Hello dear readers and subscribers.
On this channel, we frequently provide advice for artists specifically oriented for the contemporary art world.
However, especially through this CHI community, there is also an increased desire for artists to combine both games, pursuing gallery representation while also generating online sales.
As a result, a couple of weeks ago, we launched our e-commerce artist website template.
However, that is only half of the work.
And today we'll be sharing the second part, which is to actually drive traffic to that website to generate those sales.
Also, please note that we have a complete article of this sales system online at contemporaryartissuecom, where you can always find more advice for artists, so definitely make sure to have a look at our platform after watching this video.
Now, first and foremost, an important distinction between an artist website that has a webshop and a sales system is to kind of think about it more as a platform where you can work in collections, in releases, in series, instead of having that shop open permanently.
This also kind of changes the interaction with the user, because if the works are always there, so you just throw the work online and just wait and hope people will purchase it.
Also for the visitor.
If they can always come back later and see that the works are exactly there where they left them, then they can always come back later, and later in that case most often means never.
So first distinction here is to kind of operate in a cycle where you work towards the release of a new collection.
Then we have a very intense moment of marketing.
Also, some build up towards that marketing to generate the sales.
And then the shop goes offline again.
Second benefit, beyond the urgency that you create, that it's only a limited time window that they can make this purchase and at that moment all the other interested buyers are also considering the works.
Another advantage is that for the rest of the year, the website is perfect for the contemporary art world.
It has a portfolio, it has your resume, it has a biography, everything a gallery might want to see on your website to work with you.
So we do not have that kind of conflict of an artist who is representing himself and therefore is less likely to be represented by a gallery.
Of course, the most important part when you do this is, of course, to get that marketing right, and this can be a very, very long video, but in a nutshell, there are three things that are most effective email marketing, it's social media for organic reach and it's advertisements for paid reach.
So let's briefly walk you through those options.
First and foremost, the mailing list.
Emails almost sound very ancient in a way, but they are still so, so effective and a big part of actually any e-commerce model.
So every visitor that does not make a purchase but you can collect their email address is, of course, a potential client, and especially in an era where algorithms change and, like everything, is so fleeting, being able to have the contact details of Warm traffic, people who want to stay in touch, who are already interested in you is, of course, golden.
So that's also why our artist website template for the e-commerce model has a subscription form on almost any page.
So on the homepage at the top, and then in the footer, and then we also have a button for both the or the mailing list, but also for the waiting list, which is what we'll have available on the website when the store is not live.
So by doing so, all traffic that might be interested in works can join that waiting list.
It also creates already sense of anticipation And also a sense of urgency or scarcity that you have to enter a waiting list, which is of course more a psychological trick than it is a practical one.
But by doing so, we can really capitalize on collecting those emails.
Then social media is also of course very important.
These days here we can actually increase our organic reach and have a platform where people can get acquainted with your work and also kind of follow you or at least having multiple impressions of your work.
Some artists rely very heavily on social media and have very large followings.
Of course, there is a lot of content creation and the volume really matters, so this is also a lot of hard work.
I think everybody should be practicing this.
To what extent that this will result in all the sales.
Well, that will kind of depend on how kind the algorithm is to you.
But definitely consider especially Instagram, because that's also where we're going to do our advertisements.
And then you can also consider YouTube and TikTok.
And then third, the third option is ads advertisements, and we're going to combine all three, and this will be especially important for those who do not have a lot of emails yet and do not have a lot of social media following yet and therefore also unable to collect email addresses.
So, to get your work in front of the eyes of people, if your social media posts aren't being seen and therefore also nobody's visiting your website, this is the biggest shortcut and in a certain sense, so paid advertisements and, in a nutshell, as long as we sell more than our ad spend is, then you're running a profit and then it's worth doing and especially when starting out, this is the way to kind of accelerate that.
So page reach with advertisements through Meta.
So Facebook, Instagram ads is key.
All right, now how does that look in a workflow?
Because now we have a lot of spinning plates and things to do, but specifically, how should one approach this?
Well, let's say we have a cycle of six months.
So we can do two cycles a year, means two releases of a collection of launches a year.
And in the first phase of this cycle, we're actually kind of in a studio period.
So let's say four months that you're working on a new body of works to launch.
Throughout the year.
We're also doing some social media, of course, to kind of grow that audience, and during this period, your website is a portfolio, you have your waiting list and the store is completely offline.
So here we're trying to make connections, perhaps with galleries as well.
We're trying to collect email addresses.
We're trying to build a following, but not as intensely.
We're predominantly focusing on being an artist and creating the work.
Then we get into the next phase, the anticipation phase.
Here we're one month away from releasing our works.
So at this point, you want to have your works finished, you want to have them photographed, you want to have created a big batch of content for your social media.
And here we're going to start with the email marketing.
So the collectors or the people who have subscribed to your mailing list want to be informed.
Let's say, four weeks before the launch, two weeks before the launch, one week before the launch and then perhaps three days or one day before the actual launch.
Also quite important is that you can do some soft advertising here in the form of an awareness campaign, so that you're not necessarily setting up a campaign to generate sales, but for them to become familiar with who you are and your work.
They might also see that something is coming up soon.
So that's also an incentive to perhaps follow you on social media or to give them, to give you your email address.
But it's also important because here train the advertising algorithm to identify your audience.
So when you do the launch and you want to be a bit more aggressive with your ads, then it's already optimized and it will be a lot more effective when you throw a bit more cash against it.
And then social media.
Here you also want to be a bit more present.
Mention all the time that your launch is coming soon.
Building that anticipation and also having a lot of content will also result in more followers.
And then an important thing that I would recommend you to do is that, let's say, you send out an email seven days before the actual launch, or three days before the actual launch, where you can give the people who did the effort to subscribe to your mailing list or the waiting list, give them the perk to have early access.
So before it goes online for the broader public and it's all publicly available, they get a kind of a VIP preview and first steps on the works.
You can also add a little bit of extra.
For instance, an additional perk that is only applicable during the early access, so before the launch, can be in the form of a collector discount of 10, which is something that is quite normal and a lot of galleries, for instance, also do.
Or perhaps free shipping, or perhaps a little extra to their order in the form of a small artist edition or publication or print.
Something extra which gives them a bit more urgency.
Not to wait until the launch is there to move ahead with their purchase for those interested buyers during that pre-launch actually.
This will also adds a bit more urgency and scarcity.
If you then launch and there are already some works sold, then you can already communicate this.
It also gives the sense to the audience that it's better not not to wait too much because you're in demand.
The works are going quickly and, you see, this is an entirely different dynamic than just having that store online and everything is available all the time.
Now we arrive at the next phase, the release, the launch.
And during this launch you want to be visible on social media every single day.
You want to send frequent emails also to your subscribers on works that have already been sold.
Perhaps a bit of press that you've managed to get for your work.
So some PR outreach can also be interesting in the spirit.
That gives you another reason and a bit more buzz and excitement to the launch.
You can also share emails in which you remove some possible doubts, so where you explain the shipping, a return policy, all these things.
It's not an aggressive manner, it's a really professional way of informing them, to make your audience convert.
And then, very importantly, the advertisements.
Here you want to be really aggressive in terms of your ad spend and kind of So ideally, simply reinvest.
So, if you're also making some sales, really putting that into your advertising as well and ideally reinvesting it until the entire series is sold out, and then you'll have had a successful release and then we can go to phase four, which is putting the store offline again, thanking everyone communicating that it was hopefully a sold out series and getting back to the studio work to prepare the next release.
If this works well, because it takes some time to figure out what content is best for my social media, what content is best for my advertisements, what content is best.
For the ad campaigns, how do I set up my ad campaigns doing some A-B testing.
So you'll get better at it as you do, and some people have real talent for it and can get very good at it, and then it can become very lucrative.
And if that is the case, then you can kind of start to scale this up a little bit.
Perhaps you're doing three releases a year instead of two.
Perhaps you're connecting the online launch with an offline exhibition.
It can first be with a self-hosted exhibition.
That will make it easier to get more press, to create more social media content, to increase your own credibility, to convince buyers, both with those visuals but also, for instance, the opportunity of offline sales.
And then, even if that works well, you can actually do some outreach for galleries and bring that experience to the table and show that you can deliver and add that credibility of the gallery to your releases.
So that is how we can scale this in the future.
I hope this has been helpful for all of you who kind of want to combine both paths which is something that we see more and more and I think we'll see more and more in the future as well to kind of give yourself a platform, an income, to build that career and then perhaps later on enter the contemporary art world as well and work with galleries.
So I will link to the article about this in the description below and in the pinned comment.
We also have an online course coming up that kind of compiles everything we have taught here on the channel into one holistic program.
So also subscribe to our mailing list if you would like to stay posted on that.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
Feel free to watch our video on how to create that high converting artist website next.
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Bye.
