Objective:
- To provide art and design students with an understanding of the importance of online marketing and e-commerce.
- To provide art and design students with opportunities to reflect on their own sales and marketing strategies.
- To provide art and design students with opportunities to identify opportunities to support their own endeavours.
- To develop art and design studentsā knowledge and understanding of how to market and sell work online.
Overview:
A large proportion of art and design students and graduates will take responsibility for marketing and selling their own work. As such, sales and marketing skills coupled with the ability to identify and create new sales and marketing opportunities, are essential for these students. Furthermore, those who lack knowledge and understanding of online sales opportunities, will miss out on a huge potential market for their work, and limit their chances of success.
This workshop serves as an introduction to online sales and marketing, for art and design students, with no previous experience of the subject required.
The activity is designed to fit within a typical one hour lecture session, but inclusive of ample opportunities for extension, through practical activity, group discussion or independent research, and could easily form the basis of a more comprehensive scheme of work on the subject. It is designed to be appropriate for students of any level and was originally developed through the HEFCW funded pan-Wales Enterprise Support Programme.
Lesson plans and AV presentations for use in the delivery of the workshop can be downloaded via the link to the āZONE Enterprise Hubā webpages listed in āReferencesā and āResources.ā
Activity:
The activity follows the structure outlined in the āBusiness Planningā PowerPoint presentation, inclusive of all links and examples.
Figure 1. Title page of the āSelling Art Onlineā PowerPoint presentation.
Pre-Activity:
- Prior to the workshop, the facilitator may wish to ensure the PowerPoint presentation is working correctly, and if desired, update the presentation to include up-to-date examples relevant to the cohort.
Introduction:
- Welcome students to the workshop, and introduce them to the running order which is to follow.
Why Bother?
- Discuss with students why online sales and marketing are so important.
- Present to students facts and figures about the size and value of the online market.
- Invite students to suggest benefits of selling on line, and include your own suggestions, displayed via the presentation.
What Does Selling Online Mean?
- Students are introduced to various ways in which work can be sold online (An artistsā own e-commerce site, a third party e-commerce site, though promoting offline sales etc.).
- Examples of various ways of selling are shown to students, and students are invited to add additional suggestions of their own.
Making a Plan
- Students are introduced to the starting point when making a marketing plan.
- Students are asked to reflect on a number of questions (What are the products and services you offer? Who are the customers for these? How many of them are there? Where are they? What are your customersā wider interests? How are these customers likely to look for your work? Where can you go so that these customers will be likely to find you?)
- A volunteer from the audience can be invited to answer these questions, with group input, with respect to their own business.
Finding the Right Place to Sell
- Students are presented with various platforms for selling and promoting work online.
- For each platform, a real life example is demonstrated, and the merits and demerits of each platform are discussed and debated by the group.
How others have done it
- Case studies are shown to the group, featuring artists (ideally those who are peers of the audience).
- How they utilise a variety of online promotion and selling opportunities (alongside offline promotion and selling) is discussed by the group.
Conclusion
- The key themes of the session are recapped, and the group thanked.
Skill Development:
Following this session, students should have a greater awareness of how to sell and promote their work online, should have identified opportunities relating to their own specific endeavours, and should have an understanding of how this activity fits into their wider marketing and business plan.
They should have more confidence in their own abilities, and an understanding of the positive actions which they need to take going forward.
Resources:
- See references for links to lessons plan and PowerPoint presentation supporting this workshop.
References:
- Lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations to accompany this activity can be viewed via > https://moodle.glyndwr.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=37§ion=11 or slides downloaded here > Selling Art Online [PDF]