How To Sell More Prints

Get Started With A Facebook Strategy

You probably already have a personal Facebook page that you use to keep in contact with friends and family. What you need next is a business Facebook page to promote and sell your work.

You can set up a free Facebook business Page in a matter of minutes, from any mobile device or a computer, see setting up your page. Use this as your official artist’s page to engage and build an audience interested in your work.

Share your art

Start posting content maybe once or twice a week. Share images of your art, news items about you and your work - recent sales, gallery events or consider posting a video of you creating art or an album of your latest work. Images and videos predominate on Facebook, which is why you can achieve a good following if you do it well.

Engage with others

Social media is about engaging with others, so ask questions, post helpful hints and link to articles you think your audience will also like and share. Stay active in the Facebook community by liking other artists work, comment on their posts and take part in the discussions. This is the best way to make yourself visible and spread your brand as an artist.

Try Facebook advertising as a cost effective way to bring many more potential followers to your page with offers and promotions designed to sell your art.

Need help getting your Facebook page going? You can get free access to more than 80 online courses by registering to Facebook Blueprint, here you will find the tools you need to learn how Facebook can grow your art business.

Should I also use Instagram to sell my art?

Yes, Instagram is another great way to promote your work. Instagram lends itself well to artists as it is primarily focused on sharing images and many artists now use Instagram as a way to show their working process and to sell their paintings.

Instagram can easily link into your current Facebook page or website. You can do this by adding the Instagram Widget to your website. This will encourage your Facebook and website fans to follow you on Instagram and vice versa.

Instagram done well

Artist Chris Austin enjoys “flash sales” of his latest work, getting emails from eager buyers within minutes of posting on Instagram.

The Toronto based artist, Chris Austin, has 19,000 Instagram followers who wait each day for Austin to post a photo of his current artwork to Instagram and declare it "for sale." Within minutes, he says, followers start emailing him. Whoever emails him first gets the piece.

"Instagram is really neat because it immediately connects you to a global audience," Austin said. He's shipped paintings as far as Australia and Japan.

Some convincing statistics for selling art online

Read the Hiscox Online Art Trade Report - 2023

Online art market sales continue to grow and reached $10.2 billion in 2021 (compared to $4.64 billion in 2018), and are estimated to be $10.8 billion in 2022.

The tough economy is having an effect with 30% of all art buyers saying that they will buy less in the next 12 months, because they have less disposable income. This was higher among younger art buyers (32%) and new art buyers (35%).

Trust grew in the online art market during the pandemic. Although fewer people bought art online in 2022 (78% compared to 85% the previous year), the number was still considerably above pre-pandemic levels (44% in 2019). More than half (51%) of art buyers said that their confidence and interest in buying art online art had increased during the pandemic.

Instagram increases its dominance with an ever-increasing share (74%) of art buyers are using Instagram, up from 71% in 2022. The platform’s use was even higher (84%) among young art buyers.

Facebook’s role for the art world has diminished every year, and in 2023 only 12% said they would frequently use it for art-related purposes, down from 17% in 2022, and 52% in 2015.