How to sell more art online
Cory Huff is founder of TheAbundantArtist.com, where he teaches artists how to sell art online and slays the starving artist myth.
1. Why is it important to tell my story as an artist?
This doesn’t have to be fancy marketing. As Martin Stellar said in his post Tell Your Story, Sell More Art, people buy art because it makes their lives more interesting.
People buy from artists whose work that they like, but they need something to help them understand or connect with it. They may not have an academic or cultural context that helps them connect with your work.
Sometimes the gallery owner will do this on the artist’s behalf. If you don’t have a professional salesperson selling for you, then you need to be able to at least share with people what makes you and your art special.
Plus, telling your story online has the added benefit of being sharable. Whether it’s a blog post, a video or a social media post, these pieces of content add up to give people different ways to connect with you and to share that connection with their friends.
2. How do I get people to notice me online?
The first step is understanding who your ideal collectors are. Once you know who is likely to be interested in your art, you can then formulate a plan to get your art seen in front of them at the right times.
Make sure that your website or sales platform properly shows off your art in the best way. Nice large images that pop in the browser window. Make sure that your images, and the pages that they are sitting on, can be shared and easily found on social networking sites.
Be sure to give your images titles and descriptions on each page so that search engines can pick them up for images searches.
Finally, I’d suggest figuring out which websites and email newsletters your ideal collectors spend time on. Figure out ways to get your art seen on those websites and newsletters.
3. Do I need a marketing plan?
- Knowing where you target collectors hang out
- What kind of things they like online
- Create blog posts and newsletters showing collectors your art, a little background on it, and a little bit of the process – with some personality and fun.
- Setting up time each day or week to spend time on marketing and promoting your work to your ideal collectors and gallery owners.
Hi there, just wanted to say that Cory’s advice is really good. I habpve been working towards implementing what he teaches in his How To Sell Art Book which I purchased a while ago.
Finding your audience is key and finding the right online platform/s is also key. I have been on Bluethumb since September and have sold a lot of paintings so That platform fits my art style really well. I only wish I had found it years earlier.
I also agree that WHY you paint/write/sing etc is very important to share with your potential buyers. People buy from people they like and relate too. I spent over a decade in corporate sales and know this well.
Emotional connection to the art and the creator of the art is crucial. Oh and get Testimonials (real ones from real collectors) and use them to build trust with potential buyers.
Lisa ?