Artists, You Need an Email List
The hardest part of being an artist isn’t making art. It’s drumming up interest in your work and marketing yourself. We’re told day in and day out that social media marketing is make or break for our careers. The problem with that is social media is ever changing and an audience on one platform isn’t guaranteed.
You know what is guaranteed? An email list.
Having your own email list makes sure that your audience is your audience, regardless of what happens to whatever platform you’ve found success in. That .csv file is your audience, and it’s yours to export and upload to email marketing platforms as you see fit.
What do you do with your email list once you have it? I recommend starting an artist newsletter. Sending your audience an email on a consistent basis will eventually have them expecting it in their inbox.
Here is a list of things you can include in an artist newsletter:
Progress shots of your larger projects, so your audience can follow along in the creation process
Finished pieces, with a link to purchase if it is for sale
A recap of your week/month in your creative practice
A heads up on any events you may be hosting or attending
What your reading list is for the year as a creative
A book recommendation
Not everything in your artist newsletter needs to be centered on your art, or calling an action to purchase or work with you. Half of the work of a newsletter is to remind your audience that you’re there, and help them get to know you as a person. In fact, including things like book recommendations and recaps of your practice will help folks feel more connected to you. Then, when you do have a shop update or a bigger call to action, you’ve already built the rapport for them to want your work.
When you’re putting together your newsletter, remember that you are talking to your audience as an artist! Make your newsletter’s color palette fit with the work you make and keep the copy writing engaging. Every word you choose says something about the kind of artist you are, and why someone would want to work with you or purchase from you. This blog post has some great tips on copywriting for artists.
Here are some ways to build your email list:
At any in person events, have a clipboard with an option to sign up for your email list. Folks may not be able to purchase something from you in the moment, but they may want to follow your artist practice.
Have a shop announcement at the top of your website or Etsy letting folks know that if they sign up for your newsletter, they’ll get a 15% one time use discount code
Turn your weekly/biweekly/monthly newsletter into a blog and include a call to action in each one to subscribe to your newsletter to get it right in your inbox
In every art sale you make, include a card that lets folks know that you have a newsletter and encourage them to sign up
Promote it on your Instagram Stories with a freebie (desktop wallpaper, digital sketchbook, printable coloring page)
Now that you know how to build an email list and what to put in it, you need to think about how you want to send those emails!
If you already have a website, many hosts have their own email platform. A benefit of using their integrated email platform is that you can very easily create pop ups to sign up for your newsletter and sign up forms directly on your website. However, my experience with both Wix and Squarespace is that convenience directly increases your costs.
I personally use Mailchimp. Their free plan allows for 500 contacts and up to 1,000 email sends a month. For most artists getting started, this will be more than enough. They also allow you to add pop up and embedded forms to any website, it’s just a little more legwork. I highly recommend this approach to keep your costs low!
There you have it, a 101 on how to build your email list as an artist and begin promoting your work!
