After graduating from ITP – NYU in 2015, I was eager to get a “real job.” Things like “steady paycheck!” and “super good healthcare!” were exciting at the time. However, it wasn’t too long after I got my full-time startup gig that I started working on an artistic side hustle. In the process, I ended up launching my own business – Dirt Alley Design!
At Dirt Alley Design, I transform street maps into solvable mazes. I screen print each maze map, and sell the handmade art prints online on my website and on Etsy, at events like craft fairs, and wholesale via local gift shops in the Bay Area.
Through the process of selling my art prints since December of 2016, I have been forced to learn a lot about marketing a product, and the business side of being an artist..it’s not easy!
If you are an artist exploring selling your work, here is a summary of the various sales and marketing endeavors I have undertaken, along with the pros and cons of each tactic.
Marketing Tactic #1 – Craft/Art Fairs, Pop Up Shops, Holiday Shows
During the first two years of my business, I attended around 7-8+ events each year to sell my at prints in person. These events included small pop-up shops at established businesses like REI (free to attend), and larger events with thousands of people like the Bay Area Maker Faire (expensive to attend).
Pros: A great opportunity to get feedback. Find out who your customers are all while making a few bucks. Meet fellow makers and make new friends!
Cons: Time consuming and tiring. You will spend days packing up and pricing inventory before the event. You will spend hours standing and talking to people during the event, which is especially exhausting if you are an introvert like me. You may not make much profit depending on turnout, luck, booth fee and how well the event was promoted. Very few businesses are able to make all of their income from events these days.
After attending many events for two years, I became pretty burned out on them and decided to take a break from events. If you do decide to attend events, rather than focus on profits, try to extract more value from them by surveying your customers and/or by running a giveaway to gather emails and grow your email list. Have lots of business cards on hand to distribute widely.
Marketing Tactic #2 – Email List
Am I talking email newsletter? Not really, rather, regular email communications with potential customers every 2 weeks or so. You can offer discounts, share blog posts, and first dibs on new work.
Pros: Good way to stay in touch with interested customers who may not be ready to buy just yet, and make a few bucks when they do!
Cons: You will need to dedicate some time coming up with content and creating and sending out each email every two weeks (ideally).
It can take time to grow your email list. I recommend a subtle email signup window that pops up shortly after a customer arrives on your website. In order to gather higher quality leads, don’t offer a discount in exchange for an email signup. Rather, let people truly interested in your business and work signup out of their own interest. After someone signs up for my email, I use Mailchimp to send them an automated welcome email.
Marketing Tactic #3 – Blogging
Google ranks a website more highly in search results if it is updated more often. A blog is a good way to update an otherwise static product website.
Pros: Regular updates to your website will rank you higher in search while also keeping people on your website longer, which Google also takes into consideration when ranking your site.
Cons: You will need a content strategy – things you will write about! To write a good blog post takes time and dedication, and it helps if you enjoy writing and/or are a strong writer.
My first two years, I struggled with what to write about on my blog and updated it sporadically. I finally decided this year to work on new artistic projects daily and thus have topics to write about every week.
Marketing Tactic #4 – Giveaways
I haven’t utilized giveaways as much as I probably should, but have found value in offering giveaways at events in exchange for email signups.
Pros: If the cost to produce your item is low, giving away a few of your product each year is a small price in exchange for potential leads!
Cons: Giveaways especially on Instagram are a bit played out by now, and people aren’t as engaged with them anymore. While you may initially get a ton of new followers, a huge percentage of those new followers will also likely unfollow or unsubscribe after the giveaway is over.
I offered giveaways while at events, and found only a small percentage of people ended up unsubscribing from my email list. Depending on when and where you offer your giveaway, it can be a way to get quality leads of people genuinely interested over people just in it to win something for free.
Marketing Tactic #5 – Press/Publicity
While I was a graduate student, there was a lot of perceived value placed on getting press for projects created during the program. At the time, I didn’t know much about getting press. Through a public show of work put on by the program, I was able to get a press hit on a project, which I later leveraged when I released my thesis leading to many later press hits (with little effort on my part). Since then, I have found that the process of getting press for a product is a good deal harder and have evolved my approach from sending press releases to general tip emails to actually seeking out writers who are interested in my product area, and pitching them directly.
Pros: The potential for traffic from a press hit can be huge! Free if you do it yourself.
Cons: Time consuming. You will spend hours searching for the contacts of potential writers, pitching and then following up with said writers who 99% of the time will ignore your email. This can be an area where it can be good to do a bit of education and research to understand how to effectively pitch journalists.
While getting press does lead to a lot of potential traffic and eyeballs on a project, my graduate program didn’t offer advice on how to leverage that content and traffic, which is a wasted opportunity! If you do undertake the effort to get press for an artistic project, I recommend you do so after having a few other things in place – like a website with a full shop of products and an email sign up, an active social media presence on at least one platform where new people can follow you, and/or a landing page with a discount to make some immediate coin.
Marketing Tactic #6 – Social Media
Being active on social media feels like a “given” when starting a business, and posting often can feel like you are “doing something.” However, it can take a long time to organically build a following and if you don’t have a good content strategy in place regarding what you will post on social media, you may find yourself really struggling. My advice would be to start with one platform and focus on that platform solely. If you are a visual artist, Instagram or Pinterest makes a lot of sense to be on. In fact, you can follow me on Instagram here.
Pros: It’s free, and only costs your time.
Cons: It can be time consuming, and if you aren’t a skilled photographer or writer, you may struggle with content ideas. The social media algorithm that determines if your content is seen is constantly changing, and you will have to just roll with the punches.
Marketing Tactic #7 – Branding
This one is definitely not as important when you are starting out! As things progress though, you will want to start dialing things in to better connect with your customers. Branding means more than just a logo – it includes the tone of your communications, the style of your Instagram photos, and your content strategy (what you post and write about). Search around online to find out the various “brand personalities” you can embody. Most artists will probably have a “creator” branding personality and your content will seek to inspire others through your artistic outputs.
Pros: Having a cohesive online identity will help your target market connect, purchase and follow you.
Cons: Starting out, you may not know what your brand is (because you don’t know yet who your customers are) so you will have to try many different things to figure it out. If you don’t have a budget for branding, you will be spending your own time figuring it out.
These are just a few of the marketing tactics I have focused on, there are probably many more that I decided didn’t fit with my business but which you should definitely explore! Other marketing options include platforms like Kickstarter and Patreon, and video marketing like having a YouTube channel. Share what’s worked for you in the comments.
