The online art market is estimated to take up 25% of the entire art market. To establish your place in the art market, an online presence is an absolute necessity. Even if you follow a traditional sales route, a digital presence is still essential to your marketing, pr, and engagement.
In the current digital climate, it is virtually impossible to sell art internationally, connect with galleries, and find new buyers without a strong online presence.
Benefits of Strong Online Presence
- Share your work
- Benefit from word-of-mouth and social promotion
- Connect with new buyers
- Build stronger relationships with current buyers
How to Build an Online Presence in 3 Steps
Artists who have perfected the art of online presence maintain three practices throughout their digital practice. Firstly, they have a strong sense of their creative voice, which in turn makes branding easier. Secondly, their content is professional and reflects their creative voice. Finally, they have great communication with buyers and potential buyers. This translates as frequent engagement on social media, email marketing, and online blogging.
Step One: Harnessing Your Creative Voice
Have you noticed that artists with a strong online presence are often confident in their branding and niche? Branding and niche can often seem allusive to many artists; however, they stem from something you already have in your tool kit, your creative voice.
Step Two: Your Content
High-quality content is arguably the most important tool for building your online presence. A virtual portfolio of consistent, high quality and professional content is more likely to create leads, increase buyer engagement, and have an easier time networking.
Step Three: Engagement
The final part of a successful online presence is your communication with your fans, buyers, and other artists. You may have a post go viral online, but if you aren’t continuing to engage with your audience, you will lose momentum and sales opportunities.
We break down these steps with actionable points, checklists, and worksheets in The Artist’s Guide to Online Presence. This guide and many others are available to Members of the Visual Artists Association.
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