If you’re not currently marketing your art, you’re doing yourself, your art and the public a disservice. If you can, hire a public relations firm, or a PR consultant to help you shape, frame, brainstorm and launch a creative media relations campaign. Your best bet is to bring on a team that has expertise in the field and delegate your marketing, so you can focus on your art work. If you’re not yet in a position to hire someone, that’s okay, if you take action and continue to move forward one day you will be.
For now what I’d suggest is creating your own marketing division. Yes, a marketing division designed solely to promote you and your art work. Even if at first it exists in name only. Even if, for now, you are the sole member of the marketing division.
That division’s job is to develop a marketing strategy that includes social media PR and other creative forms of promotion.
As the head of this division you need to define the following:
Your art
Your market,
Your direction
Your game-plan
Your marketing strategies.
Your brand
Your media
This marketing division you run will help you view marketing and PR as an integral part of your career description. If you can’t bring on a firm, or a consultant, see if you can enlist the help of friends or interns to help you craft your PR and marketing gameplan.
Don’t view this as a dry, boring business-oriented marketing exercise, see it as a creative approach to building a bridge between you and your market. Take time to create your message, your stories and your brand. Start by focusing on your stories. Keep in mind that effective PR is effective storytelling. Media relations is about developing stories with a strong compelling narrative. It is not about sales.
Just as your art tells a story, so should your marketing. Done correctly, it can be an exciting creative process. And the best time to start is always – now.