3 mentally healthy art marketing tips for 2026

Hi! 👋

When I say mentally healthy, I mean it. No one's going to burn out here.

Welcome (back)! 🤗

This is Petra from ​The Creators' Diary​. If this is your first TC’D newsletter, welcome! We’re happy you’ve subscribed!

Share what you think about this issue or the questions you struggle with as a creator by simply replying to this email. A ​real human (Petra)​ reads it.

Marketing tip of the week 🧠

Technically, the new year started in January, but I'm leaning toward the idea that the human new year actually starts when nature wakes from its months-long sleep.

As spring approaches, and your creator soul perhaps feels that sense of rebirth, I'd like to share 3 marketing tips I wholeheartedly believe in.

These tips are worth repeating and will help you when you get lost in discussions and advice on how you're supposed to be promoting yourself and your work.

Post consistently, not continuously. 📱

Posting every day on social media only achieves one long-lasting goal: burnout.

If you burn out while promoting your work, who’s going to create art? 👀

That’s hell of a sacrifice for a big following that won’t even engage with you and buy from you as opposed to a smaller but tightly knit community that actually cares about your art enough to make a purchase, even repeatedly.

Just show up and repeat in a rhythm that works for you, like once a week.

Focus on perception. 👀

Marketing is perception, as in building and shifting people's perception of your artwork in a way that works for you.

This is not cheating or lying. This is showing them the value of what you make beyond what it looks like on first impression.

A mug is not just a mug. It's a gift for a friend. It's a decorative piece for one's apartment. It's a reminder of their childhood. This is where you can get creative.

Don't show your face if you don't want to. 🫣

I'm tired of hearing that the only successful way to build an online presence is by talking directly into the camera and exercising an extroverted persona based on everyone's expectations.

Indeed, people connect more easily to other humans when seeing their faces, but there are many valid reasons why one wouldn't want to participate in that.

My take on this will never change: if doing any type of art marketing doesn't feel right for you, don't do it. It's not worth the headache, the stomach pain, and feeling miserable in any way.

This relates to the previous tip: show up when and how you want to, and avoid putting off the balance of your creator life, where you find yourself spending more time on promotion than actual creating.

See you in the next newsletter,

Petra