Evan Carmichael gives three ways to promote digital artwork: stand for something with a clear message that sets you apart, study how successful artists and entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs started out, and collaborate with creators who share your beliefs to reach new audiences.
Chapters
How to promote your artwork. So I got a great question from one of my Facebook viewers, Nigel, love you guys, who wrote in to say, hi Evan, I'm a digital artist, could I have some tips on how I can promote my artwork better? So this is a great question, and I love artists. I love artists. I love the creativity that comes out, and it's such a struggle for a lot of artists to establish themselves. And I'm involved with a lot of artists in the dancing community, and it's hard. It's hard to get your brain sometimes wrapped around the business side of actually getting out there and promoting your work and creating a movement around what you're doing. So I want to see you be successful, and here are my 3 tips to help you get there. Number 1 is stand for something. You need to stand for something. You gotta make me feel something, right? As an artist Now this should be a little bit easier to understand of all the strategies because you're already connected to your work. You just gotta pull me in and let me know what you stand for. You write to me and tell me you're a digital artist. That's what most people will do. But so what? There's a kajillion digital artists out there, right? It's not hard to find digital artists. What makes you so special and different? Why am I gonna talk about you on this video and showcase your stuff? Tell me what you stand for to make it easy for me to remember you. Now I checked out your blog and you have a lot of sci-fi, fantasy kind of stuff on there and it looks pretty cool. So maybe you write to me and say, Evan, I'm a digital artist who believes that people should live out their fantasies. If that's something that you feel powerful about, then put it in there. I'm going to remember you now. Now you've given me something that connects to me because I kind of feel the same way too. So now we're connected at a deeper level and I'm more willing to listen to what you're all about and show it and showcase it. So figure out what what it is that you stand for. Complete this sentence: Hi, I'm Nigel. I'm a digital artist who believes that— fill in the blank. Let me know what that is, and anytime you're now introducing yourself to people, that's the line you're going to use. You're giving people a message to understand and to share for you. You want people to talk about you? You have to make it easy for people to talk about you. That's something that they can share. Okay? So that's number 1: stand for something. Number 2 is model success. Anytime you're trying to do something that you have no idea how to do, and this for you might be promote your business, you want to look at who's already done it. Any goal you have, look at who has already accomplished it, what steps did they take, and how can you model that success to make it work for yourself. So for you, I would look at which artists you look up to the most and how did they get started. How did they start to build a brand? How did they start to build a following? Not how they do it now because they're already a known quantity. How did they get What was their first big break and how can you model that success? The other thing I look at is other entrepreneurs who you look up to who have nothing to do with art, because you'll also learn from them. If it's Steve Jobs or Richard Branson or Donald Trump or Oprah Winfrey or Martha Stewart or whoever it is that you look up to and say, "Wow, that's a really great entrepreneur," look at how they got started too. Look at how they promote their business too, because you're going to learn valuable lessons that you can apply to your company even though they have nothing to do with art. So that's number 2: model success. Number 3 is collaborate. Find other artists who believe in the same thing you do, who stand for the same thing you do, and that starts with you knowing what you stand for. But then find other artists, either digital art or other genres, who believe in the same thing you do and find ways to collaborate together. So for example, I'd look at, I'd look at musicians. You know, why can't your art be featured or be the main part part of a musician's next music video or next YouTube video. Your art should be featured there. And if you and that musician are on the same wavelength, both believe in the same thing, both trying to get people to feel the same way but attacking it from different angles— you're doing it through your digital art, they're doing it through their music— that's an awesome collaboration. Artists are constantly looking for other ways to collaborate, and ideally you're looking for people who are a little bit ahead of you, have a little bit more traction than you so that you can be exposed to their audience. I do this all the time with people on my YouTube channel. You know, I believe in people. I believe in entrepreneurs. I wear it on my shirts. And the videos I make are about believe somehow. But what I also like to do is collaborate with other YouTube artists, people who are making videos who may not be on camera, but they're making videos sharing stories or you know, movie clips or soundtracks and they mash them all together. I like giving those guys exposure. If they are on the same page, if they love the Believe message and they want to create a video about Believe, I'll promote it. I'll put it on my channel. I've done it for a few artists and give them some more exposure. It helps me, gives me content, but it also helps them get exposure to a wide audience of people who are watching my channel. So when you know what you stand for then you start making collaborations with other people who believe in the same thing, because you're both trying to attack the same goal from different angles. So that's number 3: collaborate. So in summary, how to promote your artwork: number 1, stand for something; number 2, model success; number 3, collaborate. Believe. For those of you watching, you can subscribe to my channel to check out more videos like this. You can support me by clicking on the link in the description and leave a comment. Let me know what you think. I love seeing those comments come in. They really make my day every day. So thank you guys so much, and I'll see you soon.
