Artist Profile: Cat Tesla
Working from her studio in Florida, Cat Tesla has a flourishing professional art career that spans the USA and Europe. We asked for her advice to artists who want to build a successful career.
Cat Tesla, Studio Shot
Creatr: What is your best advice to artists who want to build a successful career?
Cat Tesla: Your email list is everything. Start one immediately, even if it is just friends, family and neighbours at first. Network, show your work, always get your collectors contact details if you can.
Communication with your email list is your best option for marketing your work. These are the people who are pre-qualified: they've either bought art from you or shown an interest.
Most of your sales will come from this list.
You don't own your social media following. It can evaporate any time as channels change. Your email list is the one marketing tool you own and is yours exclusively.
Cat Tesla, Chrysalis Series Install
Discover more about Cat Tesla and her career on her website and Instagram.
Cat’s advice is echoed in our research
We have interviewed over 30 successful artists globally, and many of them swear by having an email list of art buyers that they can regularly send updates to. You email list is a marketing asset that YOU control. Your email list is not owned by Mark Zuckerberg, or META, and if they decide only 3% of your audience is going to see your posts, then you have no choice but to start paying for advertising. We’ve also seen many horror stories of artists with established Instagram followings that have suddenly lost their audience and have to start from nothing again.
CREATR. Tip #4: Start your email list
If you haven’t started collecting the emails of people who are interested in your art, get started immediately. The sooner you start building this asset, the sooner you will get reliable art sales and income.
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