Most businesses think logically about how to appeal to their customers, by promoting the advantages of their products and services and finding a perfect price point. While this is good, it also causes business owners to underestimate the power that artistry can have in attracting more customers to a brand. There’s some degree of art involved at all stages, from imagining your brand and logo to designing your site, but there’s also a way to use art as a medium of content.
How you use art can have a massive impact on how you attract and retain customers, so it’s important to know how it functions and how you can use it profitably.
Why Art Is Effective
Why is art so powerful as a tool for promotion in the first place?
- Emotional appeal. Art resonates with people. It’s often designed to evoke an emotion which, in turn, creates a kind of bond. As Peerboost, a company that provides a tool for furthering reach, cleverly explains, part of the reason Instagram became so popular was because it turned into a kind of photo gallery—and evoked deep, resonating emotions in its users.
- Next, incorporating art into your designs and content instantly separates you from the rest of the pack that rely on traditional methods or succumb to tropes when creating their materials. As any branding expert will tell you, differentiation is important.
- Creative liberties. When you create art, there are practically unlimited possibilities. Taking creative liberties with your ads, your site, and all your marketing materials means you’ll have more options for development—and you can show off your brand in more accurate, appealing ways.
How to Use Art in Your Campaigns
With those benefits in mind, how can you incorporate art into more of your materials?
- Custom design your site from scratch. These days, there are dozens of template-based sites that make it easy to create a website from nothing, even if you have no experience. These apps rely on templates, which many business use interchangeably, and as a result, the majority of websites you visit all look the same. One way to break out of this mold is to custom design your site from scratch with a focus on creating artwork. It will take some extra time and extra money, but you’ll easily stand out amongst your competition.
- Utilize photography. Photography is one of the simplest and most straightforward ways to incorporate more art into your marketing efforts—but there’s a huge gulf between simply taking a picture and mastering photography. Make sure you have a somewhat experienced photographer on staff to help you take meaningful pictures for your site, social media campaigns, and promotional materials. Sometimes, all it takes is a different angle or different lighting to completely transform your images.
- Use illustrations and drawings in your content. Speaking of images, free yourself up when it comes to your core content. Most content marketers focus on writing, which is still valuable—but writing can come alive when it’s associated with drawings and illustrations. Get creative here, and produce artwork that represents your brand. In time, your customers will come to love your artistic touch.
- Appreciate customer-submitted art. Instead of producing all the art yourself, you could let some of your customers do the work. Through a contest or open submission, encourage your customers to send you pieces of art related to your brand (such as photos, drawings, or other creations), then show them off to your other followers. This will demonstrate that you care about art, you care about your customers, and will even provide something entertaining to your main demographics.
- Focus on aesthetics in your marketing. Throughout your marketing and advertising campaigns, focus on the aesthetic value of your creations. Bottom-line metrics, like conversion rates, are still important, but make sure there’s some kind of artistic takeaway with every piece.
The only problem at this point is finding the artist responsible for creating these materials. If you have a background in design, you can handle it yourself, but otherwise, it’s best to rely on a professional. You can hire one full-time artist  if you plan on producing significant quantities of material, or material across multiple campaigns; this can help you achieve greater aesthetic consistency. But if you can’t afford or use a full-timer, independent contractors are your best bet. Just be sure to get a sample ahead of time so you know you’re getting something worth showing off.
