Being an artist I find that only around 30% or my working time is actually creating art.
The rest is spent on marketing and advertising. With such easy access to the online world at our fingertips, with a little research and education, artists no longer have to solely reply on gallery representation to source clients for your work. This is a good or bad thing depending on how sociable or conversationale you are. Many people use online sales as a way to avoid having to talk to people or in general don\"t know how to talk about their art. Unfortunately, that\"s one of the big reasons they won’t be successful at selling art online. You can’t expect to just build a website, hide in the matrix, and wait for the sales to roll in.
When people first discover you, you’ve got to be ready to talk about your art and start conversations to connect and build valuable and meaningful customer relationships.
If talking about yourself makes you nervous, count yerself lucky you don’t have to do it face-to-face in real-time. But yer’ gonna have to do it. There’s millions of other artists who want to sell their art. There are hundreds of artists I would like to purchase from, but there isn’t enough room in my wallet or in my studio, so you’ve got to stand out from the crowd.
Easier said than done, right? Thats not the case if you've looked into the actual psychology behind what makes people actually buy your art!
Or if you've read a blog post by a charming Irish lad who's already done the research...
(That's this blog if you didn't realise..)
Here are the four reasons why people are compelled to buy art!
1. Because they know and like you.
They’re either friends, family or they see something in you that makes them want to be your friend. That connection won’t happen if you’re fast asleep, wake up Neo! So speak up and have opinions! They don’t have to be red hot issues like politics, football or religion. But think about what types of topics that you feel passionate about! Talk about what you believe in. Such as the importance of positive mental health or exploring your self-identity?
With Social Media you can share your day-to-day life and behind the scenes. People will be more inclined to buy something if they feel like they were a part of the process. The people who resonate with what you\"re saying will start to feel like they know you, and they"ll continue to listen to what you have to say because they like you.
2. Your art reminds them of something
You can connect your art to their personal values through, again, talking about it. Even if you think your art isn’t “about anything”, there are thoughts going through your head or emotions fueling the fire all the time on repeat.
Talk about your own values and this method will start to click for you. For example, the ones that stand out for myself right now are “self awareness”, “compassion” and “harmony”. If I was creating an abstract painting with no real mindful direction, I’d jot down similar words or phrases and see how they would influence my painting on a deeper level.
An artist that I feel really expresses her own personal values and thoughts through her body of work is local Vancouver artist Yangli Tang
3. Your art makes them feel an emotion
You can connect your art to an emotion by talking about the feelings you associate with your art. If you are using this one without any success, try describing the feeling instead of naming it.
4. You make art specifically for them.
If you’ve studied marketing at all, you know what a niche is! A niche is simply a small, targeted group of people - like vegans or skateboarders.
To use this one, you would focus your art or commission services specifically to them. For skateboarders, this could be offering custom commissioned art on a skateboard deck.
If you like this concept, I recently made a youtube video about painting a skateboard deck. You can check it out Right here!
Any of these methods work on their own but if you combine any number of them then you’re well on your way to connecting with a potential buyer and selling your art!
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