How to Create a Simple Email Marketing Plan

Psst. The following quote applies to your artist’s email marketing plan.

When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

– David Ogilvy

An email marketing plan for artists is an effective tool, but it’s still a numbers game. You probably don’t send enough. There are many reasons, and I get the why, but you can do better with the same effort or less than you put in now.

Sending once per month is risky because you can fall out of touch. A few misses on opens, and months have gone by with no connection between you and important clients, friends, and subscribers.

I recommend sending weekly, but I realize it’s not practical for most artists, so I split the difference and suggest sending twice monthly with occasional blasts. You can keep to that schedule if you follow my advice. (For more insights into creating an email marketing plan, check out the Definitive Guide to Email Marketing for Artists.

Email Marketing Templates Are Quick and Easy.

When using email templates, you don’t waste time designing individual emails. However, there is much to be said for consistency. Readers become familiar with your layout and style and are acquainted with navigating your content, which helps them to like and consume it. And they also will recognize your pattern of sending.

Recognizable patterns act like tuning signals that strengthen your connections.

– Barney Davey

The benefits of using templates in your email marketing are numerous. They save you time and money. In addition, they allow you to focus on building relationships instead of working on new designs.

The most significant benefit of using templates is that you quickly get good at using them. When you use a template, you won’t have to spend hours designing each email. Instead, you can download the template and customize it according to your brand. You can then send out the same email repeatedly without worrying about formatting.

Suggested Section Topics for Artist’s Email Newsletter.

Here are ideas for topics for various sections of your artist’s email newsletter to include in the templates: you create for your email marketing plan: 

• News items about you, your go-to subject matter, local events, etc.
• Works in Progress – updates on artworks and projects waiting for completion.
• Inspiration can come from anything that arrests your attention. It can be something beautiful you see in nature, a quote, artwork from the ages, or music you love.
• Inside the Studio – Write about using a paintbrush with a single hair or discuss why Northern light is so desirable. Photograph a tube of paint and tell why you love Cadmium Blue or show how you ship your work. Little tidbits with insider facts are fascinating to many people, especially those who are prime to become collectors.
• Spotlight – feature an artwork. It can be an original fresh off the easel or a print from your Print-on-Demand ecommerce store. Showcase your ecommerce site by mentioning the latest trends you are seeing in your business or the overall art business. Or from art reviews, new art-related products, and so forth. If you sell services, such as consulting books, or online classes, include a weekly mention with a list of new services and special offers. This idea is just one of the many easy ways to do it that works.

The above are starter ideas. You will come up with your versions and refine them. Think of sections like building blocks. You can reuse and repurpose content because more than half your email goes unopened. And repetition is a good thing, so reusing the same content with a slightly new spin makes creating it again go quicker.

You Share Common Interests with Your Ideal Buyer.

And those are a few ideas for your monthly newsletter. Keep in mind that your ideal buyer probably shares many interests with you. Success hinges on having a plan that taps into those shared interests to create outlines for the content of your emails.

You can go beyond sharing an interest and give a fact about why or how you developed your interest. That is how to be intriguing in a genuine way. When I understand better about you I can feel good that we share common interests, or that I admire you for something you have expressed or both. That’s an example of how relationships evolve even through email marketing.

Benefit from Your Email Marketing Plan Success.

Block out the time for the project. It needs your undivided attention to create a plan for each email with dates and topics determined. The goal is the key to simplifying the process and makes pulling it together easy. Keep your readers in mind when you write. Use language like talking to an old friend who knows you but not much about your art business. Think about how your readers will react to your subject line because it is the most crucial part of any email. Subject lines get emails open which is mission-critical to your plan. 

There is no getting around that it takes time to become familiar with managing your project. At first, you might feel it takes too much time to write and design. But the more email you create and send, the easier the tasks become. You will instinctively know what steps to take to create an email marketing plan as efficiently as possible. So please don’t allow boredom to set in. Instead, take a break, get some help, and find inspiration, but never quit because you are working on the lifeblood of your art business.

Making It About Them Makes You Special.

The needs of the person receiving the email should be the focus of your email. Think of who is your ideal buyer before you start writing. It helps you communicate with them that shows you understand who they are and what they want. It’s a subtle but highly effective mindset that takes a minute, so empathize and give it time. 

When creating an email, it’s a good idea to put yourself in their shoes. Think about what it would be like to be in their situation. What will make them respond? What can you do to help them? By sharing yourself and your art business with nearly always brief, friendly, and informative messages, you stay invited and keep your spot as a local fine art resource in their mind. 

Email Marketing Subject Lines and Blog Post Headlines Matter.

Your open rates determine your success. That is why the opening quote from David Ogilvy is so important to get the best return from your email marketing plan. “It’s not what you say but how you say it.” This is because your subject line is the first thing that catches a reader’s attention.

Here are some tips to keep in mind: Write short headlines. Your headline should be between 30 and 60 characters long. Don’t go longer than 70 characters. Keep it simple. Make sure that your headline includes keywords. Use numbers and percentages where possible. If you need help, search for “email headline generator.” You’ll find many tools to provide suggestions for your subject lines.

Email Marketing Keeps the Touch Alive.

Fine Art Buyers are not always open and ready to purchase art. However, it’s a few times in a lifetime experience for most occasional buyers. Email marketing keeps you in contact with your most likely buyers. So you must use your creativity to engage them with other shared interests or introduce new items and ideas.

You can develop ways to make your email stand out by using different sections and topics, as discussed here. As you work it, you will get faster and continue to improve all the parts of your email marketing plan. Becoming efficient in your email marketing buys you time to do more marketing or make more art. An even better benefit of efficiency is it produces consistently improving results.

Where to Find Email Marketing Plan Templates.

Most email service providers (ESP) offer templates, but all are not the same. Mailerlite has some very nice templates. It also has a free program for up to 1,000 subscribers. So, check out its templates for inspiration and start exploring and researching by subscribing to artists’ email offerings for ideas. Don’t limit yourself to artists. Instead, look at any creative entrepreneur for enlightenment.

Why AMTP Is Different in a Good Way.

The Art Marketing Toolkit Project (AMTP) is a worldwide community of artists who seek to live their best lives as artists and learn art marketing techniques that will help them meet their expectations.

No one has the same goals, so it doesn’t make sense for everyone to follow formulaic advice. It’s not that the advice is terrible; I’ve given plenty of it for years, and I know it was helpful. But it wasn’t’ specific enough to be the best help for artists.

As an AMTP member. I encourage you to work on yourself to discover what you want from your art business. Your answer is one-of-a-kind. The better you can describe that to yourself the more you eliminate confusing options – and there are so many. Only when you have this clarity does it make sense to design an email marketing plan built to achieve your unique art business and lifestyle needs

If that sounds good, check us out, and please take my cordial invitation to become an AMTP member. It would be my pleasure to get to know you in the group. Hit reply if you have questions.