The start of a new year is the time artists should take stock, reflect on the past year and make plans for the new. Now is the time for artists to get ready for 2019.

Have you set up your art marketing goals for the New Year? If not, the following are 7 things you can do to kick start 2019 and improve your chances of success.   

Many of these ideas are elementary, but consistently implementing them is not.  They are critical for artists if they are to market themselves and their art successfully.

1.  Evaluate & Edit Your Website

First, if you do not have a website, then get one. Now! In today’s art world, in order to be taken seriously, it is essential for an artist to have a modern, professional, up-to-date website to display their art. The annual cost of a domain is typically less than $20. The cost of basic website hosting can be as low as $3 per month. A website is an investment artists should make a priority in order to be taken seriously. As Nike likes to say, “Just Do It!”

For those of you who already have websites, when was the last time that you went page by page and link by link through your website? If you are like most people it has probably been a very long time! I think that if you were to do this with your website you would find broken links, pages that do not load quickly, graphics, images and other items that have moved, along with pages with misspelled words and similar issues.

Is this how you want your website visitors to see your art? Take some time to make these corrections. Also, if you have pages that do not load quickly due to large image files or due to flash and music features, these items should be corrected or removed as people do not have the time to wait on your pages to load. Otherwise, if not corrected you will be losing these valuable visitors to your site.

Make sure all of the images on your website are sized properly and have a low resolution (a resolution of 72 helps your site load more quickly and protects your art from being hijacked by unscrupulous people).  The images should also be color corrected.  (There are many free programs on the internet for this.)

Do you have better images or graphics to replace what now exists on your website?  Do you have new artwork that you just have not had time to photograph and add to your website? Do it. 

Also, while checking your images, make sure that they are labeled and tagged properly with good image descriptions.  Search engines will only index your images if they have descriptions.  By doing this, your images will show up in the image search results. When the images are viewed, viewers will be directed to your art website.

2.  Start a Blog

Artists should consider starting an art blog as a way to attract and direct additional interested viewers to their art websites. An art blog is a great way to expand an artist’s target audience. It is also an effective platform to help artists market their art.

Read our articles “Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Have an Art Blog” and “How Artists Can Attract Readers to an Art Blog” in order to fully understand the power of a well-executed art blog.

3.  Use Social Media

Social media is the perfect platform for artists to employ in order to help market themselves and their art. Why is this? In our opinion, it is easy to identify and connect with the art community when using social media.

We also think it is an effective medium because it is a visual and simple way in which to present your art. Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Linkedin, Instagram and even Twitter provide an artist with opportunities (if targeted properly) to reach viewers who were previously unreachable.

Read our article “Top 10 Reasons Why Artists Fail with Social Media” along with various other social media articles on the LST website.

4.  Press Release Marketing

Press release marketing is a low-cost alternative whereby an artist can market their artwork to a wide range of potential viewers. There are many “Free” press release websites, which take, publish and market an artist’s press release copy. However, if pressed for time, we strongly suggest that an artist use a “Paid” press release distribution service. LST uses a company called Star One Public Relations and they off press release distribution services for as low as $10.00 for distribution to 70+ press outlets.

Read our article “Successful Press Release Marketing for Artists” to help guide you in these efforts.

5.  Rewrite/ Update your Artists Bio and Statement

Review and rewrite your Artist Statement and Artist Biography.  An artist does not have to be an accomplished writer to create a well-written Biography and Artist’s Statement, but it is essential for an artist to have at least one. It is important to know the difference between a biography and artist statement. Please read our article “Comparing an Artist’s Biography to an Artist’s Statement” for clarification.

Also, update your CV by adding any exhibitions, new publications or other pertinent information that has taken place since the last time they were updated.

6.  Become a Guest Blogger

Another way in which to reach your target audience is to become a guest blogger on other successful art bloggers websites. Target potential blogs that are related to your art niche, are active blogs and blogs that attract a large following.

Active bloggers are always looking for new material, topics, and articles for their sites. Be able to show them any articles that you have previously written in order to demonstrate that you can write well. They will probably only take your articles that have never been published before, therefore be prepared to write new content.

These website owners may have some ideas and topics on which they would like you to write. Otherwise, prepare and have some ideas ready that you can propose to them. Just make sure you are not proposing duplicate or similar content that is already on their website.

7.  Have Your Art Portfolio Reviewed Professionally

A professional Portfolio Review provides an artist with an evaluation of their art and a critique of how the art is being presented to others. Usually, during a portfolio review, the reviewers provide the artist with additional ideas on how they can effectively market their art.

Much like art competitions, a Portfolio Review is an additional way in which artists can have their artwork evaluated and measured against other artists. 

In 2019 vow to make these suggestions part of your marketing efforts. By implementing these suggestions, we believe artists will experience an improvement in traffic to their websites, find more people interested in their art and ultimately, sell more of their work. As with any marketing program, your efforts need to be well executed and performed on a consistent basis in order to be successful.

Good luck and have a successful and creative 2019!