The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
236 - 5-Minute Mentoring: 5 Tips for Selling Your Art Online
Have you ever wondered how to start generating sales for your artwork? Well, as a creative, that’s THE question, right?
I get asked this all the time, and in my blog and this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, I’ll be answering this question and laying out a clear pathway so you can start generating some real sales for your art today.
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Have you ever wondered how to generate sales for your artwork? Well, a lot of people ask that question. That's the question, right? How do I get people to buy my art? I'm going to be answering that question today and give you a clear pathway on how you can start generating some real sales today here on 5-Minute Mentoring.
UNKNOWN:Music
SPEAKER_01:Have you ever wanted to have someone in your life who you could ask real questions about your art, your business, and even your walk with the Lord? Well, that's exactly what we do every Friday here on 5-Minute Mentoring, where I answer one question from one of my awesome podcast listeners in order to help you start really thriving as the artist you know God created you to be. Well, hey there, my friend. It's Matt and Tommy, and I'm so glad that you're with me here today on 5-Minute Mentoring. You know, as I'm sure you're probably aware of now, just because you're a great artist doesn't mean that sales are just flying in on your website or from galleries or from shows or whatever. You've got to be intentional about that. And the question today from one of my listeners is from Alan, and he's asking the question, Matt, how do I get these sales to start coming in? Here's how he asked the question.
SPEAKER_00:Hi, Matt. My name's Alan James Gardner. I'm from Bath in the UK, and I'm an abstract artist. I paint mainly in acrylic, but I've also painted in oils and I look at other mediums as well. I've been an artist now for quite a while. My mum was. I grew up in an art community. Basically, I set up a website during the lockdown. My question is, how do I generate sales for my artwork?
SPEAKER_01:Well, hey, Alan, thanks for that question. Again, I know a lot of people are asking this, so I want to give you a really clear sort of strategy that I use as part of what I teach in our mentoring program, and it really, I think, will help to give you a pathway as you're starting to develop a plan to generate sales, all right? The first thing that you've got to do is you've got to start to identify who your ideal client is. That is, who's the person that's most likely, out of everybody in the world, everybody's not your client, all right? Who are the people that are most likely to buy your work? Not to tell you you're talented, not to say, oh, that is the greatest thing I've ever seen. No, who's the most likely to buy it and to put it in their home or to put it in their commercial space? That's going to take a little bit of intuition from you. It's going to take some research. It's going to take some looking around at the market. But bottom line, you've got to start somewhere. And that understanding of what we call your client avatar is going to develop over time as you get out there in the marketplace. That is, the more you sell, the more you make, the more you're interacting with people from a client perspective, from a strategic partner perspective, from a gallery perspective, from a referral perspective, you're going to start to get a great picture of who these people are and who your ideal client is so that you can begin to focus your efforts in that direction. I know for me that happened over the years as I began to make baskets and then I started to make not just baskets but woven sculpture and I started realizing that most of the people that were buying this were not just people looking for a basket. These were luxury homeowners that were looking for a really unique one of a kind piece of art. So So as I begin to understand that, I could tailor my efforts toward that. Now, here's the really cool thing. Once you understand that, who your ideal client is, you can start developing what I call intersection points, which is how can I get in front of on a regular basis and on a varied basis? How can I get in front of this ideal client as much as possible so that I am the top of mind? I'm at their top of mind when they're considering buying a piece. That is overt, as in you going to be in front of them at shows, at clubs, private clubs, at non-profits. in magazines that you're advertising in, websites, blogs, anything like that that you can go and be proactive to get in front of them. It includes that. It also includes this whole idea of being found by them. That is, when they're looking on Instagram, when they're looking on Facebook, when they're looking in magazines, when they're going to shows, when they're talking to other artists and looking for referrals, or they're talking to their interior designer, all that network. You want to be both found by them and you want to be overt What does that mean? That means you can just cross paths so that they can find out about you and there can be an opportunity to. Number three, all right, so identify, intersect. Number three, connect. There are no sales that happen in art without connection. There's got to be a connection with you as an artist, with the work that you're producing, with some sort of relationship where there's an introduction, with the values from which you create. There's got to be some kind of connection, the aesthetic that you have that resonates with what they're trying to put together in their home or office space. Regardless, if you don't have connection, you don't have the opportunity to make a sale because people buy from people that they know, like, and trust. So the more that you can build that, all right, the more that you can develop that over time as you have brought people from that intersection point that we just talked about into your world through social media, through your website, through email, through all the things that we do to build connection through video, that's where that is going to start piquing their interest of saying, hey, maybe this guy, Alan, maybe we could have one of his pieces. I'm loving what he's saying about, I'm loving how he shares his work on Instagram. I saw this video about him on Facebook the other day. Ooh, my interior designer just sent me an email about his newest work. So see, people start to connect with who you are and what you do creatively. And then you got to make it really clear for people. Number four, you got to make an offer. That is, you've got to make it easy for people to know what you have to offer, what all the details are, the description, the dimensions, the price. Do you deliver? Do you install? Do you do framing? I mean, you know, whatever it is that you're offering for me. I did commissions mostly in my art career and still do commissions. I love doing commissions. But one of the things that I loved is that that really, really resonated as an offer with my clients because I made it so easy for them. I would do everything. I would come out to their house. I would design a sketch. I would create the piece. I would bring it back out to their house. I would hang it. And then there would be the final transaction to pay the final part of the final piece. The important thing is I made it really clear on my website. So if you're selling outright, you need to make it easy for people to understand the pricing and the dimensions and all the description about the product. If you're selling commissions, make it easy, but make the offer clear so that people can take advantage of and pursue the thing that you're offering. Again, whether a commission piece, whether a special order, whether a piece that they're just buying right off the shelf. And then finally, transaction. You got to make it easier for people to actually make a transaction. So are you able to take credit cards or PayPal or any other wire transfer? I know in the UK and in Europe is really popular. Are you able to do those kind of things on your website? For me, again, doing commission work for so many years, most of what I did was a check in the mail. I'd send them an email. They would sign off on the sketch. They would print out that email with all the scope and terms and all that. Sign it. Send it back to me with a deposit check for 50%, and that was the transaction. For other people, I would do credit cards. You could buy right off my website, or I could take a deposit from my Square account, whatever it is. But again, you want to make that transaction easy for your client. Otherwise, if it's difficult to do business, if they don't know the price, they don't know how to get it, is he going to bring this to us or do we have to pay delivery fees? All of that complicates the matter, all right? So Alan, I hope that helps. You got to identify, intersect, connect, make an offer, and then make an easy transaction. That's how to start generating sales from your website and in what you're doing as an artist. And of course, as many ways as you can get out there as possible to make those intersection points and make those connections and bringing them back to your marketing hub, which is your website, that is always going to be the way to go. And it'd be a really, really easy way to continue to build connection and authenticity and value with your potential clients. All right. Thanks for the question, Alan. Thanks for listening, guys. So glad that you were here with me today on 5-Minute Mentoring. If you've got a question like Alan did, all you got to do is go to matttommymentoring.com forward slash podcast. You can leave me a voicemail just like Alan did. And we look through those every week to hear questions like his that'll be great for our audience. And who knows? Maybe you can be one of the next folks that we feature here on 5-Minute Mentoring. All right. Well, I love you very much. I hope you have a great, great day. And remember, until next time, you were created to thrive.
UNKNOWN:All right. Bye.