Are you tired of having people go to your artist website and not make a purchase? In this post, you will discover how to find your target audience so you can start marketing to people who are interested in purchasing your art.
How To Find Your Target Audience In 3 Easy Steps
Selling art online takes a lot of hard work. You have to take images of your art, upload the images to your site and blog, write content that will help people find you, spend time being social on social media sites and the list goes on.
One common problem I see most artists face is that they are putting in the effort but the results are not paying off.
Why do some artists generate more sales than others online?
One reason is that the artist selling more art has learned how to market to the right people. Let’s face it, not everyone will be interested in purchasing from you. That is just a hard fact. However, there are almost 4 billion active internet users around the world. There are people who would love to purchase what you create. You just have to find them.
This is where the work comes in. You will need to devote some time to find your target audience. By not doing so you will be wasting valuable time and you will become frustrated because the people entering your site are not making a purchase.
I want to help you become more productive with your time so you can start selling more art. Here are some easy steps to take that will help you find your target audience so you can start marketing your art to them.
What Is Your Niche
The first step is to identify what your niche is.
Niche is defined as:
“Denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.”
How will identifying your target niche help you to sell more art?
Once you know what your niche is, you will be able to learn where people with the same interests are hanging out. These are the places where you will want to spend your time marketing.
Would you sell more paintings of flowers to men who enjoy football and hunting or women and men who love to garden?
Your chances of landing a sale would increase dramatically if you marketed to people who have a passion for gardening.
Action Step
Take some time to decide what you would like to focus on the long-term.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What are your favorite subjects to paint or draw?
- What was the reason you started to create art?
- What could you see yourself painting or drawing five, ten or even twenty years from now?
- Looking back, what subject did you paint or draw the most?
- What is your passion?
The answers you write will be your niche.
Identify Who Your Target Audience Is
Now that you know what your niche is, the next step will be easy.
It is time to identify your target audience.
How do you know who your target audience is?
How do you know who will purchase your paintings or drawings?
Believe it or not, the answer is very simple.
Your target audience is people just like you.
For example, if you enjoy painting flowers, that means you have a passion for flowers.
There is something that attracts you to the flowers.
Maybe it is the colors, the shapes, or the wide variety of flowers.
Maybe the flowers remind you of a special time of your life.
Your target audience will be the people who feel the same way you do. They have a special connection with flowers. These are the people who will be willing to purchase your artwork.
Action Step
Identify who your target audience is and write it down.
Identifying Your Artistic Style
Even though you have identified who your target audience is, it might still be too broad.
We can narrow it down even more.
People like different styles of art.
Some people like abstract art while others enjoy realism.
Some people like bold colors while others prefer greyscale.
Some people collect oil paintings while others only purchase graphite drawings.
You can see where I am going with this.
Now that you know you are going to be focusing on marketing to people who have a passion for flowers, let’s work to be a little more productive with your efforts.
I want you to identify what your style is.
Here are some questions that will help you to identify your style:
- What tools do you use? (brushes, palette knives, etc)
- What are the main colors you work with?
- Do you paint realism, abstract impressionist, etc?
- What subjects do you paint or draw?
- How do you depict your subjects?
- What mediums do you work with? (oil paints, watercolors, graphite charcoal, pastels, etc)
- What do you create your art on? (Canvas, bristol board, wood, etc)
- What size is your work?
The more specific you are, the easier it will be to market to the people who are interested in what you offer.
Action step
Take some time to answer the questions above.
Now create an avatar. Your avatar will represent the type of people you should be marketing to.
Find Your Target Audience
The last step is to find where your target audience hangs out online.
An easy way to get started is where you like to hang out online.
Where do you go to find information on the subjects you like to create?
For example, if you paint flowers, do you go to Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter to look for images of flowers?
What forums do you visit to focus on flowers?
What websites or blogs do you have bookmarked for flowers?
This will be a good start for you to locate your potential buyers.
After you have made a presence on those sites you can start to branch out.
Final Thoughts On How To Find Your Target Audience
The successful artists you see online have learned over time how to best market their art. They all started the same place you did. Knowing nothing.
Stay patient and strive to learn everything you can about marketing your art online.
A good place to start is by understanding who you should be marketing to.
Are you struggling to make a presence online? I would love to hear from you in the comment section below.
You Might Also Be Interested In:
- Why Keyword Research Is Important For Optimizing Art Blog Posts
- What Style Of Art Sells Best?
- How To Start An Art Business In 9 Steps
- Sell Artwork Online By Knowing Who Your Audience Is Part 1
- Sell Artwork Online By Knowing Who Your Audience Is Part 2
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
You can also join me on:
Learn how to start, grow, and monetize your online art business.
Art Business eBooks
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