Your online artist gallery is going to be the most important part of your website. This is the area of the website where people will start to fall in love with your artwork. You want to make it intriguing for them to stop in and well designed to have them stay. In this post, you will discover 5 Online artist gallery tips that will help you to build a loyal following and sell more art.
Online Artist Gallery – Important Tips for Selling More Art
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Your online artist gallery is your store. It is like having a brick and mortar shop that cost a lot less and can be seen by people around the world.
The design, layout, colors, font style, and content will create your brand.
Everything you do on your site will be a reflection on you as an artist and will affect your pricing strategy and your sales.
Before you start
Have a plan and set goals for what you would like your gallery to look like before you just start uploading images. Your gallery will be a reflection of who you are as an artist and will create value for your brand. Listed below are some tips that will help you design the perfect online artist gallery for your artwork.
Keep It Clean
Your site should be clean, organized and easy to navigate.
Every now and then take a look at your site as if you were a visitor.
Ask yourself:
- Is it easy to navigate?
- Are the image sizes consistent or are they all different?
- Does the layout compliment the art or distract the art?
When you are creating your site, you should have an idea of the categories you would like to have.
For example, your menubar could have:
- Blog
- Original Art Painting
- Original Art Drawing
- Art Prints
- About Artist
- Contact
- FAQ Page
These are just some examples of what you can have.
You can see how easy it would be for a visitor to find what they are looking for with the example above.
Take the time to map out the floor plan for your online artist gallery.
If possible, keep the dimensions of the images the same size throughout your site. Doing so will help to keep your site looking clean and professional.
If the sizes of your artwork are different, group the same sizes together or, designate different pages for different sizes.
Learning how to use Photoshop will help you to create professional looking images for your site and might be something you will want to look into.
Photoshop 101 Classes at CreativeLive (affiliate link)
Background Color
The background of your gallery page should complement your artwork.
You do not want the background colors distracting your work.
In the beginning, many artists treat their website like a canvas and start adding different colors, shapes and font styles.
The site looks beautiful but they forget they are in the business to sell original art online.
As an artist, you have a full understanding of colors. Take the time necessary to plan out what colors will work best for your artwork. Every little detail creates value for your brand.
Group By Year
Loyal followers love to watch their favorite artist grow throughout their career.
There is something inspiring about watching an artist grow.
Being able to see the progress that they make every year brings you closer to them.
You can design a page for every year. Your loyal followers will regularly visit, excited to see what your next creation will be.
This might work well for you depending on your art style or you might do better by categorizing the subjects you draw or paint.
For Example, you might separate your art into:
- Horse Paintings
- Wildlife Paintings
- Still life Paintings
- Nautical Paintings
Decide on what works best for your brand and audience.
The goal is to make it easy for your visitors find and enjoy what they are interested in.
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Pricing
If you are selling your artwork on your website, make sure that it clearly shows the price of the art. If you do not have a price listed for the image being displayed, the viewer will not know if the artwork is for sale. It would just be an image.
Make the buying process easy for the shopper.
Have a price on the page with a way for them to make a purchase and clearly describe what they will receive if they make a purchase.
Include in the description, price, size, the medium used to create the art, framed, not framed, date created, shipping methods and policies, and guarantees you might offer, and how to contact you for any questions they might have.
Provide an easy way for your visitor to make a purchase on the page with the description.
The chance of losing a sale will increase every time a potential buyer has to go to different pages to make a purchase.
Make it easy for them to make an impulse sale.
To learn how to price your artwork to sell download Art Pricing Guide – How to Price Art to Sell Workbook today.
The Red Dot
There is nothing that shows success more than the powerful red dots on your gallery.
What are “red dots”?
Red dots are what every artist wants. It shows that a piece of art has been sold.
When you go to a gallery, and there is a red dot on a painting, it states that the piece of art has been sold and is not available for purchase.
When a buyer goes through your gallery and notices that most of your work has been sold, they will feel the need to purchase something that they are interested in quicker. They will not want to lose their favorite piece to someone else.
The more sold items you have on display will create more value for your brand. It shows new shoppers that your artwork is in demand.
Clearly, showcase sold items on your gallery and list similar artwork that they might be interested in. This is a great way to promote your other artwork that has not been sold yet.
Conclusion:
It is easy to launch an art gallery but can become challenging when you are trying to design the look and feel of it.
If you are not careful your site will look messy and confusing visitors.
The outcome will be fewer art sales.
Set goals for your site, make a plan and take action.
Online Artist Gallery – Important Tips for Selling More Art Overview:
- Keep it clean
- Background color
- Group by year
- Pricing
- The red dot
Online Artist Gallery Overview:
- Keep it clean
- Background color
- Group by year
- Pricing
- The red dot
You might also be interested in:
- Best Places to Sell Art Online
- How to Sell Drawings Online by Building a Strong Online Presence
- Sell Art Online Etsy Makes It Easy
- Art Marketing 101 Build a Strong Foundation
- Top 10 Nevue Fine Art Marketing Articles 2017
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Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links on this post are affiliate links and will be clearly marked as so. I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you choose to purchase through those links. I will only recommend products I have used, found helpful to my business and are companies I trust.
