Imagine you’re standing next to one of your works in a gallery. Someone walks up and shows interest in your art. So you take it down and walk away.

Absurd? Yes, if you actually want to sell your art. But that’s precisely what you’re doing when you neglect Email Marketing. A person subscribing to your list is showing interest. Ignoring people interested in your art makes no sense.

If someone took the time to subscribe to your email list, they want and expect to hear from you. The minimum you need to do is a monthly email with updates and highlights of new work.

Your email list is actually more important than your social media following. Keep reading to learn why.

A Typical Pattern

Some artists start the email marketing process with good intentions. They spend hours setting it up (or getting professional help), and the “Subscribe” button is dutifully on their websites. They collect sign-ups at in-person events, too.

The typical pattern is to send one or two emails ambitiously, see no purchases or a low “open rate,” and get discouraged … and email marketing falls by the wayside. Learn more: 3 Reasons New Business Owners Give Up on Email Marketing (And Why They Should Stick With It)

Get Back on That Horse

5 Reasons Email Marketing is essential

Here are 5 reasons why you should work hard to build your email list and engage your subscribers on a regular basis:

1) Proven Interest Leads to Sales: There are many ways for people to discover your art, whether in-person, via social media boosts or ads, online galleries, or marketplaces. No matter the method, if someone sees your art and subscribes in order to see and learn more, that’s amazing.

Getting anyone interested in your art or service is the obvious first step to sales. So not engaging people who’ve already said they’re interested is not smart. Neglecting interested potential buyers is leaving money on the table, period. Sales are never guaranteed, but your odds are much better when you market to actual interested people.

If you build your list and get no sales in a year, it means something else needs to change. It could be your pricing, your tone, needing to create a more exclusive feel, or envisioning new ways of offering your art. While you should not compromise the pricing on your original works, consider a “loss leader” to gain some momentum.

“Isn’t social media enough?” Building social media followers is also very important, but you should use social media to invite people to subscribe. Your email list should be a special, exclusive place (see #4 below). Thanks to ever-changing algorithms, many of your social media Followers will not even see all of your posts. But email Subscribers will at least see your name in their inbox, whether or not they open your email. That’s important!

2) Long-Term Retention: Not only is email marketing a great way to engage with potential buyers interested in your art, but it’s also vital for previous buyer retention. Unless you’re sending out silly nonsense, most subscribers tend to stay subscribed.

This doesn’t mean a subscriber will open every single email. (Learn more about Open Rates below). But the longer a potential or previous buyer stays subscribed, the more opportunity you’ll have to sell your art or services.

Don’t get discouraged by a few Unsubscribers here or there. That’s just life! Focus on the people that stay, and give them something to think about!

3) Name Recognition: Don’t dismiss the power of good old-fashioned name recognition. At a minimum, your business name will keep appearing in someone’s inbox. Even if they never open your email, they see your name, and that’s so much better than being completely forgotten.

4) Your Most Popular Offering: People of all net worths love free and they also like to feel included. Joining your email list should be marketed as the way to be part of your exclusive, special, magical, artistic world. This is the world where they get previews or a chance to buy your new art before the public … the world where they see pictures of real buyers with your art in their home or office … the world where they see glimpses of you with a work in progress. It’s a world where they can get an invitation from you to your art event, or help you support a cause, or get an exclusive offer.

Joining your list should feel like a special experience that’s not to be missed. It should ultimately be your most popular offering with thousands of subscribers.

5) Cost-effective: The cost of email marketing systems is incredibly low. The time it takes to DIY create your own emails can be substantial for some, though. Your absolute minimum should be one email/month. Creating thoughtful emails with at least one image and marketing angle requires you to carve out the time and focus to make it happen.

It’s also cost-effective when you consider that it’s the same amount of time (or fee, if you use our services) no matter how huge your email list gets. The more you grow that list, whether it’s 50 or 500 or 5,000 subscribers, you’re reaching more and more people for the same operational cost. And again, you’re still getting name recognition from non-openers.

If, despite your best intentions, your email marketing falls by the wayside, paying for services is still better than neglecting your list of interested potential and previous buyers. Learn more about our Email Marketing Services.

1) Email Statistics Report for 2024 from ZeroBounce, zerobounce.net

2) Hubspot Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats, hubspot.com

3) GWI Datareportal, datareportal.com

4) Startup Bonsai, startupbonsai.com

5) Optin Monster eMail Marketing Summary, optinmonster.com