6 Steps to Make Your Artist's Web Site Sell
By Josse Ford and Daniel Tardent
This article shows you how to use your website to build a solid
foundation and system for art sales that will leave you more freedom
to actually be an artist! Lets get started…..
Step 1. Showcase Your Work Professionally
More and more galleries are looking to the internet to review
the work of emerging and mid-career artists because it is simpler
than dealing with large volumes of paper-portfolios. So, what
is important in a website? What do arts professionals look for?
Designers and curators know this from years of training and experience.
Here are some points to consider when you are planning the visual
design of your website.
- Keep the website simple and elegant with the focus on the art
itself.
- Use neutral background colors that compliment
the work. Good choices are black, charcoal, white, and off-white
shades. Avoid
bright colors.
- Don't overpower the look of the art or distract
with a site that looks too "busy" and don't have ads
in your site – remember
to let the art speak.
- We often recommend against having large numbers of art-works
on your website. Choose your very best work, just as you would
choose slides for a portfolio. When was the last time you went
to a high-end gallery that had hundreds of pieces showing?
- Avoid effects such as flash movies unless they really compliment
the art.
Your artist's website is the foundation of your online-marketing
strategy. Every marketing tool and program will seek to draw attention
to your website gallery. It's worth putting in the investment
in time, thought, and money to make it great!
Step 2. Tell Collectors and Arts Professionals about your website
Now that you've expended all that brainpower and soul on getting
your beautiful website gallery developed, it needs to be seen!
Now's the time to put on your marketing hat and start attracting
traffic. The following techniques will get you started:
Search Engines: If your website was well developed it should
be at least partially optimized for online search engines like
Google, MSN Search, etc. Search Engine optimization means that
your site should come up in the first few pages of results if
a visitor does a search on your name or on the phrases that your
site was optimized for.
Email promotion: If your website is setup with an email management
system, you can collect the names and email addresses of visitors
who sign up to receive updates about your work. When you have
events or new art you can email them automatically!
Press Releases: Both online and hard-copy press releases are
valuable tools for bringing publicity to your website and career.
Whenever you have a significant opening or event, send a press
release to local and art-industry publications, as well as online
press release services.
Brochures & Inquiry Letters: Your website is a centrally located
portfolio that anyone can access. Send an inquiry letter to galleries
and invite them to review your work on your website. An even better
solution is to include a beautifully crafted brochure or postcard
with your letter and website invitation.
Step 3. Make it Easy to Buy
There are two different market segments for art sales on the
internet: High-Value original works, and lower-cost art reproductions.
The high-value originals category is one where your collectors
will probably want to get to know you and your art before they
bring out their wallets. You should think of your website as a
tool to help you close the sale and so it’s sufficient to have
a very clearly marked "Contact" page so that collectors
or dealers
can call you or email you.
Lower cost reproductions, on the other hand, lend themselves
well to direct sales from your website with ecommerce capability.
Step 4. Measure Your Results
As an artist and a business owner, one of the first foundations
to success and growth is to measure your results. How do you do
that?
The first and most obvious place to look is the bottom line —
your sales. If you are selling handsomely, it’s a good sign
that
you are doing things well.
In the online-world, marketing results are measured with website
statistics packages which track useful information such as:
- How many visitors you had, where they came from, & how
they found you
- What they looked at and how long they looked
at it
- How they clicked through your site & how
many times they returned
Website statistics packages allow you to measure the results
of your promotion and search engine optimization efforts. You
can then make informed decisions about where to put your precious
marketing dollars to get the best results.
Step 5. Keep Your Website Current
When you measure your results, you’ll find that visitors particularly
enjoy some sections of your website. To make use of this information,
you need to make changes to keep those sections updated. Visitors
will eventually stop returning if they see the same information
month after month.
To make these changes quickly and cost-effectively you need to
have either: A cost-effective maintenance plan with your website
designer, or, the ability to make the changes yourself. Be sure
that your designer offers you one of these options.
Step 6. Put a System in place to constantly improve results
In the 21st century all businesses have to become much more productive
to prosper. With 10,000 new artists graduating art schools every
year in North America alone, you probably need to spend 100% of
your time on marketing to have a chance at success. So where do
you find time to be an artist?
The answer is to recognize that most marketing work is highly
repetitive. Putting a schedule and a system in place to take care
of these tasks will win you back that precious time to be an artist.
The system is none other than the 5 steps we've outlined in this
article. Here they are again:
Step 1: Showcase your work professionally
Step 2: Tell Collectors and Arts Professionals about your website
Step 3: Make it easy to buy
Step 4: Measure your results
Step 5: Keep your website current
Creating a system means to implement these steps as a cycle that
you refine every month or two. The results of your sales, contacts
from collectors and dealers, and your website statistics measurements
should help you to make changes to your website and choose the
best, most cost-effective ways to promote it.
If you follow this system, you'll quickly start to see where
to place more attention and how to achieve better results with
your art. After a few months, you'll find that the system has
become second nature to you — just like learning to drive a car;
and you'll be happy to find that you are spending more time in
the studio! •
© 2005 Josse Ford and Daniel Tardent
About the Authors
Josse Ford
and Daniel Tardent
are the founders of Beautiful
Artist Websites.
We design cost-effective
artist websites that showcase and sell your work to arts professionals.
Visit our articles page for effective art
marketing tips and sign
up for our free
report: 6 Steps to Easy Online Art Sales.
08/06/05
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