10 guerrilla marketing tactics for illustrators

This is the second installment of our Guerrilla Marketing tactics series – you can view the 10 guerrilla marketing tactics for designers by clicking here.

Illustrators are some of the most talented people that I know. I’ve admired illustration work for years and I have dabbled in drawing since I was very, very young, but the quality of artwork that some of the top illustrators put out today is simply baffling. So, starting out as an illustrator, what can you do to get yourself noticed and slide into a top spot in the food chain? Today’s article is going to go over ten guerrilla marketing tactics that you as an illustrator can use.

Below you will find ten guerrilla marketing tactics that I have geared towards illustrators, but I am sure that even designers, writers and photographers could utilize some of them as well (for those who we haven’t covered yet, I promise you that the articles are coming).

1. Comic Strips – Why don’t you take a bit of time and build a free comic strip and release it online (daily/weekly/monthly)? You can see N.C. Winters work all over the Tuts+ network and I’m sure that he’s received a lot of additional work because of it.
2. Guerrilla Sticker Placements – Designing stickers can seem like it’s counter productive because your client base isn’t “into” stickers, but if you utilize them by placing them in off the wall places (ie: above a urinal for example), you can get recognized by more eyes than ever, as well as be featured in articles around the web that showcases guerrilla marketing examples (like, on this website for example).
3. Write illustrator tutorials – not only will you get paid (for writing articles for websites like vectuts) but you’ll also get your name out to thousands of people online.
4. Design Skateboards – Not only will doing this give you the opportunity to make some extra income, but it will also allow you to showcase your work in a lot of places (skateboards hit the town on a regular basis). Places like deck peck are great places to allow your designs to be sold on skateboards, with no effort on your end to make them (they do all of the heavy lifting).
5. Pick a niche and draw it – If you’d like more illustration work for your business and would like to grab someones attention, why not draw the top 5-10 people in a specific niche? Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Leo Babauta and others would be a good place to start. Run a series of them on your blog, and who knows who might see them and want your services.
6. Design a tattoo – This can work on your own skin, or the skin of a friend or relative. If you’ve designed an awesome tattoo, people are bound to ask questions about it when they see it – giving you the perfect opportunity to say “oh, I designed it because I’m a freelance illustrator – here’s my card”.
7. T-Shirts for Sale – This is another guerrilla marketing tactic for illustrators that also has the side benefit of making you some revenue through the actual pieces you create. Design By Humans, Threadless and many other t-shirt websites allow you to submit designs and sell your t-shirts while being noticed by an entirely new audience.
8. Color by numbers – Here’s an off the wall way to get people involved in what you do – create the line art for a color by numbers drawing that people can either digitally color, or color on paper by printing it out. Make sure your logo and website link is at the bottom of the page, and you’re sure to get people to check out your site.
9. Sell Stock Art – Why not? The more you sell, the more you make, the more people talk about you, the more work you get. It seems like a logical step, right? You could also give away free vector files on your own website, which will help send traffic in your direction.
10. Social Media Interaction – No, not twitter and facebook. I mean, places like DeviantArt, Flickr and other design related social media websites. Set up your profiles on all of them, chat with some people there and make friends, and constantly update your profiles with new illustrations you’ve done. Do not limit yourself to just your actual portfolio, generate a buzz in these places as much as possible.

What do you think?

Any of these guerrilla marketing tactics seem like something you can utilize for your business? Let us know in the comments. And make sure you keep an eye out for upcoming guerrilla marketing tactics articles for freelance writers, photographers and more.