From “Like” to “Sold out”: How to turn your Instagram into an art sales channel

If we take a deep look at our Instagram profiles, they are small curated exhibitions of the online persona we want to project. As artists, this proposes new opportunities to experiment with ways to present your art, your creative process, and the thoughts behind it. 

Social media profiles and channels are an essential part of any art marketing strategy. These are not only a window for showcase, they can be a helpful resource when it comes to building a strong and steady sales pipeline for your artworks. 
Keep reading and find out more about how you can use your Instagram profile to drive more art sales.

Create an Artist’s Instagram profile to generate sales

If you are building an art sales strategy based on social media, the first step is to create a profile. But how can you create an artist’s Instagram profile that’s set up to help you reach those goals? Here are some easy tips to follow:

-Check your settings: make sure your current or new account is listed as a Professional Profile.

-Categorize: inside the realm of professional accounts you can list yourself as an “Artist” or “Creator”, this will help people find your content.

-Set up a bio that explains who you are and what you do.

-Add important links in your bio like a direct link to your professional website or e-commerce page.

–Create a content strategy with your art as the main subject and bring your profile to life.

Design a strategy to drive art sales on Instagram

In order to drive more sales or get your audience into your own art buyer’s journey, you need to engage with them through compelling content that sparks their interest in your work. Think about it as building a relationship one post at a time.

Before you dive into defining the style, color palette, and overall look and feel of what you are going to post on your social media account, first establish a set of goals. For example: raising awareness about the availability of your art prints for sale. With that goal in mind, start drafting posts in a calendar thinking of different ways to present this information to your followers and your target audience.

All the data about what you are offering should be easy to find in your profile. You can use the highlights feature to save up essential data you want users to see once they get to your profile.

Tips to generate art sales on Instagram

Now that you have set up your profile and have defined what specific sales goal you want to pursue, it is time to create an art marketing strategy to achieve it!

Follow these tips to start driving art sales through your social media profiles:

-If you are aiming to sell directly through Instagram you also need to set up a Facebook profile and connect them to access the Commerce Manager.

After completing this step you can create your own Shop on Instagram and upload your artwork as available products for purchase.

–Create a product description: your potential art buyer needs to know everything they can about your creation to reduce any doubt that can arise before making an investment. Now you can even use AI prompts to generate descriptions you can later edit and adapt it to your style.

–Establish a price for your artwork.

–An image is worth a thousand words: besides your artwork description that should cover everything from medium to size and subject. You also need to give your audience a sneak preview of how your art piece would look in a room.

This is where tools like ArtPlacer’s Room Mockups are really handy. With just a few clicks you can get Instagram-worthy of your art in a digital room, in the precise size for different social media formats, and directly share them.

How can you do it? Just pick a room, “drag and drop” your artwork, customize it, and tweak details like brightness. The results will amaze you and will give your potential art clients a better sense of how the piece interacts with a space in its precise scale.

–Think forward: if you are selling framed pieces there is an insider trick you should know. With ArtPlacer’s Frame Builder, you can digitally recreate the frame and mat options you are offering. This way you can present your artwork in a room mockup as close as it would look in a real-life setting. An extra push that can help a collector make an informed purchase decision.

–Define art marketing pushes: how are you going to let your audience know about this new venture? Use a calendar to define which days are you going to post about it, the formats you will use, and even what you are going to present and talk about.

Make sure to always add a clear call to action. This means giving your audience a clear “next step” to follow if they are interested in learning more about your pieces available for sale and even commissions. It should be a clear action like visiting your Instagram shop or checking the tagged products in the post for more information. 

The main goal is to drive your followers one step closer to a sale.

Now that you know how to turn your Instagram profile into a proper sales channel is time to create, post and share to achieve that goal!