Boost your art business with these 7 creative techniques. Enhance Your Art Business by implementing these proven strategies to increase sales and grow your brand.
After a big time of soul searching and careful consideration, it’s happening. You’re ready to take the leap and start giving art lessons. Unlike other artists who let fear and excuses stop them from even trying, you are going to make it count. But despite all the excitement and planning for starting an art business, you don’t feel like living on the ninth cloud. Why, are you wondering?
Art can transform our lives. It can help us in connecting with our inner selves, thoughts, feelings, perception, and experiences. According to The Telegraph, looking at paintings, sculptures, and other artwork can increase the blood flow in the brain - equivalent to looking at someone we love. Now that you have decided to take the plunge, figuring out what to do next is the trickiest part. You can dream about the end goal, picturing success in your mind, but the space between your current situation and the end goal is a little blank. So, where do we begin exactly? Now you’re thinking like an entrepreneur!
On some levels, you’re already aware of the road ahead. Establishing yourself in the artist community and living out of it can not happen overnight. But we never said it’s impossible. It can be easily achieved with a little effort, a lot of dedication, planning, and devotion. Being an independent artist comes with many challenges. It’s not as simple as getting out and saying - “here’s my work, please buy it” This is not how it will work.
Start with Planning it all Out
What art business can I start? What’s the mission of art practice? What’s your definition of success? Be specific about your short and long-term goals. Once stepping in the right direction, you’ll realize there is no one path toward it. You just have to be open to things. To enhance your art business, stay focused and true about what you want to achieve. A business plan can help you map out all the basics like any other business. Creating a strategic plan in the business world is to develop SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timeframe goals. This technique can help you regardless of whether your goal is to be the world's best artist or earn a good amount in a quarter.
Expand Network, Grow Community
Take any business, when it comes to the promotion of your art, one of the main skills that can help is networking. Most artists don’t like the idea of self-promoting. You must connect with the right people at the right time to get more reach. Reaching out to clients several times a year can be another great way to stay on top of their minds. It can be through a holiday card, personalized card, thank you card, or invitation to exhibitions. It’s often hard to believe, but you’ll be ecstatic when any of your supporters recommend you to others in search of new art.
The beauty of technology is that it can help in expanding your community all across the globe. Nurturing those relationships is just as important as maintaining your relations. We have an aesthetic tool for you to grow the community and manage your customer relations. Picktime is a cloud-based art class scheduling software tailored to handle online bookings, payment, and team management 24Hrs. Painting, Sculpture, Music, Theater, Architecture, or be it any, Picktime can serve all business needs. It has a user-friendly interface, with no extra installations available 24/7 that can be accessed at multiple locations. Using Picktime, you can have real-time slot availability for easy bookings and automatic SMS & email notifications.
One-on-one or group sessions, art activities, workshops, or special events can all be done in one place within a few clicks. What are you waiting for? Sign up now for free and keep growing your art community.
Search for an Inspiring Studio Space
Even if you like all your work spread in artistic disarray, your workspace must be inspiring and comforting. A setup at home or a separate studio when starting an art business should motivate you to work while being within your budget. And when talking about budget, try Picktime with streamlined, powerful, easy-to-access, budget-friendly features. From 24Hrs online bookings, automatic reminders, team management, payment & invoices (PayPal/Stripe), waitlist, real-time slot availability, and approval bookings, it can serve all your business needs in one place.
Prepare a Price Plan
Being ignorant can be bliss, except when it comes to your finances. Money management is a skill that is lacking in the majority of artists. Discussing finances can put anyone on edge. When trying to make a living out of the craft, no one taught you how to pay bills, manage your credit score, what type of bank account to open, or even have a fixed price list for your pieces. Let’s say you opened a studio in a new location and one passerby liked one of your pieces and walked in, but they’re in a bit of a hurry. Having a fixed price list handy will make it easier for you to convince the customer and make a sale even at the end moment. Always have an emergency fund, follow the 50/30/20% rule, and have diverse sources of income. The only way to have a successful craft career is to be prepared for it - artistically and financially.
Digital Ways to Grow Art Lessons
Whether you’re targeting individuals or established art collectors, a simple and pleasing website is the foundation to enhance your art business digitally. Building your brand online doesn’t only involve your art and pieces. It involves you and your experiences. Being easily accessible on various platforms increases your credibility and helps you become easily accessible to customers. This will eventually strengthen your brand recognition. Now that we’re discussing digital ways to enhance the art business, how can we forget to mention Picktime!
Picktime appointment scheduling software is the one-stop solution for all your business needs. You’ll get an enhanced list of features to give users a richer experience. When you’re focused on giving your students the best experience, Picktime will help you achieve that. Picktime will give users a customizable booking page with a unique URL and a book now widget for your website. Its booking form feature lets you get information about your students in advance. In addition to handling bookings, reminders, customer history, and payment, users will get regular reports to analyze the business progress easily.
- Focus on Social Media Strategy
It will be a huge mistake if you skip social media. Besides owning a website where people can contact you, several other platforms provide a good opportunity to create a larger audience.
- DeviantArt
- Fine Art America
- Tumblr
Show the world what you’re capable of doing. A vivid example would be Instagram, equivalent to a virtual gallery for artists. Social media provides new opportunities every day for everyone, to thrive as an artist. Investing in an online platform can be a powerful business tool that artists should not neglect.
- Paid Advertising
This doesn’t include only social media channels. Look into Bing and Google ads. These ads will ensure that you appear on top in the search results. With the help of cookies, websites, and social media channels show us ads relevant according to our recent search and interest. Benefit from this and ensure your art collection is displayed to the right audience.
Don’t do it Alone
Innovation, Services, and Teaching are the core of arts. The best part of being an artist is that you can change a perspective, make a statement, and connect with people through your work.
- Partnerships with other brands
Partnering with other brands is a great way to appeal to a new audience. From McDonald’s and Burger King to Diesel and Moschino, the already very distinguishable brands became even more so for a limited time. The art industry alone can generate $166 billion in economic activity annually. Companies and artists can form strategic partnerships to foster healthy and mutually beneficial relationships.
- Sign up for affiliate networks
Affiliate marketing is nothing but letting others promote your work for you. An affiliate network will look for leads and buyers on your behalf, usually in exchange for some charges or percent from the sale. This technique can help you make a bigger impact and enhance your art business, especially in the early days.
Don’t Limit Yourself
Once you have a plan of action in place, a toolbox including some online and offline tools can help you reach the goal. Hey, did we mention, Picktime gives you unlimited classes and location access? Not only this, but you can also leverage Instagram and Facebook book now button features to turn your followers into your permanent students. All you need to do is install the book now button on your Facebook page, integrate your Picktime booking button with your Facebook page, and you’re all set. Check out the Youtube link for more thorough steps.
- Think Outside the box
It’s a cliche for a reason, and it’s not easy. Thinking outside the box can be challenging when looking for creative techniques to enhance your art business. To run a successful art practice, leaving your comfort zone and taking risks is necessary. When choosing your students, framing the problem, or gathering ideas & solutions all requires brainstorming outside the box to get an exceptional idea.
- Competitions
Raise your market value with art competitions. It’s an excellent way to get noticed and attain more students. If you win the competition, you can easily earn huge funds while shaping your reputation as an artist.
- Exhibit your Art in Gallerie
Staying in touch with local councils and galleries can be a great way to stay updated about recent art policies and other markets. Art exhibitions always attract people who have a passion for art. Aside from that, it can also provide artists with ample opportunities to earn money.
There’s no doubt that art has the power to expand knowledge and connect the audience with important issues. Art can impact the community tremendously by empowering citizens and increasing social well-being. In a society shaped by purpose-driven content, the world needs to start seeing things from a different perspective.