Are you struggling to create a buzz around your upcoming art show?

It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

Sometimes even downright discouraging.

You have an art show planned, but what if nobody shows up or views or work?

There are so many marketing tasks on your list you have no idea what works or where to start.

And to add to the mix….

Your job is demanding. You’re constantly juggling family schedules and obligations. You’re always heading off annoying interruptions.

You wonder if you’ll ever be able to market your art and make a sustainable income from your art part of your life.

You just want to create work you can be proud of.

And show it to people who appreciate what you do.

You want to see some results for a change and get recognition for what you do.

And you’re right.

The great thing about email is that you are reaching out to people who have already shown an interest in your work by signing up to your newsletter.

Email is also a lot more personal. Your individuality will shine through in the way you talk about your art and build a connection with your audience.

With each email on your list, you have the opportunity to transform them into a follower, a fan, a customer and even repeat customer and someone who spreads the word about your art for you.

So, let’s look at how email can help you see result and greatly improve your marketing efforts so that you have people lined up to view your upcoming show.

1.   Get Your Emails Opened

The Challenge is that your subscriber’s inbox is probably a pretty crowded place.
We’re all bombarded every single day with a ton of marketing messages and we ignore the vast majority of these messages. Half the time we don’t even open them.

The single and only job of an email subject line is to get your email opened.

Don’t try to convey the entire purpose of an email in the subject line. When you focus your subject line on just getting the email opened, your job really simplifies.

When you announce your show use words like “Introducing” or “New” in your email subject line. This gives the reader a feeling that your email contains new, breaking information they haven't heard yet.

2.   Use The Power Of A Good Story

While your email subject line is incredibly valuable, the other half of the puzzle in getting emails opened is your relationship with your subscriber. No matter how amazing your subject lines are, if you're delivering junk to their inbox week after week, your open rates are going to drop, and your peeps are going to unsubscribe, one by one.

A good open rate is achieved by building a relationship over time.

It’s a result of how you make your audience feel through the stories you tell and what you share about yourself.

The only way to establish this relationship is to create connection and offer value in every single email you send. From the very first email, you deliver welcoming new subscribers, to the second, third, fourth email, and every single email after that -- including your show promotions.

Regardless, if you’re sending an email introducing a new piece of work or promoting your exhibition, the goal is to build a relationship based on familiarity and trust.

That’s where storytelling comes in. Stories allow you to bypass the whole marketing song and dance and really connect with someone's higher aspirations and emotions.

Stories lift your emails out of a noisy inbox so they demand to be read.

As long as you keep telling stories while you're marketing your art, you can be continually connecting your audience.

3.  Hook Them With A Taste Of What Your Show Is All About

This is a no brainer.

Announce your show to your subscribers. Regardless of how many subscribers you have on your list, make sure they receive an email with all the key details such as:

✔ Time

✔ Location

✔ Date

✔ Exhibition statement

If you can, add a calendar file, which readers could choose to export to their desktop or smartphone calendar. This will be a great, constant reminder of your show and they also get a notification just before the show begins.

4.  Link To Your Exhibition Page

Now, there’s one more thing I want you to include. Every email should link to a page on your website where they can find out more information about your exhibition.

Maybe your exhibition will feature an artist talk which requires registration.

This page would be a good place to start collecting the details of potential customers.

Give your email sign-ups a reason to not only attend the show but get excited about it.

5. Stay Consistent

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Work out how often you will send out a newsletter to your subscribers and stick to your schedule sharing interesting information about your art.

Once people are signed up to your email list, you don’t want them to forget about you – especially if you have a show coming up or new work you want to share. Regardless of how small your list is, stay consistent.

6.  Increase The Number

In the week before your show, increase the number of your emails.
Aim for 3 – 4 emails, again share some interesting information and facts about the process of making your art, materials used, and of course information about your upcoming exhibition.

The easiest way to do this is to send 3 emails reinforcing the same message about your exhibition. For example:

1st email: Video/Audio message

2nd email: Reinforce the message with a story or testimonial in the second email

3rd email: If you have created audio or video, try providing the same content as a PDF

If you provided a PDF, try recording the same content as an audio or video.
I think you get the message.

Right?

Remember that stories resonate with people – so share the story of your art and your personal journey, and treat your audience to behind the scenes videos.

An online live stream or video from your phone is great for sharing updates, offering your fans the best-guided tour of your studio possible.

Finally give yourself the satisfaction of knowing that you can generate a buzz around your exhibition.

Set yourself up for success and increase your art show attendance using emails.

Stop procrastinating and write that first email to get started.

The small amount of time and effort that you invest in planning and writing your emails will pay you back over and over again – both now and for years to come.

There’s really no downside.