Social media is crawling with all kinds of professionals. But artists seem to be the dominant group. Actors and actresses, influencers, illustrators, and more, are all considered artists, after all. The field has diversified over the years, making the spotlight harder and harder to hoard.
Suffice to say, the artists who make the most today have the strongest social media presence.
How will you compete with such stars? If your art barely gets engagement, you may not be able to reach your goals within your desired time frame. Though you can use offline techniques to market your art, there’s no denying that online strategies produce better results. So here are the keys to making your art sell better:
1. Develop Your Business Skills
Artists who sell their works are also entrepreneurs. A successful art career actually consists of 70% business and only 30% creativity. Hence, get out of the mindset that your talent is enough to sustain you. Of course, your talent is valuable, but your business skills are what would set you apart from other artists. We are dealing with marketing, after all.
Developing business skills will not only help you sell your art better. It would also help you collaborate with other professionals more effectively. As your art evolves, you may find yourself working with companies, engineers, researchers, and other artists. When business conversations come up, you must speak their language as well. You also need a profound understanding of the ins and outs of branding. Companies would likely hire you for their promotional materials, after all.
In addition, you could find a role in the business sector. You can be an art or creative director for a company. You can make an excellent graphic artist if you’re still on the junior level. Excelling in these roles requires business skills because your work will help a company sell its products or services.
As such, you can apply your business skills to your own art career. When you’re ready to freelance or start your own art company, you can have an easier time conjuring marketing ideas.
2. Use Instagram for More Than Just Posting Your Art
Instagram is the favorite playground of many artists. The types of artists using the app are diverse, too—from illustrators and designers to writers. For that reason, Instagram has served as the primary source of income for some well-known artists.
But making money from Instagram isn’t possible if you just post art and nothing else. The app is for social networking, after all. Its users are looking to engage, not merely to buy. As such, focus on engagement, not follower count or sales. Get up close and personal with your followers. The more they get to know you, the stronger their support for your work can be. Basically, you have to gain fans. Your work would then be your merchandise. And with fans solidly supporting you, your merchandise will sell out fast.
3. Streamline Content Management on Your Website
Upgrade your content management system (CMS) if you run your own website. It is important to do so, especially if you’re still using a traditional CMS, like WordPress. WordPress isn’t cutting it anymore when you need to post content on different channels at once.
Avail Kentico development services from reputable providers. Kentico is a headless CMS that allows you to optimize your audience’s digital experience across multiple channels. A headless CMS is a tool that lets you deliver content beyond websites and apps. It would take your content to any channel, from smartphones to smartwatches to virtual reality headsets. As a result, your art and other content can gain a new audience from any platform.
4. Develop a Social Media Game Plan
Posting your art and using hashtags to spread it isn’t effective enough. It may earn your post plenty of Likes, but it’s not the most brilliant strategy in terms of marketing. You need a solid social media game plan, especially if you’re only starting out.
Here’s an example of an effective game plan:
- Follow people who fit your target audience. Those could be curators, collectors, advertisers, or fellow artists.
- Create a spreadsheet to identify which of your target audiences are the most active.
- Engage with the posts of your target audience. Like, comment, save, or share their posts.
- Respond to any engagements you get back.
- After a few weeks of consistent correspondence, you may send a DM or email to your target audience. State your intent to start a project together, for example.
This plan, along with the other strategies, will get you where you need to be. But you won’t get results overnight. Work hard and be consistent and patient. Only then will you reach your goal.
