by #LizPublika
Marketing strategy for commercial and traditional artists must involve using every available tool, and old advice should be reevaluated in new light due to the emergence of sophisticated A.I. and changing industries.
The world is entering a new era — one that is as exciting as it is terrifying. Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is rising in popularity and spreading across the globe like wildfire, impacting industry after industry, sector after sector, and the arts are no exception. With this rapid rise comes uncertainty about how and when the norms that we’ve come to rely on are uprooted completely.
From art creation to art promotion, A.I. is changing how artists do things. It’s assisting us in our practice and freeing us from some of the more tedious tasks involved, thereby allowing us more time and freedom to imagine and create. But it’s also making success harder by mimicking our work and acting as new gatekeepers in an industry that is increasingly relying on its algorithms.
Throughout the Golden Age of social media, algorithms have been pretty crucial for artists and their chances of success. Their major benefit was the elimination of the need for a intermediary, allowing us to directly share their work with people and organizations across borders and cultures. And for a while, it really helped creatives grow.
Today, however, a new intermediary has entered the equation. Novel A.I. tools can uncover deep insights about the audience of any one particular social media platform, dictate what content surfaces in our feeds and make suggestions as well as understand user sentiment. But it also means that creatives have to somehow trick people and A.I.-powered algorithms to notice them.
That’s a ton of additional pressure on creatives who are already fighting the odds stacked against their visibility and success. And there are lots. According to Data USA, the median tuition cost for those who studied visual and performing arts in one of the country’s common institutions in 2022 was $7,556 for a public college (in-state) and $38,811 for private college (out-of-state).
The prestige of the college influences tuition costs. But, in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, out of the 62,187,580 degrees awarded across all fields, 2,945,800 were for Fine and Performing Arts, with 26% of these graduates proceeding to earn advanced degrees. Commercial art and graphic design were the most popular majors, followed by fine art.
For many, simply obtaining an education spells financial debt. Fortunately, those who study the arts in college are often assisted by their professors and the resources many educational institutions provide, such as mentorship, internship opportunities, business insights, and networking opportunities. Still, those who work in other fields, annually earn $16,000 more.
That’s why most artists work jobs that have very little to do with their areas of expertise. And, whether working full time or part time, creatives are expected to divide their available time between making art and art marketing, which is tough knowing that only 1 out of 5 will get to exhibit their work in their lifetime. Which brings us right back to social media and A.I.
It’s true that the Arts & Cultural sector hit an all-time high in 2022. But towards the tail end of the year, on November 30th, OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Although it is not the world’s first generative A.I. platform, it’s one of the most popular. Its immense capabilities and those of the platforms that came after have indisputably disrupted the Arts & Cultural sector since 2022.
And so, in this new era, creatives must reevaluate how they proceed forward, and adapt different strategies to maximize their ability to both create on their own terms and get their work seen by prospective customers, collectors, collaborators, and employers. This means utilizing all of the tools available to us, including those we may have previously discarded. But choosing how to use them depends on a few factors.
A simple internet search for how to market our art yields more results than one can sort through. And the advice is not particularly inspiring. The Milan Art Institute (located in the U.S.), for example, advises artists to “create sellable art by imagining your ideal buyer,” and “create a trusted brand that can’t be forgotten,” among others. It’s well intentioned, but vague and obtuse.
Creating work that sells is good for commercial artists, because that is the very key to their success. But there are too many traditional artists who are sacrificing their creative visions to appease a tricky art market. Furthermore, creating a trusted brand can take years and requires learning another art, brand building, which has an unavoidable and innate marketing aspect.
Problem is, A.I.-reliant social media platforms tend to amplify the visibility of established artists, making it harder for new ones to break into the mainstream. To do so, creatives have to learn the fundamental principles of social media marketing. Starting a blog alongside a website that showcases our work is also challenging, because SEO skills are crucial for it to actually work.
So, what are creatives to do? Numerous resources and platforms suggest trying to get our work featured in various blogs and magazines to increase visibility. This, essentially, is called grassroots marketing and it, too, is an actual skill. But, more importantly, blogs and magazines are relentlessly bombarded with requests of this nature.
Journalism is a business, with preference being given to popular artists who are the most likely to generate the most engagement from audiences. That’s why creatives are constantly asked to submit their social media handles when applying for opportunities. The number of followers, our audience engagement, and the regularity of our posting are all factors for being considered.
Those who attended school and obtained degrees have the benefit of leveraging their art communities. But those who did not are left out to figure things out on their own. This can be a scary and intimidating place for people who simply want to create and share their work with the world. To combat this, artists should consider paying for media coverage to get the ball rolling.
Unfortunately, creatives are advised against doing this. Take, for instance, the warning provided by Art Business: “Recognition and the attention that comes with it have to be earned, not paid for. It's that simple and no more complicated.” This is naive, at best. The rise of influencer culture has shown that paid content is highly effective for marketing almost anything.
Never mind that the art world can be quite hypocritical in who it favors. One example is the rise of a particular con artist who has recently received lots of media attention due to their high-profile legal case. This person has been welcomed by the art community, which at times can be rather judgmental of politics and society, but seems to make exceptions when it's convenient.
As such, creatives must use what they can. Paid media coverage offers newcomers a useful opportunity. By opting for a sponsored post, creatives have a chance to both get publicity and create a foundation from which to build their marketing strategy. So, consider working with a small but reputable digital publisher; all businesses strive to be cash flow-positive, but small businesses need it more.
And since media platforms already rely on SEO for their own business goals, artists can and should piggyback on those, and then upscale from there; that means using the articles to promote themselves on various socials, which will help with building an audience and fostering engagement. And unlike a paid social media promotion, an article can be reused and repurposed.
“The half-life of content across platforms varies drastically. TikTok and X? Just 10-39 minutes of fame. But blog posts? They can keep bringing traffic for up to 2 years! Understanding content longevity helps you decide where to invest your time and budget” argues digital-marketing expert Neil Patel. “Consider putting more emphasis on blog posts, Pinterest, and YouTube.”
Collaborating with indie media outlets is by far less expensive than trying to get a prolific influencer to promote our work, and easier than trying to get a bigger platform to cover a rising creative or business for free. As journalists are also creatives who face similar hurdles as artists, working together is a good opportunity for each to establish an online presence, build clout, and grow professionally.
Indeed, content marketing is a powerful tool for advertising a ton of different businesses, but for one that is as saturated with creatives and is lacking in opportunities, it may be a lifeline. It’s archaic to think that paid promotion of our work somehow diminishes us as creatives or invalidates our skills. If we are to be marketers for half of our art practice anyway, let’s be creative about it.
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