How to Get Traffic to Your Artist Website

by guest blogger Clint Watson

How do you draw visitors to your art website, and what kind of traffic do you need?

 

How to Get Traffic to Your Art Website. Read about it at www.ArtsyShark.com

 

In my previous article, I discussed how to launch an artist website that works. We covered many common questions that artists ask us. But I saved one of the biggest questions for its own article. And that question is “How do I get traffic to my website?”

How do artists get traffic to their websites?

First off, while it’s commonly phrased this way, I hate using the word “traffic” in conjunction with marketing art.

It’s so impersonal and doesn’t, as a concept, capture what you actually need. You don’t need tons of “traffic” to sell art. You need the right, targeted potential buyers. That group of right, targeted potential buyers is probably not a lot of people, which is fine, as long as it’s the right people.

Many artists come to us, at FASO Artist Websites, with the idea that “setting up a new website” is pretty much all they need to do to “market their art.” They think that potential customers will simply magically appear at their website once it’s online. Or, perhaps they think that somehow their web host will be doing the bulk of their marketing for them. That’s simply not the case, and it’s a recipe for disappointment.

Some of the artists starting their websites do understand that they need to entice people to their websites. But, they think that getting their site listed in Google will bring them buyers. That’s not true either. It’s perfectly possible to have your site indexed by Google and never have anyone search for you. Search engines don’t create new demand. Search engines harvest existing demand. Guess who has to create demand for your art – you do!

It’s never been easier to publish online and it’s never been harder to get noticed.

Setting up a website is not the last step in marketing your artwork online. It is the first of many steps.

To bring potential buyers to your website requires a focused and ongoing marketing strategy.

At FASO, while we obviously can’t do all your marketing for you, we do offer a variety of tools and channels that greatly assist you in accelerating the process of executing your own marketing strategy, and we are even able to automate some pieces of it, which is a huge help. In fact, we offer more art-specific tools and channels than any other website host.

But, and this is important, what we do is not replacement for your own marketing program.

Important Elements of Your Marketing Strategy

Your marketing program needs to include, first and foremost, a regular email newsletter.  I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this step. It’s so important, that we include a full email newsletter system, integrated with your website, at no additional charge, with every single FASO Artist Website. The old advertising guys used to say, “The money is in the list.” There’s a reason they said that. Make sure you build and utilize your own “house list” of potential collectors.

Your marketing program is also going to need some real world exhibiting of your art. It’s very difficult to sustain a lot of sales by utilizing only online marketing. People want and need to see artwork in person. Your online activities support your offline activities. Sending newsletters is important. But who is on your newsletter list? Often, it’s people you met offline, in real world settings. Your offline exhibitions might be in art galleries, they might be in art fairs, they might be at plein air events, or they might be open studio events. But you need some regular, offline exhibition opportunities to create (what we call in tech) “deal flow.”

Referrals. Your marketing program needs to take advantage of referrals. Once you have some devoted fans, they will be eager to support you. And they can be an excellent source of potential new collectors. Another type of referral involves your colleagues: you can partner with other artists to cross-market one another’s works (This idea has huge potential and is woefully underutilized.)

These are three extremely important ways to bring people to your website. However, there are many, many other strategies as well. For places to market online, you should take a look at ArtsyShark’s 250+ Places Artists Can Sell Online.

A full answer to this question is beyond the scope of this one article, but there are a lot of resources to help artists with this. It is a topic that Carolyn at ArtsyShark can help you with, and I highly recommend  you sign up for her newsletter. Or, better yet, hire her to coach you and devise a practical marketing strategy for your own unique art business. At BoldBrush, we also provide free art marketing ideas and strategies that can turbocharge your art marketing through our daily newsletter, FineArtViews.

 

Clint WatsonClint Watson is a former art gallery owner and founder of BoldBrush, known for  FASO Artist Websites, the leading provider of professional artist websites, the $25,000+ BoldBrush Painting Competition and the free daily art marketing newsletter, FineArtViews. You can connect with Clint on TwitterFacebook or his personal blog at clintavo.com

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Subscribe to our twice-monthly Updates, and get a free e-book on Where to Sell Art Online right now!

YES PLEASE!

Comments

  1. This was full of fantastic information! I loved that part about getting people on your email list. I think that is such a huge key to your success but a lot of artists don’t know that!
    Thank you for the great information! I will be on the look-out for more

  2. Thanks for the tips, they are excellent – I will try them out in the near future,

    BR Michael

  3. I am trying most of the points you have suggested. Need to plan a good referral program, this is currently missing. Thanks for the details, hope to sell more paintings online…

  4. You are running a wonderful website for artists to get what they deserve online. FASO is a very good tool to have as an artist.

  5. Thanks for the awesome tips. Gonna to try now

  6. Thank you for the tips Clint. Developing a strong marketing program is paramount in achieving success as a artist.

Trackbacks

  1. […] blog increases traffic to your website by making it active. With a regular posting schedule, you will have frequent […]

Speak Your Mind

*