How should I approach marketing myself on social media and email as an artist?

Stop running what I call the ‘art Gatling gun’—posting art, art, art, art all day long. That’s like walking into a gallery opening and immediately telling someone ‘buy my art, buy my art’ without any conversation. Your art pieces are the commercials. Just like no one tunes into a TV channel that only shows commercials, people won’t engage with content that’s only sales pitches. You need to create ‘programming’—content about who you are as a person and what your story is. Share what you do when you’re not creating, where you grew up, your family life, whether you’re a dog or cat person, coffee or tea drinker, Star Wars or Star Trek. Human beings make purchasing decisions based on people they know, like, and trust. Art sales are not purely a meritocracy on quality—they’re 50-50, maybe 60-40, or even 70-30 split between the quality of work and who the artist is and their story. When you lead with authentic personal content and split it with your art, people get bonded to you, you build a real following, and sales start happening.

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Asked by general audience · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-08-17