selling

Written by:

selling
June 1, 2009

Tags:

art subjects, categorize, marketing, organize, sales and selling

Using Art Subjects to Target Shoppers

Let’s look at the subjects that people favor when purchasing art. By extension and personal experience, these are big buckets that are searched for often, but are hard to win through search engine optimization and expensive to buy through pay-per-click advertising.

In a survey of 2,000-plus art buyers ages 18 to 65 (selected based on their previous purchase of art), shoppers aged 45 and above favored landscapes, flowers and gardens, and country traditional themes more than those who are younger. Shoppers aged 35 years of age or younger favored photography, abstract/surrealism, European subjects, and movies or celebrities (pop culture) more than the older [in age, perhaps not in spirit] consumers.

Here are the art themes that had the strongest appeal to shoppers (in ascending rank). One caveat: keywords that are a direct hit, e.g., Star Wars, Barack Obama, etc. don’t apply below; it’s a given that brand names are targeted by their very nature.

1. Landscape
2. Photography
3. Flowers, Gardens
4. Wildlife, Animals
5. Abstract, Surrealism
6. Impressionism
7. Tuscany, Paris, Cafes (scenes of Europe)
8. Still Life
9. Country Traditional
10. Pets (dogs, cats)
11. Sports (baseball, cricket, football, futbol, soccer …)
12. Religious
13. Pop Culture
14. African-American
15. Brand Icons
16. Hispanic Art
17. Other

What can we do with this information?

We can use the above keywords for tagging, artwork/group descriptions, and Bubblesite text, as well as integrate them into titles, description copy, and hyperlinks in from external blogs, personal websites, and other credible referral sources (e.g., press, social shopping websites such as StyleHive, Kaboodle, etc.) when linking back to your RedBubble pages. In no way should these tags be applied to unrelated work; you’ll drive page views, but not sales. Plus, it’s poor form.

There are many excellent categories missing above, e.g., nude art, self-portrait, dance, etc. The recommendation is to think about how you search online. Use common terms and keep it simple.

If this article bores you to tears, we suggest that you take a bit from the above and then go with your gut. You know your artwork best, and by thinking like a regular art shopper you might find that fewer tags in a simplified structure will help categorize your work – both in your own mind and for the shopper and buyer.

Bringing it all back home.

All this sales talk is great; thanks for listening. However, I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that the outcome is to provide an amazingly great work of art and design to someone that appreciates it… that we artists made something that someone loves or gave to someone they care about.

In many cases, the shopper will come to think of you as a contact or friend; or at the very least, someone that they feel they know a bit about.

Regards,
Jason

Donna Ridgway

It’s very helpful to me, to know what tags to place on my photos. I’ll be certain to include wildlife, animals, and landscapes to the relevant works. Thanks for posting this!
Silvia Ganora

Thanks! Helpful post.
Elucidate

This is so incredibly useful. Thank you!
ericseyes

This is very good information to know. Companies pay thousands of dollars to learn how to attract customers to thier products. Marketing is big business, thanks for sharing tips for marketing us.
Bluesrose

Thank you for your kind help!
FlowersEtc

Thank you
Anni Morris

Thanks for sharing this, very interesting to read ~ Anni
Zack Nichols

Great info – thanks for the help.
selling

Thanks to all for the positive feedback. I’m glad that this information is proving helpful. I’m having one of those great RedBubble moments. I’m “getting what I give,” and it’s wonderful, positive karma. Feel free to pose questions, suggest topics, or share a story about a sale.
Marita McVeigh

thank you for the info!
monaiman

Great information ! thank you .
MuscularTeeth

cool informatoin to know.
Ginny York

Thanks for the info Jason. Very helpful.
Paul McClintock

Depressing information to know… I don’t do any of those things. .. except for maybe point 17.
selling replied

Paul,

You have some great work on RedBubble. This study focused on art prints and framing (art for the wall). We also sourced a lot of information on t-shirts, but it wasn’t nearly as helpful. I’m yet to find a good study about sales for specific mediums, e.g., hand drawn art v. photography v. painting, etc.

Per my comment above, the study also didn’t note a lot of important categories such as illustration, nudes, etc. I would classify some of your work as pop influenced, but you might disagree.

Finding and/or creating a niche or individual style has rewards outside of this data. I can tell you that there are plenty of artists on RedBubble that don’t fall into one of the buckets above, but that do just fine on sales.

I’ll follow up later with some common and uncommon sales successes on RedBubble.

Regards,
Jason
Jo O'Brien

This has been featured in today’s Daily Wrap
Elana Bailey

Excellent, helpful and insightful information. I hang on your every word, at the moment. Cheers so very much. Elana Bailey.
taiche

One day we’lll all be millonaires ….thanks for the info!
virgosun

Terriffic info, ‘specially for those of us noobies who’ve never sold a thing.
Donna Adamski

Cool…maybe some of these tags will work for me!!! Thanks for the info :)
Shoaib .

nice info… very informative
Joe Thill

Thank you! Very interesting and informative.
artist247

Thank you it gives me a better idea on how to tag my work. Very informative.
Paul Grinzi

Why ‘Target’? Why not another multinational?

LOL

Thanks for this post
selling replied

Smile. You know what we meant.
Colleen Milburn

How wonderful – thanks so much for sharing this!!
Shelley Heath

In a survey of 2,000-plus art buyers ages 18 to 65

I was just wondering is there more information regarding the demographics of those doing the survey. For example what proportion of buyers are RB members and what proportion are independent buyers (surfed in from the web).
I would also be interested in knowing more about the structure of the survey… was it open ended (fill in a blank) or guided.(rank these in order of preference).
selling replied

Shelley,

Feel free to Bubblemail me for the specifics. I can tell you that all respondents were qualified by a prior purchase of art for the wall; were not RB member buyers; that questions were guided (check one or multiple answer); and that all respondents were Internet savvy. The survery was administered online.

A survey that mixes third-party and RB non-artist members/non-member data is on a very big wish list, and also a Herculean effort. If any member works for a research firm and wants to help me, I’d welcome the chance to work together. : P

Regards,
Jason
Philip Golan

Food for thought.
Thanks Jason.
John Tisbury

Thanks for this, very useful information :-)
Rosalie Dale IPA

Just out of interest, I have sold more in the past 3 months than I sold in my first 18mths on the site. Something is being done right by someone (I don’t mind who it is, as long as it keeps up!!). I do use the suggested tags although I’m not sure how much that has contributed … would be interesting to know how people choose / find their purchases, and is it an intentional search or random “whatever takes my fancy” images?
Graeme Pettit ...

Excellent advice – thanks. Its not how I search, but well worth knowing how most do.
I would like also to know if this was inside RB or external
selling replied

See below.
DaBimages

Thanks for the article Jason.
Are the stats your are providing gleaned from RedBubble? Or some other source?
selling replied

Good question. These stats come from the largest study of art, wall, decor and custom framing ever completed in the US. It’s our feeling that these stats, for the most part, extend to areas where RedBubble receives a majority of its visitors.
Artual

Thank you for sharing this with us, very helpful info.
Jan Burch

Very helpful – thank you!
KazM

Information is power. Now we have the info hopefully it will grow to be power.
Many thanks to all your team. Your efforts are much appreciated
Mindy McGregor

Great bit of information!!!!!
Jeff Stroud

Cool stuff! I am still not sure how it works here and else where but I will give it more thought!
Thank you again…
Lois Bryan

outstanding article and good common sense. if I may, I’d like to say how strongly I personally agree with your “the outcome is to provide an amazingly great work of art and design to someone that appreciates it… that we artists made something that someone loves or gave to someone they care about.” Baby, it’s all about the connection. Bravo.
Anne Hale

Thank you very much for the information. I see you noted searches for Star Wars, Obama…. I am under the impression that if you use characters from Star Wars without prior permission or license, you are breaking copyright laws. Yet, I see many artworks/designs that contain Star Wars characters here at RB and elsewhere. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
selling replied

Artists on RedBubble own the copyright to their original work. That said, copyright laws as related to existing third-party intellectual property vary by country, so it’s best for each artist to check with their legal counsel (often a lawyer friend; I trade art for advice with my counsel) if in doubt.

Artists often parody images, which is considered a commentary (an edit or remix) of the existing property, but not a direct copy of the original. At RedBubble, we respond to all copyright inquiries by contacting the artist about the alleged infringement and go from there.

This is a good topic that I’ll research further.
Anne Hale

Thank you very much, Jason. I definately would like to learn more about copyright, so any information you can provide on this topic would be very much appreciated.
Anne
Paul McClintock

Thanks for all the clarification Jason. I’m less depressed now! :)

You’re right… I guess pop-culture does fit me.
earthangel

Thanks so much Jason – very helpful.
Photomojo

Great info!!!! Thanks Jason I learned some new things and love the tips shared on tagging!
Pam :D
Jennifer Murray

Awesome info thank you!
LindaR

great write up Jason ~ appreciate this insight ~ as all too often I find myself expressing my art here and not so much focused on “selling” ~ as I should. I would love to see more indepth knowledge of this kind within these categories as possible xx
Keith Richardson

Thank you for this article – essential reading for those of us hoping to sell…
Stephen Mitchell

The most important part of this article is the appropriate tags to put upon your art.
Tagging attracts the search engines like Google and Yahoo!, both of which are frequented by everyone from 8 to 80yo’s.
Another important point to note: Many people think ‘selling’ equates to ‘sale’. “Selling a product” is part of the many steps you take before you get a buyer. First you have to sell yourself, then your product, and that attracts buyers.
Marta Boulden

Thanks so much for the info! Gets me thinking though… Is it possible to have too many tags on a piece? Are specific tags not an advantage?
Hans Goepel

It’s very helpful to me, to know what tags to place on my photos.I’ll be certain to include wildlife, animals, and landscapes to the relevant works. Thanks for posting this!
Mariann Rea

Thank you for providing the keywords!!! :)