The Studio Source.com

I got an email in response to my call for your burning questions: how do you get the right people (curators, dealers, buyers) to find you on the web?

That’s the big one. How to find them, get their attention, and make them love you, plus conduct this apparent feat of magic without ever looking them in the eye.

Piece of cake. Throw a few pictures on Flickr, sign up for an Etsy shop, sit back and wait for the cash to roll in and the lovesick groupies to shower you with fan mail.

If you’re reading this, you already know that doesn’t cut it. When you set out to establish an online audience, you take the same basic steps as you would to build an audience offline. It requires time, energy, and smart decisions.

Find the right audience—do some detective work
You are not selling to anyone who spends money on art (or craft, or design). You sell to the people who love what you do. If you make raku sushi sets, you don’t go looking for thrift store treasure hunters. You look for the people who have the money to spend on handmade dinnerware as well as people who eat sushi.

That may sound painfully obvious, but there are countless numbers of people running businesses who don’t realize they shouldn’t try to please everyone.

So how do you find the right audience? Pretend you’re a customer. Where would you go to find yourself? Would you search on Google? An online shopping site like Etsy or Artful Home? Would you check out the arts or design organizations in your city to see work online and then buy it in person?

Test the theory. Do some searches on Google. Check online shopping sites to see who’s out there. If you’re a raku sushi set maker, look for blogs about Japanese cooking. Do a search on Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin for potters, ceramics or ceramic artists. You will find other artists, but you might also find people who are looking for artists.

If you’re still having trouble, or if you’re freaking out, back up and kick it old school.

Start local, go global
Never underestimate the power of starting small and starting where you live. Join your local arts organization. As in, the official, non-profit association that puts on shows, workshops, publishes newsletters and is under constant threat of having its meagre public funding slashed into nonexistence. Take advantage of any online member services they have (a curator from the UK found me that way. She planned most of the exhibition remotely and put the show together in person shortly before it opened).

Now that local news is online and small towns have their own websites, a small show, review, or article has the potential to help you connect with people half a world away. It’s often easier to get local press coverage, so use those opportunities to help you gain exposure and build your reputation. Don’t dismiss the little things—they can add up to big things, or garner some high quality attention.

Tell your friends and clients you’re online. Most people are happy to help spread the word, particularly if you’ve done a good job establishing a professional online presence. That way they feel smart about bragging you up, because their friends will be impressed by their good taste. Then their friends mention you to someone else. Word of mouth starts anywhere and can spread anywhere. Don’t limit your thinking or your marketing—good buzz knows no boundaries.

Show them your best stuff
Give your audience something they’ll love: high quality images, good copy, clean layout. Write a solid artist’s statement. Get a grammar geek to proofread it. Hire a designer if you can swing it (rumor has it Flash sites aren’t search engine-friendly, so be forewarned). If you have to go with a template, your content becomes even more important.

Make sure your site is easy to navigate and easy to read. Just an FYI—some people have trouble viewing websites that use black backgrounds. It is physically uncomfortable. I’m one of those people. If I really want to read the copy, I highlight it, but usually I just click away. I’ve found a few exceptions, and all have been designed by pros who know how to use type extremely well.

You don’t have to put your whole portfolio online. Sometimes less is more. That’s particularly true in the online world, where people are so overloaded with information they can’t take it all in. Be your own curator and show a good body of work.

Connect with your people
The easiest thing to do when networking online is to find people in your field and hang out with them. While it’s true that artists buy art, and that existing clients are more likely to buy from you again, limiting yourself to that audience isn’t the smartest way to do business. Artists have notoriously small budgets, and there’s only so much wall and shelf space in anyone’s home. Business cards and websites generally don’t need a twice-yearly redesign. There might be a long gap before that client buys from you again, so you need to reach a little further.

If you’re still fretting about finding potential buyers, connect with professional organizations and publications on social media. See who they’re following and who’s following them. You might be surprised at who you find on those lists.

(Speaking of publications, writer and painter Lori Woodward recently wrote an article about getting your work published. She has some good tips for painters that can also be applied to other media.)

Be real and well-rounded
If you follow me on Twitter you will quickly realize I don’t just talk about creativity. I’m also into garden design, wildlife preservation, food, and vicarious world travel. I talk about those things because I’m genuinely interested in them, and because constantly yapping about your own work is just as tedious online as it is in person. The online attention span is much shorter, and social media is far less tolerant of people who only show up to sell something, so if you do that, be prepared for the fallout.

Let’s go back to our sushi example. I suggested looking for blogs on Japanese cooking. If you make sushi plates, you might also be into Japanese cooking. Which means it’s entirely appropriate to make comments on a Japanese cooking blog. Not about the fact that you make sushi sets, but about Japanese cooking. Yes, I know. It’s obvious when you read it, but when the online marketing monster has you by the throat, you might be too distracted to notice.

Put the pieces together
I wish there was a magic formula for marketing, offline or online. There isn’t. You do the best work you can, learn what you need to know about promoting it, find the tools that work best for you, and apply them. That’s not magic. It’s thoughtful planning and a process that requires professionalism and persistence at the very least. It can be a creative project in itself, if you approach it the right way. If you think of your website as an evolving art/design exhibition, complete with a bio, descriptions of the pieces, and contact information, you might even start to enjoy it.

Which is the way it should be. It’s definitely a good experience when you come across somebody who’s doing it right.

When I retweet my friend Rachel’s garden design posts or comment on her blog, I do it because I’m into garden design, I think she does great work, and she’s fun to talk to. And now you know about her, too. I met her through an online community. Would I give her a shout out if I thought her work was crap, even though I like her? Nope. Would I tell you how great she is if her work was fabulous but she was an arrogant jerk? Not a chance.

(If you don’t know this already, a lot of artists are also into gardens. Not just looking at them as subject matter, but actually digging in the dirt. Gardeners also seem to be fond of books, both reading them and writing in them. At least, the ones I know. Just tossing that out there for your consideration.)

The power of the message
You may have noticed I flipped the question of how you get the right people to find you to how to find the right audience. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is the obvious problem of the wealth of information lurking on the Web. It’s usually not staring at you. What tends to land in your field of vision are those stupid, annoying ads that clutter your screen when you’re looking for something important. You have to dig a little for the good stuff. A website isn’t like a shop on the busiest street in town. People “just passing by” don’t find you the same way. Someone browsing an online shopping site or professional directory might stumble across you, but your chances are wildly better if you walk up to that person (literally or virtually) and introduce yourself.

(Which, by the way, can be highly effective. You want a curator to think of you when he’s gathering artists for his next exhibition? Send him an email. Tell him how much you liked the show you just saw—the one he curated. Tell him why you liked it. Make sure your contact information is in your email signature line. Is that sleazy or textbooky marketing? Only if you don’t mean it. When you come across something that delights you, take a minute and tell whoever created it. Forget about what connections they might make for you. Those random messages can mean a lot.)

The other reason I flipped the question is more important: marketing is not passive. I’m sure the person who wrote me doesn’t think of her website as an online lottery ticket. It’s well designed, so it’s clear she’s got her head in the right place.

But here’s the thing—words have power. How do I get someone to find me puts you in the wrong frame of mind. It steals your momentum. Don’t wait for them to find you. That will happen naturally through smart marketing, but your goal is to get your work in front of the right people. When you switch the message to match your intention, you put yourself in the right mindset to make that happen.

Over to you: what’s your favourite online marketing tool? What magic marketing solution turned into a pumpkin? What stops you from marketing online?

Possibly related posts:

1. How to write headlines that grab your audience
2. Online selling – how to figure out your prospects without going crazy
3. Rule your online domain – make your website work for you