How do buyers find my artwork?
The million-dollar question – there are probably millions of images on the various Print on Demand websites and people are finding an image or painting that really strikes them and fills a need in their lives for a print for their wall. Or perhaps a gift they plan to give to someone who they hope will similarly enjoy the piece. But how do they find it?
I wrote a post on BackyardImage yesterday about my most recent print sales. I had six in the past couple of months and here I want to think about how the buyer potentially found the image and whether I had done something (or could have done something) to increase the chance of the purchase. It is drummed into us from Art kindergarten that we are the ones that market our art, not the PoD sites and so I have been spending time on Twitter and have been posting to LinkedIn, Instagram and also some Facebook posts to try to keep up the momentum. I’m in the group called “Buy Into Art” originally formed and still led by Sharon Cummings who is more successful than most at selling art online. Back when I started in February I had 330 followers or so on Twitter and the chart I showed in this post about the BuyIntoArt approach was published in March.
And this is a snapshot from today. I was on vacation for 10 days or so at the start of the month and also not too well with a virus in the past week (at least that is my excuse for the red lines!) But look how much younger I look, though!
Bearing in mind the reduction in tweets, I have clearly made some progress in terms of profile visits and definitely in followers. Now approaching 1000. I use Buffer still to schedule posts and it takes maybe a couple of minutes for each one and I plan for two tweets per day that also go to LinkedIn and Instagram. The LinkedIn ones get some likes and some comments, and I always think of that as a more professional audience. Instagram – who cares!
What is important in this bit of the story is that almost all (95% or so) of my planned tweets have linked back to my Pictorem portfolio. Either to images that are new, or ones that fit in with articles I have written on BackyardImage, but that is the site I have been pushing in these posts.
I also have been writing posts on Facebook – more often than not in Facebook groups. I have been writing articles about each day on two of the cruises I have taken recently and illustrating the short posts with the images used in those articles. I’m not allowed to directly link to the blog or to the PoD site, but I suggest that people look at my profile on Facebook and in the cover image they see the BackyardImage URL and also my Pictorem portfolio again. There is also a “Growing up in Morgantown” group that I post individual images to and again, links to external sites are not permitted. But people will find my URLs again in my profile.
Another critical point – all these “hidden messages” lead the reader through to my blog, and from there, the photos link to Pictorem, or they go to my portfolio, which is again Pictorem. I do mention Fine Art America from time to time on my blog – usually to highlight other products and also it is a better choice for overseas (to the USA) buyers.
Where do my prints sell?
This is where the mystery starts. All five of my sales were from Fine Art America. All five were to buyers in the USA and three of them live within 100 miles of me, I think. One buyer of a Hawaii image lives on Hawaii and the other buyer of a Hawaii image lives in Connecticut.
I have pushed one of those Hawaii images on Twitter as it sold earlier in the year and I have definitely pushed this one, taken in early September:
This was much admired on Facebook in the Morgantown related groups, but even if someone asked about prints of it (and they do sometimes) I would expect them to end up with Pictorem, not Fine Art America.
The Big Question…
I do all my marketing as a good soldier on Twitter, Facebook and the like and also push my blog as best I can. I get more readers when new stories about cruises are published, and all the blog readers see my images on Pictorem. So why do people keep buying from Fine Art America? You have to pay for shipping there and I don’t price the images more cheaply there.
The only answer I come up with is that people are searching on Google (perhaps on Google images) for an image of a certain location (there are all clearly location-based images not abstract or just nature). They must be finding one of mine that they like, and it must be one that FAA has either just put out there for Google to index, or, in some cases, they may be paid for a Google ad to push the image against the query. I’ve had a couple of small sales of greeting cards where I lose some commission due to the Google ad cost, but all five of these prints were full commission sales for me. So, they just found them on the FAA site rather than through any marketing efforts of mine.
All other answer (or comments on this theory) will be very welcome!
Hi Steve, I wish I had an answer for you. My sales at FAA have been pretty random but mostly what I sell there is landscapes of places. In the other sites (ArtSpan and GeoGalleries) I have not been so fortunate, although I have a group of people following my botanical photography, they don’t buy anything. The landscapes in FAA sell better precisely, I think, of what you said: people search for keywords that have to do with those places and find the images that score better. A following of collectors who actually purchase because they love our work is probably easier to for painters to find, I haven’t really been able to put my finger on it.
Yes, I am sure having specific places for people to search for is key to selling that sort of art. Anything botanical is very unlikely to be found by a generic art buyer – there are also so many cheap framed art pieces in home stores so if you want a picture of herbs for your kitchen there are plenty to choose from for $30 framed.
One element that may be at work is the long-time conundrum: Is photography art? I think that many people are under the impression that it is not and therefore put more value on a painting or drawing than they do on a photograph.
Since almost everyone takes pictures nowadays, perhaps they feel that they could take a picture that would be “just as good” or “if not better.”
I am not sure that photographic skills and effort are as appreciated as other craftsmanship because most people are familiar with photography and perhaps take it for granted.
Another hurdle is the sheer numbers of artworks that are now available for the public to buy. There are so many talented artists in all genres that the competition is monumental. It is almost analogous to the “needle in the haystack” that someone will come across “your” specific image.
I may be off base here, but I can’t help but think these is at least a couple of elements at play!
Yes, but I think these are different but equally valid questions, but they look more towards the volume of sales rather than whether someone chooses my stuff. I do agree that photography is one of the lesser “arts” in the mind of the general public especially when we see news articles about the latest high value piece of photographic art and it is a boring flat stretch of river that I would have thrown into the trash!
I agree with your points.
Thank You for sharing this type of information. There is so much I can learn from you.
Thanks Anne – feel free to ask, anytime. There is a good chance I have written about it already!
That is, indeed, the question. We cannot really answer it unless the POD owners decide to provide meaningful statistics. I had five art sales in October – 3 from FAA (large print, card, tapestry) and 2 from Pictorem (both large prints). I also had sales at Zazzle.
(I actually had typed a summary of activity here – but may put some of that in an article on BillSwartwout.com, where I occasionally discuss some marketing “stuff.” I will email you the numbers.)
Great results for one month, Bill. I need to follow your social media activities. I have seen your email arrive so will check that out shortly.
Fine Art America is hard to beat. It’s been around a long time. They advertise heavily. They have a very visible presence. I have work available for sale on five different Print On Demand sites. The only one that I get sales from is FAA. I do promo Pictorem a bit. ArtPal auto-tweets my work daily. I occasionally will link to the other sites but it FAA where I get sales.
Yes, I’m coming to that conclusion!