Marketing of art may not be your thing, but if you want to thrive in this cut-throat industry, you’ve got to find ways to promote your artworks.

You can hire a marketing professional to do the legwork for you. You can also make use of different online marketing tools and channels.

Or you can learn the art of marketing by yourself to win more customers and drive more sales to your business at a lesser cost.

In this article, I will share some of the best promotional products in the marketing of art or in advertising your art events that you can use today. 

Promotional Materials for Events and Your Artworks 

Spending on promotional materials to be given away as a way to market your artworks and upcoming event may sound expensive, but it’s certainly worth your time and money.

Aside from advertising your artworks and your event, your promotional products can also speak about you as an artist and how you would like to be seen by your target market.

Do you want to express your eccentricities or your wit and humor? Or do you want to highlight your creativity and ingenuity as an artist? 

Whatever you want to relay to your desired audience, you can do so with your promotional materials. Hence, you must think deeply about your marketing products because these trinkets can leave a lasting impression on your target audience.

And just a head start, personalizing your marketing materials could extend beyond just putting your logo, company name and some contact details on them.

I am sure you can think of creative ways to incorporate your personality and your brand on them.

And just to get the ball rolling, below are some products that you can use in marketing your events and your artworks:

Polymer Clay Ref Magnets

Ref magnets are timeless and ever-present souvenir items and collectibles. Why not make use of these cute and eye-catching objects to your advantage?

Think of ways to incorporate your art and your message while sticking with your branding.

Several shops sell ref magnets where you can give them specifications to suit the look that you want to achieve. Of course, you can also create them and you can make use of polymer clay, ceramics, plastic, and wood to craft your personalized ref magnets. 

And since you are promoting your artworks and your event, you can make ref magnets featuring one or some of your paintings that will be displayed or auctioned in your show.

You can give these before your event, as well as during your show. For sure, your personalized ref magnet will be a hit to your target audience. And these tiny objects that are attached to their refrigerator will remind them of your work.

And who knows if they won’t buy an artwork this time, they might ask you for a commissioned painting or they might purchase on your next show?

Miniature Artwork Keychain

This is a handy and portable version of the ref magnet. Again, you can ask someone to create a keychain featuring your paintings.

You can add a border or a frame to replicate how your painting really looks like in real life.

Can you visualize your key chains attached to the bags of your followers? Don’t they look like tiny walking billboards of your artworks?

Paint Brush and Paint Palette

If you’d love to capture the interest of fellow artists and art lovers, then giving away promotional paintbrush and palette would work pretty well.

In fact, even those who are not really into painting would love to have these items as part of their collectibles.

Colored Pencils in Tube with Sharpener

Never undermine the power of an eye-catching packaging. Colored pencils and a sharpener may be conventional art supplies, but you can set them apart from the commercially available ones with the use of your packaging.

Also, aside from just adding a label into the packaging, you can have your name or company name engraved or printed on each colored pencil. 

Handy Sketch Book

Complete your art-related promotional giveaways with a handy sketchbook or simply a notebook without lines.

Artists would certainly love to have one of these artsy and usable products that they can carry around inside their bags.

As they say, you’ll never know when inspiration hits you, so it’s always helpful to have a handy sketchbook ready at all times. 

Canvass Tote Bag

Who doesn’t love a fashionable tote bag? I’m sure if you will give away tote bags during your trade show, they will be gone in no time.

Imagine seeing your artwork with your company name being carried around at the malls, parks, while having groceries, and so on? Again, tote bags are practical promotional products and that is why people loved them so much.

Fanny Packs

With a lot of designer brands diving in the fanny pack trend, it’s high time to take advantage of this product and use it as a giveaway.

Besides, your artist friends and clients can place their pencils, art brushes, and acrylic paints inside the fanny pack while they are working on an artwork.

Framed Shirt

Shirts may also be another conventional giveaway that is part of almost everyone’s promotional materials. But that’s just how effective they are in marketing.

You can further their operational value by adding some touch of creativity. Just like the other products that I mentioned, you can also use the image of your artworks as the print of your shirts.

To add to the function of the shirts, you can package it like a picture frame. Hence, if your clients would prefer not to use the framed shirt featuring your artwork, then they can hang it on their wall.

It’s like an instant painting from you. Chances are they will be more encouraged to buy the real deal or commission a certain artwork from you. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

Puzzles

It’s always a good idea to have an interactive product in your promotional materials. Who doesn’t want to do something trivial yet is good for the brains while killing time pretty much anywhere?

And just like with the promotional ref magnets and key chains that were mentioned earlier, you can also make use of your artwork as an image for the puzzles. 

Calendars

Calendars are certainly among the most loved marketing materials out there. Well, it isn’t surprising since they are useful, but one crucial thing to remember about them is that they are somewhat seasonal.

There is a higher chance that people will use these products if you give them out around December or during the first quarter of the year.

Of course, if you give them later during the same calendar year, there’s a lower possibility that they will still be used.

However, if you create extraordinary calendars, like those featuring a different artwork each month, then, it’s really hard to just set them aside somewhere and not hang them on the walls.  

Other Promotional Products

There are still a lot of creative, yet practical giveaways that you can pursue with your marketing goals.

You can use personalized mugs and tumblers, cup covers and coasters, buttons and pins, and one of the viral products in the market today – the clip-on camera light. 

How to Market Your Artwork Online and Offline

You can certainly use the products that were mentioned above just remember to choose wisely. Again, your promotional materials will speak so much about you as an artist and your brand.

Hence, make the most of this chance to establish a good connection and impression to your target market right away. 

And since I’ve already shared some promotional products, in this section, I will share some ways on how you can market your artwork online and offline.

Build a Website

I’ve mentioned this at one of my blog posts before, and I will say it again because it’s crucial if you want your business to thrive in this digital age – “If your business is not on the Internet, then your business will be out of business.”

And though having several social media accounts work, it’s a website that will set your business apart from your competitors. It doesn’t only have a strong marketing function; it’s also one of the essential tools that can enhance your perceived value in the eyes of your customers and potential clients. So, do yourself a big favor and launch your business website.

Strengthen Your Social Media Presence

Setting up your social media accounts is just the beginning; what you will do with them after would make all the difference.

Hence, you need to craft effective social media marketing strategies for you to prosper in these platforms.

If you are not confident with the technicalities on how to create campaigns that convert, you can hire the service of professional social media marketers and content creators. But of course, it would always help if you know to do it yourself. 

Feel free to check out this guide on how you can create social media campaigns that drive results. 

Consider the Importance of Art Consultants

One of the proven ways to enter the market of hospitality and corporate art is by hiring the service of art consultants. Galleries might have guidelines or aesthetic that they would want to stick to in choosing the artists to feature.

Art consultants, on the other hand, respect the personal preferences of the artists that they work with. They also pay special importance to the ideal audience that would be most interested in the paintings or artworks of the artists.

Some of the industries that you can enter with the help of art consultants are hospitals, restaurants, offices, and retail stores. 

Join Trade Shows and Community Events

Trade shows and community events are great avenues to market and sell your artworks.

Joining in these events could serve as perfect preparations for beginning artists who are eyeing to have their solo exhibit soon.

You might also want to read this article about how you can promote your artwork in your community. 

Reach Out to Local Business Owners

Your local community can help you connect with your local market even more. Although joining local trade shows would more likely attract customers who are ready to purchase, it requires stringent preparation.

Hence, a more readily available tactic to connect with your desired audience and attract sales is to reach out to local business owners. 

Local coffee shops, art shops, restaurants, salons, tattoo shops, beauty clinics, and spas can be lucrative spots to display your artworks.

You can also leave your business cards and even your portfolio so people who are interested in your works can instantly browse your past pieces even without Internet access. 

Print A5 Flyers

Flyers are indispensable marketing materials. They are not just effective in relaying more details about your event or business, they are also cheaper.

It’s also a chance for you to make use of your creativity. Or just in case you’d love to save your creative energies, you can also create your flyers on Canva using their free and premium templates. 

Send Creative Newsletters 

Without a doubt, email marketing is one of the most sought-after marketing tactics these days.

However, before it can work to your advantage, you need to gather as much leads first using a subscription box, lead-generating tools, Facebook ads, surveys, and so on.

It could take some time, but your patience will pay off eventually.  

Now It’s All Up to You!

These tips are just here to kick start your research and help you get the ball rolling with your promotional campaigns.

At the end of the day, the decision lies on you. But I do hope that you learned something from this article. And I hope that my inputs inspired you or gave you ideas on how you can create even better promotional products for your business. 

If you have some questions in your mind, suggestions on how I can create better content or future topics that you’d love to learn more about, feel free to share them in the comment box below.