Hello dear readers and subscribers.
After numerous conversations and deep dives into the careers of artists who are generating over 100000 USD of direct sales every year online sales through their website while also keeping their options open for opportunities and collaborations with the more traditional contemporary art world, it became clear that their careers or online art businesses all have the same blueprint and the key ingredients of that system include strong art, professionally designed and especially high converting artist websites and some essential strategies to simply drive traffic to that website.
So in this video we're going to dive into just that kind of explain how that system works, and we have even designed a template so you can start from that proven structure instead of having to start from scratch.
Now, if you're new to our channel, don't worry.
This is not another online video that is trying to sell you false promises in search of clicks, likes and views.
In fact, the abundance of false information circulating online is one of the main reasons our platform started to create these videos that are rooted in research and in-field experience in direct dialogue with artists, to provide industry-approved career advice for artists.
And to prove this even further, we're actually going to select and work with one artist.
One of you, an artist, who is currently watching this video to create a public case study by building such an online art business together.
So definitely stick around until the end of this video to hear how you can become a part of this opportunity, if that would interest you.
Most videos and online advice that circulates today when it comes to selling your art online kind of frames this as a direct opposition to pursuing a career in the traditional art world through art galleries, for instance.
However, in reality, it is a lot more nuanced than that.
And as a platform that is rooted in the contemporary art world, I'm increasingly receiving more requests from artists who are doing well with their online art sales to also find their way into the traditional art world, which makes perfect sense because we do not want to kind of limit our opportunities in the sense.
So, despite that black and white vision that we so often see with advice online, do not put yourself in a box here and close doors that might close the door of the contemporary art world that might allow you to grow beyond the successes you have with your online art business.
Because yes, there is Werner Bronkhorst who is selling originals for six figures.
But he also has close to 2 million followers, which is a rather exceptional scale that is unlikely to happen for you and for every Werner Bronckhorst.
There are hundreds of artists who are selling for six figures in the contemporary art world, so it makes perfect sense to keep your options open and to build something, also in the long term, that might also outlive what is currently working for your online art sales today for a more sustainable and long-term career in general.
So this is really something that we have focused on when designing this template and also doing this research.
Now, what makes a high converting artist website?
Well, first and foremost, it is important to briefly discuss the broader design of the artist website, in which simplicity sells and also we want to have a certain premium design.
If this also aligns with the contemporary art world, which is perfectly possible, and we have actually seen that there is this style and design that we also implement, for instance, in our template that works perfect for both.
So there is a clear structure for a good user experience.
It also aligns with the visual identity of the contemporary art world so they can identify with you, and it also optimizes your chances for conversions towards the higher end of direct sales.
I would say another very important element is scarcity.
That strengthens the value of your works.
In this sense, a common mistake that a lot of artists make is that they want to show all art they have available on their website, or even all art they have ever created.
However, by doing so, you're kind of showing this tremendous disbalance between the supply and the demand.
So there isn't a sense of scarcity or urgency, which does not bode well for the perceived value of your work and of you as an artist.
So instead we want to provide a carefully curated but strong limited offer, because if there is too much, not only will the perceived value drop, but you also kind of get snow blind.
So we really want to focus on building signals of scarcity and also of demand, and then having a strong, limited offer, so that we do not increase any doubts of this not being the right piece for them.
Another key element is strong visuals, which directly increases conversions.
If you're selling online, then it is very important that we provide sufficient visual information so the client can have a good impression of how the artwork looks and feels.
In this case, if we can also add some more high-end visuals, such as nice exhibition views or installation views, this can also increase the perceived value of your artwork really the power of appearances impressing with the visuals or the context in which the work is being presented.
Another important element is being able to remove all doubts and fears.
They might have to remove any hesitation or friction, especially on the product page and the checkout.
Selling online sometimes feels a kind of a risk.
So if we can reduce that risk through, for instance, a return policy, for instance also by ensuring that the checkout is safe and that this is a website and an artist they can trust and that other people have had good experiences with, then we can reduce those elements.
So this is also a key to increase your conversions.
Social proof is a very important aspect here.
If they see that other clients were happy with their purchase and that other people are purchasing with this artist, the likelihood of them converting increases tremendously.
Adding urgency if they're 90 sure of making a purchase and we need that final 10.
Urgency is often what does the trick.
This could be a limited period where there is a 10% discount, for instance, on the artwork.
Perhaps it is a limited time that there is free shipping.
It could also be simply in the form of working with a release that is centered on a specific period of time.
So, instead of having a webshop in which works are available throughout the year, that you actually only have a specific time window of, let's say, four weeks, that the works become available, and then in four weeks time it will close or the works are sold out, which really creates that natural urgency for them to also make their purchase and not to miss out on the party.
Now, there are numerous website builders.
In the past, we have also created a more portfolio template for contemporary artists, artists who are pursuing gallery representation predominantly, and there we used Squarespace.
But for this context we went back to the drawing board, did some research once more.
What would be best for an e-commerce website business?
So another contender was also Shopify.
But we came to the conclusion that Shopify is predominantly necessary when there are large pieces of inventory or print-on-demand drops, shipping etc.
For artists, this is not applicable.
You have quite a limited inventory, a limited amount of total transactions.
So it is not necessary to have all that complexity, which kind of increases also the learning curve.
With Squarespace, it is a lot easier to design your website.
I tried Shopify, and the ease of the drag and drop editor of Squarespace is Well.
It simply saves you a lot of time, time that you can then spend in your studio.
And also the price point is more interesting with Squarespace.
I think the first plan at Shopify starts around $30 per month.
Whereas with Squarespace, especially also with our platinum discount, you can start at 9 per month or for the complete e-commerce package at 135 per month, which is a significant difference.
So value for money.
Squarespace was a lot better and with all those conversations with those artists who are running a successful art business, I really made sure to understand what a website builder needs to provide to run such a business.
And the e-commerce options with Squarespace were ticking all those boxes.
So, when it comes to collecting context, email marketing with also automations abandoned cards, for instance reminders, for instance, also connecting to Metapixel to run ads with your website and a lot more, for instance, automatic calculation of the shipping costs.
All these things.
I was very impressed with how Squarespace takes care of all of those things.
I also tested them myself and it works very well.
You can set everything up in a single day, I would say, and then you're good to go.
So for that reason, once more, we have decided to go with Squarespace.
Now, all of that being said, let's have a look at our template, how that design looks and how we have implemented those best practices of a high converting website.
So this is the template that we have designed, and you can either simply recreate what we have created with Squarespace, which is quite easy to use or, instead of having to start from scratch, You can purchase our template, which comes with a complete video guide that will walk you through the entire template, from A to Z.
So this is the home page.
The home page we can already see kind of the design in the header, with a white background, large images, a black sans serif font, which is also, with these black and white lines, a design that is both appreciated by the contemporary art world but also good for user experience and to have a little bit more of a high-end and customised art-related aesthetic.
So this works really well and is also being used by a lot of artists who run such an online art business and that do really well in sales.
So here you have your name, surname or your logo.
We have the main navigation with your store page, an archive page, an about page and a contact page.
We actually see that the main must have pages for the contemporary art world are actually also in place.
The only difference is that we also have this webshop, which is not always the case with the contemporary art world.
However, interestingly, this webshop does not always have to be available.
You can have your webshop online when you have just dropped a new release, a new collection, and then you can close it and change it to a waiting list when there is no release.
So when it is sold out, then we can switch back to the waiting list, collect more email addresses and also have a website that completely aligns with the expectations of the contemporary art world.
So we want to have a nice first large, full-scale image, preferably of an installation view, perhaps studio shot, or the artist posing in the exhibition space or in their studio.
In a nutshell, it really needs to impress.
You need to see what the art is, of course.
We scroll down, here we have a button directly to refer to the mailing list.
Collecting emails is very important and this website really focuses on it.
So the funnels are directed either to collect the email address or to present the product, which are the two most important conversions we want to do with our website.
So if they click this they will go to their mailing list.
Now let's get back to the home page.
The home page is actually a page that is kind of your portfolio.
So here you want to show your very best, most recent, most relevant artworks.
We do not want to show all works, or all works that are currently available.
Simply, your very, very best to make a good impression.
This is a bit how the portfolio or works page would look for the contemporary artists.
If we have all the works on our homepage marked as sold, this will increase that scarcity.
That is also important for a high converting website.
So ideally, all works on this page are sold to increase the perceived value and urgency for the website visitor.
At the bottom of every single page we have once more the button to collect the email address to the mailing list, and we also have a subscribe button once more to the mailing list, and then, of course, some must-have pages the terms we actually have designed.
This is kind of a boring page, but we have designed a terms page with all the best practices that we would recommend, so you simply have to Enter your personal information instead in it and you're good to go.
The same with the privacy policy.
Then we also have the contact page.
The contact page is also available in the main navigation menu.
So here we have the email address available.
Please note that if you enter your email address on your website the bots do crawl the web.
So this might result in some spam as well.
You could avoid this by having a contact form, but very often people trust businesses more when there is an email address they can directly contact, instead of this bureaucratic form they have to fill in and then wait until an actual email address writes them.
So here i do recommend having the email address and be very wary for strange emails, so for phishing attempts, etc.
Then once more, the mailing list that refers to this page that we have already seen.
We can see a similar design as the contact page with the about page.
So here also a nice image, perhaps here you can enter a portrait picture of the artist.
And then also a concise artist biography.
We do not want it to be too extensive.
I link to an article where we discuss writing an artist biography, but you could also simply follow the instructions I have written down here.
We also have a tool, an artist biography generation tool which, if you have purchased the template, also is a supporting document or tool.
So then you also have this this tool for free to create your biography and to make sure this aspect is done correctly, as well as the mock-ups that we see here, for instance, where we can then photoshop our artwork in it.
I have also included those tools or those mock-up templates in kind of a bundle when purchasing these templates.
The resume is something the contemporary art world expects, so must have information.
But it can be a bit of an inconvenience source of information to digest for the audience that is here to buy.
So by using this button and then downloading a PDF with it, we align with the expectations of the our tools without reducing our chances to convert on our website.
Below it you can add additional press and media, For instance like this a PDF that is opened when they click on it.
Now the archive page.
This is actually a page where we have previous series and previous releases, actually.
So this is a little bit of a more extensive overview or portfolio where there is also the opportunity to give a bit more context.
And if they click through, we have this pre-designed archived series where you can then add all the individual artworks.
And once more here, it is very good if we can mark them all as sold and also add some high-end installation views.
Now the store page, this is of course where we want to convert.
We mentioned that we want to reduce fear or friction or hesitations.
It starts with this banner at the very top.
So it says that there is a 100 secure checkout, which is the case with Squarespace payments, a very easy thing to set up and gives a myriad of payment options for the user, which is also important.
5-star reviews.
So this is the social proof which refers to this segment of collector testimonials, directly below our artworks, below our products.
Make sure that you have these.
If you do not have them yet, simply reach out to previous collectors to ask for a short text for your website and how many stars they would give you.
Worldwide shipping, this is also important.
And a 10-day return period.
This is also something that I strongly recommend, because when you're selling online, you're never sure how you will react to it in real life.
So we have this fear when making a bigger purchase.
What if I do not like it?
And this is a very sensible and human thing.
And this can create a tremendous barrier of completing your purchase, whereas if we have this 10-day return period, this barrier simply disappears almost completely.
Please note that I have made sure in the frequently asked questions that we also kind of protect ourselves from people abusing this or misusing this return period we offer by mentioning that if there are additional costs, such as the transport from the client back to the artist because they need to return it safely, that those costs are at the expense of the client.
Definitely make sure to read through the other frequently asked questions that you agree with all of them.
These are kind of the things that i would recommend.
And then we have our product page, our products here, so here you can have all your individual artworks that are being nicely presented.
There are also other ways to present it, for instance in a list format, which is also quite nice, and if we click through we go to the product page.
So here we have the breadcrumbs that they can easily go back to the store.
Here i want you to write a little bit more about the work and sometimes help to have a concise text on why the work is unique or distinctive or what it is about which can really help the viewer to connect with it and therefore to convert.
And then here we have some more options to remove friction, so more information about the artist.
Once more the payment options, the shipping policy is all being explained once more.
Here we only have one frontal image.
However, as I mentioned in the video guide of the template, if you would purchase it, it is important to add more visuals, if you can.
So also from the artwork on an angle, some details a little bit further away so that they can really have a good idea of how the work looks and feels in real life.
Perhaps one more page that I haven't shown you yet is the waiting list page.
This is similar to the mailing list, but we would actually place this here and putting our store as unlinked in between releases.
So then there is no online store at the moment.
And if, for instance, a contemporary art gallery would see the website like this, without a web shop or whatever.
There is no sign that you are focusing only on online sales, while you're also strongly focusing now on collecting email addresses and building that scarcity to generate sales with the next release.
So that is our template.
I will leave a link in the description and in the pinned comment, of course, where you can find this template.
However, before we end the video, I also briefly want to address the final key ingredient, which is driving traffic to this site, because building the website is not enough, and this is a very, very big topic that we're addressing very extensively in our upcoming course and artist program with contemporary art issues, so stay tuned for that.
But i do want to give you kind of the main strategies, so let's discuss those briefly.
A first key strategy that we see over and over again and that can be very powerful for those who are really good at content creation is focusing on social media, in particular Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
And then the second biggest strategy was connecting with Metapixel to start ad campaigns on Instagram and Facebook.
Here, through A-B testing, you can really reach your target audience without having to have a pre-existing audience.
With A-B testing, you can make sure that your turnover, your sales, are greater than your advertising costs.
Another key strategy is, of course, having an email marketing plan, including some customer journeys to increase the engagement with your context.
And then another thing that i really recommend and that works really well with those other artists is working with different releases every single year, at least one, perhaps no more than four.
Also give people who have subscribed to your mailing list early access one week prior to the public release, at urgency, for instance, for them, free shipping, 10 collector discount prior to the public release.
So the perks of being subscribed to the mailing list.
Um, some sales can then already happen, which will increase the scarcity for when um the the release happens.
It's very similar actually to how a gallery operates, where they have a preview, already have some sales, And then there is the vernissage, the public opening.
Then you already see that 20% of the works or more are already sold.
Then you want to intensify your advertising activities for four weeks after the release.
So preferably until the entire collection is sold out.
In addition, you want to find more exposure through traditional public relations or online features or other collaborations, for instance with other social media accounts.
Then you archive this collection and then you kind of repeat this entire process even more.
You can bring these numbers to the table for new gallery collaborations or even art fairs, where you kind of use your webshop as leverage that you can show that you bring all these subscribers, these past collectors, and also have a funnel to create sales yourself.
This is something galleries really welcome these days, or more and more at least.
And on a final note, an artist has never created a successful art business or online art business by continuing to consume advices and plans and strategies.
The most important thing is to take action.
So let this video be your call to take action.
And if this is the career that you see for yourself, and also with having the opportunity to keep your options open, then definitely do not wait any longer.
I will link to the website template in the description below and in the pinned comment.
And for the next seven days, there is a little surprise discount to kind of reward our subscribers who watch our videos every time they're released.
And, as I mentioned at the start of this video, we're going to pick one artist that we're going to build this online art business together.
What are the requirements?
You must have purchased this template, of course, because that will be the foundation or the blueprint to build this business.
And second, you want to mention in the order notes.
So at the checkout there is this little box with order notes and there i want you to write down cai artist program.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
I'm not even going to suggest a video to watch next.
I really hope this is your call for action and feel free to support us on patreon or to reach out if you would have any further questions, and definitely to subscribe to this channel to stay posted for more advice and more contemporary art bye.
