|
The Seven Deadly Sins Of
Internet art marketing!
The explosion of Internet
access world wide has, no
doubt, brought fresh opportunities for artists to market their art. For while this phenomenon is a great boon for all artists, as it provides wider exposure of their artwork and increases their audience base, many are making serious blunders in their approach to the whole idea of Internet art marketing. Many artists have their work on the net nowadays and I spend literally countless hours viewing art on the net, the more I see the more I realise the many mistakes that artists often make, unintentionally of course. Most artists I come across have no marketing training or financial knowledge and most with very little or no computer literacy and that is fine as most want to just do what they love most, ie make art. A little knowledge goes a long way however, hence this article, to clarify the situation a little bit! The big mistake that most artists make is assuming that a home page with an internet service provider is all they ever need to do, so many have some pictures of their artwork posted and wait with glee for the sales and commissions to pour in, of course nothing much happens and disappointments with this new and exciting medium sets in....result ?, missing out on a valuable resource to further their artistic endeavours. Marketing art on the Internet is no different than any other marketing process, it is a sequence of actions to achieve certain goals according to a predetermined and well thought out plan. Posting a dozen pictures on a home page may be OK for few friends to look at but for a serious marketing effort this is really a waste of time. Firstly you must designate yourself as a real professional this means you have to associate yourself with other professionals in a dedicated art web where your art will be accessible by the art communities, art galleries and art critics, or at least have your own art domain with somebody conversant to promote it.
This is crucial for anyone who is
serious about marketing
their artwork. Nothing is worse than getting few free pages on a free server, as this will undermine your standing as a pro, not to mention that you don’t have any control on the banner advertising shown on your pages, with all possible distraction to your viewers. Secondly, your domain or cyber art gallery must be continuously promoted on search engines and to your projected market, a fairly tricky business that requires a lot of effort and know-how. I always say that defining your projected market must come first as this will help your placement on search engines via your meta tags, and this must definitely be assessed in a “from the ground up” design approach. Thirdly and this is equally important as the previous two tips, don’t destroy your site with silly graphics that will take forever to load or java applets that need time to load and run, not even music or sound playing in the background, no no no, never do that. The aim of your website is to promote your art and you as an artist, clean and functional web design is really very important especially your first page, all the pertinent information must be presented in a clear lay-out that is focused on one objective, why this site is here and why will anyone spend time around, it is the function of the website that must lay behind all your design, ie the marketing and the marketing is the lifeblood of any website of this type. The fourth mistake that most artists make “ in this context ” , is forgetting that the Internet is primarily a brilliant communication tool, for without the humans at their terminals on the other end, it will become totally irrelevant and meaningless, therefore you must keep that in mind and that brings us, invariably to the topic of managing E-mail. It is of paramount importance to attend to your E-mail as this will determine your level of commitment and this is how people will gauge your seriousness, never leave E-mail unanswered and always do so quickly and needless to say be if at all possible prompt and courteous all the times. The fifth mistake commonly made is not building a contact mailing list, this is something that is not given enough attention, it is important to cultivate and grow this contact list as it will serve as an invaluable way for your announcements, exhibitions’ news and generally keeping in touch with the art community in your nick of the woods. This must be accompanied by a strong commitment to privacy and must be stated as a matter of policy that such mailing list is not sold or rented and the participants privacy is assured. The sixth deadly mistake is resorting to dubious ways for advertising your website, spam and unsolicited bulk E-mail is the quickest way to give you a bad reputation and ruin your name, it will also generate a lot of back lash from people who might get irritated by such activities. Surely there is a growing trend on the Internet to kick up a stink with complaints to ISP’s to have such advertisers banned. Best steer away from such tactics and you will do a lot better. The seventh and perhaps the biggest mistake that artists marketing their work on the net make, is the unrealistic expectations of getting rich quick from selling artwork. Building a reputation and a following of any artist or an art style, is a long and arduous process that requires continuous effort to achieve set goals. Having a mate or a family member telling you that you are a great artist is good for the ego, perhaps, but going in a world wide arena you must arm yourself with the knowledge and the perseverance to get wherever you wish to go, forget those back knockers and the negative people you see every day, set your objectives and go. Happy art marketing on the net! |