How to market yourself organically

Education

January 29, 2023

It’s time to learn how to market yourself organically as an artist.

Let me guess.. You’re here because your marketing isn’t doing much for you and you’re ready to learn how to market yourself as an artist. Maybe you get a few leads, but they decide to hire someone else. Or maybe you’re getting a ton of jobs but with clients that don’t really value what you do.

Maybe you’re concerned you’ll never be able to market yourself organically – but you don’t have the funds to invest in ads. Spoiler alert.. you don’t need to.

I’m going to teach you my biggest tip to market yourself as a creative business owner.

*One of my favorite images that serves as an organic marketing staple in my wedding career – showing my love for bold color, celebration, and all things confetti.*

FIRST. FIGURE OUT YOUR BRAND AND PERSONAL ARTISTIC VOICE TO BUILD TRUST IN ORGANIC MARKETING.

Having a solid personal brand is the first step to marketing yourself organically. We have to have this clear understanding of what our brand is and what makes us different.

Marketing yourself as an artist with no personal brand shows a lack of heart and intention within your business. It makes you blend in with the competition, which is the exact thing we want to avoid!

First thing’s first: ask yourself these three questions and write down your answers:

What is your favorite part of yourself?
What are your best strengths?
How would your friends and family describe how you make them feel?

Once you have those answers, that’s your why! That’s how you like to make people feel. That’s how you operate. Those are your strengths. Those answers are who you are as a human. And so we want to start bringing them into your business because you’re going to have a business that is so individualistic and so much more fulfilling if it operates like you do- and you will be better able to market as an artist.

Your ideal clients will be able to identify with you. Your marketing strategy will never work if you’re trying to be like someone else. So you need to figure out your brand before you start to market yourself as an artist!

Another organic marketing staple – I love photographing my clients with double exposures to show an editorial twist on their celebration. Showing my artistic voice consistently in content + writing is key for organic marketing and brand trust.

SECOND. YOU NEED TO BUILD A BRANDING STATEMENT FOR YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION IN YOUR ORGANIC MARKETING.

Your branding statement is going to be integral on all platforms to market yourself organically as an artist. A good branding statement needs these four things:

What do you do that’s your niche? (jewelry maker, website designer, painter, etc.)
What is your specialty? Do you make custom jewelry? Do you sell website templates? Etc. The more niched down you can make it, the better.
Where are you based?
Who do you serve? You should have something that shows who it is you serve and the types of people that should be wanting to work with you by saying something about your specialty.

*If you’re organically marketing, don’t forget to remind your audience how to work with you! You want to walk a fine line between over and underselling, which we’ll dive into below.*

THREE. MAKE SURE YOU DON’T UNDER OR OVER SELL WHEN ORGANICALLY MARKETING.

The biggest mistake I see artists make while marketing is that they over or under sell. Confused? Don’t worry – let’s unpack. This is key to marketing as an artist.

Overselling looks like.. Every day saying how to buy your products, only posting promotions, etc. This will make your audience feel like they’re intaking an ad – not hearing from a business that genuinely cares about them.

Underselling looks like.. Never letting your audience know how to book you, buy your products, what working with you looks like, because you’re afraid it will come off too sales-y. In reality, the average consumer is intaking so much content daily that they’ll likely forget they scrolled past you. This means we do need to occasionally sell, so that they know they can hire us!

You’d be surprised how many people may be wanting to work with you, but aren’t sure if books are open or how to book you!

Make sure you’re communicating how to book with you or buy your products, and how incredible it will be to work with you! They need to see more than just pretty photos and the fact that you love salsa and your dog.

*All images edited with Eden Strader Presets, always.* *Would you look at that.. organic marketing.*

TLDR?

The best way to market yourself organically as an artist is identifying your brand, communicating it clearly, and making sure your audience knows how to hire you.

Your brand and artistic voice are truly at the foundation of everything.

If you want to learn how to market yourself as an artist? BRAND. BRAND. BRAND. You will attract the kind of customers who love what you do and just HAVE to work with you- because they’ll know there’s no one else that could possibly have what they want.

Show us these things on your stories, through your client reviews, in your portfolio, your copywriting, everything you can! These are all amazing ways to market organically and begin to build brand trust with your potential clients.

And bonus trick? Don’t forget to sell. Remind your viewers and audience how to contact you, buy your product, or invest in your services. So often we get the fear of seeming sales-y keep us from hitting out business goals, when our dream clients are just waiting to hear how to book us.

Listen to our full podcast episode on building a 2023 marketing strategy or dive into our Pinterest Possibilities freebie – so you’re ready to move new viewers from cold to sold.