The Beginner's Guide to Marketing Your Art Online (Without Losing Your Mind)
Here's something I hear constantly from the artists I work with: "I know I need to market my work, but I don't even know where to start."
And I get it. Because the internet will tell you a thousand different things all at once. Start a TikTok. Build an email list. Run ads. Optimize your SEO. Pin everything to Pinterest. Post three times a day. Use hashtags, but not too many hashtags. Go viral.
And its all urgent. Do it right now. and do it all.
It's a lot. And none of it tells you the actual starting point.
So let me try to do that here. This is my attempt at the honest, jargon-free beginner's guide I wish someone had handed to every artist I've ever met. Let's break this down.
What Marketing Actually Is
Marketing is just how people find out your work exists and why they should care about it. That's it. Everything else, the social media, the emails, the blog posts, the paid ads, those are just tools that serve that one simple goal.
When you post a photo of your process on Instagram, that's marketing. When you tell a friend about your Etsy shop, that's marketing. When you write a product description that explains not just what it is but what it feels like to own it, that's marketing.
You don't have to become a marketing expert to do this well. You just have to understand what you're trying to do and pick a manageable way to do it consistently.
The Three Things That Actually Matter
Before you worry about any specific platform or strategy, you need three things in place:
1. Know who you're talking to. Not "everyone who likes art." We need to be more specific than that. Who buys your work? Who do you want to buy your work? What do the people who buy your work care about? Where do they spend time? The more specific you can get here, the easier everything else becomes.
2. Have somewhere to send people. This could be a website, an Etsy shop, a link in your Instagram bio. You need at least one place where someone can actually see your work and buy it or contact you. If someone discovers you tomorrow, where do they go?
3. Show up somewhere consistently. Just pick one place for now (maybe two if you’re feeling confident).Pick a platform you actually enjoy using and commit to showing up there regularly. "Regularly" can mean once or twice a week. It doesn't mean every single day.
That's your whole starting point. Everything else builds from here.
What You Can Safely Ignore (For Now)
I want to give you clear permission to ignore the following things, at least until you've got those three basics down:
• Paid ads. Unless you have a solid foundation already in place, throwing money at ads is like trying to fill a leaky bucket. You'll spend money and wonder why nothing is happening.
• Being on every platform. You don't need a TikTok and an Instagram and a Pinterest and a Facebook and a newsletter all at once. Pick one. Get comfortable. You can always expand later if you want to.
• Going viral. Viral content is mostly luck. Going viral isn’t a strategy, its a wish. Focus on what is actually in your control.
• Posting every single day. Burnout will kill your momentum faster than posting twice a week ever will.
Where to Start Today
Here's your actual action plan. I limited it to 3 things to focus on:
1. Write down who your ideal buyer is. Get specific. Think about their age, what they love, why they'd want your work in their home or on their wall, and where you’d be able to connect with that person. I always give this person a name because it helps me keep them in mind when creating content in the future.
2. Make sure your profile or shop has an up-to-date bio, a link to where your work lives, and a few recent posts or listings.
3. Pick one platform and commit to showing up two to three times a week for the next month. Just one month. See what happens.
That's it. That's your marketing plan for right now.
I know it feels like it should be more complicated than that. But most of what gets creatives stuck isn't a lack of strategy. It's the overwhelm that comes from trying to do everything at once. Start small. Start simple. Build from there.
And if you want to keep learning as you go, stick around. I’ve got a lot more blogs planned to help you and your business flourish.
Save this post to come back to when you need a reset. And if it helped you, share it with another creative who's feeling overwhelmed. You can also follow me on Instagram @floreismarketing for the bite-sized version of everything I write here.
