5 PR & Marketing Strategies Successful Artists Implement Daily

PR and marketing are major components when it comes to launching a successful career as an artist. With that in mind, the following are:

5 PR and Marketing Strategies Successful Artists Use

1. They market themselves and their work! They do their work, create their art and implement a well thought out marketing plan. They don’t hope and pray that they will somehow be discovered or wait for a white knight to gallop up and handle all of that marketing and business stuff for them. They understand that that white knight seldom appears. If you want to share your art with the public, if you want to support yourself through your art, and if you want your art to also be your career – you need to market. Successful artists understand this.

2. They know they can’t do it alone. Successful artists realize they need a team to help them. They don’t write press releases, send them out and wait for responses. They don’t go on five social media platforms, post some images and again, wait. They realize that it’s smarter and more effective to work with a team of marketing professionals and/ or a PR firm. Some artists are great marketers, but that’s a rare combination. Even those that know and understand PR and marketing, understand that working with a team will be more effective and save them time, as marketing is a full time job on its own.

Tip: Find a team or consultant you’re comfortable working with. That way you can focus on your primary job – your art.

3. They hire a PR firm or marketing consultant and work one on one with them daily. They stick to the plan and don’t disappear. They understand their part in the marketing and PR campaign. They listen to their team and work with them strategically and patiently.

Tip: You can’t simply hire a firm and think that you can now walk away. The most effective media relations and marketing campaigns are those where the client and the consultant work hand in hand.

Tip: Don’t hire a PR firm or marketing consultant and then disregard all of the expert advice and decide to dictate how the campaign is going to be run. It will not be worth your time or money if you hire a PR company, and are not willing to utilize their expertise and listen to their advice. That’s like going to see a physician and then diagnosing and treating yourself.

4. They see a campaign through from beginning to finish, and are able to stick to their vision and see the big picture.  They understand that PR, media and marketing campaigns have cumulative processes. It takes time to build a career. There will be small hits and big hits, and they are all important and a part of the big picture.  They don’t hire a public relations firm or marketing consultant, work them, build up their brand and their media coverage and just as the campaign is taking off – stop.  (We worked with one client who wanted to stop and take a hiatus just as we landed a two page spread in a major national magazine.)

Tip: Putting on the breaks when you media campaign is working, is like stopping mid marathon not the time to put the brakes on a campaign. That’s when you want to put it in fifth gear and put your foot on the gas.

5. Successful artists write out their vision and set goals. They are realistic optimists. They understand that not any one particular strategy is the key to success.  It requires a combination of media hits, gallery openings, a social media campaign, the list goes on…

Be savvy about marketing you, your art and your brand.

View your marketing as an art.