if you've ever thought to yourself no one will ever spend thousands of dollars on my art or there just aren't enough people in the world that can afford thousand art stick around because I am about to prove you wrong now of course everyone's personal definition of high ticket art is different but as a full-time artist I have sold over $260,000 worth of my artwork many of which exceeded $4,000 per painting and I know there are artists out there Selling paintings for much more than $4,000 but I also like to think about little 19-year-old Kayla who
was sitting at her part-time work study College job calculating that if she just could sell $250 every Saturday at the local market that she could afford to pay her $1,000 rent that version of Kayla would have fainted if she found out that she could sell a painting for $4,000 someday the problem isn't that there aren't enough high-end art buyers the problem is that you don't know how to attract them so in this video I'm going to teach you exactly how to position your art brand to appeal to wealthy buyers backed by real statistics luxury branding
psychology and art market trends let's get started so first of all if you're still doubting me let's clear the air how many millionaires are there really first let's talk numbers because we need to clear up that these buyers exist you just simply don't believe they exist as of 2023 there were 22.7 million millionaires in the United States alone imagine filling every seat in 28 84 Super Bowl stadiums that's how many millionaires there are in one country and if you're having a hard time conceptualizing that that's one in every 14 adults one in every 14 people
you walk past today is a millionaire you cross paths with millionaires every day millionaires stumble upon your website every day and you have no idea but let's take it a little further according to Forbes in 2023 there were over 735 billionaires in the United States alone $1 million in $100 bill bills fits inside a backpack while $1 billion in $100 bills would fill 10 school buses and according to the art basil and UBS Global art market report in 2022 the global Art Market was valued at 67.8 billion that's enough to fill 678 school buses with
$100 bills and 43% of that market was dominated by high net worth collectors so let's be clear wealthy art collectors exist and they probably buying art right now as we speak they're just not buying it from artists who don't know how to position themselves correctly in the Art Market that brings us to the psychology of luxury branding if you want to attract High net worth collectors you need to Market your art the same way that luxury Brands Market their products and luxury branding is built upon three psychological principles exclusivity scarcity and minimalism let's talk about
each one exclusivity is one of the most influential driving factors behind luxury purchases this actually activates the same psychological reward systems in our brain as social validation and even romantic attraction and a 2021 study published in the Journal of consumer research found that brands that marketed their product as being rare or exclusive or limited edition increased the buyer's willingness to pay by 40% even when the product itself was identical to a non-exclusive version of the product businesses like only fans have built billion dooll business models on selling exclusivity of course you may think this is
disgusting and weird but this is just an example that backs up the study from 2022 published by the European Journal of marketing that found that consumers are more likely to engage with and spend their money on platforms that offer exclusive limited restricted personalized access to a product they feel like they're part of an exclusive group and how does this apply to Art well the same concept of exclusivity applies to art collectors are drawn to work that is rare unique and unavailable to the masses this is why your branding as an artist matters just as much
if not more than the artwork itself a Harvard Business Review study from 2021 actually found that luxury consumers 76% of them make their decisions based on exclusivity alone all right let's talk about scarcity a 2022 study in the Journal of consumer research by Dr Jonah Berger found that scarcity produces a sense of urgency and that makes people people 35% more likely to make a purchase when they believe that the availability is limited and that's why Limited Brands like Rolex or Ferrari or these you know limited Yeezy drops this is why they purposefully limit production of
the product part of this comes from fomo or the fear of missing out which is why for artists positioning your work as a one-of-a-kind unique never to be replicated piece Taps into this deep seated psychological drive that makes people see your paintings as more valuable all right let's talk minimalism minimalism is more than just an a an aesthetic Choice it's actually a proven strategy that increases value trust and brand loyalty a 2021 Harvard Business reviews study found that Brands who were not cluttered and that marketed with super minimalist designs experience 42% higher brand loyalty and
a 32% higher consumer willingness to pay this is because Simplicity in marketing reduces something that call cognitive overload and it actually allows consumers to process and Trust the brand more easily this is why some of the most successful luxury Brands like apple Tesla Louis Vuitton they have all adopted minimalism as their core branding strategy just look at their packaging look at the Sleek smooth box of an iPhone this minimalism reinforces their Elite status in a 2019 study from the European Journal of marketing found that luxury consumers are 58% more likely ly to trust a brand
if it adopts minimalism in its branding strategy the reason is minimalism signals confidence and it kind of says the product speaks for itself so how do you apply this to your business as an artist well if you are looking to transition from selling your art as kind of a hobby or a craft fair item and perhaps you've been selling on an e-commerce platform like Etsy or a red bubble it might be time for you to transition to having your own website having your own website allows you to control your branding and it makes you feel
more exclusive more trustworthy and more professional remember people don't sell Mercedes-Benz at swap meets you go into a Mercedes-Benz dealership a majority of the people shopping on these e-commerce sites are looking for smaller items like gifts or printable wall art anyways so rather than trying to reach a wide audience narrow down on reaching a narrower deeper audience not everyone is going to be your ideal consumer conser and you have to be okay with that your website should be clean and minimal and not overloaded with excessive fun elements the things that you can get to so
excited about when you first open your website you start thinking do I need a Blog do I need a gallery page maybe I need to link my YouTube video I should do a different color on each page and let me play with all the fonts I can when in doubt keep it simple I like to opt for black and white because I want my artwork colors to speak for themselves and I don't want any any excessive use of color to distract from the artwork itself now next we're going to get into one of the most
overlooked mistakes on artist website and that is your photos and your product descriptions but first so when you do reach the point of needing your own website professionality and affordability are key and that's where the sponsor of today's video hostinger comes in hostinger has 0% transaction fees and all of their e-commerce features are already included in their business plan so you won't get blindsided by needing to suddenly upgrade if you want to send out a marketing email or if you want to add a coupon to your website hostinger makes it super easy to build and
launch your own website fast with reliable hosting and a free domain name and hostinger AI website builder can literally have your website done in under a minute and they also have 24/7 customer support which other websites do not have and to make it even better you can use the code Kayla for an exclusive 10% discount at check I tested it out myself and this website builder was so simple that even I with my limited pregnancy brain capacity was able to do it with ease so whether you're selling large original paintings prints of your artwork or
your artwork on apparel hostinger has a template perfect for your art website if you've been looking for the perfect easy userfriendly website platform this is [Music] it get started today at hostinger.com and don't forget to use the code Kayla for for a 10% discount all right let's talk about the photos that you put on your website of your artwork for sale luxury is all about perception and perception is shaped by presentation studies in consumer psychology have shown that buyers are far more likely to invest in high ticket items when they are displayed in aspirational settings
a study published in the Journal of retailing showed that when products are displayed in a luxury lifestyle oriented environment like a very nice house the perceived value was Far higher 52% higher when compared to standard product Imaging and I found an example for you I looked up Mercedes-Benz for sale in my city and I found this car for sale this is a 2023 Mercedes Benz GLA now look at the photo they're using to sell this car now compare that to this photo of the same car a 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLA they are the exact same car
but which photo conveys luxury you need to be just as intentional as this when choosing the photos that you use to display your artwork on your website by using high quality mockups that show Grand elegant Interiors or Tastefully designed Gallery walls you are helping wealthy collectors visualize your piece in their home additionally Studies have shown that people make 75% of their purchasing decisions based on visual appearance alone and if your artwork is simply photographed up against a blank wall or in your dining room in your little 800t apartment it may not evoke the same emotional
response from collectors or viewers so let me give you an example using my own artwork compare these two photos of the same painting I have on my website which one conveys luxury and value now this is a mockup that I made on placeit.net which is what I use to make most of my artwork mock-ups but there are dozens of other mockup websites you can use to create free mockups or mockups for a dollar or two I highly highly encourage you to make this one of your business write-offs and invest in paying for mockups paying $2
for a luxury mockup that could result in your painting selling for 5,000 instead of 1,000 I think that's a worthy investment but that's just me all right next up is another equally overlooked if not the most overlooked aspect of an artist website and that is your description luxury collectors don't just buy art they buy a story an experience a connection a 2021 study by the European Journal of marketing found that high net worth buyers are more likely to purchase an artwork when they feel a deep emotional connection to the piece or the story behind the
piece but how do you do this well storytelling one mistake artists make that I am guilty of making in the past myself is uploading artwork for sale and giving little to no description of what the meaning behind the artwork is we figure that the art must speak for itself and whoever buys that painting they're going to just know what it means by looking at it but the truth is Art is highly subjective it is difficult to interpret what an artist's initial intention was in creating a piece and by telling someone what that painting meant to
you in your artist's Journey you're helping them connect the dots you're helping them find the story that resonates with them behind this piece and I know it can be intimidating to share this intimate aspect of your creation process but this can make or break whether or not someone wants to buy your piece or not but if you feel like you're not the best with words or you don't even know how you would even possibly conceptualize your inspiration into words on a page don't worry there are so many platforms that have tools that can help you
write this description like hostinger I just showed you how hostinger has AI tools that can help you create your website well if you didn't notice in that ad you can have ai help you write your product description and I did this myself on my own website because sometimes I need a little help putting the Magnificent emotions that I have into words because art is a language of its own you know that if you're an artist so I went on chat gbt and I said help me refine this description of my painting I want it to
convey scarcity value and luxury here is what I would describe it as and then I give it just a little bit of what was going through my mind when I painted it and I was actually so shocked and pleased with how AI was able to take my little bits and pieces like of what it meant to me and put it into this beautifully crafted professional description I was wowed here compare these two examples which one makes you feel like this painting is a luxury limited edition collectible piece because this is what was on my website
before okay I didn't write anything and in branding psychology the found found story effect is clear consumers are up to two times more likely to purchase from a brand when they know the founder Story the origin story why because human connection builds trust this is another reason why you need to give a description of what the painting means to you and additionally a little bonus tip is uh I think every artist needs to have a bio page on their website so that your collectors your clients can read about you and feel like they know you
personally and this matters more now than ever because in a world full of AI art in a world full of mass-produced prints being sold at Ross and TJ Maxx and printable wall art from Etsy this is what differentiates you from the masses this is what makes your art human this is what collectors pay for now let's get into pricing pricing for collectors pricing is one of the most powerful psychological tools when it comes to branding yourself as a luxury investment and research has consistently shown that that consumers associate higher price with higher value it's a
phenomenon known as price quality inference a very well-known study published in the proceedings of National Academy Sciences demonstrated this effect when they tested consumers by giving them two different wines they were the same wine they tasted both of them and they were the identical same wine but one was labeled with a much higher price than the other when consumers believed that they were tasting the more expensive wine they not only rated it better but they experience an increased activity in the brains pleasure centers this is scientific guys and unlike generic brands that have to compete
on price luxury Brands thrive on raising price to enhance the perceived value so if you are pricing your art too low you may be shooting yourself in the foot you may be deterring potential buyers because they just look at your work and they think oh it's not worth anything so price confidently and price it as if you were a wealthy collector looking for an investment piece to add to their collection in fact one of my goals is to increase my prices one of my dreams is to sell a $110,000 painting and I feel pretty confident
that using these strategies I am well on my way to achieving that so to conclude there are plenty of wealthy art buyers in the world you just have to know how to attract them so now I'm curious leave me a comment below letting me know what you think of this video and which one of these principles have you already implemented into your business or which ones are you going to try now I wish you all the best of luck go get creative and I hope that you all sell a painting today [Music]
