How can you best market your art?
It is every beginner artist’s worst nightmare when they have just finished a piece and then realize that they now have to figure out how to sell it (That is if they want to pursue a career as a professional artist or creative person). This is one of the hardest things for artists as many do not have a marketing or business background and don’t know how best to market their products which, in this case, means their art. Moreover, it is a difficult question to answer: how exactly can you best market art? There are many things you can do to successfully market your art, however before you start properly publicizing it, you should first:
Know yourself and your audience
The first step that artists should absolutely take is to get to know their audience. It doesn’t matter what you do; from painting to drawing and graphic design. What kind of people enjoy your art? Who would be your ideal customer? Where do you see your art being valued? Are you into bright flashy colours? Is your art a portrait of a well known actor? What exactly do you offer and to whom? These two questions are the most important of all.
What do you offer?
Before even starting you have to know yourself and your art. Are you a painter or a sculptor? What style do you have? Are you making infographics or designing websites? Do you offer art for the sake of art or can you offer a service (such as designing a flyer for an event) as a form of your art? Knowing exactly what you are capable of and what you enjoy doing are things that will save you a lot of work and stress later on. Imagine having to work on a project that you don’t enjoy for a couple of years; it’s best to figure out what you will not enjoy working on before committing to a long project. Moreover, try to pick a couple of things you are passionate about instead of just offering many things at the same time. If you are a sculptor, a painter, and a graphic designer and want to start off from zero, you should focus on one area instead of spreading yourself thin and going for all three at the same time.
“Focus on one thing, make it your priority and stick with it no matter what!”
-Tyler Perry (actor, director, producer, screenwriter, songwriter, entrepreneur)
Pick one thing you want to start with and later, if you think you’ve mastered it or if you believe that you have more potential doing something else, you can switch. It is best to stick with one thing and truly become good at it, rather than not being the best at three things. This will ensure the quality of your art, and by specializing, you will likely create your own ‘niche’.
Who do you offer it to?
Now that you’ve thought about what you are good at and enjoy doing (as well as your personal style, colours, etc) You have to think about to whom these things will appeal to. Who is likely to appreciate your art (enough to buy it)? Think about the characteristics of your art. Is it graphic art, or physical? Is it bright and abstract, or realistic and with darker colours? There are many ways to characterize it. Think of as many as you can (keeping in mind who you are as an artist) To what type of person may these characteristics appeal to? List their age group, geographic location, average income, etc. What are their interests? Do they use social media? If yes, what platforms? Who do you think will benefit the most from buying your art? Think of as many characteristics as you can until you have your idea of your ideal customer.
Once you have an idea of what your target customer looks like, you will have to focus entirely on them. Up until this point it was entirely about you, as the artist. You should have focused on your creative process, creative freedom, what you are good at and like to do. However, now that you know yourself and your art you have to move to thinking entirely about them. You have to know how your clients think about what they are looking for. Now, when you start putting your art ‘out there’ don’t target everyone, but think that you are talking to that one person that fits all of the qualities you thought of earlier.
Congratulations, after knowing yourself and your audience, you are now ready to continue on the path of marketing your art and becoming a successful professional artist!