Personal branding for creatives: how to market yourself without feeling like a salesperson

Plenty of artists and designers would rather do almost anything than promote themselves. Photographers and makers are often the same. The work should speak for itself, or so the thinking goes, and talking it up feels like showing off. “I’m not one for self-promotion” is a line talented people use all the time to explain why they stay hidden.

The snag is that work can’t speak if nobody sees it, and buyers very rarely hand a commission to someone they’ve never heard of and know nothing about. Luckily, the sort of personal branding that works for creatives looks almost nothing like a hard sell. It looks like generosity and clarity, plus a body of work people can follow over time.

What is a personal brand for a creative?

Forget the logo and the colour palette for a moment. They can help, but they aren’t the brand. Your personal brand is what people understand about you when your name comes up. That means the kind of work you make and the point of view behind it. It also means how you treat clients, and who the work is for.

For most creatives it boils down to four things.

• Your work: how good and how consistent it is, and the thread that runs through all of it.
• Your perspective. What you care about and what you notice, as well as what you’d never do. This is what separates you from someone with similar skills.
• Your process: how a piece comes into being, and what it feels like to commission or buy from you.
• Your people, meaning the clients, collectors or audiences you serve best.

Can you describe each of those in a sentence or two? Then you have the raw material for a brand. If not, that’s your first job. It’s also where brand design begins, because your story, your positioning, the audience you want and the messaging that reaches them all need sorting out long before anyone makes a single visual decision.

Why does self-promotion feel so uncomfortable for creatives?

Some of it is that the work is personal. Promoting a product keeps you at arm’s length. Promoting your own art can feel like inviting people to judge you. Some of it is that art schools and creative courses rarely teach marketing. And some of it is that the loudest self-promoters online are exactly the people most creatives have no wish to copy.

Try pulling two things apart. Selling means asking someone to buy. Branding means helping the right people understand what you do, so that when they’re ready to buy, you’re the obvious pick. You can do a lot of branding with very little selling.

“I spent years developing a brand. It was only when I stepped out from behind it that the results truly came.” Jack Cartwright, founder of The Limelight Company

That’s the shift for a lot of creatives. You stop hiding behind the work and start standing next to it.

How can you market yourself without feeling like a salesperson?

Show your process, not just the result

Finished work tells people what you can do. Process shows them how you think, and that’s what clients are really paying for. Share the sketches and test pieces, the materials, the mistakes, the moment it all clicks. It’s also much easier than “promoting”, because you’re just recording what you already do every day. Our guide to behind-the-scenes video for artists and makers is full of ideas you can use straight away.

Tell the story behind the work

Who commissioned the piece? What problem were they trying to solve, what did you try, and what changed by the end? A story lets a future client imagine working with you. You never have to say “hire me”.

Teach something

Explain a technique or a decision you made. Walk people through a common mistake. Teaching builds trust. It rarely loses you work. People who want the result would still rather pay someone who knows how.

Let other people speak for you

One short, specific comment from a happy client beats any amount of describing yourself. Ask if you can share it, and give the context: what the brief was and how it turned out.

Invite rather than push

Swap “buy now” for clear invitations that carry no pressure. “Commissions open for spring.” “Two places left on the next workshop.” “Join the mailing list for first look at new pieces.” Interested people will act on those. Everyone else can scroll past without feeling cornered.

What should creatives post on social media?

Posting regularly counts for more than posting a lot. A simple framework stops you staring at a blank screen.

Choose the one or two platforms where your buyers really spend their time. Don’t try to be everywhere. For a lot of visual creatives that’s Instagram, sometimes with Facebook alongside it for local audiences or older collectors. If you’d like a hand planning and running it, social media management covers strategy and content creation through to publishing and reporting.

Do you have to show your face?

No. It usually helps, though. People like people, and seeing the maker behind the work adds warmth and trust. You don’t have to talk to camera every day. Your hands at work might be enough, or a portrait in your studio, or a short clip at an exhibition.

If you’d honestly prefer to stay out of shot, lean harder on your voice in captions. Use your process and your clients’ stories to carry more of the weight. It’s slower, but it can work. What people need is a sense that a real person made this.

Where should your creative brand live?

Social media is where people find you. It can’t be your only home. Platforms change their rules and your reach goes up and down with them, and however much effort you put in, you’ll never control an account the way you control your own website. Build a simple site with your best work and your story on it. Explain how to commission you and give people a way to join your mailing list. That’s a home you own. Our guide to portfolio websites vs Instagram goes into more detail.

Collecting email addresses brings specific UK rules on electronic marketing into play. Check the ICO’s guidance on electronic mail marketing to see what applies to you.

Can you build a creative personal brand yourself?

Yes. Lots of creatives do it well. You already have the visual skills most business owners pay for. The hard parts tend to be seeing your own work clearly and putting your positioning into words, and then keeping it up when you’re busy making things. If time or perspective is what’s missing, outside help can make sense, because someone looking in from the outside can often see the thread in your work faster than you can. If you have both, start with the steps above and see how far they get you.

How we can help

Through brand design, we help creatives find the words and the story behind their work. Then we put that to use with social media management and, where it helps, brand photography of you and your studio. Every project starts with us listening, and we agree the scope and fee before any creative work begins. If you’re a photographer, take a look at our marketing for photographers.

Sources

• ICO: Electronic mail marketing