Are you finding it more difficult selling your art than creating it? If you do you are not alone. Many artists struggle when it comes to selling and marketing their artwork and handmade crafts. In this post, I am going to talk about how to start selling art with some effective art marketing strategies you can start using today.
How To Start Selling Art With These Effective Art Marketing Strategies
I want to start by telling you that learning how to market your artwork online is not going to be easy. It takes time and a great deal of effort, but if you are willing to learn and put in the time you will become very successful.
So many artists become discouraged and frustrated because they find it impossible to sell their art online and in most cases, they are struggling to get people to their artist website.
When artists tell me their struggles I ask them two questions:
- What are your objectives?
- What art marketing strategies are you implementing?
Many of the artists that ask for my help do not have a clear vision of their objectives.
They have no idea what they are working for.
How can you create an effective marketing strategy if you do not know what you want to achieve?
You can’t.
When it comes to marketing I often hear:
- I post my art on Facebook.
- I post images on Instagram.
Yes, Facebook and Instagram are great tools to use for marketing your art business but it will take a lot more than just posting an image of your artwork on your social media accounts.
Let’s take a look at some easy to implement art marketing strategies that will help you to build a solid foundation for your art business.
Knowing Your Objectives
Before you can start to design marketing strategies for your art business you must know what your objectives are.
What would you like to achieve with your art marketing plan? It is important to be as specific as you can when you are answering this question.
The more specific you are the easier it will be for you to design marketing strategies that will work.
Here is an example:
Let’s say that you want to go on vacation within the next year.
How could you turn this vision into an objective?
I want to go on vacation in October.
This would be a good start but you will need more information.
I want to go to Paris in October.
Ok, now there is a destination and a time frame on when you would like to leave but how long would you like to stay there?
I want to go to Paris for 3 weeks in October.
What three weeks in October?
I am going on vacation to Paris for the first three weeks in October.
You can see in this example how we took a “dream” or a “want” and made it into an achievable specific goal.
The next step is to develop strategies that will make this specific objective a reality.
A successful art marketing plan starts with knowing what the objectives are.
Take some time to write what your objectives are and be as specific as you can.
Related resources:
How to Write Goals You Can Achieve Workbook
Artist Goal Planners in Light Blue
Artist Goal Planners in Light Pink
Find Your Artistic Voice
Visual art and music is a form of communication.
Every successful singer, guitarist, pianist etc. has a unique sound and style they have developed over their career.
You will want to do the same.
Spend time enhancing your artistic skills every week.
Set aside time every day for creating art.
Just like a guitarist practice scales every day, artists need to create art every day.
The more art you make the better you will become and you will find your unique artistic voice that will separate yourself from all of the other artists who are working with the same medium and painting or drawing similar subjects.
Visit Watch and Learn at Artists Network
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Discover Your Target Audience
After you have discovered your artistic voice you will want to discover who your target audience is.
Your target audience will be the people who are interested in your unique artistic style.
Your target audience is out there you just have to put in a little time to find out who they are and where they hang out so you can start to make a presence.
Related Posts:
Sell Artwork online By Knowing Who Your Audience Is Part 1
Sell Artwork online By Knowing Who Your Audience Is Part 2
Related Resource:
Developing A Niche Marketing Strategy Course
Start Marketing To People You Know
Your family and friends are going to be your biggest fans and are already a part of your tribe whether you know it or not.
Related Post:
How to Sell More Art by Building your Tribe
Have you told your family and friends you are selling your art online?
So many artists, in the beginning, are insecure about telling their family and friends that they are selling art.
I can totally understand and in time you will start to feel more comfortable.
The best way to begin is by going to the people who have always encouraged you.
In a short amount of time, you will start to feel fearless about sharing your vision.
The people closest to you will help you to brand your business by telling people they are in contact with.
In time your circle will become bigger and you will notice that people you have never met will start to contact you via email and social media.
Network With Local Artists
It takes a village to succeed.
It will be well worth your time to get to know some local artists in your area.
You can learn a lot from people who have already been selling their crafts for some time.
You do not have to ask them a hundred questions when you first meet them. Just introduce yourself and explain that you are new to selling art.
More often than not they will more than happy to help you. Keep in mind that they started exactly where you are now.
The more connections you can make the better.
After you exhausted your local area start branching out online.
Conclusion:
It takes time to build a business. An art marketing plan takes time to mature and produce results.
Take the time to meet people, learn about online and offline marketing, write your objectives and take action while you are waiting for your art business to grow
The most important thing I could ever tell you is to never give up.
The only way you will not reach your goals is if you give up too early.
How To Sell Art With These Effective Art Marketing Strategies Overview:
- Knowing Your Objectives
- Find Your Artistic Voice
- Discover Your Target Audience
- Start Marketing To People You Know
- Network With Local Artists
28 Day Blogging Challenge for Visual Artists
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The Productive Artist How to Live Your Dreams
The right mindset and time management skills are essential for any business. These topics are often not talked about but are key elements for your success. You will learn how to have a winning mindset and time management skills necessary for operating a successful art business.
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Get More Done in Less Time The Part-time Artist
Proven strategies that will help you to get more work done in less time so you can sell more art and earn more money.
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