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, you must 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 in learning how to market your art business.
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. You become a business owner when you decide to sell your art and crafts.
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 with what I am going to talk about today, and that is 9 artist branding strategies to help you make a solid brand to help you make a presence online.
Artist Branding Starts With Goals
My first mistake early on was that I had no solid goals to work towards.
I wanted to sell my art online, and that was it.
I only started to see actual results when I took some time to write out my objectives.
At that point, I was able to work towards something.
To evaluate your success, you 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?
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- Do I want to sell fine art prints?
- Do I want to teach art classes?
These are just a few questions to help get you started.
Portfolio
The next step is to start developing a solid portfolio. And that means you can’t show everyone everything you’ve ever made!
Your portfolio will be something you can show people 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 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.
To help your audience understand 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 clicked on the image to see more of your creations.
People interested in purchasing your fine art will want 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, increasing the odds of you landing a sale.
An artist’s statement describes your mission and differs from your artist’s bio. I will talk about an artist’s bio later in this post.
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 scroll past it.
You need 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 intent as an artist in such few words, but it is essential.
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 possible to spark some ideas that will help you write a perfect bio.
Website
Owning a website is important for artist branding and should not be overlooked.
You can use many platforms to showcase your art, and you can visit 16 Best Websites To Sell Art Online to see the most popular platforms.
However, I strongly recommend building a WordPress website.
WordPress allows you to brand your site precisely the way you want.
A blog is incorporated into the website so you can write blog posts that will drive organic traffic.
You can sell digital and virtual items with the free Woocommerce plugin.
You can choose from thousands of templates to create a unique website that will separate you from all the artists online.
Separating yourself from the competition is artist branding 101.
Social Media.
You know, many people will tell you that you don’t need to be on social media or 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 need to know how to use it, or else it will be a massive waste of time.
Below are some articles to help you build 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 always having some on you.
Sometimes 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 embarrassing when you say I am sorry, I do not have any on me.
The 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 will take to start establishing yourself as an artist, pursuing your dreams, and opening doors and opportunities so that you can move forward.
Take your list of goals and develop a strategy you can start implementing today.
Start small. You do not want to overwhelm yourself.
Take a few weekly minutes 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 separate you from other artists trying to sell art online.
Artist Branding will make you look more professional so that you can charge more for your artwork.
Artist Branding will make it easy for collectors to identify your artwork online.
