10 MARKETING TIPS AND STRATEGIES FOR ART GALLERY MARKETING
Imagine a beautiful house in your hometown. Nobody in the town knows about it and the route to that house is messy. The house has means of existence as nobody knows about it.
It’s of no use if you have an awesome product or service when people don’t know it. No business is exempted from this rule. Your art gallery business is not either.
The beautiful house in the town is your art gallery works in the example. In this contemporary world, where everything changes rapidly, making profits in art gallery business is not like sipping a hot coffee.
From a marketing bird’s eye, the game has changed a lot and rules got updated.
Since we love the artwork and small businesses, we found these 10 marketing practices to boost your art store sales.
Store ambiance
Where would you like to purchase a product if you had been to the store where everything is enticing, with a luminous display, stimulating scent and painting frames put up on a neatly polished wall? Or a store where a doom dull atmosphere sending negative signals with unorganized product display?
No, for the second store, obviously. Though your product quality matters the most, decorating always helps. Design your store so that people fall for store design first and artwork later.
Create a loving ambiance with stimulating scents, pleasant music (probably trending songs). Remember, “Looks matter”. A visitor who is not a targeted customer would love to be in your store and can spread the word about the beautiful design he loved at your gallery. That’s how a visitor becomes your marketer.
Retail store
You know how McDonald’s made it to billions in very short time?
The answer is franchising. You may not like franchising your art gallery but when you know that franchising can simplify your work and get customers you would right?
No, I am not asking you to franchise your business. But you can ask retail shops to showcase your designs in their stores. You can pay them a commission amount when someone buys your design. Yes, it is kind of affiliate marketing. It is win-win marketing, by showcasing your beautiful designs he could attract more people to his store and he could also earn some money.
Showcase your design on your windows. Keep it fresh, change them often.
Exhibitions and conferences
Selling is easy when you meet a person who knows the value of a product. Exhibitions and conferences are mostly loaded with professionals who know the real value of an artwork. Exhibiting your awesome piece of work at conferences is a sure way to market your designs.
Get all the information like place, theme, duration, and audience, as soon as it is announced. Reach out to the event organizer or committee through mail or contact. Explain the how you could give visitors the best experience through your artwork.
Someone who attends an art and literature summit would love your designs about people, nature, and imaginative illustrations. You might have heard many people saying” I love floral paintings, I like watercolor paintings”. Your marketing is a lot easier since they love the art most.
Viral contributor
Did you ever notice a small box with sarcastic yet thought-provoking cartoon in your local newspaper? Those are editorial cartoons. They look simple but they have depth information embedded in them. You know what? people love them. Statistic of hundreds of websites which make money just by putting these clips online made us say this.
Draw a cartoon or image on trending topics. You could create something about North Korea and South Korea in Winter Olympics, US president Mr. Donald Trump’s new decision or Elon Musk’s SpaceX new space exploring victory. It could be anything which is trending.
Send it to your local print works, newspapers or magazines. If your art is interesting, you must get inquiries for more details about your work. Your targeted audience will walk into the store. That’s your ultimate goal in the end right?
Website
There are hundreds of Artwork businesses, who make millions, selling artworks nationally and internationally without even having a physical store.
The Internet has really disrupted the way artwork is perceived and purchased. It broadened the horizons for artwork. A great artist with minimal online presence has a hard time to gather love. While an average artwork with proper online presence has a huge market to conquer.
Essentially benefits of a website for art gallery business
- Looks more professional to showcase your work.
- People can view and buy at their own comfort time and place.
- Broader customer reach. National and international.
- 24/7 marketing medium.
- More inbound customers (people reach out to you by themselves).
Lack of website may not cause harm to your business if you are planning to keep your business only for particular area and size. But for those who want to grow bigger and bigger. It is a must as a photo frame for your artwork.
No, No, that’s not true. Creating a responsive website won’t cost much. In fact, with website builder apps like Boomer, it costs nothing, except 5 minutes of your time and a Smartphone.
Create a beautifully designed responsive website and upload your artwork. It acts like your virtual art gallery store.
Bullet point: Website is must to grow bigger, national and international.
Social media
More than 3.02 billion people across the globe use social media. And 100 million hours of video is being watched only on Facebook. Out of which 60% are viewed without audio. These statistics say how crucial social media is for your marketing goals.
Social media is the quickest way to grow your art gallery business. People out there on social media love artworks. Social media is getting smarter every day. You could reach particular users with location-based targeting.
Build a presence on famous social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. And keep posting your amazing work. Though LinkedIn isn’t a social media, you can get leads where you get a chance to reach professional who love the artwork.
Bullet Point: Always leave your watermark and contact details in your posts
Content
Every painting and every artwork has a story which inspires and amuses people. That’s one of the reasons why people buy artwork.
Write content that inspires people. You could share a story behind a great piece oil painting or greatness of acrylic paint. You could share your story, how you became an artist. Write about painting techniques, painting importance, great artists. Create content which adds a value to users. Share content which makes people love the artwork.
Bullet Point: As always told “Content is the King”
Visual Material
“A picture speaks 1000 words”. But in marketing pictures can get you 1000 leads. Images and videos are the reason behind the popularity of Instagram marketing. Businesses starting from a restaurant in a town to Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon are using visual materials for their marketing purpose.
People are addicted to videos, sorry, that’s a truth. Facebook alone hosts 100 million hours of video every day and YouTube experienced 5 billion videos watched every day. Creating a 2 minutes video can really make your marketing go viral.
Live videos
Live videos are gaining more popularity these days. Why not use them?
Facebook live video streaming is extremely easy and effective. As soon as you start going living Facebook sends your fans notifications. Since you are going to provide valuable video, people would love it for sure. That’s a cool way to spread your message. Isn’t it?
Create a stunning image post with thought-provoking content in it and share them on social media.
You can share everything from you store images to a selfie with your latest buyer. Everything sells and markets.
Bullet Point: Don’t share your artwork images without watermark.
Virtual Reality
Technology is at its high rise now. Technologies like AR (Augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) are a revolution in the artwork experiencing. Though it isn’t into extensive marketing arena, sure it’s going to change business marketing.
For art galleries, VR thrills users with a 360-degree view of your designs without even stepping in to store. So, keep an eye on these digital trends for marketing.
Conclusion
Marketing is trial and error process. Nothing is wrong with trying new ways of marketing. Although offline marketing is important, online marketing should be given more importance. Online marketing helps you to reach more people in very short time with insights. Follow these tips and dig in deeper as per your results. Plan, execute, examine and repeat.
