Help! My website isn’t making sales
As artists, we often think that when we build our website, and it’s all shiny and new…with our artwork presented beautifully, that the sales will just happen.
And many of you may be at the stage now where you’ve realised that that isn’t true.
You may have launched your website aaaaaannnnddd…………………crickets!
The truth is a website on its own does not bring sales. It is just a tool. Just like we have materials in the studio, you have paint brushes, you have canvases, just because you have the canvas and the paintbrush doesn’t mean that you are going to create a wonderful painting.
Similarly, just because we have an art website doesn’t mean that we are going to make art sales.
Of course a website is necessary and it needs to be structured correctly with some key elements but once it’s live we need to generate traffic to it. There are two types of traffic – organic traffic, which is free, and paid traffic. I always advise starting with organic traffic and making sure it’s converting (i.e. visitors are turning into buyers) before you even think about paying for ads, because if your website isn’t optimised and you are paying to drive visitors to it before you’ve tested it out properly, then you’re going to be wasting a lot of money.
So drive people to it organically first, enough people to know if it is working (at least a few hundred) and then if you are making sales then increase your organic traffic strategies and also consider paid ads. If you are not making sales, then spend the time improving your website first because it’s not quite right.
It may be the provider or how you’ve structured it.
There are good web platforms (providers) and bad, the bad ones will be messy and have limited functionality e.g. the ‘shop’ is clunky or the design is limiting. The good platforms are easy to use (for you and your customers), they are well thought out and they will support your business growth, making things easier not harder.
Once you’ve chosen the provider that’s right for you, you also need to structure your website well. There should be a very clear customer journey through your site and it needs to be visually striking and easy to navigate.
The whole aim of a good website is to increase conversions. By that I mean help turn visitors into buyers.
To give you an example, a 2% conversion (which is a good conversion for a website), may seem low, but it is actually good because it means that out of every 100 visitors 2 people make a purchase.
So let’s do some stats….. If your financial goal is £3000/month and you sell pieces for about £500, then you know, you’re going to have to sell six pieces at £500 to reach your financial goal of £3000.
Okay, you’re with me so far? 😉
So if your conversion is good (2%) that means you will need 300 visitors to your store each month (300 x 0.02 = 6 sales)
Now, if your website isn’t optimised well and it’s a bit messy, confusing or you haven’t got the key elements on there, then it may only convert at 1%. Now all of a sudden you need 600 visitors each month!! (600 x 0.01 = 6)
THAT is the difference in having a website that works really well for you. You need half the amount of visitors!
So it’s about:
- the right provider that can do everything you need it to do and grow with you. Because what you don’t want to do is build a website and then realise in two years time you’ve outgrown it and you have to build something else.
- structure it well for conversions, have all the elements that are there necessary (I go through all of them and more in the Passion into Profit course). Make sure it is well presented, your messaging is clear and then drive traffic to it. Firstly, organic traffic, then once you know it’s working you can try paid ads and that’s when you really start to see things scale.
Let me know your thoughts and if you found it useful and would like to know more tips on making consistent art sales, why not register for my free masterclass
Here’s what those who watched my free masterclass went on to achieve..
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“I went from $30 in a year to $9000 in one month! I never thought it was possible to earn that much in a month” Jay
“I made my course investment back within 4 weeks and had made it back five times over, just eight weeks after the programme!” Lynsay
“I would totally refer Amanda’s course to anyone wanting help setting up or growing their art business – she has been amazing! I went from zero sales to selling a painting for £5500!” Solly
“I sold out of 2 art retreats in LESS than 24hrs!” Debs
