by Stephanie Sadler

Created on: January 25, 2008

When I came to London a year ago, I didn't have a job, but I did have a marketing degree and a lot of bills to pay. So, when I was offered a job marketing art in a gallery, I couldn't turn it down. For the next year, I learned a lot about how to market and sell paintings for thousands of s.

Art, original and expensive art, is an investment. It is something that will hang on a wall for a long time to come, so it is important to remember that people need time to make their decisions. Because of this, we started a scheme in the gallery that operated on a trust basis with a back up of credit card information just in case. Buyers would come into the gallery, which was owned buy the artist herself, and if they were wavering on a decision, they would be allowed to take a piece home with them to try on their own wall. Because art is so personal it helps to try it out for a week.

Another crucial point is that you have to know your target market, what sort of customer appreciates the style of art you're selling. Is it funky, modern, impressionistic, abstract, etc? Who is your primary buyer and where can you find them? Do your research however you can. Accept feedback on your work from anyone and everyone.

In our case, our market was varied, but generally it was an older generation of serious collectors who would close on a transaction. These people came from affluent homes around London and generally were the type of people who connected with the artist, formed a relationship, and continued buying from the same artist. Because of continued sales, these were the best sort of customers.

Another great option was marketing to interior designers who could buy through their clients depending on their tastes. This opened up a new bag of potential clients and worked well for all parties involved. The same could be said for hotels, restaurants, retirement homes and office complexes.

Auctions are one way a lot of artists sell their work, but we never did much with that avenue. Instead we focused on specific targets. Because this artist's work was similar to the Spring/Summer 08 catwalk collections of certain high end designers, we crafted letters specifically to those designers hinting at a future collaboration in using her work in fashion shoots, etc.

One particularly fruitful venture was selling art to other galleries who would then sell it to their own customers. However, it also lost us some money as contact fell apart and paintings were left nowhere to be found.

We've written articles on the artist for magazines, offered special deals and free prints in national newspapers, tried email ad campaigns, set up a website, added artwork to all the networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Deviantart, etc.

The thing about art marketing is that when people purchase art, it's all about the perception, isn't it? If you want to sell original artwork, you have to make it seem like it's unique yet in high demand. You can't charge pennies for it just to sell it because it would be like buying work from Ikea. If you want to get into the high markets, you have to charge high prices.

Look at some of the high flying artists out there today whose artwork have incredibly good reputations for making a lot of money Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, Martin Creed

It's all in the perception, isn't it? It's in the character of the artist. The trick is not only to market the art, but market your own character as well.

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