Your artwork and your passion are at the center of your creative practice.
But if you don’t know how to promote your artwork and present yourself professionally, all of that hard work and talent might never get noticed.
With so many talented artists trying to get noticed online, it is essential for you to stay on top of your art marketing plan.
You might have spent years taking drawing lessons to enhance your artistic skills, or thought about taking an art course in school to better your craft, all with a dream of making your art your career.
You can make a decent income from your artistic skills as long as you invest time learning how to market your art business.
Think about all of the artists in Ney York, Chicago, and LA artists selling fine art. Now think about all of the artists who reside in small towns art of sale online and at local craft shows.
Anyone can start selling their artwork to people around the world. All of the tools and resources are right at your fingertips.
But how is it even possible for you to get noticed with thousands of artists uploading new artwork online every month?
The first step is to start thinking like a business owner. When you decide to sell your art and crafts, you become a business owner.
Think about how you want to brand yourself so you can separate yourself from all of the competition.
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I started selling art online in the early 2000s, and there was not a lot of information out there to help get me started.
Everything I learned was done the hard way, trying a marketing strategy, and assessing the results.
I still try new ideas today, but if I knew back then what I know now, I could have saved a lot of time starting off with what I am going to talk about today and that is 9 artist branding strategies to help you make a strong brand to help you make a presence online.
Artist Branding Starts With Goals
The first mistake I made early on was that I had no solid goals to work towards.
I know I wanted to sell my art online and that was it.
I only started to see real results when I took some time to write out my objectives.
At that point, I was able to work towards something.
In order to evaluate your success you really need to know what your objectives are.
Ask Yourself:
- How much money do I want to earn every year?
- How will I earn that income?
- Do I want to sell original art online, in galleries, or at local fairs?
- Do I want to sell fine art prints?
- Do I want to teach art classes?
Thee are just a few questions to help get you started.
If you need help writing goals you can achieve, take a look at How To Write Goals You Can Achieve Workbook.
Portfolio
The next step is to start developing a strong portfolio. And what that means is you basically can’t show everyone everything you’ve ever made!
Your portfolio will be something you can show people who are interested in purchasing a commission piece from you or a way to show galleries what style of art you create.
Your portfolio should only showcase a few pieces of your best work.
Displaying too much may overwhelm the viewer.
I recommend you to update your portfolio every year to incorporate some of your new pieces and discard some old artwork that is not producing the results you are striving for.
Artist Statement
You will want to write an artist statement for your art business.
In order to help your audience understand what the overall meaning and message of your art business and artwork is, you need to write an artist statement.
Many people who discover you online will visit your artist website because they love your artistic style.
They might have seen your art on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, and they click on the image to see more of your creations.
The people who are interested in purchasing your fine art will want to get to know who the artist is behind the beautiful artwork they are admiring.
Your artist statement will connect your viewer with you and your artwork, which will increase the odds of you landing a sale.
An artist’s statement describes your mission and is different than your artist’s bio. I will talk about an artist’s bio later in this post.
For more information on how to write an artist statement visit How To Write An Artist Statement Workbook.
Photographing Your Artwork
You want to portray your artwork online in the best way possible, especially when someone can’t see the real piece in front of them.
If the image you upload is blurry, people will just scroll past it.
It is essential for you to invest in some photography gear and take some time to learn how to photograph your artwork.
For more information about popular cameras professional artists are using, visit, 4 Best Digital Cameras For Photographing Artwork.
For tips on taking high-quality photographs of your artwork, visit:
Tips For eCommerce Photography For Crafters
7 Tips For Photographing Artwork To Sell More Art Online
Helpful Tips For Photographing Your Art Work That Work
Sell More Art With High-quality Images
Why Professional Quality Images Are A Must For Art Websites
How To Photograph Art To Sell Online
Artist’s Bio
An artist’s bio is one of the most awkward things to write for many artists.
It’s hard to summarize your whole life story and your whole intent as an artist in such a few amount of words, but it is extremely important.
And you can write it in the first person, or you can write in the third person.
The best way to get started is by visiting your favorite artist’s bios so you can see how they constructed their bio.
View as many bios as you can to spark some ideas that will help you to write a perfect bio.
Website
Owning a website is really important for artist branding and should not be overlooked.
There are many platforms you can use to showcase your art, and you can visit 16 Best Websites To Sell Art Online to see what the most popular platforms are.
However, I strongly recommend building a WordPress website.
WordPress allows you to brand your site exactly the way you want.
There is a blog incorporated on the website so you can write blog posts that will drive organic traffic to your site.
You can sell digital and virtual items with the free Woocommerce plugin.
There are thousands of templates you can choose from to create a unique website that will separate you from all of the artists online.
Separating yourself from the competition is artist branding 101.
Social Media.
You know, a lot of people are gonna tell you that you don’t need to be on social media or that you do need to be on social media.
It is really up to you.
Social media is a great tool to allow you to engage with your fans.
But the thing is, you really need to know how to use it, or else it will be a huge waste of time.
Below are some articles to help you get started building your artist brand on social media.
5 Ways To Repurpose Your Content On Pinterest
How To Maximize Pinterest Opportunities To Sell Your Art
4 Pinterest Tools To Skyrocket Your Pinterest Traffic
7 Pinterest Business Tips For Artists Selling Art Online
How To Pin On Pinterest With Tailwind’s Smart Schedule
7 Ways Artists Can Use Instagram To promote Their Art
Instagram For Artists – How To Boost Art Sales
Best Instagram Story Ideas For Creative People
Instagram Marketing For Artists
Instagram Flash Sale Tips For Artists
How To Use Facebook To Build Relationships With Art Collectors
Facebook Boost Posts – Should Crafters Stay Away
How To Add Products To A Facebook Shop
Optimize Your Facebook Page For Art Sales
Facebook Artist Page Tips – Best Resource For Artists
Daily Action Plan Share Art On Twitter
12 Marketing Benefits For Artists
Increase Website Traffic With Twitter
Can Twitter Help You Sell More Art
How To Create An Artist Twitter Account Step By Step
Business Cards
Business cards might seem like a thing of the past, but I highly recommend that you always have some on you at all times.
There are going to be times when you are sharing your elevator pitch with someone, and they will ask you for your business card.
I can tell you by experience that it is very embarrassing when you say I am sorry I do not have any on me.
The end result was I lost a potential sale.
Business cards are inexpensive and a great way to build your artist brand.
Implement Your Art Marketing Plan
This is the step you are going to take to start establishing yourself as an artist, pursuing your dreams, and you know, opening doors and opportunities so that you can move forward.
Take your list of goals and develop a strategy that you can start implementing today.
Start small. You do not want to overwhelm yourself.
Take a few minutes every week to learn how to market your art online.
Implement those strategies and see what works best for your art business.
To help get you started with your art marketing strategy visit Art Business – Art Marketing Resource. There are over 500 free articles to help you develop an art marketing plan that will work.
Conclusion:
Artist Branding will seperate yourself from all of the other artists trying to sell art online.
Artist Branding will make you look more professional so you can charge more for your artwork.
Artist Branding will make it easy for art collectors to identify your artwork online.
Popular Art Marketing And Sales Tutorials
Below are some of the most famous art marketing courses that will grow your online art business:
Most Popular – How to Make a Living Selling What You Make by Megan Auman
Most Popular – Build a Successful Creative Blog by April Bowles-Olin
How to Build a Business While Learning Your Craft by Megan Auman
Pinterest Marketing for Makers & Designers by Megan Auman
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