Are you wondering why your art is not selling?
Do you regularly check your email to see if you landed a sale, but there is nothing in your inbox except junk mail?
In this post, you will discover the importance of self-promoting your artwork and how to be productive so you can start seeing more “You Made A Sale” emails.
Importance Of Self-Promoting Your Artwork
Do you despise the word marketing or promoting?
If you do, you are not alone.
Many artists dread marketing and promoting their artwork.
Some feel that self-promoting their artwork will make them be viewed as being conceited.
Others do not want to be seen as “pushy” or a “salesperson”.
The hard truth is, you have to market your artwork if you want to sell it.
The only other option you have is to hire a marketing team that will sell your art for you.
However, if you are starting and are not generating enough income to hire a marketing team, you will have to market and promote your art if you would like to land a sale.
Opportunities For Self-Promoting Your Artwork
Today’s world offers many opportunities for individuals to generate income from their unique skills.
- Authors can self-promote their books and e-books online.
- Artists can self-promote their artwork online.
- Songwriters can self-promote their music online.
The internet has made it easy for anyone to promote their products, skills, and services.
You no longer have to rely on or higher other people to market and sell your artwork anymore.
Self Promotion Examples:
There is a positive and negative side of promoting your artwork.
The positive is that you will be able to generate a larger profit margin on your sales.
The negative is that you will be doing more work.
In the beginning, invest in learning how to market your artwork. Doing so will help you to make better decisions so you can build your business faster.
I do want to mention that building a business takes time. It will not happen overnight. The reality is building an art business is a slow process, but if you are willing to put in the time and you are patient, you will reach your goals.
Importance of Self-marketing
If you never landed on this website would you have known that I am an artist who has been selling art online since 2002?
You wouldn’t unless you knew me on a personal level.
You didn’t find this post by luck, I work hard promoting the content on this site so I could reach people like you.
I put the same amount of effort into promoting my graphite art and pyrography art.
The concept of selling your art is easier than you think.
If you want to sell your art online you will have to learn how to get your art noticed online.
This can be accomplished with the self-promotion examples I listed earlier in this post.
Business Dictionary defines product promotion as:
“An action taken by a company’s marketing staff with the intention of encouraging the sale of a good or service to their target market. For example, product promotion performed by a typical business might take the form of advertising the product in question via print or Internet ads, direct mail or e-mail letters, trade shows, telephone and personal sales calls, TV and radio ads, billboards, posters and flyers.”
Developing a successful online art business is not rocket science as long as you focus on the basics, creating a product people want, determining a price, decide where you will sell your product, and develop a promotional strategy.
Business Dictionary defines marketing as:
“The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P’s of marketing:
1- identification, selection and development of a product,
2- determination of its price,
3- selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer’s place, and
4- development and implementation of a promotional strategy.”
What Makes An Artist Successful Selling Art
If you think about the most successful artists today, you will soon recognize that they are successful because they are everywhere.
Artists who are successfully selling art online can be found on all major social media platforms, television, magazines, the radio, and the main talk in every household.
This does not happen by accident.
These successful artists work hard to build brand awareness and separate themselves from all of the other artists trying to sell art online.
Learn from the masters. Study what they are doing to build their brand and start developing some strategies that will make your artwork the day’s talk.
Marketing Your Artwork
Now that you understand the importance of self-promoting your art, you will need some basic art marketing ideas to help you start.
Every business is unique and will require different marketing strategies, but here are a few that you can begin with.
Artist Blog – To build a presence on the internet, you will need to provide exceptionally high-quality content that will show your niche expertise.
Your blog will be the engine that drives a tremendous amount of traffic to your artwork and should be your marketing strategy’s main focus.
If you are interested in learning how I achieved over 50,000 monthly pages views in just two years, take the 28 Day Blogging Challenge for Visual Artists
My website is now generating over 100,000 page views every month.
Social Media – Social media sites are an excellent tool for businesses to build brand awareness, customer trust, and a loyal following. Start with your favorite social media site first and make a daily presence. When you have that working for you, launch a different medium.
Start building a presence on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
For tips on how to promote your art on social media visit:
- How to Start Selling Art on Pinterest
- How to Sell Products on Facebook Selling Art Strategies
- Increase Website Traffic With Twitter
- How to Build Your Art Brand with Facebook Video
- How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Art
Engage – Engaging with other artists and people who follow you on your blog and social media sites will build brand awareness. People will see your name on a regular basis, and they will start to look forward to your thoughts.
Support Other Artists – Get to know other artists. Supporting other artists will only add value to you and your brand. In most cases, if you help spread the word about someone’s artwork they would be more than happy to do the same for you.
Believe In Yourself – If you are going to promote your art, you will need to believe that it is worth promoting. You cannot expect someone to buy your art if you do not think that it is worth buying.
Stay Focused – Stay focused on your end goal. Begin every day asking, “What can I do today that will bring me one step closer to my goal?”
Be Consistent – You have to stay consistent with your efforts if you would like to achieve your goals. It takes time to build brand awareness. What you do today might not land a sale today, but it will help you grow your business and increase your landing sales in the future.
Review Your Self Marketing Ideas
The last thing I would like to talk about is writing and reviewing your art marketing goals.
The goals you write should reflect your vision and mission.
Not all of the strategies you implement will produce positive results.
Reviewing your goals and strategies will help you to make better decisions in the future.
For help writing actionable goals you can achieve visit:
How to Write Goals You Can Achieve Workbook
Final Thoughts On Self Promoting Your Artwork
You now understand the importance of self-promoting your artwork.
Marketing and promoting are not a bad thing.
All you are doing is to let people know you are an artist and have the artwork for sale.
Self-Marketing Tips for Artists Overview:
- Artist Blog
- Social Media
- Engage
- Support Other Artists
- Believe in Yourself
- Stay Focused
- Be Consistent.
Now that you know the importance of self-promoting your artwork and how to be productive, it is time to take action.
Do you find it difficult to promote your artwork even though you understand the importance of self-promoting? What hurdles do you have?
You might also be interested in:
- 5 Ways Artist Blogs Sell Art and Why You Should Start One
- How to Be More Productive Marketing Art Online
- Selling Art Like a Pro Best Strategies
- 11 Ways to Build Trust on Social Media for Artists
- 9 Social Media Marketing Tips for Artists Selling Art Online
The form you have selected does not exist.
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
Pinterest Marketing for Makers & Designers by Megan Auman
You can also join me on:
Learn how to start, grow, and monetize your online art business.
Art Business eBooks
Art Business Workbooks
