Being an art school teacher I have managed to make money and market my art in several ways. Some of these techniques anybody can use , you don't have to be an art teacher to do what we call networking.
Networking is building a clientale of buyers for your art and creating a flow of networking from initial and potential buyers. These are some steps to art networking and having a successful marketing strategy.
Show casing:
The first thing you must do is to expose your work to potential buyers. Many times I have brought my paintings to school and displayed them in class . Teachers bring their classes to my room for their art activites and view my work as buyers and potential buyers.
If you have a place to display your work or can bring photos of your artwork to your work place do so. Prop these photos and art pieces up on display. Show them just like your talking about your kids or grandkids. With this way you can begin a conversation and end with a possible sale.
Join a local art organization .
When you join a local art organization you will have leads to networking . Some art organization have websites and will display your work on the organization website. They will also have public art events and this will help you exhibit your art work locally. This will introduce your art work to the public and you can emerge as a selling artist.
Online websites:
The internet has many websites that you can join and pay an annual fee. They will let you download your paintings to their sites as your own gallery Then they will sell them for you in many formats: canvas, paper , framed, etc..
You will however, have to give them a percentage of your sell, inorder to create your site. But you will have traffic to this site and an online inventory of your work that you can buy back from them.
Buying back your paintings is a relief if you ever need another copy of a painting for anothe buyer .Some of these websites are : fineartamerica.com, imaginekind.com, etc.
Another website which is free is Facebook. You can create a photo gallery of your paintings and list a contact for purchase. This is a good way to expose your work, but I would have a link to your purchased website so they can buy your paintings online and shipped to them directly.
Mailing List:
Always have a mailing list of potential and past buyers. And in your potential buyers llist you can place business' that have a lot of people traffic. These business' that have a lot of traffic are : dentist offices, doctors offices, and optometrist offices.
Even e-mail address' can be used to email updates on your art work and exhibits or sales you will have. With my list of address'I have postcards printed up of current works and mail them out to these potential buyers. This is a mailing event in the spring , summer( aug) and november for christmas sales.
Art Festivals and craft fairs:
Believe it or not you can make a lot of money targeting your art to specific art festivals and craft fairs.
You will have to invest in an inventory of prints of your works that you think you can sell. The process of this is to go to a professional printing business and print various art works in different sizes .
Place these prints in mattes with plastic covers and stick a price sticker on them. Selling art at an art festival takes some investment of your art inventory, display items ,and travel expense.
The biggest thing is to do your research. When selling at a festival research the traffic of population that visit this event. The more traffic the more likely you are to sell your art .Especially ,if you are near a metropolitian area. You will pay more for the booth at a bigger art festival but you will sell more.
Business Cards:
Have some business cards made with a picture of you or your favorite painting. On this card ,list whether you will teach art or speak about art. \
Also list your website, blog site , and your contact information. You can list your facebook photo gallery.
You can't have to many business cards. And always be ready to hand one out to a potential buyer and talk about your art.
Well this is a beginning strategy for marketing your work try this and I think you wil eventually be able to tweek it to your business and selling specs. Good luck and Good Networking. Visit my website at http://belinda-lawson.fineartamerica.com/
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