The following post was created by none other than the amazing and peppy Marc, of MarcoLooks.
Thanks so much for agreeing to be my guest this month and for contributing this awesome post Marc! Now, over to you!
(Links to Marc’s socials provided at the end)
Starting out in the Indie Maker world as an artist can be a daunting prospect, because you want to get noticed so you sell your things...problem is, aside from your online shop and going to markets, it can be hard to navigate your way around the internet. We don’t know about what we don’t know about, right? There are a few things I’ve done in the last year, which I feel has improved my exposure, which I believe has given me an increase in sales. So, I want to share what I know. First thing I want to make realllllly clear, I am by no means an expert on this, in fact far from it...so take this as more of a “this is what I’ve been doing, it might help you, let’s share anyway”...
Get involved
I found that the more groups I joined, the more people got to know me. Face palm moment. It sounds so obvious when you put it like that, right? Is there a local group of artists you could join? Is there an online forum you could be a part of, ideally designed to help your indie business grow? Are there any local or online events that bring people together, you could be a part of. As well as being part of a number of networking and support groups, I decided to create my own event. In April I launched a print swap, designed to bring together my own community of artists, to share our work. The MarcoLooks Print Swap has allowed me to set up two exhibitions and an exclusive art market, just for us! It feels so good to play a part in lifting other indie artists and illustrator’s exposure too.
Socials
Are you on social media? This is an easy one, and best of all, it’s free. If you’re not on any of them, put aside some time and get sharing your work, but especially go and find other accounts that you align with, follow and engage with their posts. Share their posts and you never know, they might share yours too. Use all the features available to you and have fun with it. I’ve made so many fantastic friends from within the indie maker world, all through Instagram. It’s a superb tool if done correctly. Be careful though, it can be time consuming and soul destroying, so keep a check on your mental health and make sure it’s working for you!
SEO
This is a huuuuuuge topic to discuss, so I’m just going to very simply skim the surface to try and expand why I’ve added it as a way I’ve increased exposure. I have a website, aside from Etsy, and if you can afford it, I’d recommend you get one. With it, you can really bring people from google to your world. You can do a similar thing with Etsy and the keywords you use, but the problem with sites like Etsy or folksy, is that whilst someone is on your page, they’re also being fed images and links from other artists, so it’s easy to lose a customer. Bring people to YOUR website. Take some time to research what the keywords are that define the work you do and pop those keywords all over your website, in your titles, in your descriptions, in your alt tags and image descriptions. There are also plenty of people who can help you with SEO too, drop me a DM and I can send you some recommendations if you like.
Aaaaaand breathe… I know I’ve just thrown a lot at you, I could probably write a lotttttttt more on those three pointers alone, but I hope they gave you a couple of ideas to look at what you’re currently doing and what you could be doing to get more eyes on you and your work.
You can find me across all social media as @marcolooks, please come and follow me on Instagram and join my lovely community there. If you have any questions for me about this post, let’s chat!
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