collect her inspired pieces. You can find her posts in her Instagram highlights.
Marketing doesn’t have to look like or sound like anything you’ve seen before. You can bring your creativity into the process of selling your art and it can be… dare I say... fun!
Hopefully, these tips have improved your relationship with marketing your art. And if you’re ready to take it one step further,
Check out the Prolific & Profitable Artist Quiz
Assess your marketing prowess, learn your superpowers, and get a personalized plan to overcome overwhelm and get your art seen and sold.
