As an artist, your work is your advertisement. Personal branding as an artist is important because you are a reflection of your work. Marketing an artist means advertising the artist’s work. As an artist, it’s not the paintings you sell or the artifacts you exhibit that matter; what matters is the person behind the art. Picasso’s paintings sell because they are Picasso’s paintings. The brand here is not the painting; it’s the person behind the painting. Once you understand the basic principles of marketing for an artist, you will understand everything that follows in the process.
Create a Website
As a digital marketing company, we always advise you to create a website. As an artist, this may not be necessary, but having a website allows you to personalize the way you display your art and showcase it as you imagine. A website adds various layers of value to your work and makes it easier to create a personal brand. Begin with domain name registration. Since you are the brand, let the domain name reflect that. Choose a domain name that aligns with your branding. Bharti Kher has her domain name registered as Bhartikher.com. Most people use their names as domain names, which makes great sense. Apart from domain name registration, you will need a web hosting company and web design for your website. We suggest WordPress as a platform for artists. WordPress websites are scalable, relatively cheap, and easy to maintain. WordPress is a CMS and blogging platform where you can add your content without the help of a designer in the future. For a full WordPress website design, contact Admarkon Marketing Online Pvt. Ltd for a quick quote.
Create a Social Media Profile
Social media will be the area where you focus most of your efforts. Social media will help you brand your art and you as an artist. You will meet like-minded people who will appreciate your art, recommend it, share your pictures, and more on social media. Creating an account on Instagram is what we recommend. You can also create an account on Facebook simultaneously, but you should focus all your effort on Instagram. Adjust and optimize your social media profiles for your industry. Do a short keyword research and optimize your social media profiles to include the right keywords. Apart from Instagram, add Pinterest as your next social media platform of choice. Pinterest is one of the biggest platforms to promote visual content. Art of any form does extremely well on Pinterest. Pinterest also helps with search engine optimization and adds value to your website.
SEO for Your Website
While there is not much you need to do for SEO for an artist’s website, it is important to adhere to basic SEO practices. Most website designers will implement some form of SEO for your website. Your main keyword is your name or the brand name, which will rank easily if it is unique. Ranking for keywords like “sculptors,” “painters,” and related general topics will be more challenging and will require a lot of content plus SEO. You should not worry about these unless you intend to sell a lot of paintings and work. Nevertheless, it’s not a bad idea to create content around various topics related to your art. If you are a painter and can create content around painting, it will surely benefit SEO. Most artists are not inclined to produce content apart from that which directly relates to their finished work. This is okay, but you should not expect to rank well for general keywords then.
Content Creation
Content creation for your art website will include photographs of your work. This is very common, but you should think outside the box and create content that excels beyond your competition. With art, there is rarely any competition. Every artist is unique, but search engines view your website like any other and require content for ranking. When you post a photograph of your art, back it up with content. Written content beats visual content when it comes to search engines. Though a picture says a thousand words, it’s hard for Google to understand pictures of art compared to literal words. Focus on writing more content.
Social Media Marketing
With social media, it’s possible to reach like-minded people who are interested in the type of art you produce. No matter the type of art, there are people interested in your work if you find the right social media platform. It may be difficult to reach the right audience in the beginning with 10 or even 100 photographs or posts, but eventually, people will notice you if you are consistent in producing content on social media. While organic social media is free, it takes time, and often a lot of time. If you want instant recognition, social media marketing can help you reach like-minded people for a small price.
Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest have their own dashboards where you can promote your content for a small fee. You pay for the number of subscriptions, calls, messages, or interactions. You can choose how you want to pay and the amount you want to pay. Your art will be displayed to people whom you think will be interested in your work. You can choose people by profession, age, and other demographics. For a new website, social media marketing provides instant results and is often the best source of traffic. With the right marketing technique on social media platforms, you can showcase your work to a lot of people. This may not always lead to conversions, but it will definitely help people recognize you as a brand. In the long run, you will see that more people remember you by your name and art form than they do with search engine marketing.
Parasite SEO & Barnacle SEO
Often, it’s hard to rank your own website for a product or art form. You can take advantage of Barnacle SEO or Parasite SEO by posting your art on pages that are already ranking for your desired terms. For instance, if you want to rank for a keyword like “abstract paintings for living rooms,” you will find Etsy, Amazon, DessineArt.com, and Artisera.com listed as the first few websites on Google. Fortunately, you can list your products on these websites in the right category to get your product listed for a small fee. Amazon and Etsy are storefronts where you can list your product for sale directly. You usually pay when your products sell. Adjust the price of your product accordingly by adding the commissions charged by these companies. Also, remember to list your product with your brand name at all times and include your website when possible. Your primary goal is to create a brand for your art form. Selling products will happen naturally when people recognize you.
Collaborate with Influencers
Influencers are a great way to promote your art on social media. Find influencers and companies who would be willing to promote your art form. Find architects, interior designers, and connect with them to promote your products directly. Ask them to feature your art in their projects. This not only adds value to their property but also promotes your product. It’s a win-win situation. Find people who are art lovers to talk about your products. Seek a variety of influencers from Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Talk to them, connect with them, and build a personal relationship before discussing business. No one will be interested in displaying your art if you pitch your products straight away.
News and Articles
Press releases are always the best way to get instant traffic to your website, gain immense recognition, and be listed on top news channels and websites overnight. Invest a small amount in news and press releases if you have newsworthy content. If you are displaying your art in an exhibition, take advantage of news releases and send them out 3-4 days before the event. This ensures that you get many visitors to your exhibit while branding yourself efficiently. This is an easy way to attract a lot of people to visit your website, increase your SEO value, and link to your website. We generally recommend at least one news article per month. This makes a big difference for brand identity.
As an artist, it’s not easy to showcase your product. The problem is not your competition; the problem is creating a brand. Brand creation takes anywhere from 6 months to years. Be patient, be diligent, and keep doing what you do. Do not be demotivated because of a lack of results. Track your results regularly but stay positive when nothing seems to work. You will see results in a few months.
Investment in Digital Marketing for Artists
At Admarkon, we advise our clients to create as much content as possible by themselves. Content is the most important currency in digital marketing. You cannot market your brand without content. Create entertaining and informative content. For artists, we recommend a lot of pictures with some text content. Do not avoid text content altogether. We understand that your art form is not easy to explain. When you cannot create textual content, that’s okay. Focus on images. Try creating videos and explaining the art itself.
