An Artist Needs To Know How Their Creative Content Can Grow Their Audience

Every artist wants to grow their art audience.  Too few realize that the subject matter of their creative content can help and hurt them.

How you present your work within your art platform can also be seen by the kind of art you create.  This key will have an equal impact in gaining an audience as any other tactic you use.

How To Grow Your Art Audience

This concept will upset some.  That is okay for there will be those that genuinely need it.  Nevertheless what is your art about?

Did you know that producing art of certain kinds will turn people away.  An example of this is content which is seductive in nature or too suggestive.

This kind of art content will create a niche market that you really may not wish to be involved in.  Is this how you wish to be seen?

Visual Arts has always been about story telling.  It is more than just a captured moment in time.  While it can be beautiful it shares how the artist is seeing the world through their eyes.

Art content and subject matter should create a narrative allowing for common ground to be established. With an audience this can go far. 

The more common ground you create the larger this audience becomes.

The easiest way to achieve this goal and capture your audience is to become good at storytelling through your visual art.  When this can move people then your art will be something they remember.

How Art Content And Subject Can Hurt The Artist

There are many other situations where the artist’s content will hurt their audience numbers. Using adult suggestive material is merely one example.

Today fan art is a huge market.  Despite how massive it is there is an equally massive problem.  The biggest issue with fan art is that no one can really stand out.

The artist is continually contained within the confines of an established idea which they merely recreate.  Add to this the volume of artist which can easily replicate the subjects and the value of the art becomes too small.

There is also another matter of artists that self-type cast their art.  They do the same kind of art over and over without ever pushing themselves beyond those boundaries.

Each of these examples lead to minimizing the audience which the artist can capture and engage.  Art itself is an extension of the artist and should grow just as we grow.

How To Balance Art Content For Self And Your Audience

Let me ask, where do you want to be as an artist?  When you know this destination then I must ask, will your compositions in art get you there?

Too many artists never consider that question but rather dive into social media or building their online gallery.  These tools are essential, but they are merely tools, nothing more.

How you answer the first two questions should determine how you want people to see you.  The way your work represents you will attract certain kinds of audiences.

If you are attracting the wrong kind of audience then this is not beneficial to your goals and growth.  Likewise where you place your art will also impact you in the same way.

I have said this many times, but would Picasso use someplace like an art forum or Etsy to sell art?  I say it is not very likely at all.

Names like Monet and Picasso did something very well.  They created art that a broad audience would love.  Often this was in the face opposition from the established arts.

New artists may have no choice but to use third party art websites. This is understandable. Nevertheless this is a transition point form where you start out, not where you will forever reside.

The key so finding balance within your art content is to bridge the gap between the answers to these questions.  In turn the art audience you obtain will reflect that path you set yourself on.

This still may not always be the art you wish to create, nevertheless it is your genuine creative work.  By doing things this way you avoid being so niche that you exclude yourself from a broader audience.

Also you avoid the other extreme where an artist can sink into artsy crafts to sell products.  Each extreme leads to audiences that no artist really wishes to be tied to.

Art Content Plus Platform Will Equal Your Audience

Learning how to market your artwork to an audience should be the last piece of this puzzle.  Too many artists tend to put the cart before the horse and still expect to get somewhere.

Having defined your target audience and also tuning your art content you can then move forward.  There are strategies for selling on Etsy, but should you be there?

What are the problems with art forums and social media that you must avoid?  Should you create art tutorial videos?

Artists will find a lot of information out there telling you to go down each of these rabbit holes.  Very few of them ever tell you the real deal behind the cost to benefit of their uses.

Fewer art bloggers will mention how to truly create solid public relations for your art business.  This is where I would tell every artist to start and it is the most important beginning foundation.

Where you live, as in where you place your artwork, will also dictate your art audience.  It is as imperative as the art content.

You need to look at the audience which resides, goes to, or purchases from said xyz platform, forum, or market space.  If that turns out to be your people, then go there.

If you find bargain hunters, shady forum links to ebay, or other questionable issues reflecting poor reputation then run away.  Do not remain in those locations.

The audience an artist receives will be as a result of a basic equation.  Art content plus your art platform will equal your art audience.  Evaluate each part of this equation accordingly.

Where Does The Best Audience For Artists Come From?

The best audience for any artist will come from two key places.  First your local hometown.  Secondly from organic results online.

The first you can achieve quickly if you have good relationship skills.  Nothing gets you on your feet and running as fast as networking locally.

The organic results online can take a lot of time to cultivate.  It can take so long in fact that many give up before they reach any real success there.

In between these two exists the hamster wheel of social media.  It is a great location for wearing yourself out in a made up job with few results or payout.

The vain metrics keep people coming back like an addiction and its uses questioned.

Some have found good audiences within certain real world art galleries.  This will be something to evaluate at your local level that I cannot do for you here.

What can be said is that some galleries are great.  Others are not so great.  Look for contracts which still allow you to have freedom as an artist and also a location that gives solid foot traffic.

If you find both of these in one gallery then you have done well.

Art showings via guilds or hosted event planning can be really hit and miss.  Again this is a local thing to evaluate.  Personally, I avoid them but that does not mean you should do the same.

Ultimately what you are looking for is a way to create a fresh audience each and every day.  You want new people seeing your artwork.

You then also want to have retention of those who love your art.  These are your repeat customers.  If you are building a good art audience both elements should be taking place.

Of the above suggestions, networking with businesses locally and the eventual online organic results are the best.

What Kind Of Non Art Content Helps Build An Artist Audience?

Non art content can be defined as any activity which does not include displaying or showing your artwork.  As an artist you only have so much time in life to invest into something, what should that something be?

This content which will eventually drive the bulk of gaining the artist a new audience will be evergreen content.  The concept of evergreen content is a subject within its own right but I will help you understand this briefly.

An art blog would be considered evergreen content because it will never get “old” and “die” out.  Social media is not evergreen content for it dies out within minutes of posting.

For independent artists that are competing in the market space this concept is the lifeblood of success or failure.  How you spend your time is critical as an artist.

Never put yourself into a position where each and every day you create non art related content because you must.  While marketing art is a job, it should not become your full time job.

Creating your art should be your job.  Keep this in focus by leveraging the right platforms to give you this freedom.

If you notice I do very little with my social media accounts.  My Instagram is virtually nonexistent.  Twitter is for communication and fun for me.

Measure your efforts according to where you need to be within life’s balance using the right tools to get you where you need to go.