Are you getting discouraged by the lack of sales your art website receives? In this post, I am going to talk about why art websites fail and share with you 8 features your artist website needs so you can start selling more art.
Why Art Websites Fail:
8 Features Your Artist Website Needs
Are you having a difficult time selling your art online?
Are you having a hard time driving traffic to your artist website?
Are you finding that the people who do land on your site leave without purchasing your artwork?
If you answer yes to any of the questions above you are not alone.
There are many challenges artists face when they are trying to sell art online.
The myth that thousands of people will visit your site simply because you have listed your artwork online is simply not true.
POD (Print On Demand Sites) often entice artists to join their platform by telling them that over 100,000 people visit their site every month.
When you read something like this what is the first thing you think of?
You probably think that you will do well selling on the platform.
When I start selling on POD sites I thought I was going to sell tons of prints.
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Why was it so difficult for me to sell art prints when the POD site advertised that they receive over 100,000 visitors a month?
It was because I did not take into consideration that there were thousands of artists using the same platform.
I was just a need in the haystack.
At that point, I realized that if I wanted to build a profitable online art business I had to learn how to market my art online.
Would you like to know the secret to selling your art online?
If you have paintings for sale you will have to promote your paintings so people will know they exist. It is that simple. You have to put your artwork in front of people.
It does not matter if you sell paintings, drawings, jewelry or pottery. You have to promote your product.
What is the best way to build an online presence?
The most effective way to drive traffic to your art website or POD listings is through content marketing (blogging).
In time your blog will become the most valuable tool you will own for driving traffic to your art.
Related Posts:
6 Blogging Benefits You Can’t Ignore
How To Start A Successful Art Blog
There are two sides to the story when it comes to selling your art online.
The first side is to build brand awareness. Like I have mentioned earlier, your artist blog could potentially drive thousands of people to your site every month.
But just because you learn how to drive traffic to your artist website does not guarantee you will increase your art sales.
The other side of the story is you will need to focus on the layout of your artist website. Below are some tips on how to create a website that sells.
8 Features Your Artist Website Needs
Websites for artists to display their work should focus on these areas:
- Image quality
- Pricing
- Ease of purchasing
- No guarantee
- Shipping costs are too high
- Art quality
- No FAQ section
- No way to contact the artist
It takes more than just driving traffic to your site to sell your artwork.
You will want to do everything you can to make it a pleasant shopping experience for everyone visiting your site.
Think of it as one of your favorite local stores.
Why are you loyal to your favorite stores?
It usually begins with a first impression. If a store is clean, organized and it is easy for you to find what you are looking for you will continue to visit the store. Even if the prices are a little higher, you are paying for convenience.
Your online artist website should also provide the same experience for your visitors.
Below are some areas you will want to focus on for your site so you can make it a more pleasant shopping experience for your audience. Your goal is to turn a one time visitor into a loyal art collector.
High-Quality Images
The images you use for your online gallery should accurately represent your original artwork.
Low quality or blurry images will affect your sales.
Keep in mind when you are uploading your images, people will only be able to judge the quality of your artwork from the images you showcase.
Related Post: Sell More Are with High-Quality Images
Show Your Art Prices
Buyers will not know if your artwork is for sale if you do not have a price next to the image.
Display the price and a way for them to make a purchase next to every piece of art you are showcasing.
Think about when you are looking at images online.
Would you know if the artwork you were looking at is for sale if there were no prices or a “buy it now” link?
Let everyone know your art is for sale by including a price.
Related Post: Art Business Basics – Show Your Art Prices
Pricing Your Artwork
Many artists struggle when it comes to pricing their artwork. The wrong price could be the difference between making a sale or landing no sales.
Related Resource:
Art Pricing Guide – How to Price Art to Sell eBook
Shipping Costs
Your shipping costs could be the final reason a buyer purchase your art or leaves your site.
Develop a pricing strategy that will be profitable for both you and the shopper.
Related Post: How Shipping Costs Affect Art Sales
Guaranteeing Your Art
If you guarantee your artwork, you will build trust with your buyers.
They will be more likely to purchase an item if they have nothing to lose.
The odds of someone asking for a refund is slim as long as the images you are showcasing and the description you provide accurately represent the original piece of art they purchased.
Related Post: Guarantee Your Artwork For More Sales
Art Quality
The quality of your art is determined by your experience and the materials that you use for your craft. If you do price your work with this in mind you might jeopardize some sales.
FAQ Posts
FAQ posts will not only help increase your art sales by answering customer questions, but they will also save you time answering the same questions over and over.
Related Post: FAQ Post Increase Art Sales
Contact Page
A contact page will make your site look more reputable to the buyer. Many sales are lost when a potential buyer needs a question answered and they have no way to contact anyone.
Related Post: How Contact Pages Increase Art Sales
Artist Portfolio Examples
Here are some great examples of well-designed artist websites.
Visit their sites and take a look at how they are displaying their artwork for sale.
Visit Leanne Fink
Visit Al Vesselli
These are some great examples of what an artist website should look like.
Notice that their menu bar makes it easy to navigate.
The images are professional and each image has a price allowing the viewer to know that the artwork is available for purchase.
Selling Art Online Strategy
There are two reasons why you might be reading this post.
You might be new to selling art and you do not know where to start or you have been trying to sell your art online for some time now and you can’t seem to land a sale.
It takes more than just posting a few images of your artwork on Facebook to land a sale.
Related Post: How Many People See Your Facebook Posts? Revised 2017
The first step is to take pride in your artist website. This will be your online store and will be a reflection of the value of your brand.
Do not be too concerned with making it perfect at first.
You will be learning and change things as you go along.
Take action today and look at your site with your customer’s eyes.
After you have your site designed the way you have envisioned, start working on your content marketing strategy.
Driving traffic to your site takes time, so start developing a content marketing strategy now.
Related Posts:
Digital Content Marketing – What Artists Need to Know
How To Start A Successful Art Blog
How To Run A Successful Art Blog
Conclusion:
There is no questioning that you can sell your art online.
Just look at all of the fine artist’s websites online selling art to people around the world.
All you have to do is focus on the basics and you will find that you can build a successful online art business.
Why Art Websites Fail: 8 Features Your Artist Website Needs Overview:
- Image quality
- Pricing
- Ease of purchasing
- No guarantee
- Shipping costs are too high
- Art quality
- No FAQ section
- No way to contact the artist
28 Day Blogging Challenge for Visual Artists
Are you ready to start building an online presence?
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Art Business Planners
Interesting information for artists venturing on to the web. We intend to use this information to short cut our web site development. Thanks so much.
Thank you Graham, I am happy to hear you have gt some value from the post and best wishes for your success.