Managing Your Selling Expectations As An Artist

Unless you are a well-known ‘name’, selling art has never been easy. ‘One man’s meat, is another man’s poison’, has never been so apt in the world of art. Artists love to create, but many are fearful of how their work may be received.

So, you put your latest piece out there and it’s true, some will love it whereas others may not be in the least excited. That’s the problem all artists face. So, using the law of averages, it’s obvious that the more people that get to see your work, the better chance you have of someone loving it enough to purchase it.

However, we do have to be realistic. Just because a lot of people are seeing your work doesn’t automatically mean it will sell.

There are lots of reasons people who may like one of your pieces don’t actually buy it:

• it’s too large
• its too small
• it’s too expensive
• it’s too cheap!
• it doesn’t fit with the room decor
• they are not financially in a position to purchase
• etc. etc.

Art for the majority is probably a luxury, not a necessity, so connecting just at the right moment with that particular person who is ready to buy can be a challenge.

So, how do we maximise our chances of selling?

High Street Art Galleries have always had a place, (and will surely continue), to display and sell art however, the footfall is minuscule compared to the volume of people able to view your art online, whether it is a website like ArtShowcase or one of the many social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram etc.

There is a misconception that as soon as you launch your wizzy new website, or Facebook page, that people will instantly come flocking to buy. The hard truth is that it doesn’t work like that in reality. It takes time, and a lot of hard work, to create an online presence.

For instance, our aim at ArtShowcase is to build a site, populated with talented artists, that attracts buyers to the site. Some of our artists are actually now making sales, which is great news! However, this process doesn’t happen overnight and, thanks to some of our artists getting involved and sharing each others’ work, the signs are there that we are moving in the right direction.

After signing up for a subscription, is there anything I should be doing to maybe speed up the selling process?

Although we give a you great presence on the website, and promote you on social media, there is much you can do with very little effort, to spread the word about your work.

Here are some tips –
if you are not involved with social media, try contacting family and friends who do use it, and send them the link to your Showcase page and ask them to share it. You will be surprised at how many people this may reach, and you only need a handful of them to share also and you could be reaching hundreds of people.

Don’t forget, we are doing the same for you at our end!

‘Likes’ are great, but ‘Shares’ & ‘Comments’ are all powerful!

If you do have a Facebook account, then it makes sense to share all our artist posts, as well as your own, to get maximum benefit. Many artists will be more than happy to reciprocate if you share their work. ‘Likes’ are great, but ‘Shares’ and ‘Comments’ are all powerful!

Which are the best social media sites to get involved with?

From our own experience, Facebook is the best social site to attract buyers, closely followed by Instagram and then Twitter. We do post on Twitter but as it’s early days we’re finding it’s not the most productive of platforms. However, every post helps a little so we do include it in our promoting.

If you ever need any help or further tips on how to promote your Showcase, please feel free to send a message using the ‘Contact’ link in the menu at the top of any page.

Remember, nothing gives us greater pleasure here at ArtShowcase to see one of our artists making a sale but if you haven’t sold yet, do not despair. It’s only a matter of time.

We hope this short article has given you some food for thought and we welcome any questions you may have.