How to Craft a Power Artist Newsletter

Email newsletters are digital communications sent to subscribers’ inboxes on a regular basis, typically containing updates, announcements, and exclusive content. 

For artists, galleries, and creative business owners, newsletters serve as a direct and personal channel to connect with their audience, showcase their work, and promote what you are doing. 

Having their own newsletter is crucial because it allows you to maintain control over your communication channels and build a loyal following independent of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Here are 15 things artists need to know about and do well with their own newsletter to be seen and to sell their work:

1. Consistent Branding in Your Newsletter

Ensure your newsletter reflects your artistic style and brand identity consistently. This is the marketing side, the look and feel, of what you’re doing with your creative small business, as in, selling your work. 

Your readers take visual clues from every element of your newsletter, website and social media posts. So when you make them consistent, your readers can quickly feel secure and anchored with you. 

2. Compelling Newsletter Content

Provide valuable content such as behind-the-scenes glimpses, artist insights, upcoming events, and exclusive offers.

In a nutshell, your audience, your buyers, supporters and enablers, are interested and curious about what you’re doing.

So share a bit, let them see the messy AND tidy work spaces, give them the opportunity to book into your workshops and art retreats, let them know about the exhibitions you’re getting involved with and give them a heads up about things before you post on the socials about it. This builds connections and relationships.

8. Consistent Schedule for Your Newsletter

Stick to a regular newsletter schedule to keep your audience engaged and anticipate your updates.

This is really important, consistency makes most people feel more confident about who they are interacting with.

Plus, it presents you as being organised and reliable, even if you’re not feeling particularly organised.

When I was figuring out the timing for the Art Trails Tasmania Members’ and Community Newsletters I realised I needed to be more organised so I had a look at a Planner (an A2 one with a month to a sheet) and started plotting out what was on and when. This let me plot out a consistent schedule that I could work to.

I then went through and updated my diary planner with the newsletter publication dates as well as the timing I needed to get the content, the stories ready by.

While this did take a bit of time to figure out the schedule and then update my diary, it has made the world of difference for staying on track and consistent. It also helps me see my work loads much more easily.

11. Clear Value Proposition for Subscribing to Your Newsletter

Clearly communicate the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter and what subscribers can expect.

This is why the majority of newsletter signup offers include a discount code and a description of what the newsletters contain.

When planning out your newsletter, you’ll need to decide on the content that you’ll include in it and as it is focused on what will resonate with your readers.

This is also part of your value proposition (aka, what is of joy for your readers).

For example, with the Art Trails Tasmania Community newsletter the value proposition includes the gift of an artist ebook that is about artists and their inspiration, a 20% off discount coupon for membership, as well as the regular stories such as the Skills Sharing series, Members Only stories (a deeper level of information that’s of reward for members), Creativity Calendar stories plus the event news and profile stories sent in by members.

While I can’t control the number of members’ stories that are submitted each month, I write the other key stories so I know I always have quality content for the newsletter.

While the making of the ebook was a learning curve and took longer than I anticipated (new things always do!), it has been a really good thing to do.

It doesn’t have to be as big as a 40+ page ebook that takes weeks to create, it can be as simple as a single page PDF with art tips.

12. Analytics Tracking For Your Newsletters

Monitor metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to understand what content resonates with your audience.

The Art Trails Tasmania Community newsletter has an average open rate of over 65% (while the comparable industry open rate average is about 24%).

This tells me that I am promoting my newsletter to the right demographic, the people interested in the arts and Tasmania, that they are enjoying the content (because they keep opening the newsletter) and that they are engaged with what is being shared with them.

If my average open rate was something like 10% then I would have to be radically overhauling my entire strategy, from content to promotion and every thing in between.

I’m using Mailerlite and the newsletter reports let me see all of these details.

Any of the newsletter providers like Mail Chimp, aweber, Constant Contact do, I’ve used these three previously over the years and while I’ve decided not to use them any more (for reasons such as cost, functionality and usability), they all show you these metrics.

I am enjoying using Mailerlite and it has functionalities that its competitors don’t have and is far better priced.

13. Email Automation to Support Your Newsletter

Use automation to send personalised messages based on subscriber actions, like welcoming new subscribers or following up on purchases.

This is a very important process to set up and thankfully, it doesn’t take long to set up. The key is in the planning.

I have a four part welcome tour automated email sequence for new subscribers.

In the first email, I send the Artist eBook and the discount coupon and start the tour around the website.

It is important to me to have our readers easily finding the great content, particularly the event news and profile stories.

Plus, it is about relationship and trust building.

While my focus is on celebrating the Art Trails Tasmania members, having the newsletter subscribers feel safe and happy with interacting with the newsletter and website is really important too.

14. A/B Testing For Your Newsletter

Experiment with different subject lines, content formats, and CTAs to optimise your newsletter for better engagement.

I would be remiss not to include this sage advice, but to be fair, I haven’t got to the stage of doing this.

The reasons for doing this kind of testing is that you learn more about your audience, what they engage with, what appeals and what doesn’t. 

If your open rates and click through rates are low, and you want to figure out what is happening and how to improve, then A/B testing would be a great way to start to understand what your readers want.

There are many serious email newsletter marketers who would always do A/B testing for every newsletter campaigne they send out.

15 Things to Avoid with Newsletters

It is just as important to know what behaviours or features you need to avoid.

1. Overwhelming Frequency

Avoid bombarding subscribers with too many emails, as this can lead to unsubscribes or disengagement. 

I think we have all experienced receiving way too many emails from someone who we were initially interested in but became overwhelmed by what feels like a constant bombardment. The solution then is to unsubscribe. 

Plus, it is a lot of work to be constantly creating newsletters every week. 

So find the frequency that works for both you and your readers.

2. Generic Content in Your Newsletter

Steer clear of generic content that doesn’t provide value or showcase your unique artistic voice. Just think of the difference between a cheap print bought from a place like K-mart that is simply destined to be landfill versus a quality piece of art that has meaning to it.

Don’t be K-mart, that isn’t want your audience wants. If they did, they’ll be signed up for K-mart’s newsletters, not yours.

You don’t have to have a lot of content that is overwhelming for you to create. You just need to figure out what your audience is engaging with.

Your social media posts will help with this. Which posts get the most engagement from the followers who support you with likes, comments, shares and become buyers?

This sort of content is seen by your desired audience as being quality content.

3. Too Much Text In Your Newsletter

Avoid long, unbroken blocks of text; use visuals and bullet points.

People just won’t read big blocks of text, especially when they are reading your newsletter on the small sized phone screen.

Instead, have a call-to-action to read more on your blog.

This also works out well for all who don’t want to write much and would prefer to have lots of images in their newsletter.

4. Poorly Designed Newsletters

Avoid cluttered layouts or unprofessional design that can detract from your artwork and brand image.

This is really important. We’ve all seen and struggled with bad design, from websites to newsletters to graphics that are too hard to read or understand on the socials (just think of how small a phone’s screen is). 

And we’ve all enjoyed a beautifully designed website and newsletter. These well designed tools make it easy for us to engage with, follow the call-to-actions, find out what is happening and to get around.

Fortunately the solutions are quite simple with the templates that are provided, often for free in the first 14-30 days on the free plans.

5. Spammy Language

Refrain from using spammy language or aggressive sales tactics that can turn off subscribers.

So don’t USE CAPITALS AND YELL AT YOUR READERS because it turns people off, is hard to read properly and looks dreadful. You might think it is a great way to grab attention but it isn’t.

There is a big difference between a well crafted call-to-action and full on sales tactics, it comes down to trust and respect.

12. Heavy Images Don’t Download Easily For Newsletters

Avoid using large images that can slow down loading times.

The solution is as simple as optimising your images for online use, so a 72 dpi rather than a 300 dpi.

From experience, the newsletter providers don’t allow you to upload heavy/big images anyway. Plus, it is quite hard to get a good print of a small 72 dpi image whereas 300 dpi images are optimised for printing.

13. Ignoring Newsletter Trends

Stay updated on email marketing trends and best practices to keep your newsletter strategy relevant and effective.

This can mean subscribing to a handful of e-mail newsletters that you find interesting, well designed and engaging.

We have all seen websites that were designed 20-40 years ago that look very dated now, are hard to navigate and we leave quickly. The same is true for newsletters.

Fortunately, the solution also lies with using the free templates that the newsletter providers have available.

14. Ignoring Newsletter Deliverability Requirements

Pay attention to factors affecting email deliverability, such as spam filters and sender reputation, to ensure your newsletters reach subscribers’ inboxes.

Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Bigpond etc all have sender reputation problems because of spammers and scammers, hence the newsletter providers don’t like you using them as it also affects their business.

The simple solution is to register a domain name for your website and setup an email address specifically for your newsletters, eg. newsletters@mywebsite.com.au

You can easily increase your open rates by looking after your deliverability requirements.

15. Lack of Testing of Your Newsletters

Don’t assume your newsletter strategy is perfect; regularly test different elements to optimise performance and engagement.

This is really important, especially as your newsletter list grows as you’ll have a more diverse range of subscribers.

It is also a lovely way to explore various ideas from lessons learnt over time.

Making These 30 Strategies Work For Your Newsletter and Flourishing

By focusing on these strategies and avoiding common pitfalls, you can can create newsletters that effectively engage your audience, showcase your work, and drive sales.

Implementing the 15 tips on what to do will help artists build a strong connection with their subscribers, while steering clear of the 15 mistakes will ensure the content remains professional and appealing.

With a well-crafted newsletter, artists can keep their audience updated, share their creative journey, and promote their art, ultimately leading to a loyal and supportive community and increased sales opportunities.

Start refining your newsletter today to achieve these benefits!