What building OD Guitars taught me about sharing creative work, planning marketing and finding an audience.
Omer Deutsch
You can make something you are proud of and still struggle to get it seen. That does not make you any less of an artist. It means creating your work and helping people discover it are two different jobs.
As a guitar builder, I understand the wish to stay in the workshop and let the instruments speak for themselves. Musicians feel it too: you want to write, practise, record and perform, not spend your day thinking about what to post.
But people need a way to find what you do. Building OD Guitars has taught me that sharing the work deserves a place alongside making it.
Study what works, then find your own approach
Look at musicians and makers whose work reaches the people you want to connect with. What do they show? How do they explain their process? What makes you stop and listen?
Learn from those choices without copying the result. Another finished-guitar photo or performance clip needs a reason for someone to care. Your decisions, your sound and the story behind the work can provide that reason.
Make learning part of the work
Podcasts, YouTube and reading have helped me learn about marketing. The useful part is taking an idea, trying it and seeing what happens.
AI tools can help you explore ideas or organise a plan, but you still need to question the advice, adapt it to your audience and test it yourself. A suggested strategy is a starting point, not evidence that it will work for your music or your business.
One resource I have learned from is the Social Media Marketing Podcast.
Give sharing a regular place in your week
Marketing is easy to postpone when there is always another guitar to build or another song to finish. Set aside a regular block of time instead of trying to fit it into whatever is left over.
For a musician, that could mean recording a short playing clip, explaining a musical choice or showing how a song develops. For a maker, it could be a workshop detail and the reason behind it. You do not need to show everything at once.
Use that time to prepare material, respond to people and try one new idea. Choose a routine you can sustain.
What NAMM taught me about planning
We used to approach NAMM by waiting until a month or two before the show and asking whether we had enough money to go. I came to see that as the wrong way to plan an important marketing activity.
The better approach was to decide earlier, understand the cost and include it in the year’s marketing budget. That made it a planned commitment rather than a last-minute decision.
The same thinking can apply to a release, a show or a video project: decide what it is meant to achieve, work out what you can afford and give yourself time to prepare.
Spend with a purpose
Most of my reach has come organically. I have tried paid advertising a few times, but without understanding how to run it properly, I did not find it a good use of my money.
That is my experience, not a rule that advertising cannot work. Before spending, know what you are trying to achieve and how you will judge the result. A limited budget makes those decisions more important.
Help people discover the work
You do not have to become someone else to share your art. Start by showing what you care about, explaining your choices and making it easy for people to hear or see more.
If you own an OD guitar, visit the OD Artists page to discover how you can feature your music on our website.
