If you’re an artist and you’ve found this article, Welcome (you’re in the right place). You’re probably wondering if email marketing is still relevant in the age of social media and you’ve probably been working on growing your social media following and getting your work out there.

We’re going to show you why and how you can start email marketing.

Email marketing benefits:

• It’s super affordable and pricing increases incrementally as you grow.
• It’s really easy to execute, you don’t need any special equipment to send exceptional emails.
• It’s easy to measure your performance (and keep improving)
• It helps you build deeper connections
• It offers you an amazing return on investment.

Picture this:

When you’re exhibiting your work and a fan says “Hey, I love your work and would love to buy some of it in the future!” the first thing you might do is hand them a business card or ask them to follow your social media profiles right? You might want to rather ask them to join your email list, by keeping a physical book close by and capturing their email address. Email is a much more personal communication method and has a higher chance of being seen. You could also build your list at physical events by keeping a tablet or laptop close by and handing it to people to complete the signup process.

If you’re keeping a physical written down list from your event (or walk-ins to your gallery) - you can easily add your subscribers to your list but will need to do a few extra things:

• Create a thank you campaign, thanking them for their interest in your products or for visiting your gallery.
• Include messaging to tell them that they can unsubscribe and that they are receiving communication from you based on them supplying their email address to you, so you can ensure you’re complying with personal data protection laws.

Ways in which you can build your list:

Using physical events may be tricky in the age of social distancing, with lots of businesses pausing events or hosting them online. Below are a few other ways you can build your email list.

Use your website:

It may be important to you to have a beautiful website to showcase your work, but it also needs to be functional. Your website is the perfect driving force to help you build your email list. All you need to do is add your subscription form in a visible place on your website and ensure there is a clear call to action button.

Create an enticing lead magnet:

Is there something special you can create to offer your subscribers? Perhaps it’s an exclusive look into your creative process, or a look at a previously unseen work of art? Whatever you decide on, creating a lead magnet is a great way to entice website visitors to sign up to your email list.

Owning your own work:

Part of the beauty of email marketing is the ability to control the messages you are sending out. You may be thinking, “I already do this on social media” and that’s true, but when you are building your email marketing subscriber list, you own it and aren’t restricted by content guidelines or impacted by algorithm shifts on social media platforms.

Why is this beneficial to you? Well, if your work covers graphic content you may not be able to express yourself creatively on social media. You might need to put a lot of money behind your advertising on social media to ensure your audience actually sees your posts.

Become a leader in your space:

Creative works allow you to fill unique niches in your industry. What does this mean? Email marketing can help you establish your credibility and authority in your chosen space as you’ll be able to send through information that speaks to different aspects of your field.

Content ideas for artists:

Behind the scenes content: Create connections with your fans by showing them where you work. You could even show them how you order the materials you need to develop your unique art pieces or if your art is driven by more multimedia formats, you could show some of your equipment for example.

Promote your collection: If you’ve just finished creating a new collection of pieces, an album or body of works, promote your collection with a beautiful newsletter to show your audience what’s on offer.

Send a teaser campaign: If you’re busy creating something new, you can create excitement and hype around it by offering your subscribers a sneak peek or creating intrigue with a countdown to the launch.

Tell your audience more about pieces you're creating: People love good stories, while you might be hesitant to place yourself in the limelight, talking about what inspired you or what is inspiring you can really help your audience connect with your work. This doesn’t need to be complicated at all, you could create a collage of things that have inspired you lately or simply create a text based email explaining more about your work.

Introduce yourself: This is one of the easiest places to start. Have you won any rewards? Did you accidentally become an artist? What made you choose this path? No matter what your story is, introduce yourself and get more personal with your audience.

Send out a round-up of upcoming events: If you’d like to establish yourself and build credibility, help fellow artists succeed by creating a newsletter about upcoming events, and giving a shout out to your own favourite artists. If this isn’t really your cup of tea, you could just focus on highlighting upcoming events at the gallery you’re associated with.

Send out an invite to view your work: Use email marketing to easily create a beautiful invite to your next show.

We hope this article has inspired you to use your creative energy to start sending beautiful emails today. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section below.