Art Marketing
How to create a successful art-selling experience: gallerists share their tips
Growing a gallery or art business can be a rewarding journey, but it comes with its challenges. Fortunately, we’ve compiled invaluable advice and actionable tips from industry experts who share their personal stories and proven strategies for building thriving art galleries in today’s competitive landscape.
In this guide, you’ll uncover expert insights on why a well-crafted business plan is essential and how to create one tailored to your goals. You’ll also find practical tools to effectively market your gallery, tips on mastering the art of closing sales, and strategies for delivering an exceptional art-buying experience that keeps collectors coming back.
Keep reading to unlock the keys to growing your gallery and standing out in the art world!
When it comes to your gallery’s growth it all starts with a business plan that sets up your road to success.
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Why every gallery needs a business plan and where to start
An art gallery that aims to grow in the long term and be sustainable needs a good base, it needs a business plan that works as its roadmap to success establishing a clear vision of achievable goals and required assets.
Mentor and artpreneur, Crista Cloutier, creator of The Working Artist, puts it this way:
“In art you have a business like any business, you are not exempt from a business plan. A business plan doesn’t have to be a big scary thing, it can be simple and it’s a matter of just following the steps and putting the pieces in place to create a plan. You will save yourself so much time, you will save yourself so much money, if you approach your business like a business”.
A solid business plan clarifies key aspects like target audiences, budgeting, marketing strategies, and operational workflows, allowing you to operate with the flexibility you need to pursue new opportunities.
Gallerists share their tips on how to generate leads for an art business
When it comes to identifying and connecting with potential collectors, lead generation is key for any growing and even established art gallery. Attracting quality leads means the gallery can expand their target audience, engage them, build a bond and nurture it to spark interest in their artists. This is how you get a steady flow of sales opportunities and visitors to successful events.
JJ Galloway, owner and curator of JJ Contemporary Art Gallery explains it:
“I think the first and most important thing about working on a lead is to make sure the potential client has all the information they need about the piece of work they’re considering…and then some. That not only includes all the details about the artwork, how the artwork is made and the inspiration behind the piece but also about the artist. If they want to see the work on the wall, I’ll either take it to the space they’re considering for the work or show it digitally like with ArtPlacer.”
Every gallerist or art business owner has a set of digital marketing tools at hand to work with.
Essential digital art marketing tools every gallerist and art dealer should have
No matter if it’s a brand new space or a well-established art business, there is a set of digital art marketing tools every gallery should have at hand to promote their artists, engage collectors and, in the long-term, build a sustainable practice.
–Art visualization tools: from Room Mockups that allow you to showcase your artist’s work on exquisite digital settings to tools like Personal Spaces that enable you to showcase the pieces on potential client’s walls, tools that help art buyers solve doubts around how the piece interacts with the space are essential for both promotional and selling purposes.
–Email marketing platform: if you want to keep your audience engaged and informed, a good email management tool will help you send targeted newsletters, exhibition invites, and updates to stay top-of-mind with your clients.
–Social Media scheduling tools: these platforms streamline the process of content posting across social channels, ensuring consistent and engaging visibility for your gallery.
–E-commerce integrations: a good online art buying experience allows you to appeal to a wider audience that can easily acquire pieces from your represented artists in just a few clicks.
–“Try before you buy” plugins: website integrations that allow users to visualize art in their own walls with the help of augmented reality technology solve art buyers’ doubts at the point or purchase, making it a close-dealing feature every artwork product page should have.
There are other tools like virtual galleries that enrich how galleries present and sell art. Alicia Puig, art curator and CEO of PxP Contemporary sees it this way:
“As a fully-online gallery, the ability to present our artists’ works in the best light digitally is integral to our business. ArtPlacer has been the ideal partner to make that happen for PxP Contemporary. From virtual exhibitions to the widget integration that allows clients to view an artwork in their space or a mockup room, this elevates the experience of browsing artwork online”.
Mastering the art of negotiating sales is an essential skill needed to succeed in the industry.
How to close the deal: from proposal to negotiating an art sale
Art sales are essential for an art gallery’s existence, they are the main source of revenue, and they sustain both the relationship with the artists and the client.
Guiding a client from proposal to sale, or through their “art buyer’s journey” requires preparation and strategy to not only “close the deal” and secure the income from a sale, but to build a relationship with the collector that can translate into repeated buys and even word-of-mouth recommendations
JJ Galloway shares her thoughts on this matter:
“When selling an art piece it’s a gallerist’s job to help the collector find a way to connect with the artwork in a personal way. Helping a collector “read”, “look inside” and interpret the art they’re considering can sometimes help with a purchase. We call these “learning to look strategies”. With these strategies, essentially we help the collector feel like the art was meant for them. “
Steven Koppel Owner of Expressions Gallery and Photographer, highlights the power visual storytelling has in the art-selling process:
“Storytelling is extremely important to everything we do at the gallery. My customers love to hear the story behind my images – where they were created, how they are meaningful to me, the techniques I used in the field with my camera, and why I selected them for display in the gallery. This all serves to create a relationship with my customer that is fundamental to all we do. A huge part of what we do is to use ArtPlacer to help customers visualize our imagery in their homes, right inside the gallery. This is visual storytelling at its best!”.
A look into the Grasslands Gallery art fair booth at Art Now.
Taking your gallery on the road: planning an exhibition or art fair
Hosting your own exhibition or joining an art fair is a crucial move for a gallery, it expands your visibility and allows you to connect with a broader audience while building a reputation.
These events provide opportunities for showcase and foster networking along other galleries, curators, art dealers and collaborators. Planning a successful exhibition or staying at an art fair can be tasking but it’s a process that brings big rewards such as attracting new clients and generating more sales.
Lindsay Hamm, Director of Curation and Acquisitions from West Chelsea Contemporary explains what tools do they use to plan their exhibitions and shows in advance:
“As a national contemporary art gallery with locations in New York and Austin we use ArtPlacer to layout our exhibitions proactively. My favorite feature is the ability to build your own walls (Art Show Planner), an easy way to layout the various art fairs we attend throughout the year”.
Different mediums, themes and genres can come together to create the perfect mix that makes your art gallery stand out and attract collectors. Seen above the “Arts in Common” online art show by the Coria Jacobs Gallery powered by ArtPlacer.
How to curate and select artworks for your art gallery
A good curation or selection of artists and artworks is the cornerstone upon which a gallery is built. This process of identifying the right pieces that represent your gallery, showcases its unique value, sets it apart from other galleries and resonates with your ideal audience is essential to driving a consistent stream of sales that makes it a profitable business.
Stephanie Coria, artist and owner of the Coria Jacobs Gallery explains how the right selection of artworks can come together:
“I really like to put everything on the same plane: a painting, a photography piece, and a sculpture piece. They all have the same value as art. The more unique pieces come from artists being able to express themselves in their specific medium. I think it’s just a new way to show that everything deserves its space. We juxtapose different pieces, you can set different artists and different artworks next to each other, and it doesn’t compete, it actually complements. That’s something that is a really difficult thing to achieve but it really works here.”
You can read her full interview for further insights here: “How the Coria Jacobs Gallery brought their exhibitions from local to global”.
How to create an engaging digital art sales funnel for your gallery
Building a digital art sales funnel is vital for galleries to attract, engage, and convert visitors and followers into loyal collectors. A well-designed funnel guides potential buyers through every stage of their journey, from discovering your gallery and exploring available artworks to getting all the information they need about the piece in order to make a purchase.
Enriching this process with art visualization plugins that allow the potential art buyer to see how the piece would look like in a certain room solving doubts around size and even spacing, is key to lock up a sale. Bex Hurm from On View Gallery shares her insight on this key element for online galleries:
“As an online gallery, I had to remain competitive once all galleries started to funnel their activities online. I was able to do a quick turnaround to pull things together for my gallery. We were able to enhance our offerings for clients, integrate a more interactive format and offer something that even high-end galleries don’t have.”
On that same note, Jason Andreasen, President and CEO of Baton Rouge Gallery – center for contemporary art, explains how their art-selling process was streamlined with the help of these tools:
“Try-before-you-buy plugins have been an invaluable tool for us both in allowing art lovers to visualize works in their homes. It was easy for us to plug into our website and we’ve heard from art collectors that it allowed them to confirm that the piece they were considering was the right one for their space.”
With the insights and tips shared by gallery owners and industry experts, you can enhance your gallery or art business strategy to boost art sales and achieve sustainable growth.
