For Artists: building and maintaining a sustainable digital presence
Helpful advice on how to promote your work from a Silicon Valley marketer
Did you know that Google rolls out 500 to 600 changes to its search algorithm each year? For search marketers, knowing the dates of these Google updates can help explain changes in rankings and organic website traffic, which help drive improvements to search engine optimization.
Who has time to track the updates to Google’s search engine?
I currently work at Autodesk and sit on a team focused on driving adoption, renewal and new purchase of our software using learning content. Adjacent from us is a team working on marketing operations, also known as the humans who keep track of our marketing data and ensure that we are capturing them from all sources on the Internet (ads, organic content, emails). Adjacent to them is our marketing analytics team. Ah, yes you’ve guessed it: the humans in charge of studying our data and how they affect our brand’s digital presence. In total, we have about 30 humans, myself included, focused on deploying all sorts of communications to customers and strangers alike with a single goal: when it’s time for you to create your first architectural masterpiece - we hope you will use Autodesk ;)
How can artists, bakers, writers, and other creative folks--small business owners, compete against internet behemoths the likes of Autodesk? Small business’ have less staff, fewer resources, and often lower budgets.
The funny thing about the Internet is that there is always room for everyone. You just have to know which resources to take advantage of and how to create a sustainable cadence of communications that does not steal time away from when you want to do creative work. And yes, the entire process requires a lot of creativity.
I’ve developed this cheat sheet to help you, a creative human, learn more about cost-effective digital marketing tactics like content, SEO and social media marketing.
Want to attract people to your next art show? Start by creating quality content. Valuable content includes everything from engaging website copy and useful blog articles to eye-catching graphics and insightful videos. There are plenty of free WordPress blog templates available to get you started. Yes, producing great content is time-consuming but it also pays in multiple ways. Here’s a list of ways you can justify the time commitment:
Benefits of Creating Quality Content:
It can increase your social media engagement by giving the fans of your work something valuable to share and talk about.
It can help you rank higher in search results. Google love fresh, relevant and quality long form content.
It’s a great way to increase your credibility and position your brand as a thought-leader.
It helps you to nurture the humans following art and generate new humans who’ve never heard of your work. Try creating a landing page which asks people to give their contact details in exchange for access to exclusive content.
Some artists are under the illusion that SEO costs a lot. While this can be true for paid search, there are also lots of steps you can take to help your website or blog presence rank higher organically. Don’t panic, you don’t need to be a technical wizard. To get started all you need is a bit of know-how and some useful tips.
Organic SEO Tips:
First assess your website’s SEO as it stands. To do so set up a Google Webmaster account. All you have to do is register, verify your domain name and follow the outlined steps. Google will give you tailored tips on the SEO elements your website needs to address.
When you’re creating fresh content, make sure you’re filling in all the metadata Google asks for. Worth remembering: Google search spiders can only read and understand words so it’s important to add meta descriptions to your images too.
Google now looks for and ranks for longer tail keywords – each one of your website pages should have a specific theme or topic. And remember: never stuff your pages with keywords as you will be penalized.
Google prefers in-depth content and has indicated that longer posts of 1,500 to 2,000-word length are rewarded accordingly. Quality is always key.
Social media is a must-have for artists looking to increase their visibility. It’s a great way to connect with your audience. Used in the right way, it can be an effective networking tool, allowing you to instantly respond to any questions or comments about your work.
Social Media Tips:
Choose your social media sites wisely – it’s best for artists to concentrate on a few select social media channels. Any more and you might not have the time to manage them all. The only channels you should be using are the ones your audience are using.
Take advantage of free analytics. The major social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter give a quick and easy-to-understand synopsis of how your posts and pages are performing.
Identify with key influencers in your industry and engage with them. Those with a high Klout score are a great place to start. The goal is to eventually get people with a large social media presence to share your content. But first you’ve got some relationship building to do – try offering favor and/or sharing their content.
Use a scheduling tool like Hootesuite or Buffer to schedule your posts to send throughout the day. Choose the times that give you the highest traffic and social media engagement.
It’s not just the social media platforms you need to think about. There are several resources now where artists can partner with online galleries and storefronts to advertise and promote their work. And don’t stop at online connections, your Google search ranking is only as good as the human connections you make. B2B companies in the Bay Area like SAP, Twitter, and even Google spend a lot of man hours attending networking events to build up their presence.
Your digital presence is meant to hold just a piece of you--it's your work and the time you put in getting to know your audience that will truly cement your digital presence.