Not long ago, I launched a website where I put some quirky illustrations I created for sale. However, I don’t know how to target my audience. Who would buy them, and in what scenarios? Does anyone know how I should go about promoting them? Thanks, everyone, for any advice!
You could offer them as licensed artwork or list them as stock assets…, beyond that I just don’t know.
I’ve been lured in by similar ideas. I like to do this so let me see if I can sell it, I think it probably more generally advisable to identify a need and then develop a product.
Best of luck
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Thank you so much for your insightful advice! I completely agree with your perspective on identifying a need before developing a product. Following your suggestion, I’ve already uploaded my illustrations as digital assets on a website. Next, I’ll be exploring promotional channels to reach a wider audience.
Best of luck to you too!
I think you need to bark up a different tree. Virtually all of the designers on this forum are highly skilled and experienced professionals who seldom waste their time on such efforts. Rather, we are working with a batch of clients who pay us far more for specific designs they ask us to do for them. But if this is your choice, then I wish you the best of success. In reality, I think you will find you are working for pennies instead of dollars.
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I agree.
I think selling your illustrations and funnnit things should be a side effort of your site.
I think you should set yourself up as an illustrator/character creator/cartoonist etc.
Let that be your main website, tell people about yourself. Your creative process. And things like that.
Use your website to promote yourself and send links to people who you think you’d like to work with on projects - cartoon studios/illustrations/comics/cartoons etc.
Get your name out there - but put your sales of items as a side hustle.
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You can try stock… Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, iStockphoto, 123rf, etc… but the marketplace is in the toilet. I don’t create for that anymore but my stuff still sells. I average $0.28 USD per sale. Most of the sales are for $0.10, and the agencies are giving you about 10% of the sales price. They keep 90% of the sale. It’s brutal. If you want to succeed in that marketplace you need to find a way to drive buyers to your images, because each one has between 300 million and 1 billion images in their libraries, and if their search algorithms don’t smile on you, no one will see your stuff.
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I found this really informative. I just stared school for graphic design. I was thing about in the mean time to make a sell sticker’s, bookmarks and other things.
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Thank you for your valuable information. This is really a difficult task, and what you’ve done is already remarkable.
Yes, it has been greatly beneficial. Keep it up.
Indeed, it should be so. Let people get to know me first.
This point is really important, however…I have no marketing experience and struggle to find suitable clients, even locally.
I suggest you visit a firm that hires designers. Talk to the Art Director there and find out what they need every day. Then create three designs that would meet their needs and show the Art Director what you can do to meet his/her needs. This is not about “marketing experience” but rather about “salesmanship”—selling yourself!
This very method is how I got my first job in the business I desired to work for, and it lead to a 50-year career as a design professional. And I did it all with no experience in either marketing or salesmanship.
Try it, and watch the magic happen!
Think about reaching out to creative individuals, such as designers and social media managers, who are in need of distinctive visuals. Advertise on platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Etsy, where visual content flourishes. Additionally, consider getting involved in pertinent online communities and utilizing relevant hashtags—this can aid in connecting with those who are interested in unique art for websites, merchandise, or social media use!