Sell Your Art By Focusing on a Niche and Filling a Need

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This may seem like an unusual subject for artists. After all, what you do is based on your own muse and the pent-up creative energy that screams to be released. What an affront to think in such lowly business terms as niche and market. So to make this easier to swallow, let’s talk in hypothetical terms. Let’s invent an artist and call him Bob. Bob is a watercolor artist. Bob wants to make a living from his art, but no matter what he tries he has not been able to achieve this. Bob offers for sale his originals, prints, cards, postcards, coffee mugs… anything you can think of. But nobody buys anything from him.

This is not an unusual situation, both in and out of the art world. Hundreds and thousands of businesses create products that no one wants. They even have focus groups that tell them a product sounds great, but then nobody buys. And that is too often how the process works. Create a product (or work of art) and then try to sell it. The problem is that this is completely backwards!

Focus on a niche and the identify what problems or needs they have. From those needs, create a product that that they are willing to spend money on to satisfy that need or solve that problem. Does this sound reasonable? Why create a product and then try to find a market when you can identify the market beforehand and create a product you already know will sell.

Take this principle and then apply it to your work as an artist. Let’s go back to Bob the watercolor artist. Bob’s first step is to identify a niche that could potentially use his services as an artist. Bob has noticed that on many occasions he has gone to a restaurant or other business that has either a barren feel or has art on the walls that is completely out of sync with the feel of the place. One place in particular, his dentist’s waiting room, has pictures that are bright and warm and energetic. He talks to his dentist who agrees that he would rather have pictures that are more soothing. Bob is then commissioned to paint three pictures that will help calm and soothe his patients. Bob does some mock-ups, brings them by for approval, and goes to work. He knows ahead of time that he has already sold his paintings.

Leaving Bob behind, I can remember the Mexican restaurant that Sara and I went to with some friends the night before we left for our trip to Minnesota. This place was pretty classy and had obviously spent time and money on getting the right look and feel. Imagine my surprise when I looked on the walls next to our table and saw two paintings that were completely out of place. They were rather contemporary and had a scene of two American children with lollipops. Since they were a new restaurant, they probably were approached by friends to display a couple of their paintings for sale. I don’t think it would take much effort to convince them to put something much more fitting up on the wall.

I hope this gets you thinking about trying another approach to selling your art.

Find What eBay Buyers Want
How to Easily Find Niche Phrases
Build a Niche Store

Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com