Get Your Art Seen Without Being "Salesy"

“Never play to the gallery. Never work for other people in what you do. Always remember that the reason you initially started working was there was something inside yourself that, if you could manifest it, you felt you would understand more about yourself. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations.”

— David Bowie

I’m writing this post, because it’s information I’ve been seeking. I promised myself that 2021 will be my year of self-promotion. In past years, I’ve gotten good at showing up to make art, but not so good at marketing my art. It’s hard enough to sit down and paint. At the end of the day, marketing just feels like TOO MUCH. Unfortunately, it’s something we creatives must do. Trust me, I hate it as much as you. We can make the best art in the world, but if it never gets seen, you can’t positively impact others with your work. I truly believe there are ways to self promote and stay true to yourself. I’m still figuring out what that looks like, so I’ve been doing my homework.

I recently read that artists should spend 50% of their time making the art, and 50% promoting their work. This percentage shocked me, since I’m probably around 80% making/20% promoting. Once I got over the initial shock, this idea started to settle in. It kind of makes sense. After completing my 31 Day Series, I realized the maximum time I can spend making things is 4 hours per day. After 4 hours of paintbrush to paper, I’m pretty burnt out and aching all over. 2-3 hours is more ideal. So what does the rest of the day consist of? Well for me, it’s client graphic design work and the occasional marketing task. If I were a full-time illustrator, it would probably consist entirely of self-promotion. That would be an even 4 hour split in a 9-5 workday.

So, I’ve decided to try this 50/50 spit to see what happens. I still have client design work, so it won’t be a full 8 hour split. I’m not going to take any exact measurements either. I’m just going to keep this in mind as a rough guideline. Since I make my best art in the afternoon, I’m going to do more promotional activities in the morning.

Now that I know roughly how much time I want to spend promoting, I need to figure out what that looks like. I’ve poured through articles on art marketing, and I still haven’t learned anything. I’ve read, “get on social media,” “start a blog,” “share your process.” To me, that seems like common sense. I’m already doing a lot of that, and I know I could do better! I guess I have to consult my good old intuition on this one.

In my heart of hearts, I believe marketing should be…..

• Fun! You should be able to do activities you enjoy to get your work out there.

• Easy. If it doesn’t feel easy, you’re never going to stick with it.

• Automated. From experience, the only way I’ve ever stuck with promotional strategies has been to repeat activities. For instance, I publish blog posts every Wednesday. I don’t even question it anymore. It’s just on my calendar, so I stick to it!

• Genuine. If you’re using a marketing strategy that feels overly uncomfortable or desperate, it’s probably not for you. Again, follow your intuition. Everyone’s ideal marketing strategy is different.

So here’s what I’m currently doing to market my art:

1. A New Blog Post Every Wednesday (I try to share on IG and Pinterest)

2. Send Out Newsletter at the end of Every Month

3. Release a New Art Print Every Week on Etsy (I try to share on IG)

4. Randomly Share my Art on Instagram Whenever I Feel Like It :)

That’s it! What I’m doing now does meet the guidelines I listed above. However, I know I should be doing more. But what? I suppose it all comes down to focus. Here’s what worked for me:

Step 1: Rank everything you’re currently doing to make money on a scale of 1-5. Give each venture two scores - one for how much fun it is and one for how much money it’s making. It’s okay if a venture isn’t making much money right now. If it’s still fun, it will rank high. Then, add the two numbers together for each venture. Circle the ones that rank highest (choose no more than 3). *This exercise can be very insightful for what NOT to focus on too.

Step 2: For each venture you circled from Step 1, brainstorm how you can get more eyes on that aspect of your business. List every marketing strategy you can think of. Nothing is a bad idea right now!

Step 3: Assess which ideas from your brainstorm check the Fun/Easy/Automated/Authentic boxes. Maybe even right “F”, “E”, “A” and “G” next to each. Choose one marketing activity from each venture to implement. If a marketing activity covers more than one venture, it’s a winner!

Step 4: Schedule your marketing tasks daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Step 5: Find a way to hold yourself accountable. Scheduling on your calendar isn’t enough (at least for me). You can announce your plan on social media, or find a family member to check in with.

To give an example of how this has worked for me, I’m deciding to focus on Selling Prints and Teaching this year based on my rankings. These things just light me up, and I’ve seen a lot of growth in each recently.

Based on that, a 31 Day Illustration series selling limited edition prints felt like the perfect storm. It was a way to direct people to my shop and also give them an inside look at what I do. Before each video, I would do a little teaching tidbit as a bonus. This year, I’m also going to continue to do blog posts, because it’s a great way to work on both areas. Also, I’m planning to release courses and make some videos this year.