Something is Happening

Learning to notice small signs of growth in a marketing practice

By Sue Pendleton, Founder

I started a 90-day focus on my own art marketing practice. It wasn’t because I suddenly felt wildly motivated to post more. It was because I was having a crisis of faith.

A year ago, I set out to build ENSOhello as an app to help artists create social media content more easily. I knew that being able to talk through ideas, get help shaping captions, and schedule posts ahead could remove a lot of friction.

And I still believe that. But I was starting to realize something that scared me a little: Making social media easier is not the same as helping artists stay engaged with marketing over the long haul.

Because, truthfully, even with the app, I was still struggling. The app made posting easier. But I still lacked motivation. And that is when the bigger truth started to come into focus.

Even with tools, resources, expertise, and skill, artists still have to show up.

They have to commit.
Build a rhythm.
Return.
Again and again.

They still have to decide that sharing their work matters enough to keep doing it.

That realization shifted something for me. ENSOhello needs to be more than an app. It needs to help artists build a marketing practice with the app, yes, but also with prompts, reminders, examples, structure, and support to help them stay with it.

Even then, I wondered: Would it work?

So I decided to test the idea on myself.

I Needed to Prove It to Myself

I started my 90-day focus on my own art accounts a month ago. Not ENSOhello’s marketing. My own.

My personal art accounts had been a little neglected, which feels slightly ironic since I’m building something to help artists market their work. But it also makes complete sense. I know how hard it is to keep showing up.

Even when you understand marketing.
Even when you know it matters.
Even when you believe in the practice.

It can still be very easy to let it slip. So I created a plan for myself.

I started building the kind of support I imagined ENSOhello offering: timely prompts, mid-week reminders, simple post ideas, and a little structure planned ahead of time so I did not have to think through everything from scratch each week.

The question I wanted to answer was simple:

If I actually followed the guidance I was creating, would something happen?

I Put My Head Down

For the first month, I did not want to obsess over analytics. I did not want to check every post, compare every number, or fall into the familiar trap of wondering whether something “worked” five minutes after I shared it.

I just wanted to put my head down and practice.

So that’s what I did.

I posted more regularly. Not perfectly, but more regularly. I followed more artists and art-related accounts. I left more thoughtful comments. When people commented on my posts, I tried to do more than just tap the little heart. I replied. I engaged. I treated it more like a real conversation.

None of this was dramatic.

It was not a viral strategy.
It was not a growth hack.
It was not a magic formula.

It was just steady attention.

The kind that does not feel like much while you are doing it.

Then I Finally Looked

At the end of the month, I looked at my analytics. And this is where things got interesting.

At first glance, I saw that my percentage of new followers was down.

Facebook was down 11.1%.
Instagram was down 8.7%.

That could have been discouraging. If I had stopped there, I might have thought, “Well, that’s not great.”

But then I looked a little closer.

I had gained 32 new followers on Facebook.
And 21 new followers on Instagram.

That is 53 more people following my art.

Not a giant number.
Not a life-changing number.
Not the kind of number anyone would screenshot as proof of overnight success.

But it’s something. And if that happens every month, it will add up.

Small Movement Is Still Movement

The other numbers told a similar story.

Views of my content were up significantly.

On Facebook, views were up 176%.
On Instagram, they were up 55.1%.

Content interactions were also up.

Facebook interactions were up 338%.
Instagram interactions were up 76.1%.

In the past month, my art content had about 2,100 views on Facebook and 2,000 views on Instagram.

Again, not viral. Not dramatic compared to artists with huge followings. But not nothing. And that matters. Because when you’re building a practice, one of the hardest parts is trusting that the effort is doing anything at all. Especially early on.

You post.
You comment.
You show up.
You try to be a little more consistent.

And often, the results do not feel obvious. But sometimes the first signs of growth are almost too small to notice unless you look carefully.

The Numbers Need a Little Translation

This is one of the tricky things about analytics. They can be useful. But they can also be confusing.

A percentage can make something look worse than it is. A bigger number can make something look better than it is. A comparison can send you into a spiral if you are not clear about what you are actually trying to learn.

In my case, “new followers down 11.1%” did not tell the whole story. The fuller story was:

More people followed.
More people saw the work.
More people interacted.
I showed up more often.
I engaged more meaningfully.

That tells me something. It tells me the effort was not disappearing. It tells me the practice moved the needle. And sometimes that is exactly the encouragement we need to keep going.

It’s Starting to Feel Possible

The numbers were helpful, but they were not the only sign that something was happening. After this first month, the practice is still not automatic in my brain. But it is not a drain in the same way. It doesn’t feel like a fad diet where you get a burst of results and then throw the whole thing away because it’s impossible to keep up.

I am starting to feel a rhythm. Not fully. Not perfectly. But more than I did a month ago. There is less dread. I may still procrastinate for a day, but I get back to it. I have had things come up: a week-long workshop, family commitments, scheduling snags, ordinary life interruptions. And I have still been able to maintain the practice.

That may be the most encouraging sign of all. Not that everything suddenly feels easy. But that it feels more possible.

Look for the Small Signs

I’m not going to watch my analytics every day. That would make me miserable. But I am going to check in at the end of next month. And again at the end of the 90 days.

Not to punish myself. Not to prove I am doing enough. But to notice.

What moved?
What felt easier?
Where did people respond?
What helped me stay consistent?
What made the practice feel possible?

That is the kind of information I want. Because the goal isn’t to make marketing take over my art. The goal is to build a sustainable practice that supports it.

A practice that can grow slowly.
A practice that can survive busy seasons.
A practice that can ebb and flow with real life.
A practice that does not demand more headspace than the art itself.

That is what I am trying to build. And after one month, I can say this: Something is happening. It may be small. But small signs are still signs.

Create freely. Share easily.