5 Creative Ideas For Promoting Your Work

Discover these top tips for making your work stand out and showing people what you do

As creative professionals, we need to be able to balance intense periods of creation with the time needed to promote what we create. Knowing how to sell your work and show off what you do to secure more clients or gain a loyal following is essential. It’s how you’ll expand your horizons and get jobs, commissions, and opportunities to collaborate.

Designer and lettering artist Martina Flor (@martinaflor) shares tips so that you can promote your work and connect with potential clients:

Tell the world what you do

It doesn’t make sense to create incredible work if nobody knows you’re creating it. So, first thing’s first: tell your friends, family members, and colleagues about what you’re doing and that you’re available for commissions and collaborations.

Those close to you are likely to end up being your first clients. Opportunities might then arise via people they know. So, make it known, loud and clear, and don’t be afraid to show people what you do. Use social media, text messages, email, and meetings to keep people updated.

Another way to tell everyone what you’re up to is by participating in events. Take the opportunity to network and exchange contact cards with people you meet.

There may also be opportunities to give conferences at these events. Successfully getting contracted to give a conference is difficult, but sometimes you can send a proposal, and there will be a selection process. Be aware of the events going on in your city, and you’re sure to discover opportunities.

“Conferences are an opportunity to demonstrate that you are a specialist, someone who knows everything about a topic. It’s a chance to show that you are a real profession.”

Martina Flor

Gain a following on social media

Use social media, but don’t limit yourself only to Facebook and Instagram. Invest in social media such as Behance, DeviantArt, Dribble, or the Domestika Projects section. Many clients seek out creatives to hire directly on these platforms.

When it comes to the type of content you generate, you can share time-lapses to show your creative processes, personal anecdotes, sneak peeks from behind the scenes of working with clients, and other exclusives that will inspire your followers. Creative processes are usually unique and private, therefore showing yours will help draw in potential clients and followers.

It is important to change up the type of content you publish. If you posted a time-lapse today, wait at least a few days before you publish another. This is a great way to show that you can do different things and keeps your feed interesting. If you want to make this process easier, you can create a calendar to keep your content organized and control what you post and when.

Don’t forget to use keywords and categories so that your work is easier to find on each platform.

“Creating content for social media is work and can take up a big portion of your day. Stay focused on your creative output. While social media is key for showing what you do, your focus needs to be on putting out good creative work. If you don’t have good work to show off, then social media won’t be of much use to you.”

Martina Flor

Coworking spaces

Coworking spaces are shared workspaces that require you to pay a monthly tariff to access desks, internet, meeting rooms, kitchen spaces, and many other facilities. This office model is an interesting way to meet people and tell them about what you do. Some spaces also have their own social media channels that help you network and connect with other professionals who are looking to collaborate.

They are almost like a club of professional members, many of whom use the spaces because of their benefits.

Create promotional material

If you are going to take part in events and use coworking, it’s essential that you always carry a contact card or some other form of promotional material. As well as examples of your work, creating cards or colorful, creative zines are great ways to capture someone’s attention, stand out, and make others remember your work.

Good promotional material can be more effective at making an impact than a digital portfolio. Invest in this strategy.

Find an agent

If you don’t want to worry about dealing with clients, contracts, sales, or simply want to focus on the creative side, finding an agent could be an ideal option. Not only do they take care of the commercial side of your work (thus making your life easier), it’s also a great way to gain access to big clients that freelance creatives are rarely in direct contact with.

Commercial agents usually work with multiple artists. They are often in contact with big clients with whom they will share their artists’ portfolios. This is a great entry point.

Negotiating rates with a client is not easy, given that it requires you to be able to understand the size of the job in question and how much the end product will be worth. Your agent will make this process easier and will secure you more money than you would get if you were working alone.

“Sometimes negotiating is hard. After having a difficult conversation with a client, it can be challenging to move on to the creative stage and discuss ideas and concepts. Having an agent that can negotiate rates for you is a way to avoid a potentially uncomfortable situation with a client.”

Martina Flor

Of course, this service comes at a price: your agent will take a cut of the rate negotiated with your client. This cut will be between 20% and 30%–it’s important that the contract clearly states how much your agent will receive. This is a great way to unite forces with a professional who specializes in taking your work to new levels.

“I recommend signing a non-exclusive contract, which stipulates that you can work directly with your own clients and that your agent can also bring in clients.”

Martina Flor

Always make sure you exclusively own the copyright. This way, if you decide to stop working with a particular agent, you will be able to continue including the work in your portfolio and publishing it on your social media.

If you have a very defined style, which is recognizably yours, it will be easier for your clients to know what to expect from the final project.

In conclusion, to promote your work, it’s good to focus on the following points:

–Tell the world what you do
–Gain a following on social media
–Start using a coworking
–Create promotional content
–Find an agent

Did you find these tips useful? Learn more from design and lettering artist Martina Flor about how to run your personal brand and build a successful freelance career in her course, Freelance: Keys and Tools to Find Success as your Own Boss.

English version by @eloiseedgington.

You may also like:

–What Is Social Customer Care and Why Is It So Important?
–5 Personal Branding Courses to Boost Your Brand Online
–Freelance Tutorial: Tips to Sell Your Work