I don’t know why. But Nicolette Tallmadge, who blogs at The Crafted Webmaster, offers 10 tips on How to Use Online video to Promote Your Art. She makes an interesting point. People who buy artwork love to watch artists at work. They’re also curious about things like what inspired the artwork, if the artist sells fulltime or has another job, and if more works are being created.
“Those who attend craft shows say that meeting the artists and talking with them about their artwork is part of what makes the whole experience fun. If you sell exclusively to galleries or exclusively online…this is an important piece of promotion that you are missing.”
That’s where video comes in. Create a video showing your artwork in various stages of completion. Or talk about what inspired you to create it, how long it took, and even stories about problems or challenges you encountered along the way (people love this stuff!).
In additon to Nicollete’s many great ideas, I think artists—and anyone else for that matter—should embed video links within press releases. They make the releases more interseting and will help them rank higher in the search engines. My free email tutorial “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases” explains everything you need to know about how to write and distribute direct-to-consumer releases.
That’s the topic I discussed during the second annual smARTist™ Telesummit in January. Artists from 35 states in the U.S. and 12 countries participated in the art career conference that taught artists about topics like marketing, how to sell more artwork and how to license their work. Ariane Goodwin, who sponsored the telesummit, is offering all the conference materials for sale at her website.
The testimonials from artists who already have seen great results from the telesummit and the line-up of guest experts ought to convince any artist that the materials can turn “just a hobby” into a thriving business. Artists, you have until June 16 to take advantage of the early-bird special.
Patrons, especially sensitive ones, know they’re getting a little piece of the soul of the artist so, absolutely, anything that provides an insight into the process, and the soul, would be gobbled up.