"1200 Followers and a Wake-Up Call: Why I Finally Got Serious About Artist Marketing"

"The Growth That Wasn't Growing"

My attempt at a headshot!

I want to share with yall my marketing journey! I am doing this for two reasons. One, that maybe my blog posts might help another artist out and Two, I need to hold myself accountable. I am at the very beginnings of learning to market myself as an artist and the following blog explains where I'm at right now and where I hope to go!

I have just started my third year of professionally selling my paintings as an artist! I have taken courses to improve my skills, painted my butt off, got a website, and began posting more regularly on social media. I want to continue to grow my business and all of these things seemed like the logical thing to do. Growth should just follow, right!?

Well, while I have seen a lot of growth in my business as far as my local community goes I am struggling to get my name and art out to a larger audience. I assumed that if I showed up consistently online and created a website the leads would just naturally occur, but unfortunately that has not been the case. So ether my art sucks or there is a

magic formula for followers that no one has told me about 😭😂

"Stuck in the Social Media Shallow End"

I am a rather introverted person. I have never been good at reaching out and connecting with people and somehow that translates across screens on my social platforms. So I am currently stuck at 1200 followers, 500 views, and a couple comments and likes. I needed help! and like a gift from above I found in my inbox an offer to pilot a program meant to teach marketing specifically to artist! It didn't seem real, that this opportunity would just fall into my lap just when I needed it. but I'm a big believer in the universe providing for those that follow there dreams. So, thank you universe once again!

"Enter The Artists Launch Academy"

The marketing program is called The Artists Launch Academy and with the guidance of Kasi and the help of 8 other artist testing out the program, we are working our way to learning how to stand out in this world wide web!

I've learned so much from these workbooks.

I am currently right in the middle of the program and learning how to plan marketing strategies and set goals. The more I get into planning the more I realize I've just been treading water in the open ocean expecting to be rescued but doing nothing to help myself. I have been posting with no intention, building no interest around my art or endeavor’s, and having no real schedule of myself to keep me motivated and on track.

As off this week I am attempting to change that and can only get better the more I learn from the academy.

"My First Real Marketing Strategy"

Hey look! I'm planning

I loosely planned out my month of September. I designated content and creating days, days to post blogs and social media posts, and added days that I would apply to calls to art or art fairs. But not only did I say I would be posting on certain days, I added intention behind them by looking at my goals.

I want to grow my following, so I am going to gear my posts towards doing just that. I set a simple goal to gain 100 followers by the end of the month. Now instead of posting whatever random thing that comes into my mind for the day, I now can create posts that have a story and my followers can follow along with. I also created the goals to create 6 new originals, finish my commissions and post four blogs.

"The Journey Ahead"

I have always been someone that needs lots of structure and thrive in it. Now I feel more driven and encouraged because I have a plan! I can't wait to learn more from The Artists Launch Academy. Just these short term goals give me hope! I can't wait to start creating yearly goals that I can break down quarterly and really watch my business take off, (well thats the goal 😅).