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How To Create An Effective Art Marketing Strategy
Are you thinking about selling your artwork but you do not know anything about marketing?
The dream of earning money from your artwork has been with you for as long as you can remember.
You have spent many hours enhancing your craft, and you are at the point in your life where you are confident people will be interested in purchasing your work.
The roadblock you face is that you do not know where to start.
All of the time you spent on your art has improved your artistic skills, not selling your artwork.
There is a difference between a person who creates artwork and a person who sells art.
You are now ready to start focusing on selling your art and becoming an art marketing expert.
Before we get started, I want to disclose that selling art is hard work.
You will be focusing on:
- Social media marketing
- Maintaining an online store
- Writing blog posts
- Talking with potential customers
- Sending newsletters
- And the list goes on…
It is also important to remember that marketing your art is not going to give you instant results.
Most “overnight success stories” didn’t happen overnight.
Successful artists spent many years laying down the groundwork and experimenting with different strategies.
Here are five tips to help you create an art marketing plan that will build a solid foundation for your new art business.
Know What Your Objectives Are
The first step in creating an effective art marketing strategy is by writing down your business goals.
Any artist needs to have a clear vision of their business objectives before they can effectively learn how to create an effective art marketing strategy.
Take five, ten, or even fifteen minutes to write what your goals are.
The time spent on writing your goals will save you time in the long run.
Suppose you have never written any goals before that is ok.
Writing business goals is easier than you think.
Ask yourself these questions:
- How much money would you like to earn every month from art sales?
- Are you going to be selling your art online and offline (galleries, craft fares, open house events, etc.)?
- Are you going to be selling prints of your artwork and other merchandise with your art printed on it like (calendars, greeting cards, mugs, etc.)?
- How are you going to be marketing your art?
- How much time can you devote to marketing your art?
- How much time can you spend on creating new artwork?
- How much art will you need to sell to reach your goals?
- How long will it take you to sell the amount of art you need to reach your goals?
- Are your goals realistic?
If you would like an easier way to write and keep track of your goals, you might be interested in How to Write Goals You Can Achieve Workbook and Artist Goal Planners in Light Blue.
Know Who Your Buyers Are
Now that you have your goals written down and have a clear vision of what you are working towards, you can start focusing on marketing your art.
Art marketing definition: Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
The first step is to identify who your target audience is.
Your target audience will be are the people most likely to be interested in your artwork or service.
For people to purchase your art, they need to relate to your creations’ tone and message.
The easiest way to do this is by imagining your collectors by a series of specific groups.
The people who are most like you will be your leading group, your target audience.
If you love wildlife and you like to paint realistic wildlife paintings, then people who also like wildlife and realistic paintings will be your target audience.
You will want to spend most of your energy marketing to these people.
There will be other groups of people you will want to market your art to, but keep in mind that you will not see the same results as you do when you market to your primary group.
The next group will be a group of people who share some of the same interests as you do, but not all of them.
You can continue building as many groups as you would like.
When you are done, list the groups in order of significance to focus your marketing time as efficiently as possible.
Related Posts:
- How To Sell More Art By Building Your Tribe
- How To Use Tailwind Tribes To Sell More Art
- How To Find Your Target Audience – Selling Art Strategies
- Sell More Art By Learning Who Your Audience Is
- How To Find Your Target Audience
- What Is Your Target Audience Searching For
How To Establish Yourself As An Artist
Your artist marketing plan starts by building a brand for you as an artist and your art business.
The brand you create will make it easier for people to identify your artwork online and connect the people who follow you to your story and art.
Your brand should be consistent with your online art gallery, artist blog, social media accounts, business cards and flyers.
Consistent with your branding will make it easier for people to recognize you on different platforms.
Your goal is to ensure your audience knows it is you on every platform they visit.
Another way you can build name recognition is to sign your artwork.
A simple signature goes a long way in branding your art business.
Related Resources:
- Create an Artist Brand Workbook
- 9 Artist Branding Tips For Artists
- What Branding Is For Creative People
- Must Know Art Branding Basics For Increasing Art Sales
Start Marketing Your Art Locally
You will find quicker results in building your art business by focusing on marketing where you live.
The people who know you will support you and spread the word that you are an artist who sells paintings.
They will be the first group of people who will join your tribe.
A tribe in business is a group of people who support a specific brand.
Your tribe will be your best marketing team because they share your artwork and story with their friends.
Ask the people closest to you to follow you on your social media business pages and join your email list.
They will help you to build a more significant following by sharing your posts on social media.
Start marketing your art in your town and slowly branch out to different locations.
Be Consistent With Your Artist Strategy
Always remember that you are the CEO of your art business.
You will be responsible for your business’s growth or lack of growth.
You will have to make all the decisions and do all the work.
Everything you do daily will affect your business in the future.
You will see continued growth if you work on your business every day.
If you skip days here and there, your business’s growth will be affected negatively.
Art Marketing Tips
There are a lot of different digital marketing strategies you will want to learn more about.
Now that you have a strong foundation laid out for your art business, take some time to learn more about:
- Social media marketing
- Maintaining an online store
- Writing blog posts (content marketing)
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Keyword research
- Sending newsletters
- Networking with other artists
For more information about building a successful online art business, visit Art Business – Art Marketing Resource. There are over a thousand articles that will help you to build your dream art business.
Final Thoughts On How To Create An Effective Art Marketing Strategy
Learning how to create an effective art marketing plan is straightforward.
The challenge many artists face is being disciplined enough to get the job done.
As I have mentioned earlier, marketing art starts by having a clear vision of your goals.
After you have your goals documented, you can write marketing strategies that mirror your goals.
Do not judge your success by other artists selling fine art online or how many followers they have on different social media platforms.
Focus on your business goals and study your monthly numbers to see if your strategies work for you.
If your numbers are not adding up, identify the falling short strategies and revise them.
How To Create An Effective Art Marketing Strategy Overview:
- Know What Your Objectives Are
- Know Who Your Buyers Are
- How To Establish Yourself As An Artist
- Start Marketing Your Art Locally
- Be Consistent With Your Artist Strategy
You Might Also Be Interested In:
Effective Writing Tip – Keep it Simple – Online Art Marketing
How To Start Selling Art With These Effective Art Marketing Strategies
10 Effective Strategies For Promoting Art That Increase Sales
How To Sell Your Art Online By Knowing Who Your Audience Is
7 Social Media Marketing Strategies For Artists
