The traditional view of a marketing plan is a detailed spreadsheet with a crazy amount of tasks and self-imposed deadlines. But it doesn’t have to be that hard.
I’d rather you build a routine of strategies and tactics you commit to doing on a regular basis. Routines stick.
They become part of your identity. They help you stay grounded and focused. And they keep you from overcommitting, because you know how much time your routine takes.
Marketing is bigger than self-promotion
Marketing is everything you do, outside of making art, to grow your art business and expand your art career. It has to include the business routines and maintenance that lead to higher success rates when you get to the self-promotion part.
Things like segmenting your list, cleaning your list, and revising your artist statement.
These are pieces that we tend to push aside in the busy-ness of life, but they matter when you want your promotional efforts to be effective.
Listen
Three ways artists approach marketing
In this episode of The Art Biz, I walk through three distinct profiles. See if any of these sound familiar.
- The artist with a promotional routine. You send a monthly email, post to social media a few times a week, apply to the right opportunities when they cross your path. It’s comfortable, but often the maintenance pieces I mentioned above are overlooked. There isn’t a holistic approach.
- The artist throwing spaghetti at the wall. You try something once, it doesn’t work, you decide it was a dumb idea. Or you keep doing it because you heard it was a good idea, but it has no legs because it isn’t part of a larger strategy. Either way, you don’t see a payoff, so you give up.
- The artist who does nothing. You’re overwhelmed by all that’s possible and unsure of what’s best for you, so you avoid being proactive. You respond to opportunities when they come across your path, but you aren’t proactive. You’ve surrendered your art career to fate.
You want to be the first artist. But even that isn’t ideal because it’s missing the big picture.
Why it feels so hard
There’s always more you could do. Marketing is never done.
As long as you’re making art and searching for new opportunities, you’ve got to spend at least 50% of your time on the business.
And then something new comes out and throws you a curveball. One day Instagram rewards carousels, then suddenly there’s pressure to make talking-head videos. Don’t get me started on yet another app that was recommended.
It’s exhausting. You’ve got to know what you want and what your priorities are or else you’ll get caught up in things that don’t matter.
A plan can help you get there.
Two kinds of plans
The marketing plan I’d have you build isn’t the traditional one you’ll find in a book. It’s two pieces working together.
The first is a plan for ongoing marketing. A one-page monthly routine, and, depending on how you format it, more like half a page. This is for maintaining visibility and attracting new eyeballs. For ensuring you don’t disappear for weeks at a time.
But this alone won’t serve you if you have events, exhibitions, workshops, and sales. Those require a lot of your energy, and your ongoing plan has to adjust to make room for them. So the second piece is a way of overlaying an event on top of your ongoing plan.
You need both for piece of mind.
I’ll help you build these foundational documents in my Your Art Marketing Plan workshop on September 10, 2026.
About Hayley Price
Hayley Price is a dedicated advocate and mentor for artists at every stage of their careers. With a rich educational background as a Studio Art and Business double major from Washington & Lee University, Hayley possesses a deep understanding of both the creative and commercial challenges artists face in the ever-changing landscape of today’s art world.
Her journey has been shaped by a commitment to fostering growth, building relationships, and empowering artists to focus on their passion while she tackles the challenges that ultimately take them out of the studio.
Follow Hayley on Instagram: @theartcoachingclub
