Marine Costello shares five tips to help you to sell your work online by getting it in front of potential purchasers.
Marine is Communications Officer at Parker Harris.
Parker Harris was created by Emma Parker and Penny Harris in 1990 and it is now one of the leading visual arts consultancies in the UK, managing some of the most important art prizes and exhibitions in the UK and mentor artists through all aspects of their careers.
To learn more about their professional development and online marketing coaching programmes, email [email protected]. You can also stay in touch with Parker Harris on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Ask any art professional how the market has changed in the last few years, and they’ll answer one thing: online sales are rising and are here to stay.
Although the internet has been around for a while now most art galleries, artists and collectors have taken a while to embrace online avenues. This all changed when the Covid-19 crisis forced brick-and-mortar galleries to close their doors and made it impossible not to go online.
Today, collectors expect to be able to purchase art online – and actively look for new artists to follow – so, how about getting your work in front of them? Here are five ideas you can look into right now to start selling work online or to up your digital marketing strategy...
1. Enter open exhibitions
If you’d like to sell your work online and reach new audiences, look for open exhibitions that complete their physical presence with a virtual gallery, or that are 100-per-cent online.
A few examples of successful on and off-line open exhibitions are Wales Contemporary and Wells Art Contemporary (usually call for entries until the summer), the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (closes in September) and the ING Discerning Eye (until early October) as well as the TALP Open Competition (click here for details).
I will admit I am a little biased as we manage these shows at Parker Harris – but these events are on art lovers’ calendars, and drive thousands of pounds worth of online and off-line sales each year.
Don't miss the chance to win the Parker Harris Art Ladder Award in our TALP Open Art Competition.
Call for entries runs from November to April each year.
2. Get your work on marketplaces
Another avenue to explore is an online marketplace. Sites such as Artsy and Saatchi are the major players for visual arts, but you will also find a marketplace specialised in any type of artworks you might sell: prints, multiples, crafts, etc.
The key advantages of online marketplaces are that a lot of people use them daily, which means your target audience is most likely on these sites already, and that they work like search engines, so buyers can browse through pieces by keywords, sizes, price – making it more likely for the right collector to find the right work: yours.
3. Find the right buyer
It’s important to point here out that everyone – yes, everyone – is potentially a buyer.
We often hold this idea of an ‘art collector’ as someone with vast sums of money, an encyclopaedic knowledge of visual arts, and a collection worthy of the MoMA. Those collectors do of course exist but the majority of people who buy art do not necessarily fit this mould or have the same reasons to purchase an artwork.
People may buy a piece from you because it reminds them of something they love, it fits with the décor in their living room, or they want to gift it to someone special.
You need to get your work in front of these everyday art collectors. So, put yourself in your buyers’ shoes, think about what might drive them to take a look at your work, and use the right key words to attract them – with #hashtags on social media, and search-engine-optimised text on your site.
4. Create an online exhibition
Now that you’ve attracted people to your site, why not show them the work that is waiting in your studio? With the help of the internet (and maybe a couple of contacts who know how to write and design a website), you can create your very own online exhibition.
Here are the first steps you should take: first, curate a coherent selection of recent pieces, get high-quality pictures of your art, and write an introduction to this body of work. Then, start building (or updating) your website to support not only a virtual gallery but also online sales.
Keep in mind that it is crucial to make the payment process as safe, and the purchase as seamless, as possible. This entails using an easy and secure payment method – there are plenty to choose from, including PayPal and Stripe – being clear on any additional costs and timings – namely for framing and shipping.
Do be responsive when potential buyers email you – you should have a contact form on your website and an email address through which viewers can easily reach you.
5. Harness the power of social media
An online exhibition has many advantages – not the least being able to reach collectors from around the world – but it doesn’t provide you with a buzzy – and sometimes boozy – private view.
You will need to find new and innovative ways to create events that draw attention to your show and make buyers feel like they have to get their hands on your work now…before it sells out!
A few ideas you can explore are: hosting an online talk with a curator or fellow artist, giving select prospects a virtual studio tour, or granting your email subscribers an exclusive preview of the upcoming show.
In order to get the most out of your online exhibition, you will also want to drive traffic to it through your own social media pages. Use all the tools in your tool box!
First of all, make a link from your profile to the most relevant page of your website, ie where people can look through your works for sale and purchase them in a couple of clicks.
Secondly, write a call to action in your bio – the part of your profile that shows up at the top of your Instagram and Twitter profiles, and at the top left of your Facebook page – such as ‘click below to see my online exhibition’ or ‘follow this link to purchase my latest works’. It may seem elementary, but the easier you make it for people to find your work, the more likely they are to buy it. Last but not least, schedule regular posts leading up to and during your exhibition.
Case study: Lucy Marks
Lucy Marks
Q. How did you get the idea to launch your first online solo exhibition?
A. My online exhibition, Quiet, Beauty & Space, showcases a group of paintings inspired by local National Trust sites. During first lockdown in 2020, I started to think about putting the whole show online without looking for any face-to-face exhibition. I was not going to let a global pandemic stop me painting or offer my work to be seen!
Q. Why did you make the decision to go online?
A. The decision to go exclusively online was driven out of the need to get my work seen and to give my viewers an insight into my process. It is amazing how the world really turned digital in 2020. Now, my website and social media are a way for me to share artwork to a new and much bigger audience.
Q. How did you choose a body of works for the exhibition?
A. I put together a story that reflected what I had achieved before, during and after lockdown. I wanted to show a number of beautiful locations in East and West Sussex through a mix of oil and watercolour works. They picked themselves.
Q. How did you go about creating the exhibition?
A. I realised that putting on an online exhibition, creating a quality catalogue and accepting sales online required a different skillset to mine. And it takes time, too. As an artist, it was sensible to focus on what I do best – paint – and look to others who deliver online experiences every day. The public is very sophisticated today and expectations are high for online viewing.
I contacted Parker Harris who made the whole process of creating an online show straightforward. It was a great experience and the end product is wonderful. The exhibition definitely has a feeling of me, my personal style and art process within it and that’s thanks to Parker Harris taking time to listen to what I wanted and helping me technically achieve that vision.
Q. Any tips for artists who would like to sell online or launch a virtual exhibition?
A. To any artists out there thinking about going online, I’d say ‘do it’. Like it or not, we are in a digital age. And we are a creative bunch who are good at moving with the times.
Q. Anything else you’d like to add?
A. Whilst the virtual experience will not replace galleries and galleries shows, I do think it’s important for an artist to have an online presence in today’s world. And if you work with a good website developer, it can come pretty close to giving a flavour of the experience. It’s like an old-fashioned business card – you need a place for people to be able to see your work and potentially buy.
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