How To Market Yourself As An Artist: Tips And Ideas

Learning how to market yourself as an artist is not something you can achieve in a day or two.

Most artists are not comfortable keeping the focus on their work all the time:

Constantly talking about the quality of their art makes the majority of artists feel like a sell-out.

But they shouldn’t:

After all, the point of starting an online art business is to sell your work to a worldwide audience. And crafting a marketing strategy to help you do it is an essential step to achieving your goals.

The first thing any artist must do to begin marketing their artwork is stop fearing the promotional aspect of the job. Getting the word out about your art doesn’t mean you’re becoming full of yourself as an artist.

Instead, it means you’re taking the first steps to build a profitable career while doing what you love.

In this article, I will walk you through the rest of the steps to take to successfully market your art.

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How To Market Yourself As An Artist: Step-By-Step Guide

1) Explore Who You Are And What You Do As An Artist

how to market yourself as an artist explore who you are as an artist first

Let me ask you a question:

How are you going to sell anything if you don’t know what exactly you’re selling?

Think about that for a second, and you’ll get where I’m going with it:

By all means, you can’t begin crafting a marketing strategy before you’re capable of communicating what your art is about with others.

It doesn’t matter if you work with acrylics or watercolors. Likewise, it doesn’t matter if you create abstract or portrait pieces of art – the principle is the same:

Do you know which part of the creative process captures your essence as an artist? Also, what’s the thing that makes you special as an artist and allows your artwork to overshadow someone else’s?

In other words, step one of learning how to market yourself as an artist is making sure you can describe your artwork in a way anyone will understand the concept behind it.

2) Define Who Your Target Audience Is

You don’t have to read tons of materials on the subject of digital marketing for artists to wrap their minds around the first rule of selling:

Above all, you’ll never build a profitable art business unless you know who your future clients are going to be.

If you try to promote your art to anyone, that art won’t land you a single paying customer.

Chances are, you already know that your art business has to fit a niche. And I couldn’t agree more:

Knowing your target audience inside and out is the only way to make sure your marketing efforts will bring the desired results.

3) Choose Your First Marketing Goal As An Artist

Your next step in the process of learning how to market yourself as an artist is picking one essential goal to accomplish.

Don’t start creating in-depth marketing strategies until you have a clear view of the goal that will operate as a driving force behind marketing your art business.

Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself about that goal:

What do you want to achieve once you attract a larger audience to your artwork?

Do you want to increase your sales? Or are you planning to get your art into another field of the market, such as NFTs (an example)?

Whatever the answers to these questions might be, you’ll need to figure them out before you do anything else.

Pro Tip:

Assuming that some of you have in mind a goal that seems impossible to achieve, I suggest breaking that goal into small, easier-to-accomplish pieces.

4) Build A Professional Portfolio

Alright, what should you do once you see clearly your central marketing goal?

Well, it’s time to create an impressive portfolio that showcases your incredible abilities as an artist.

Considering your artistic portfolio must fully represent your body of work, you have to put tons of thought and effort into creating it.

After all, your portfolio should not only show your range as an artist, must it should also portray you to customers in the way you want them to see you.

These days, one of the best ways to create a formidable art portfolio is to launch an art website where your artwork will shine.

Get web hosting with BigScoots – the company offers cheap hosting plans and will take care of all your hosting needs.

5) Establish Your Presence Online

Quite frankly, I doubt anyone of you need me to explain the importance of Social Media as a vehicle for driving sales:

As an artist, being on Social Media is not only something you might want to consider – it’s a must.

The followers you’ll manage to gain have a far more important role to play than just liking and commenting on your artwork:

They can turn into the biggest supporters of your art business – expect them to spread the word about your work and invest in your pieces.

Don’t hesitate to share moments of your creative process with your followers – they are the ones that will appreciate your insights the most.

6) Do Networking

First and foremost, gaining new followers that will interact with your artwork is important.

However, networking in the art field matters even more:

No art business can achieve great success unless the person behind it takes the time to build connections that will push that business to the next level.

These days, your networking effort can go beyond getting to know the owners of the local galleries.

Sure, mastering the art of selling painting locally is something you’ll have to do eventually.

But why should you limit your business to the local market when you can reach customers from every place in the world?

With that said, get in touch with art collectors and gallery owners online – you never know which connection will turn out to be more profitable than expected.

7) Market Your Artwork

Finally, you are at the last stage of the learning process – it’s time to get the last answer to the question of how to market yourself as an artist:

Up until now, I told you many useful tips and ideas that will help you market your art locally and on the global stage.

Now, what’s the last thing you have to do to push your marketing effort further?

Having your own art website that will serve as a portfolio for potential clients is not enough:

You’ll need marketing help from platforms that are far more established than the one you’re building right now.

Long story short, join the best online art marketplaces available today. Working with such platforms will introduce your art to people you wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.

Platforms To Join To Market Your Artwork:

How To Market Yourself As An Artist – Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Get Popular As An Artist?

Launch a professional art website
Join the most popular online art marketplaces
Increase your brand reach on Social Media
Start building an email list from day one
Ask your followers to spread the word about your art
Collaborate with fellow artists to reach a brand-new audience

How Do I Sell My Work As An Artist?

Create a professional art portfolio
Get in touch with art collectors and online gallery owners
Sell your art on the biggest online galleries
List images of your art for sale on stock photo websites
Apply for art grants
Enter art competitions and fairs

Where Do New Artists Sell Their Work?

Fine Art America
ArtPal
DeviantArt
Social Media Channels

Final Say

Do you need me to say anything else on the subject of how to market yourself as an artist?

Hopefully, you don’t, because I have nothing to add to the topic at this time.

However, I’m here for you if you need any help or assistance.

What questions do you have about marketing yourself as an artist online and locally?

Let me know in the comments section below.