What You See Is What You Get: How to Market Visual Products Online

Marketing visual products such as art and photography presents some unique challenges and opportunities for creatives and businesses looking to prosper online. One key challenge is that digital imagery of the products advertised simply must do these products justice in order to maximise conversion rates. The opportunities, however, are numerous - with countless creatives choosing to commoditise their works in pursuit of a thriving new income stream.

It’s these opportunities we’re exploring here, illustrating how artists, photographers and businesses selling inherently visual products can make these products as irresistible as possible. With this arsenal of marketing essentials, you can make your mark in your industry and bring some beauty to your marketplace.

Give your portfolio a platform

First things first: without an online platform, your products will remain out of reach for so many prospective customers. Making the decision to transform your creative passion into a fully fledged ecommerce business means arming your new brand with a platform primed for online sales. This means making your store easily accessible via organic search, social media and other key traffic channels, and providing a clean, seamless shopping experience for would-be customers.

Whether you’re selling traditional artworks, photography, graphic designs or creative home accessories, the innately visual nature of these products means they need to be seen to be desired and, ultimately, purchased. Setting up your own portfolio website is a crucial first step towards showcasing your product range in all its glory - complete with persuasive descriptions, powerful calls-to-action and, of course, irresistible imagery.

Craft product descriptions that convert

While it’s vital to let the aesthetics of your visual products do the talking, it’s also necessary to support these striking visuals with equally magnetic product descriptions. These descriptions should simultaneously get down to the brass tacks of each product (such as its materials and dimensions), while also creating emotional resonance by digging into the background and artistry of the piece.

Investing in professional copywriting services will give you access to the creative tools needed to do your products justice. Achieving a careful balance of practical product details and evocative storytelling is easier said than done - but it’s only by providing this rounded view of your visual products that you can both persuade and inspire.

Get aspirational with product imagery

As well as showing users what your visual products look like - be they paintings, photographic prints or wall art posters - you’ll also need to showcase these items in situ. This serves an important practical purpose, in that users can get a greater sense of the scale of the product in relation to the rest of a room.

Perhaps more importantly, though, it allows potential customers to visualise this piece in their own living space - pondering how it might complement their home’s existing design theme or serve as an eye-catching statement feature. So, for each and every product on your website, provide a diverse range of product images - showcasing the piece in and out of situ to give shoppers all the visual information they need to make an informed buying decision.

Showcase user-generated content

As you begin to secure a steady stream of product sales, there’s ample potential to turn this initial success into a perpetual motion machine by encouraging satisfied customers to leave glowing reviews of your visual products. There are bonus points up for grabs if you’re able to generate customer reviews that come complete with high-quality images of their product enjoying pride of place in their home.

To drive this highly valuable user-generated content, regularly encourage reviews as part of your social media and email marketing activity. Email workflows in particular offer a prime opportunity to follow up with recent customers once their new product has arrived - presenting the perfect moment for you to swoop in and request some in-situ product imagery you can add to your back catalogue, accompanied by a welcome testimonial.

Whether you’re a consummate artist looking to turn your passion into a paid position or a commercial photographer building the business acumen you need to succeed, with the right range, marketing visual products online is as simple as giving your work the platform it deserves. With your products, what you see is what you get.