Summer tends to be a period of low activity for art galleries, but the Internet does not take a break during the sunny days. June, July and August are in fact the ideal months to optimise your online presence! In parallel, in the context of a slowdown in the global art market linked to the Covid-19 crisis, art sales have experienced a decisive turning point: the significant increase in online sales. It is therefore essential for your gallery to understand how to properly optimize your digital presence to counterbalance the inevitable drop in activity that occurs in the summer and to respond to new and growing demand.

Here are Artsper's 3 key tips on how to boost your online presence this summer.

Rarer foot traffic will give you the chance to take time to reconsider and perfect your online presence. The Internet is now a fundamental space in which to develop your professional activity as a gallerist, is a strategic choice. According to a recent study conducted by Hiscox, online sales in 2019 have experienced moderate growth of 4%. However, the situation could evolve positively, as the online market has become one of the only channels for promotion and sales since May 2020. More and more collectors, but also art enthusiasts and art lovers, are turning to online sites and platforms. Optimizing and taking care of your digital presence is therefore a real asset to boost your sales and arouse the curiosity of potential new consumers.

Virtual exhibition rooms during Frieze New York 2020

Renew and modernize your website and social networks is the first point to focus on. Then consider developing your presence on an online sales platform. On Artsper, your personal gallery page will allow you to communicate about your artists and exhibitions. Collectors will also be able to follow your gallery and your artists, and therefore be notified whenever you upload new artworks online. This aspect of our service is particularly interesting during the summer period. Indeed, if consumers might take some time off during their vacations, they will still react to personalized alerts on their laptop or mobile. Your Artsper profile can therefore be a great asset.

To introduce you to the digital world, we invite you to discover our key tips on the 9 online behaviours to adopt, and our advice on how to best promote your gallery page.

As stated in the previous point, e-mails and other personalized alerts continue to reach their target during the summer. It is therefore a good moment to think about these tools, start using them if you aren’t yet, and refine your use of them if you already are. There are several online services such as Mailchimp or Mailjet which enable you to easily set up attractive newsletters to be sent out to your database of contacts (B2B and B2C). During this calmer period, collectors and potential buyers will have more time to open and read your content. Therefore, give priority to quality over quantity.

If your exhibition space remains closed during the summer period or due to the current health situation, it is the perfect moment to highlight, in an informative e-newsletter for example, artists who were to be exhibited or artists from your collection who are not necessarily exhibited during the year. Which will enable collectors and potential buyers to easily make new discoveries.

To go further, read our tips to create a good emailing campaign.

Virtual exhibition of spectacular weavings by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota at the Templon gallery

Finally, social networks are an effective weapon to face this offseason! Indeed, be it while commuting, in airports or on the beach, people are constantly "scrolling" on Facebook and Instagram. A steady and dedicated presence on social networks is your strongest way to keep in touch with your potential buyers during the summer. Remember to fully use the range of features offered by each network.

You can use Facebook to share photo albums and review last year's events. Use Twitter to relay news about the Art and Culture world. Sharing articles, podcasts and reports from the art press allows you to widen your audience and increase your visibility. Instagram provides more immediate, aesthetic and personal content. You can create a summer series of posts in which you can showcase your favourite artworks on your feed. Instagram stories are a good alternative if you want to share information, an artwork, an event, without publishing it in your feed. They will allow you to share more instant and ephemeral content (available only 24 hours). Whether you are currently renovating your exhibition space for its reopening; hanging a new work of art in your gallery; visiting a museum or cultural space that you liked, think about sharing these moments with your community.

Finally, make sure to use LinkedIn, as the first professional social network, it is an essential lever in B2B marketing to promote your gallery and the work of your artists. Publishing 2 posts per week (avoiding weekends), is an efficient way to keep your audience up to date with Art market news and what's going on in your business.

Get inspired by our tips for optimizing your content on Instagram, or discover our list of the best practices to adopt on Facebook.

Virtual tour through the famous artwork ‘Infinity Mirror Room' by Yayoi Kusama, offered by the Broad Museum in Los Angeles

An online presence, when refined and optimised, is a clear asset and increasingly unavoidable asset to expand and boost your art gallery's business. Renew and modernize your website is an important first step. But remember to develop your presence on an online sales platform. Your customers' fidelity is even more important, keep them up to date with your activity and the latest news on the art market via several targeted newsletters (weekly and monthly). Finally, an appropriate and steady management of your social networks will increase the traffic on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts and thus widen your audience.

These advices will make you consider the offseason in a new light and help you perfect your online presence! You can also read our article on 5 projects a gallerist can work on during the summer.