Sarah Edmonds underlines the importance of marketing as part of your strategy to attract potential customers.
Behind the Doll Pain, oil on linen, (30x25cm) by Catherine MacDiarmid, see case study below
The value of marketing
We all understand the value of marketing. What’s the point of creating amazing artwork if no one gets to see it?
Allowing new audiences to discover your work presents wonderful opportunities, but carving out dedicated marketing time and knowing which strategies are effective can be daunting.
I always reassure clients that there is no magic bullet when it comes to marketing – it’s about trying lots of different things, followed by close analysis to assess what worked and what didn’t.
Going back to basics can be very useful in terms of focusing your brand. Ask yourself these three important questions:
- What is your US/product? Get your product right and you’ll always sell it.
- Who are you selling to? Think about the age and demographic of your customers.
- Where can you find customers? What do they read, how do they communicate and access information?
By keeping these pillars of marketing close to your decision making, you’ll stay on track and won’t be tempted to let your time and budget wander.
Above all, whatever you decide to focus on, it must work for you and be financially and personally realistic. Setting unrealistic goals that you are never able to tick off can become increasingly demoralising. I suggest fleshing-out an annual calendar, plotting marketing activity month-by-month across a whole year. This can include newsletters, social media posts and films, blogs, exhibitions, art fairs, teaching, writing and so on. If something is marked in the calendar it is much more likely to happen!
This month’s case study, artist Catherine MacDiarmid, is very candid in admitting her marketing efforts often fall short. But she has identified effective strategies that complement her working practice and location.
She finds entering selective open competitions and exhibitions to be a very effective form of marketing, boosting her profile and commissions.
Being an active member of an artist collective also allows her to exhibit and feel part of the wider creative community. She outsources her website management and advises ‘Don’t let your creative time be squeezed by administration.’
Get serious about marketing your art
Maybe now is a good time to get serious about marketing. Grab a calendar and start plotting!
Above all, marketing should be consistent and is a long-term activity, producing the best results when it has been carefully considered.
Even the smallest steps can make a big difference, such as posting a painting every Friday afternoon in time for the weekend!
Case Study: Catherine MacDiarmid
Catherine MacDiarmid
Q. As a professional artist, where does marketing sit on your to-do list?
A. I am probably typical of many artists (I think) in that marketing sits very low on my to-do list. However, with the advancement of social media being imperative to marketing nowadays I guess I am dipping in and out all day long.
I took early advice (from my daughter) to keep my Instagram about art only and set up a Facebook artist page and a Twitter. I must say I am less of a wordy person and more image-orientated, so Instagram suits me much more than Twitter.
I do lag with some of my marketing, like website updates, entering open competitions, Open Studios etc – I do have to push myself to do these and find it helps me to keep to-do lists.
Q. How much time do you devote to marketing each month?
A. This is quite a hard question as I do so much dipping in and out of social media every day, but I’d say a little less than I really should do. Perhaps 10-per cent of my time is spent on marketing. It used to be less, before the days of Instagram.
I was once told that if you were full time you should be spending at least one day a week on administration, but for me that’s not just marketing as I plan courses and workshops as well.
Safe Place, oil on canvas, (50x60cm)
Q. Do you set aside a marketing budget each month?
A. I don’t really set myself a budget each month as such, but I know that I have regular outgoings for my website upkeep, etc and money put aside for exhibiting. It really can depend on how well I am doing in any one particular year as to how much I will spend on marketing.
I will allow myself to enter some open exhibitions, but the cost of entering opens is only one element. If you get selected there is the added cost of framing and delivering – if you live as far north as I do it’s not cheap to deliver and collect artwork.
Covid made things particularly difficult for me as I rely on teaching adult creative learning courses as a large portion of my income, and my local art centre, the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, was been closed due to lockdowns. This made money a bit tight.
Q. Do you outsource any marketing, if so which areas?
A. Yes, my website. I have a lady – Clement Media Design – who developed and up-keeps my website.
I know that if I didn’t outsource this I’d just let it slide. All I have to do is send her a message with news and recent artwork and she updates it all for an annual fee. She also troubleshoots any technical issues.
As a sole trader, I think that it’s tempting to take on too much yourself and find that your creative time is squeezed by administration, and I don’t think that’s good. Although I do think I’m guilty of that in other areas.
Q. What have you found to be the most effective form of marketing?
A. Sometimes you get an opportunity that costs nothing and that you can’t say no to, however daunting it might be.
Some of the most effective marketing for me has been such opportunities. For example I was asked to write a small feature for a national magazine and to paint Jon Snow, commissioned by Sky Artists of the Year as part of the lockdown series Artist of the Week, which was live on Sky Arts TV. Those were both free and they boosted commission work over the following months.
Also getting articles and mentions in the local magazines and newspapers are really important for keeping connected to the local community.
Other form of effective marketing is entering open competitions and exhibitions. I know it can be disheartening when there are lots of rejections (and we all get them), but just one acceptance into an exhibition can boost followers and hence potential customers.
It is especially effective if those opens have longer run times, or better still, tours.
Joining a local arts collective is also a good marketing strategy. I exhibit in a weekend Open Studios trail in Kendal in September as part of a South Lakeland Arts Collective I helped set up back in the 1990s, called Green Door Studios. This allows potential customers to meet and chat in person and have an opportunity to see your working processes and sketches.
I will also be exhibit with another art group of which I am a member – The Lake Artists’ Society.
Sarah is the marketing manager for Pegasus Art and a freelancer supporting creatives and fine artists. Sarah studied a short course at the Slade School of Fine Art and has a degree from Chartered Institute of Marketing. www.sarahedmonds-marketing.com
Comments
Login or register to add a comment
No comments