You have a natural creative talent, love making art and want to share your creations with the world.
And while galleries and art fairs have long been the traditional marketing routes for artists, how should you market yourself online as an artist so you can reach a wider audience, sell your art globally, and get paid?
Here are six strategies to consider.
1. Know your audience (and yourself)
Before you begin marketing your art, you have to know who you are marketing to, as your art won’t be to everyone’s taste. Will it appeal to a certain demographic, such as age group, location, or culture, or people with specific tastes, interests, or backgrounds? More importantly, where are these people most likely to hang out online?
In addition to knowing your audience, you also need to know your art style. In other words, what makes your art different? How do you stand out? Is it the materials you use, the subject matter, provenance, or something else entirely?
If you are unsure, ask friends or loved ones what it is about your art that’s different; what do you do well?
Now is a nice time to create an origin story for yourself and your art that your audience can relate to and addresses the question of what inspires you. This will make talking about your art easier and will also appeal to your specific audience.
2. Have an online portfolio/website
To market online, you need your own online presence.
Having an SEO-optimized website where you can display your portfolio is a great idea, as this will be the first port of call for people interested in your art. You can also keep an art blog to attract traffic and add a shop to it so visitors can buy your art.
This is where you can include your origin story and why you do what you do.
In the absence of this, there are art platforms that will host your portfolio and act as a storefront, but they usually charge a fee, and you are not in full control of your brand.
There are also print-on-demand sites where you can sell your artwork. You simply upload your artwork once, and they do the rest.
How and where you choose to add your portfolio will depend on your circumstances and what works best for you.
But to sell online, you need to be online.
3. Make good use of social media
Social media platforms are an excellent way to get your art seen by a wider audience.
Platforms such as Instagram, which favor images, stories, and reels, are great, but there are other platforms that are good, too, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Your choice of platform will depend on where your ideal audience hangs out.
In addition to displaying images of your art, you can show behind-the-scenes video content and tutorials, which you can then turn into online courses and sell.
You can also affiliate with the art material suppliers from whom you buy your supplies and promote their products on your social media platform to earn extra income.
Follow other artists on social media platforms and identify what content is successful for them. While not copying them, note the content strategy they are applying, which may work well for you, too.
It’s probably best to choose just one platform to begin with, master it, and then move on to others as your following grows; otherwise, trying to be everywhere can lead to being overwhelmed.
The key to social media is to be consistent.
4. Have source(s) of recurring income
In addition to selling your one-off unique pieces and attracting client commissions, you’ll also want to have some form of passive recurring income to keep your bank account buoyant in the slow times.
You could offer a subscription service to an online community where your fans get early access to your work or discounts, or alternatively, you could offer coaching or teach art. You could even consider licensing your art so other people can use it on their products, and you get a commission each time they do.
If you have clients that need to be billed on a fixed schedule (weekly, monthly, etc.), Invoice Ninja offers auto-billing via the world’s favorite payment gateways.
Auto-billing (AKA “token billing”) is a feature that enables the payments system to capture your client’s credit card details and store them for billing at a future date. Token billing enables auto-billing, which means future invoices can be issued automatically.
Invoice Ninja integrates seamlessly, so you can enjoy all the advantages of token billing via your Invoice Ninja account.
5. Email marketing
An email newsletter is a great way to communicate and connect with your fans and share your latest work of art, offers and promotions.
You can give subscribers a more behind-the-scenes look at how you create your art and relay the stories behind each piece. The advantage of email marketing is that you have a direct connection to your subscribers. Followers on social media don’t automatically get to see all your posts, whereas an email goes directly to their inbox for them to read at their leisure.
You can add newsletter subscriber forms to your blog and use them as a Call to Action (CTA) on social media sites.
Read more about the benefits of email marketing at our post here.
6. Use the right tools to get paid
Along with your slick online presence, you’ll also want to make it easy for clients to pay you for your work.
Invoice Ninja is a leading free invoicing software developed for freelancers and creative businesses like yours.
It includes professionally designed invoices, multiple payment gateways, client-side portals, quotes, recurring invoices, time and task tracking, and lots more to ensure you get paid quickly and hassle-free.
You can even get paid in Bitcoin.
Try Invoice Ninja out for free here.
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Once you’ve established yourself as an artist online, the sky really is the limit when it comes to self-promotion and marketing. By using both online and traditional marketing routes, you can have your artwork reproduced on merchandise, displayed in galleries, and sold at art fairs and other events and exhibitions.
Happy creating!
