The marketing tactics for selling artwork have modified drastically over the past few years. During the 19th century, it was the salons that were a prime venue for showcasing artistic works. And in the 20th century, the salons got replaced by commercial galleries. Today, in the 21st century, the online world has made these galleries a little outdated. It’s because the majority of the art sales get conducted online that has, in turn, expanded the art market to a great extent, even for the freshers.
Hence, in today’s digital era, freelance artists, which comprises photographers, hand lettering stylists, illustrators, can depend on the internet to sell their artwork online. So, if you happen to be a fresher, you don’t need to rely on an art shop or gallery to search for your customers. Instead, any online shop portal can help you connect with customers who are keen to purchase your artwork. According to TEFAF’s Annual Art Market Report, the following facts hold true:
- Over 20% of art sales happen through Smartphone orders
- Most of the sales occur in the mid-market range between $1,000 and $50,000
- The online art sales have gone up from $2.75bn to about $3.63bn last year
So, if you are a fresher and are thinking about how to sell art online and make money, you can follow the steps discussed below:
Identify your particular style
Every artist has a distinctive style that allows them to develop memorable artwork. But the majority of fresher artists aren’t sure of the style that they must follow. Hence, they generate art randomly. However, this approach might not be apt for selling artwork online and making money as a freelance fresher. Therefore, it’s necessary to select a style about which you are passionate. For instance, choosing a special style for hand lettering and illustration will enable you to stay focused on the work and leverage it. Hand-lettering and illustration have plenty of styles. For example, hand-lettering can have styles like vintage, sans serif, gothic, creative lettering, and blackletter calligraphy.
Start an online shop
An online shop is a basic setup that you require for selling the work online. Being a fresher, you might lack the adequate resources to start a website because it can be costly to purchase a domain, recruit a web designer and maintain its operation at the optimum level. Hence, it is essential to consider all the restricted resources and open the art shop on a leading platform that sells artwork. Today, various brands specialize in the same.
These online art shops are easy to operate. You need to signup and start the shop page instantly. After this, you should upload the artwork in multiple categories. As a fresher, you can earn money by selling hand lettering and illustrations.
Research about the target audience
Even before you start selling your artwork as a fresher, you need to know your target consumers. Once you delve into this thought, you will learn about your potential buyers. It’s because a consumer keen to buy illustrations will not resort to hand-lettering products. Hence, you need to know the businesses that use the specific art you generate to promote their brand. Go ahead and study the art market in-depth to discover the customers who will purchase your art. You should also identify the target demographics concerning location, gender, age, and income.
Choose the correct price
When you decide to sell your art online as a fresher, ensure that you choose the correct price for the consumers. However, it’s not just the question about the correct budget limit. There are several other factors to consider as well. If an artist is famous, people will want to pay more for his artwork. But as a fresher, you might not be known to many. Hence, you need to set your price differently to look credible for the artwork you are selling.
It doesn’t mean that you choose the lowest price for your artwork. The apt way to create the price is to evaluate the art producing cost. Here you can add the cost of brush, colors, and various other materials required. After that, you can set the profit margin to attain the minimum cost at which you must sell on this base cost. Make sure not to sell your work below this price because it won’t give you any profits.
Final Thoughts:
However, as you try to sell your artwork as a fresher online, you might also opt-in for cost deduction tactics. For instance, you might want to provide some discounts first by increasing the cost and then lessening it by offering discounts. You can also offer customers a wide range of reasonable costs for various art pieces in multiple categories. It will enable you to provide consumers with multiple buying options concerning the price. Once you opt for the ways mentioned above, you can start earning money as a fresher for your artwork.