Is your head spinning from all of the new art marketing articles that pop up every day? In this post, I would like to go back to the basics and talk about how to increase art sales by learning more about your audience.
How To Increase Art Sales
By Learning More About Your Audience
There are so many layers that are involved when it comes to marketing your art.
Online Art Marketing Strategies:
- Online Art Website
- Art Blog (content marketing)
- Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram)
- Video Marketing (YouTube, Webinars)
- Podcasts
- Email Marketing
The list above is some of the top art selling strategies that many artists use to build an online business.
You can easily see that it entitles a great deal of work to sell art online, however, if you plan your tasks properly you can get a great deal of work done in a relatively small amount of time.
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Every marketing strategy has its place and will only be productive if you have a strong foundation for the basics.
It is easy for anyone to become attracted to “Fastest ways to sell more art” articles.
The only problem is that most of them are just lies.
Selling art takes hard work, learning, and dedication. A magic potion that increases online art sale just does not exist.
If you truly want to succeed at selling your art there are some basic art marketing strategies you will always want to focus on and one of those basic art marketing strategies I would like to talk about today is learning more about your audience.
All of the other layers that are involved with your art marketing plan will help to improve your art businesses but they are not a substitute for basics. And the basics of any business should be learning about their target audience as well as striving to provide the best customer service you can.
There is no question that your audience is the most important layer of your business. They are the ones that will purchase your art, follow your blog, like your Facebook fan page, and talk about you to their family and friends.
There is no better way to build your business than to take the time required to get to know your audience.
Spend some time to learn everything you can about them.
The more that you learn about your audience, the more productive your marketing plan will be. You will know what content you should be providing to catch their attention as well as knowing what you should post on Facebook to have them comment, like, and share.
How To Get To Know Your Audience
Listen
The easiest way to get to know someone is to be a good listener. Listen to what they have to say and how they say it.
Everyone loves to talk about their interests and beliefs. Let them tell their story. Ask them questions to encourage a conversation.
When you are gathering the information, you are building a profile of that individual. Keep a log of everything that you learn about your audience. The more information that you can gather the more effective your marketing plan will be.
You will start to see some common grounds between the people you are profiling.
You will want to keep records of all the information that you gather and keep updating it as you gather more information.
I like to use Excel but you can use Google Sheets or whatever you like to work with best.
Information that you will need to design a better marketing plan:
- Age
- Sex
- Education
- Income
- Employment
- Race
- Location
- Lifestyle
- Interests
- Values
Respect
Operating a business is very challenging and some of the most basic rules are often overlooked.
You have become a customer service business once you decided to start selling your artwork.
It does not matter if you are selling your art online or at craft shows when you are selling art you are operating a customer service business.
One thing that you will need to learn is how to put on a happy face when you are having your worst day ever.
Every encounter that you have with your customers will leave an impression. Make it a great experience for your customer every time that they see you.
Tips:
- Greet them with a “hello” and their name.
- Ask how their day is.
- Listen, listen, listen, respond, then listen some more. Never talk over or interrupt a customer when they are talking. You will have an opportunity to give your views when they are finished talking.
- Be specific about your actions. Explain in detail how you can help them and when you will be able to help them.
- Always end the conversation with a “thank you, and have a great day”.
Sometimes business owners forget what it is like to be a consumer when they are engaging with a customer.
Always think about what would make a great experience for you if you were interested in purchasing an expensive piece of art from an artist.
- What would make you feel special?
- What would build your trust?
- What would make you want to go back to that artist to purchase more art?
How To Sell Art
On paper, selling art is very easy.
- Creat art.
- Show your art to people who are interested in your artistic style.
- Provide a way to exchange money for a product.
But things are never as easy as they seem.
Driving traffic to your online artist website is hard work and you will be working on this task every day.
So what can you do to increase your art sales while you are working on building your audience?
The answer is simple.
Focus on the audience you already have.
Take the time to build a relationship with them.
This does not mean that you have to become best friends with them or bring them out to dinner. All it means is that you should take the time to get to know them and communicate with them on a regular basis.
A simple, “How was your day?” Tweet, Facebook post, text or email will only take five seconds of your time but will be more valuable than spending 5 hours trying to find a new customer.
Conclusion:
There is no better art marketing plan than providing great customer service.
Do not get hung up wasting your time on “get rich quick” scams. They do not work.
Instead, spend your time finding people who are interested in your art style, then start building relations with them.
Your customers will be able to build your business faster than you ever could.
How To Increase Art Sales By Learning More About Your Audience Overview:
- How To Get To Know Your Audience
- Listen
- Respect
- How To Sell Art
You might also be interested in:
7 Effective Steps For Writing Art Blog Posts That Generate Traffic
10 Reasons Artists Should Start Blogging
Selling Art Like a Pro Best Strategies
Best Online Art Marketing Strategies You Can Start Using Today
Why Sell Art Online and How to Start
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