Many artists ask if we have any tips for how they can achieve success on Saatchi Art — and we certainly do! We encourage you to read and follow all of the helpful tips below to maximize your chances of making successful sales and getting featured on the site.
ARTIST BEST PRACTICES
Tip #1 - Upload Quality/Accurate Photographs of your Artwork
It’s extremely important that the photo you use to represent your artwork to buyers be as true to life as possible. Although smartphone photos are convenient, the quality is poor and often inconsistent. For an informative video on the best practices and technical aspects of photographing artwork, please visit the Selling Your Art / Image Upload page.
And, of course, if the artwork has changed in appearance from when the original photograph was taken, please take the time to re-photograph the work!
Since our collectors can’t see the works in person, they heavily rely on our “View in a Room” feature to visualize how an artwork will look in their home. In order for this feature to work correctly, please ensure the following:
- The dimensions you enter in the artwork details are correct and in inches
- Crop out any areas in the photograph that are not part of the artwork itself. For example, if you’ve taken a picture of your painting on a wall, please tightly crop the photo at the edges of the painting so that the wall is not seen.
Tip #2 - Write a Detailed Artist Bio and Accurate Artwork Descriptions
Our collectors are not only interested in your work, but in you as an artist. Therefore, we encourage you to write a detailed artist bio highlighting your history, creative process, your motivation for creating art, etc. You're welcome to insert this information under your Account Information, select Profile Information.
We recommend that you include the following info in your bio:
Where you were born and raised
Where you currently live
Your artistic influences and where you draw inspiration
Your medium(s)/technique(s)of choice and why
Whether you're self-taught or received formal education/tutelage
Artists you've worked under/with
Prizes and awards you've won
Exhibitions that you’ve taken part in
Collections (both private and public) which include your work.
Please take the time to write a detailed and compelling artwork description! The descriptions help collectors and our curators discover new works when they’re searching for something specific. It also tells a buyer exactly what to expect when the artwork arrives, and provides collectors with interesting background information about the work. For help, see: “How do I write an artwork description?”
Tip #3 - Keep Your Portfolio Up To Date
If one of the works you’ve uploaded to Saatchi Art is sold elsewhere, we encourage you to keep the image up on our site, as collectors are interested in seeing the works you’ve sold as well as the works that are currently available. However, it’s important that you edit the artwork details to indicate to collectors that the work is sold and no longer available for purchase. (Note: If the work is sold through Saatchi Art, there’s no need to update the artwork details, as they’ll be updated automatically.) For instructions, see: “I sold my work elsewhere! How do I update my Saatchi Art Portfolio?”
Tip #4 - Appropriately Price Your Artwork
Pricing your originals appropriately is critical to selling your work. As an artist, you should always be prepared to explain how and why you have arrived at your prices. Therefore, it’s very important to adopt consistent, fact-based pricing principles and methods. We offer some of these methods in our Getting Started article.
Tip #5 - Know How to Estimate Your Artwork’s Shipping Dimensions and Weight
If you’ve already uploaded works for sale on our site, then you know that we require artists to estimate the size and weight of a work after it’s been packaged for shipment. We use these measurements to generate an “estimated shipping cost” for the buyer -- which, of course, is something that is very influential in their decision to purchase a work. For that reason, it’s very important that you don’t significantly under (or over) shoot the shipping costs.
On the other hand, we understand that it's challenging for artists to have to estimate the shipping dimensions and weight of artworks that they haven’t boxed or crated yet. However, there is a way to arrive at a good estimate! For instructions on how to do this, please see: “How do I estimate shipping dimensions and weight?”
Tip #6 - Promote Yourself!
To improve your profile and increase your exposure, take advantage of what Saatchi Art offers and what you can do yourself.
We strongly encourage you to market yourself via social media websites, email, and so on.
Social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to alert your followers about new art you’ve got for sale, driving traffic back to your Saatchi Art portfolio and encouraging sales.
Utilize our built in social share features to easily post to your social media accounts. You can share your artwork through Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter as well as email directly from your artwork's detail page.
Every artist has an equal opportunity to be selected for a special feature by our curators. Maintaining an up-to-date and informative profile, and promoting your work can expose you to potential customers. Being an active user of Saatchi Art will catch our curators’ attention.
GETTING FOUND
Feeling lost in cyberspace? Use keywords, optimize SEO and create a custom URL to improve your ability to get found by search engines and on the Saatchi Art site.
Use Keywords
Improve your searchability on Saatchi Art by adding relevant keywords and a detailed description about each work in the artwork’s detail page. In addition to describing your artwork, keywords help collectors find works that are relevant to their search. This is done by matching collectors’ search terms with the keywords entered in by the artist. For this reason, we require you to enter in at least 5 keywords – though we encourage you to use all 12 – when uploading new artwork. Effective keywords describe such elements as: medium, subject, predominant colors, mood, materials, artists who inspired the work, and anything else that is distinctive or recognizable in the artwork.
Improve SEO & Search
In addition to helping your work get found on Saatchi Art, keywords also improve your discoverability on search engines like Google and Bing. Here are 4 tips to maximize SEO.
Tip #1 - Use your strongest keywords first
In both the keyword and the artwork description fields, lead with your strongest keywords. When returning search results, Google pays greater attention to the first several words in the title and description of your works – so make these words count. Not sure what your strongest keywords are? Read our step-by-step article for Brainstorming Your Best Keywords for Search.
Tip #2 - Max out your artwork description and keywords
We allow artists to add up to 12 keywords and 56 characters in the description for each artwork – take advantage of this space to include strong, relevant wording about your artwork. You can also use compound keywords (two or more words strung together, like “pencil drawing”) to maximize the number of keywords you can include. Make sure to only include keywords that accurately and honestly describe your artwork; keyword stuffing can actually hurt your SEO.
Tip #3 - Diversify your keywords and your artwork descriptions
Don’t use the same artwork description and set of keywords for all similar artworks in your portfolio. This targets just one type of buyer, and limits your visibility across other searches. For example, if you have added keywords, ‘modern, figurative, blue, collage’ to one artwork, for the next similar artwork consider swapping ‘figurative’ with ‘nude’ or ‘portrait,’ and ‘blue’ with ‘royal blue’ or ‘indigo.’
Tip #4 - Categorize your artworks correctly
Many Saatchi Art collectors, as well as our Art Advisory team, search for artworks by browsing within Category pages on the site, and through using filters like: Style, Subject and Medium. Think of where a buyer or a curator would logically look for an artwork similar to yours, and make sure you categorize with this in mind. If your works are categorized correctly, they’ll be more likely to meet the right buyer.
Tip #5 - Create a custom URL
Creating a custom URL will help your profile show up in search results on search engines like Google and Bing, as well as on Saatchi Art. Having a custom URL is also a best practice for branding and promotion. A URL that includes your name is professional and easy for fans of your work to remember.
The unique username you entered while creating your account will automatically be used for your custom URL. For example, if you entered the username “janesmith,” your custom URL will be www.saatchiart.com/janesmith.
If you haven’t chosen a username/URL yet, do the following. (Note that this can only be done once):
Step 1 – Hover over your name on the right of the top navigation menu and select "Account Information". You'll be directed to your Account Information Page
Step 2 – Type in your desired url in the Custom Url field. We highly advise you to create a personalized URL for your Saatchi Art profile that includes your name (or public artist name/pseudonym). That way, your address will be easy to both share and remember, and will be easily searchable on the web.
IMPORTANT: You can only set your username once. After you've done this, the Custom URL field will no longer be visible on your Account Information page. Should you decide to change your URL, you’ll have to send an email to through this form, letting us know your current URL and what you’d like to change it to.
PROMOTING YOUR PROFILE
To improve your profile and increase your exposure, we recommend that you do all of the following:
Use Keywords and Improve SEO
Follow our advice on how to use keywords to improve your discoverability in search on Saatchi Art and through search engines like Google.
Engage With Your Saatchi Art Community
Increase your exposure and gain new followers by participating in the Saatchi Art community. For example, follow other artists you admire, add work to your favorites, or create and share artwork collections.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Link Your Social Media Accounts With Saatchi Art
Have a social media account? Are you active on it? Yes! Direct your broader audience on social media to your Saatchi Art page by adding your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram or Google Plus to your profile.
First, go to your Saatchi Art profile page. Hover over your name on the right and click “Account Information,” and then click “Profile Information.” Here you’ll paste in the links to each social media profile you’ve created, according to the label on the left of the box. Scroll down and click “Save Changes.” Now each of the icons will link to your designated social media site. This makes it easy for those visiting your SA profile to follow you across other platforms!
GETTING FEATURED
Each day, week, and month we are featuring our artists through various programs, such as New This Week, One To Watch, Inside The Studio, #ArtistofTheDay, Meet The Others, #TOAFtakeover, Collector Favorites and Invest In Art. We do this through a multitude of marketing channels, including but not limited to home page collections, email newsletters, site-wide promotions (subsidized by us), online advertising, social media, PR and the Saatchi Art Catalog. Additionally, our team of curators creates thousands of original collections for individual collectors through our Art Advisory program.
In addition to the opportunities above, we are constantly developing new programs and products to promote more of our artists in better ways.
All Saatchi Art artists are eligible for these opportunities, but you increase your likelihood of being featured by following the above account and portfolio best practices. At the most basic level, keeping your artworks up to date, uploading new artworks, adding a thoughtful and detailed biography and artist’s statement, and thorough artwork detail descriptions goes a long way. Every day collectors ask our curators for more information about artists on Saatchi Art they like, so providing relevant info is really beneficial. Finding out more about you as an artist is very important to art collectors who are considering buying your work, as well as to our own curators when selecting artworks for Saatchi Art’s featured collections and special series.
For more detailed information on uploading artworks, and completing your profile according to best practices, check out our Getting Started tutorial.
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