Promoting your work outside of the FAA site is crucial. One way to get the word to clients is by making videos showcasing your work. I opted to do short videos in time limits of 3 minutes or less normally. I read somewhere the average attention span of the consumer is 3 minutes on average, so unless your footage is riveting you are probably going to lose them within the first 3.5 minutes.
I have found that since making a few videos and posting on various social media sites my sales have improved offline from collectors seeing them. I have also seen a couple of sales coming from the FAA side, although I cannot be sure if videos were the prompt for those sales. I do believe that videos of your work improves your presence on the web and increases your chances of sales ultimately. It is another avenue of marketing and a nice addition to promoting your work one image a a time. This is my latest video below:
Adding soothing or emotionally charged audio clips depending on the subject matter also increases the viewers enjoyment of the video. Some people opt to voice over the video explaining the image and it’s backstory or the bio of the artist may be an alternate choice. Either way it increases the enjoyability of the project to the viewer. In turn the pleasure of watching increases your artwork remaining in their brain, hopefully enough to ultimately make a purchase.
We must constantly strive to keep up with a marketing edge as photography is such a competitive area these days. The market is over saturated with artists and photographers as technology improves with smart phones and free apps. Anyone can basically edit and do amazing things with images these days. So those seasoned artists and photographers who have spent years learning Photoshop, Illustrator and various photo imaging software are given a run for their money with new apps being produced almost daily.
But back to the video useage, be sure to check each sites guidelines for videos as most vary in length. For example Insta gram stories have a 15 second limit. To post a video on your normal Instagram page the length maximum is 1 minute. Look at “stories” as a brief spot ad to prompt them to your regular page to see a additional work or direct them to your YouTube channel to see the full length video which may end up being 4 minutes or longer. The videos may be placed on Facebook and Pinterest as well as Google+ pages. I found it’s much easier to save to my camera roll and then upload directly from my device or from files on my desktop. Most of the apps do list the most popular social media sites to enable you to share directly when you have completed the video.
In my videos I always try to place the email address, and links to other social media sites I have pages on. I request a follow and to subscribe to my YouTube channel if space and length allow. Cross promoting is easily done in a video and a great way to let your audience know other sites they visit also contain your work. Everyone has their favorite sites and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to have them follow you on their favorites.
I use the ends of the video most times to promote products such as textiles, wearables and gift items, if not by image with text. Look at your small videos as commercials because that is exactly what they are. Free advertising on the net. Be compelling at the ends, make them short and sweet so you will hold the interest of the viewer and keep them on your channel to see other videos in your playlist.
There are many free video and editing apps as well as text apps to make beautiful videos with a bit of planning. These will get you started on making basic videos of your work. I will list the programs I use at the end of the blog along with links to software I have found valuable in the creation of my images,
Please visit my new YouTube channel to view the playlist of all available videos. Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts or questions you may have. LIKE & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed, I greatly appreciate the support and will return the favor.
https://www.youtube.com/c/LesaFine
Hopefully this information will help you see the value of creating videos and compel you to give it a try. The apps make it remarkably easy, so you don’t have to be a tech guru to make one. I think you will see it’s a great advantage visually to your clients, old and new, to market and promote your art and result in sales.
Feel free to share this blog link with friends and family so they may enjoy the information to create their own videos both personally and professionally.
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/lesa-fine.html?tab=blog
Wishing you much success with your art and sales! Have an amazingly productive 2018!
Lesa
CAMERA: Nikon D3200 DSLR
Photoshop CS6
TOPAZ FILTERS (use this link for $20.00 off)
http://www.topazlabs.com?hr=Az149
Mobile Apps available at the Apps Store on your devices.
iMovie (Normally installed on your newer iPhones and iPads if not it is available at the App Store.
Adobe Spark Video App
https://spark.adobe.com
HypeType (Text Editor). Made by Softonic and available in the App Store, also available for android devices.
