Art Marketing Secrets

The Irving Sandler Artists File is a digitized image database and slide registry that is open to the public free-of-charge, and is regularly used by curators, artists, gallery owners, collectors, consultants, and students to discover the work of emerging and unaffiliated artists…. Persons interested in finding artists through the Artists File can either browse the digital database, or locate artists with a specific search using a descriptive categories list of media, materials, and style of artwork. To find out more about this great registry, visit Artists Space and click on “The Artists File” link.

In today’s art market, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the myriad of different possibilities and challenges in marketing your art. So much so that sometimes it can be hard to figure out if we are really artists after all or if we’ve crossed that dangerous line and now only create art in between our marketing activities…. The more you do it, the more your creative faculties open up and help to solve other problems (including marketing)…. If you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to work, give yourself some time out and go visit an art museum or exhibit.

Here are some ways to bring quality visitors: Search Engines: If your website has been well optimized for search engines, a search on your name or your style of art should bring up your website in the first few pages of results…. Advertising online or in magazines: For example, if your art is minimalist and modern in style, a banner add on an interior design website focused on the same minimalist ethic could draw a lot of traffic to your site. For a more complete list of ways to bring galleries and collectors to your website, please download our article How to Attract Galleries To Your Website from Beautiful Websites For Artists.

You need to have visual design skills to create a beautiful artist website. Here are some points to get you started….

Here are some common elements which most dealers and galleries would agree on for your website design: Keep the site simple and elegant with the focus on the art itself and don’t overpower the art with a site that looks too busy

Online Art Portfolio Services and Personal Artist’s Websites compliment each other well. We recommend having both.

They might still want to see your work in person before they buy, but the fact remains: they saw it first on your website!… For this reason, it is very important that you take the time and be willing to spend the money to make it a very functional showpiece – something that clearly communicates your vision and the excellence of the work that you create. In a very short time, the cost of the website will be completely insignificant compared with the value of the exposure you receive from it.

Today’s tip comes from Linda Blondheim in the ArtScuttlebutt Discussion Forum: I often send a query submission (to galleries) via email and they are often productive. I simply ask for their submission guidelines, adding an image attachment and my url…. One tip from AMS: Check the gallery’s website to make sure that they have an interest in work similar to your own before you make contact.

A website is most effective when it is part of a larger overall marketing strategy for your art. This is Tip 3 of a 12 Part Series

Are you trying to engage a Soho gallery to sell your $20,000 paintings or do you want to sell $5 prints to children? “Art” encompasses a huge variety of media, audiences, and budgets, and you need to be very clear about who you are targeting with your website.