Do you feel you should be earning more money from your artwork? Have you been thinking about raising your art prices? In this post, you will discover when and how you can increase art selling prices, so you do not scare off your following.
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
~ Benjamin Franklin
How You Can Increase Art Selling Prices
- Do you feel like you are playing ping-pong with your art prices?
- Do you feel your artwork is worth more than what people are willing to spend?
- Does your art sales decline every time you raise your prices?
Many artists struggle with developing an art pricing strategy when they start to sell their artwork online.
When their art is not selling, they question the quality of their craft, pricing, and the subjects they are creating.
In most cases, the art marketing strategy fails, not the quality of the art or the pricing.
What Determines Your Art Prices
BusinessDictionary describes market value as:
“The highest estimated price that a buyer would pay and a seller would accept for an item in an open and competitive market.”
What determines the price of your artwork?
Many factors will determine what people will be willing to pay for your art.
Common factors that will affect your art pricing:
- How long have you been creating art?
- How long have you been selling art?
- What medium do you use?
- What sizes do you offer?
- How does the quality of your work compare to a similar competition?
- What prices do your competitors have?
- How large is your following?
- How large is their following?
- Where do they sell their art?
- What are the prices in the same demographic area?
- What is the yearly income of your audience?
- What is the average age of your audience?
The most crucial factor is the market value of the style of art you are creating.
What are people willing to spend on your style of art?
Basic Pricing Strategy Rules
All businesses have one thing in common.
They are all in business to make a profit.
It does not matter if they sell physical products, digital products, or services. Making a profit is the main priority for any business.
What are the basic rules for pricing?
- The price must cover the cost of creating the product.
- The price must cost the facility used to create the product.
- The price must cover the cost of marketing the product.
- The price must cover the profit margin determined by the owner.
- An effective way to lower prices is to lower costs.
- The price is affected by the market value and what people are willing to spend on the product.
- The price is affected by the competition’s prices.
Developing a pricing strategy takes a lot of thought. Artists who wing it and pull a price out of thin air hurt themselves and affect the pricing strategy, all of the other artists selling their artwork.
Learning how to price artwork for beginners starts with understanding the basic rules for pricing.
When To Increase Art Selling Prices
Everyone gets excited when they receive a raise or a bonus.
Unfortunately, artists can not give themselves a raise but there are some ways you can earn extra money.
How can artists generate extra income?
Here are some ways to supplement your income being an artist:
- Build brand awareness
- Build a loyal following
- Increase art sales
- Increase prices
- Decrease cost
- Sell prints
- Sell digital products
- Provide services like teaching classes or teaching private lessons
- Monetize your artist’s blog
- Monetize your YouTube channel
Increase Art Selling Prices Strategy
There are many ways you can generate extra income from your crafts, but most require you to put in extra hours.
That is fine if you have the extra time to do so, but how can you increase your artwork?
Below are the strategies I have taken to increase my brand’s value over the past 16-plus years.
Setting Goals
The first step is to sit down and write your goals.
I know you have probably heard me say this multiple times in the past, but yes, writing goals is important to your business’s success.
You will never get there if you do not know where you are going.
Goals help us believe in ourselves. Setting goals for yourself is a way to fuel your ambition. Goal setting isn’t just about creating a plan for your life and holding yourself accountable. It’s also about inspiring us to aim for things we never thought possible. (Source: KeepInspiring.Me)
Your unique goals will have multiple layers and always change as your art business grows.
The goals you write today will help you make better decisions for the future.
Here are some questions to help get you started with your pricing goals:
How much are you selling your art for now?
What is the profit margin for the art you sell now?
The profit is calculated by taking the selling price and subtracting the cost of creating and promoting the product.
Example:
- Selling price – $100.00
- Supplies – $15.00
- Promoting costs – $10.00
- Profit = $75.00
- How much are you making hourly?
Example:
- 10 hours to complete a painting
- Cost of supplies – $25.00
- Selling price – $100.00
- Profit – $75.00
- You are earning $7.50 per hour.
- What do you think your artwork is worth?
- How much would you like to sell your art for six months?
- How much would you like to sell your art in one year?
- How much would you like to sell your art for in 2 years?
- How much would you like to sell your art five or ten years from now?
- How much would you have to sell your art to reach your art business goals?
These questions are straightforward and often overlooked when artists develop their pricing strategies.
If you want to increase your art prices successfully, you must first have a clear picture of your end game.
Research The Market
The market determines the value of your artwork.
Your audience determines the value of your artwork, not you.
The price someone is willing to pay for your artwork determines the value of the creation.
The good news is that your art’s value will increase over time as long as you are productive in building your brand.
How can you find out what people are willing to spend on art?
Researching what other artists charge for their artwork will help you determine what people are willing to spend on original art.
The first step is to search for similar art online.
Visit sites like Etsy, eBay, Fine Art America, Facebook, and Pinterest to find artists selling similar art.
The next step is creating a spreadsheet of your competition and including a URL to the site where they are selling their art. You will also want to write about their prices.
The list you create will help you determine the market value of similar art, but you can also keep an eye on when they are increasing their sales.
Value Of Your Brand
Now that you have your pricing goals written down and a list of your competitor’s prices, you will want to develop a strategy to help you achieve your goals.
Patience, planning, and discipline are the tools to achieve your pricing goals.
The value of your art is not only determined by the market but also by the value of your brand.
Your brand’s reputation will either increase or decrease the value of your artwork.
Let’s use Nike, for example.
When writing this post, the average price range for Nike sneakers is $100.00 and up.
Why are people spending over $100 for a pair of sneakers?
The quality of the sneaker will play an essential factor, but more often than not, people buy the brand.
Nike has worked hard to build up its brand’s value so it can charge $100.00 for its products.
Back in 1973 Nike sneakers sold for $22.90. In just 40 years, they have increased their average price by over 330%.
The quality of the sneaker reflects the increase in value, but the brand’s reputation also plays an important role.
You will want to discover what price people are willing to purchase your art for when you start. The price will be lower than the artists you have researched.
Once you have decided on a price for your art, work on building a loyal following and brand awareness.
Assess Pricing Yearly
At the end of every year, assess the outcome of your art business.
- How many new people joined your email list?
- How many new followers joined your social media accounts?
- How many people are visiting your blog monthly?
- How many sales did you generate, and at what price?
- What is the current market value of similar art?
Answering these questions will help you decide about increasing your prices for the next year.
Art Pricing Chart
What Should be included in the Price Chart:
- Price based on the size of the art
- Price based on the material used (for example, the price will go up if you offer a frame)
- Price of commissioned work (calculate how long it will take to complete a project)
- Price of prints (if you provide prints of your artwork)
- Workshops (Based on travel time and time spent with students)
- One on One class (Based on travel time, cost of materials, and time spent with students)
This art pricing chart printable will make it easy to keep track of your art prices.
Print an art pricing chart for each variable and put the printables in a binder for easy access.
Documenting and organizing your pricing strategy will help you stay consistent with your prices and increase your profit margin.
Final Thoughts On How To Increase Art Selling Prices
There is no one answer for when to increase art selling prices. Everyone will have a different situation. The most important factor is how much profit you are bringing in.
If something is not working the way you have planned, change it.
Use the strategies outlined above to make a wise decision on when to increase art selling prices.
Other ways you can increase your net income:
- Sell smaller pieces of art that will attract a different audience
- Sell prints of your art
- Sell greeting cards with your artwork
How You Can Increase Art Selling Prices Overview:
- What Determines Your Art Prices
- Best Pricing Strategy Rules
- When To Increase Art Selling Prices
- Increase Art Selling Prices Strategy
- Setting Goals
- Research The Market
- Value Of Your Brand
- Assess Pricing Yearly
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