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What Are the Best Tips for Art Marketing?

Nick Mann
Nick Mann

Becoming a successful artist and making a living from one's artwork is often a difficult process. With so much competition and so many artists vying for exposure, creating an unique brand usually relies upon effective art marketing strategies. While the marketing approaches are slightly different for art as compared to other mediums, the core concepts are essentially the same. As a result, some of the best tips for art marketing include developing an original brand, emphasizing uniqueness, designing a website and using a diversity of marketing techniques.

Probably the most important aspect of art marketing is to first develop an original brand. This basically means forming an identity within the art community that differentiates one's art from competitors. In our modern era of information overload, this can be particularly important. One of the best ways to stand out is to design a simple, yet eye catching logo that art consumers can easily identify. Placing that logo on things like t-shirts, business cards, stickers and any other mediums should turn the artist's work into a recognizable brand over time.

Developing an original brand or identity may be useful when marketing art.
Developing an original brand or identity may be useful when marketing art.

Another vital part of art marketing is emphasizing the artist's uniqueness. Every artist brings something original to his work, and it's extremely important to emphasize those qualities. For example, Salvador Dali's genius lay in his abstract take on surrealism which people still identify with to this day. If there is nothing that separates an artist from the masses, it's unlikely that he will be successful. That's why simply being original and developing a unique niche is within itself an inherent art marketing strategy.

Nowadays, nearly every successful company, entrepreneur and artist has a website. Therefore, it's vital for artists to develop an online presence. Creating a website is a simple way for artists to connect with consumers all around the world and showcase their work. Also, adding a blog to the website is another effective way to add a personal, human touch which can mean turning potential customers into actual customers.

In addition, it's always important to diversify marketing techniques. Many times, successful marketing is simply a numbers game, and the more strategies employed means the better the results will be. As a result, using a combination of online marketing with traditional, offline marketing is usually the most effective for building a following. Some ideas will sink while others will swim, but with time, a healthy diversity of marketing techniques is likely to develop a fan base. In turn, this allows the artist to reach a sizable audience and earn real profits.

Discussion Comments

DylanB

If you can't afford your own marketing plan, you can always join a website that helps artists sell their works. I joined one last year, and it only cost a few cents per listing.

The site will get a small commission fee if I sell a piece, but I don't mind that at all. It sure beats paying for a domain name and for someone to design and maintain my site.

The only downside is that I'm competing with a lot of other artists on the site. I have to buy ads from time to time just to lead people to my section of the site. However, I can do this for less than $5 a week, and I don't do it every week.

Customers can pay me through the site. They can also write reviews, and positive reviews could lead to more sales down the road.

lighth0se33

I have art that I'd love to market, but I really can't afford to do much marketing. If I sold a few pieces, then I could turn around and use that money to promote myself, but I have no way of letting people find out about me in the first place. Does anyone have any advice for someone who doesn't have a budget for art marketing?

healthy4life

@Kristee – I agree with you. The art market has moved so far away from accepting paintings of everyday things that they aren't deemed wonderful anymore.

It took awhile for me to see this. I have been doing good acrylic paintings of realistic looking flowers and scenes for years, but I haven't sold a single one.

Once I made the leap to more expressive pieces involving shapes that came from my imagination, I began to sell pieces. People are interested in things that they can't create themselves, and they don't want to simply buy paintings of things that they might find in their own yard.

Kristee

I think that there is room for anyone who has a unique vision in the contemporary art market. It would be much easier to sell wildly different images than to sell paintings of fruit in a bowl.

People want to see something that they don't see every day. They want to be inspired and moved by art.

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    • Developing an original brand or identity may be useful when marketing art.
      By: diego cervo
      Developing an original brand or identity may be useful when marketing art.