Article: Marketing Your Art #11

Selling art in hard times by SKC

Many of us are wondering how the economic downturn will affect our art sales. Prices for supplies continue to rise, while demand for the finished product appears to be growing smaller and more fickle. This is the time to consider what motivates one to purchase artwork. True collectors may be seeking an investment, or a complimentary piece to suit their current purchases. Those seeking some décor may simply be drawn to color and composition. And still others may be dipping their toes into fine art buying and may not have the experience or gusto to be investing heavily in originals.

Each of these three groups—Serious Collectors, Décor Buyers, and First-time/Beginning Collectors— approaches purchases differently. You may choose to focus on one group of buyers OR all three, but there are several things to keep in mind if you do.

Serious Collectors:
These buyers are less likely to be badly affected by the economic downturn. To them, fine art is another investment, and if purchased correctly will pay off down the road. While they do not appear to buy artwork on a whim, they know what they want and when presented with the opportunity to acquire the piece will do so swiftly. These buyers tend to buy high-end, museum quality works and if they are seriously interested in a specific artist, may even be motivated to purchase maquettes and sketches.

The artist who wishes to attract this buyer is gambling that their artwork will be desirable to the collector population within the vicinity of their artwork. If they are correct, this can pay off handsomely. Sales may be slow, but the final purchase price of the artwork easily covers the cost of materials and marketing.

Décor Buyers:
Those seeking home décor enhancements aren’t necessarily looking to make an investment into original artwork. For these buyers, high quality prints may be more attractive especially in a down market when they may be on a tighter budget than normal. The simple cost of printing, embellishing, matting and framing such prints can make their sale cumbersome and less profitable.

I have found through personal experience that décor buyers will often want to specify matting and framing for their clients or selves and would rather benefit from the value of purchasing simply the print itself. If you feel you need to provide assistance, you can note on your website or with your galleries, that you will be pleased to offer matting and framing assistance at an additional fee upon request. This way, you allow those who wish to buy prints alone, the less expensive option (and you also save yourself money in time and supplies which can add up quickly!).

Further, if you hold NO inventory, you are much better off in a down market. Consider connecting yourself with a high quality printer, such as White House Custom Color (WHCC.com) or IPrintFromHome.com, who do giclees, photographic prints, prints on metallic paper, etc. When a purchase is requested, place your order with the professional print company and either “drop ship” the order directly to the client, or ship to yourself (WHCC offers 2 day shipping to the artist for FREE) sign the prints, make embellishments, etc., and then re-pack and send the artwork to your client. I use this technique on my web venues. It makes the sale of prints more profitable, especially when compared to matted or framed prints which move much slower.

First Time Buyers/Beginning Collectors:
These buyers are extremely motivated by initial impression and emotional connection to a series of work, the artist, or a single piece. They tend to shy away from large purchases and will occasionally remain loyal to a small group of artists or a single artist. While their purchases may be infrequent, they will likely be consistent.

Often they find artwork on their own without a buyer and will be somewhat shy in negotiating price. This type of buyer is looking to purchase originals, but may not have much in the way of expendable income. For them, it is best to provide value for the price. Consider offering smaller works exhibiting the same style, color pallets and mood as your larger pieces. Should an experienced buyer see these smaller works, they may purchase multiples, while these first-time buyers will see an opportunity to make their first small investment into artwork they truly believe in.

As you did with décor buyers, you may want to offer your works framed and unframed. This allows the buyer to feel they are getting a very fair price (how many times has someone tried to negotiate the price of artwork sans frame in your experience hoping for a better price?) and can match the framing to their current tastes.

All of these tips will work well in a gallery setting or in your online blog/portfolio website. Providing the option of framing/mounting helps us to avoid reducing the price of our artwork while offering a lower cost to our buyers. If you would like to sell prints of your work in a gallery setting without investing in inventory, consider creating a simple print book. You can list all available artwork, with sizes available for each print and a simple key for pricing that can be switched out as needed. Make the book look professional and clean. You could use a simple small white binder and print the pages yourself or choose to design the book and have it printed and bound locally or by one of the many online printers such as www.lulu.com, www.whcc.com, www.blurb.com, http://www.qoop.com.