3/14/24, 5:47 PM Email Marketing Guide for Artists & Art Galleries - MailerLite

EN

EMAIL MARKETING BY INDUSTRY

Email marketing for artists and art

galleries

S ocial media may be the best way for artists to

showcase their art. But to turn passive
viewers into long-lasting customers, you need to
build personal connections. Enter email marketing.

Email marketing gives artists like you a platform for communicating directly
with your target audience on a personal level. Once people sign up for your
email list, it’s up to you how you want to develop the relationship further. You
control the conversation.

You can get one-time buyers to become repeat customers and converse
with people who showed interest in your work but weren't ready to buy at
the time.
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Read on to learn why email marketing is the best channel to nurture

relationships and sell art. We’ll show you how to build your email list, what
email marketing campaigns to send, share some email marketing tips, and
inspire you with great examples!

Benefits of email marketing for artists

Creating a buzz for yourself in the art world and getting your work out there
is super hard! Many artists try their digital luck by creating a website and
claiming their handle on diverse social media platforms.

While all of these initiatives increase your reach, you’re not building your
audience in one safe place. You depend on them to come back to you. When
people do click follow on social media, you have to rely on the platform in
question to work in your favor.

Nowadays, the algorithms are so unreliable that even when you gain a new
Instagram or Facebook follower, this doesn’t guarantee that your content
actually ends up in their news feed.

So far for your artwork being seen.

The solution? Use an email marketing strategy to build your email list. By
collecting email addresses, you can talk to people directly and sell more art
online.

Your main challenge is to make your email subject line stand out in the inbox,
so the subscriber opens your email. Once you’ve managed that, you’ll have
their undivided, 1-on-1 attention—and potentially higher open rates!

Artists can collect email addresses in a spreadsheet document and send

regular emails using the BCC option. Smart art sellers, however, use an email
marketing tool.

The perks of using an email service is:

Minimal manual work: Email subscribers are automatically added and

removed (when they unsubscribe) from your list.

Target groups: By segmenting email subscribers, you can send

personal emails to different groups (from art fans to magazine editors).

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Email templates: With predefined templates, you can easily add text
and images/videos of your art and send beautiful, professional
newsletters.

Real-time reports: After hitting send, you can see popular stats such as
who opened your email, clicked and viewed, or bought something.

How to build an email list as an artist

From defining the ideal target audience to collecting your first email
subscribers—let’s discover the 3 steps to building your email list as an artist.

1. Define the ideal audience for your email marketing list

When building your email list, you want to target the right audience so you
can focus on conversations with interested fans, valuable connections and
potential prospects.

For an artist or art business, your email list audiences could be:

Family and friends

Business contacts

Fans and frequent visitors

Clients and future clients or prospects

Art dealers, designers, artists and other art professionals

Influencers in the art scene, including bloggers and critics

(Local) news and magazine editors

2. Collect subscribers online via web and social media

The easiest way to grow your email list as an artist is to focus on the
interactions that take place every day. For example in your inquiries on your
website, messages on social media, email and phone calls.

To collect subscribers, add email signup forms on different pages of your

website or integrate a link in your email signature. By letting your fan base

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opt-in to your mailing list, you're increasing your email deliverability, that is,
landing straight into their inbox.

If you want to learn more, we explain how to grow a high-quality email list for
your art business in this in-depth guide.

How to grow a high-quality

email list

Social media is also a fantastic way to grow your email list. You can direct
people to your website and get them to sign up through pop-ups and
embedded forms, or create an opt-in landing page and simply add the link to
your profiles.

Want to explore how to make email marketing and social media work like
best pals to promote your art business? We break it down for you in this
handy guide on how email marketing and social media work together for
good.

3. Collect subscribers beyond your website

Apart from people who seek out your art on your website or social media,
you can also attract new subscribers by promoting new works with third-
parties or even in person.

Here are some ideas to collect email subscribers beyond your website:

Promote artwork on an online marketplace for artists, such as Etsy. You

can integrate it with MailerLite to collect more subscribers

Partner with other artists to promote each other’s artwork

Participate in an art fair online or in person and invite interested

attendees to sign up for your mailing list on the spot

If you operate out of a gallery, invite visitors to sign up using a landing

page on a tablet

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After gathering more email addresses, it’s time to release your natural
creativity and craft a beautiful newsletter for all of your new subscribers to
read.

5 ideas for art email newsletters

Art is a luxury good. That means people aren’t buying pieces regularly, but
rather invest in art occasionally. Keep this in mind when emailing your
newsletters and selling artwork online.

Instead of focusing on fast sales, put your efforts into building a long-lasting
relationship. Let subscribers get to know the artist behind those eye-
catching creations. Make your newsletter content equally unique, engaging
and must-have as your art pieces.

So, how do you leverage art content in your email newsletters? We tell you
how to make them compelling reading and browsing in this guide.

How to craft email content

people care about

As a museum, art business or artist, you could send newsletter content

like:

Email press releases to media contacts

Take membership or “friend of our gallery” applications

Calls for volunteer opportunities

Exhibit openings information

Calendar with events

Short personal stories or essays

Reviews

Artist background information

Links to videos, books, people or anything that inspired you

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Round-up of the most-liked social media posts

Contest or “meet and greets” with the artist(s)

Promote articles from the gift or online shop

For this article, we’ll focus on 5 art newsletter ideas and show real examples
from our inboxes and customers.

How often should I send my emails?

Don't email your subscribers too frequently, as this might cause them
to unsubscribe from your newsletter. Start with a bi-weekly email and
keep an eye on your metrics to determine whether you can send
more, or should send fewer emails. In this article, we’ll reveal what’s
the best time to send your newsletters.

1. Announcements and invitations to events

Newsletters announcing upcoming vernissages, shows, artist panels or

exhibitions are common in art email marketing campaigns. Make your email
aesthetically pleasing by inserting the announcement flyer or other related
images. Use the text to make the reader curious and excited about coming to
your event.

We personally love these beautiful newsletter designs from our customer,

NAVA Contemporary, and the New York Academy of Art.

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👉 Tip: If you regularly share updates on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram,

you can add this type of dynamic content to your newsletter to boost
engagement. Read here how to embed social media posts in your newsletter
using MailerLite’s drag & drop editor.

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2. Information about local events and art news

Give your readers the privilege of always being the first to know about
openings, new collections or installations, local events, premium or limited
edition prints and more. This exclusive benefit also makes for a good call to
action for people to sign up for your art newsletter.

In the examples underneath, you'll see how Art Basel and JUNIQE share the
latest art news.

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👉 Tip: Do you organize events, but you're unsure how to promote them
using email marketing campaigns? Our email marketing guide for event
organizers tells you exactly how you can attract visitors and make your event
a great success!

Save the date: Event email

marketing explained from A to
Z

3. Behind-the-scenes and work in progress

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People love peeking into an artist’s process. Show people a sliver of what it’s
like to live that creative life of yours! It piques people’s interest and is an easy
way to get them primed for the new artwork you’re about to launch.

The Met does a great job of sharing stories about what’s happening inside
The Met. They make their newsletter interactive by adding videos.

Berlin-based art gallery Gregor Podnar announces their Art Basel booth and
gives readers an exclusive link to see first-hand what artworks are selected
for the event.

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4. Advice and skills sharing

Why not reveal some tricks of the trade? We bet your readers would love to
know about your techniques, what tools you use and what best practices
you follow. Use your art newsletter to share your secrets or promote an
upcoming workshop you organize, just like Dot Kids and the New York
School of the Arts do below.

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5. Sales, specials and freebies

Now that you’ve built a substantial relationship, you may go ahead and
promote your work. You could start by giving away a freebie or offer a
discount. Let your art shine with well-chosen imagery and create clear call-
to-action buttons so people are drawn to click, thus raising your click rates.

We love the newsletters of our customer, Marc Johns. His tone of voice,
high-quality images and modern layout make his newsletters always a joy to
receive. The Met also steals the show (once again) with eye-catching images
and striking call to actions.

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Bonus: Best practices for your email newsletter

When you feel familiar enough with your newly learned craft, you can take it
up a notch with these two art newsletter best practices.

Segment your subscribers

This might sound complicated but segmentation simply means

grouping subscribers that share similar traits. For example, you might
choose to segment people who've bought your artwork and those
who haven't. You can also segment people by their taste in art or
what type of connection they are (prospect or journalist?). Once
you’ve created these segments, you can send each group a tailored
newsletter.

Automate your messages

One reason why email marketing is so efficient is that you don't

actually have to send your emails manually every time. With
automation you can, for example, send a welcome email immediately

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after someone signs up for your list. Furthermore, you can schedule
discount or promotion emails to go out at certain times of the year.

The artist email newsletter checklist

Now that you’ve seen what newsletters other art galleries, museums, art
schools and artists send, it’s up to you to take your tools and get artsy. Just
like with your own creations, we encourage you to make your newsletter
unique!

Though it is good to note a few things that each of your newsletters should
contain.

Before you click send, make sure your newsletter includes:

Attractive visuals

Visible call to action (like RSVP, redeem my discount or visit online art
shop)

Contact information

Existing email address to reply to

Links to your website or social media platforms

If applicable: Address of your gallery or studio

If applicable: Opening hours

Use your available art content to design emails that your followers will read.
Not sure how to go about doing this? We break it down into two main design
elements in the following guide on how to design emails people will read.
It's time to start your art email campaign now

In this guide we explained why email marketing is the best digital marketing
channel to grow relationships and sell art. And we showed you how to build
your email list, suggested some newsletter campaigns to send, and shared
some inspiring art newsletter examples. So what are you waiting for?

You're now ready to bring out your artsy side and start your very first email
newsletter!

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Create your first art email campaign in minutes!

Our free plan includes intuitive drag & drop editors, web landing pages,
email automation, and tools to easily manage your subscribers!

Sign up free

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