Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking on an affiliate link, Nevue Fine Art Marketing may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate relationships include, but are not limited to, Bluehost, Tailwind, Skimlinks, SareASale and StudioPress. To learn more visit Affiliate Link Disclosure Policy
Get Your Art Noticed
Many young artists are seeing other artists all over social media and search engines, wishing that someday that would be them.
They read a few posts about creating an online art gallery with a website builder and told there will be people visiting their site in no time.
Unfortunately, that is not how it works.
If you want to get your art noticed and want people to visit your artist website, you will have to develop a marketing plan to get your art in front of your target audience.
Your target audience art the people who enjoy the style of art you create.
If you’ve been wondering how to get your art noticed online, keep reading this post.
We have put together a list of all the tools you can utilize to help build a thriving business just like the other artists you see all over social media.
Learning how to get your art seen is easier than you might think. Getting your art in front of potential art collectors is all about dedication, planning, consistency, and persistence.
Develop A Business Plan
Starting an art business online is so easy that anyone can do it. Website builders are so easy to design and update with drag and drop features.
The struggles most artists have is the lack of traffic their website receives.
The truth is, if no one visits your site, your artwork will not sell.
You have to start by developing a business plan to take actionable steps that will build your following online and offline.
The first step is to get a daily planner like the Moleskine 5″ x 8.25″ Planner or visits Walmart for a wide variety of affordable planners.
It is essential to have a bird’s eye view of how you want your business to function, how it will look and how much money it will generate each year.
How To Create A Business Plan
Start by defining your “why.”
Knowing why you have decided to start an online art business is the most critical step to take for your business.
Write down the answers to these questions in your daily planner:
- What is your ultimate purpose for your art business?
- Why do you create art?
- Why is your art valuable?
- How can your business help other people?
- What do you want your business to accomplish the first year?
- What do you want your business to accomplish in five years?
The next step is to define how you are different from the artists you see all over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Answer these questions in your daily planner:
- What makes your art different?
- Why should people buy your art or products?
- What is your art story?
Now that you know you “why” and know what makes you different from other artists, it is time to write down what products or services you will be selling on your artist website.
Write down the answers to these in your planner:
- What types of products are you going to sell?
- What types of services are you going to provide?
For more ideas on how you can make money from your artistic skills, read 20 Ways An Artist Can Supplement Their Income.
Pricing Strategy
Now that you know what types of products you will be selling, you will want to develop a pricing strategy for the products and services you will be providing.
The pricing strategy that you put into place will determine who your target audience will be.
Some people will pay thousands of dollars for an original oil painting.
Other people can not afford to invest in an original painting, but they would love to have a giclee print of your art hanging on their walls.
Pricing your products when you are just starting is challenging.
To learn how to price your art, read 7 Art Pricing Rules To Stick With.
Who Are Your Art Collectors
Your target audience is important to think about when you are building your business plan.
Knowing:
- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Where they reside
- Yearly household income
- What types of content do they search for online
- What social media platforms to they hangout on
Knowing who your audience is will help you create content that will interest them and drive them to your website.
How To Get Noticed As An Artist
Know that you have a clear vision of your business objectives and who will be purchasing your art lets talk about how to get your art noticed online.
This is going to sound obvious, and it is. If you want to be known as an artist, you have to tell people you are an artist.
It is that simple. Tell everyone that you know that you have decided to sell your artwork.
Tell your family and your closest friends first. These are the people who will support you the most.
Your family and friends will be so excited for you that they will tell everyone they know. This is how you start to build name recognition.
Tools For An Online Business
You have got the ball rolling now that you have told your closest friends and family you are going to start selling your art.
The next step is to use all of the online tools available to help you operate a thriving online art business.
Online Art Gallery
Your online gallery (website) will be a place where people can view and purchase your art.
Popular eCommerce solutions:
- Squarespace
- WordPress with BlueHost hosting
For more options, visit 16 Best Artist Website Builders
Branding your art website is essential for separating your art business from all of the other artist websites.
NFAM recommends and uses WordPress for their websites because it is flexible, cost-effective, and can be altered as your business grows.
To learn how to manage your WordPress site, go to Art Business, and scroll down to the WordPress section where you will find multiple WordPress tutorials.
Website About Page And Artist Statement
Write an artist statement and an about page before you start uploading art on your selling platform. Your artist statement and bio will be the most viewed pages when new people visit your site.
Potential art collectors want to know about the artist they are purchasing art from.
These pages will allow you to share your story and connect with your potential art collectors.
The right people (know as your target audience) will connect with your story and become a part of your tribe. Your tribe is a group of people who support your art business and share your art and information with all of their friends, making it easier to build a larger following.
SEO
Just because you post your art on your website does not mean that people will discover your site.
You will have to create content that people will discover and be directed to your site.
The first thing you will want to do is learn about SEO (search engine optimization). Some people say to wait a few months before diving into SEO, we at NFAM recommend you to start from day one.
SEO is optimizing your website for the search engines, so they will understand what it has to offer.
There are two types of SEO you will want to concentrate on, and they are:
On-Page SEO is when you optimize your site pages to rank higher in search and earn more organic traffic.
This is what you will want to learn about:
- SEO writing
- Title tag
- Header tag
- Meta description
- Image optimization
- User intent
- Keyword Cannibalization
Off-Page SEO is more of the technical side, including site speed and link building.
Related Posts About SEO:
- SEO Tips For Artists – Increase Website Traffic
- SEO Checklist for Artists Selling Art Online
- WordPress SEO: How To Optimize Your Artist Website
- SEO Basics For Art Websites
Keyword Research
Developing a keyword research plan will help you target keywords that your unique buyers are searching for online.
The objective is to find keywords your audience uses in search to find content online, including search, social media, and Pinterest.
After you have a list of keywords, your objective is to write content relating to your target keywords.
Your future art collectors will discover the content you write, and they will be directed to your website where they can read more blog posts or see your artwork.
Checkout Get Your Keywords Together: How To Do Keyword Research With Only Free Tools – eBook if you are new to keyword research. This ebook explains the importance of keyword research and provides effective strategies that will produce real results that will drive traffic to your site.
If you are more advanced with keywords, you might want to use a premium keyword research tool like KeySearch, SEMRush, or Ahrefs.
Build Your Email Mail List
As an artist, one of the most significant assets you can focus on is collecting email addresses. Your email list will be the only guarantee you can have for making sure your audience will see your content.
Once you have an email list, you can send weekly or bi-weekly newsletters highlighting new art, art sales, and upcoming events.
It is easier to sell your art to people on your email list because they are the people who gave you their email address to be kept informed on your art business.
While you are learning about keyword research, look into email services that send newsletters in bulk.
Popular Email Services For Business:
After you have decided on the email service you will be using, you will want to create opt-in forms on your website and a call-to-action for your site and pages.
Popular Opt-in Forms:
To Read More About Opt-in forms, visit Best Email Opt-in Plugins For Artist WordPress Websites
Start An Art Blog
At this point, you have everything set up to start developing different strategies to get your art noticed online.
The most effective way for any business to drive traffic is by writing content that people are searching for online.
Now is the time to take out your list of keywords and rank them in order of how easy they are to rank high in Google’s search.
It usually takes about six months for blog posts to rank in search, so your objective is to identify the easiest keywords to rank for.
While you are waiting for your blog posts to rank in search, you can get them noticed by sharing them on social media, Pinterest, and sending them out to your newsletter.
Once they rank on page one of the search, they will drive traffic to your website for years to come.
For a library of blog posts that provide valuable information about building blogs that drive thousands of people to your website, visit Blogging Tips.
Pinterest For Artists
Some people think that Pinterest is a social media platform, but it is actually a visual search engine which makes it perfect for visual creators.
People visit Pinterest for inspiration either to purchase a product or to learn how to do something.
Businesses use Pinterest to drive traffic to their website while waiting for their content to rank in search.
One thing you are going to realize soon is that there is a lot of work involved with building a following.
Focusing on the tools that will produce the best results like blogging and Pinterest should be your top priority.
The good news is that there are tools like Tailwind that make you more productive while saving you time.
Tailwind is one of NFAM’s favorite Pinterest pin scheduling tools. We can schedule thirty days of pins in just thirty minutes, and best of all, Tailwind publishes them at the best times for us.
Another feature Tailwind offers detailed analytics that allows us to see what is working for us and what is not working. The information we gather will enable us to work on strategies that are producing real results.
To read more Pinterest articles, visit Art Business, click Social Media, and scroll down to the Pinterest section.
Getting Art Noticed On Social Media
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are excellent platforms for reaching a broader group of people and connecting them in real-time.
To be effective on social media, you will have to find out where your target audience hangs out. You will be wasting your time if you are posting Tweets throughout the day on Twitter if your audience does not hang out on Twitter.
The easiest way to find out if your target audience is on a specific social media platform, search for artists who create a similar style to yours on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If artists are promoting on a particular platform and have a large following, that would be a great place to start.
To read more about Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, and Instagram marketing, visit Art Business and scroll down to the section, you want to learn more about.
Networking With Other Artists
By this point, you should have an online art gallery, an email list, a large number of blog posts targeting relevant keywords published, a Pinterest business account, and a social media business account that your collectors are on.
The next step to get your art noticed online is to start networking with other artists.
Working with other artists and other business people will help you reach a broader audience and produce different strategies that you would not have come across if you didn’t work with others.
To read more about networking, visit 9 Networking For Artists Strategies.
Join Art Competitions
Participating in art competitions is an excellent way to get your art noticed by other artists, galleries, agents, and art collectors.
Even if you don’t win, many people will see your art, and that is what art marketing is all about.
To find out where to join art contests, visit How To Market Your Art For Free.
Final Thoughts On How To Get Your Art Noticed Online
We have covered multiple ways to help you get your art noticed online and build name recognition in the art world and the art community.
Now that you know how to promote your art and how to get your art recognized, it is time to take action.
Grab your daily planner and set monthly six months, and yearly goals.
Start writing action steps like:
- How many blog posts will you be publishing a week?
- How many newsletters will you send a month?
- How many Pinterest pins will you post a day?
- How many social media posts will you publish a day?
- How many competitions will you join a year?
- How many people will you reach out to for networking?
Visit all of the resources mentioned in this post and start taking action today.