The Art Gallery Hub
{ Converting web visitors into seasoned collectors
Does your gallery's site reflect your uniqueness?
Private contemporary art galleries form a tiny, almost lilliputian presence on the web. Logically, it's easier to get traffic if there are only thousands instead of hundreds of thousands sites to look up. And yet, it looks as if the contrary is true.With only so few galleries, why is it so difficult to get noticed ?
Getting noticed is a cutthroat competition in the art world
But why is it then that galleries adopt an almost identical strategy for their online communications? How to get your gallery's site noticed if the info on artists and the way galleries present them are almost identical? If statements are almost 100% interchangeable between galleries? Topped by a feeling as if most gallery sites were produced by the same web design studio?
'To get noticed, you need to distinguish yourself' (Molière)
It was a certain Jean-Baptiste Poquelin who wrote this one-liner centuries ago. Not without reason he became known as 'Molière'. He too lived in an environment dictated by conventions. And yet he understood how to distinguish himself. Not only through his plays or his professionalism. There was something much more profound at hand. We'll come to it later on.
How to distinguish your gallery?
Most gallery sites follow the conventions of the art gallery world. The web has its imperatives too when accessibility and usability are involved. But the combination of both factors shouldn't lead to an overall feeling of uniformity.
Moreover, gallery owners can explain in detail what sets them apart. They can talk for hours about their gallery, their artists and their works, how they adapt to changing market conditions, the art fair strategies they follow. Most of them see these elements as 'decisive' factors for their gallery. Let's see if these factors really set a gallery apart.
Question: how distinct is your gallery?
Is it because of your artists? If you are the parent gallery, your success depends also from your artists being presented on other gallery sites. Is it because of your talent to spot talents early? All successful gallery owners have the eye, otherwise they wouldn't succeed. Is it because you're admitted at the most prestigious art fairs? Look at Art Basel, Frieze, FIAC, Art Cologne... even at the top it's pretty obvious there are hundreds of other galleries just like yours.
You can easily continue yourself... the list is endless
The way you care for your artists, your privileged contacts with art officials, your follow up, all these add nothing to distinguish yourself in the eyes of your visitors. At best, they illustrate a difference. The problem with these differences, is that these are just differences. As every artist is different.
As all art galleries are different
And differences are the outcome, the tangible result of something else. There must be something inherently deeper to the uniqueness of your gallery to distinguish it. How can you dig this up?
Compare with other galleries?
It's a logical reaction. In order to position themselves most businesses start looking for elements that set them apart from their competitors. They try harder. The problem is most try too hard. A lot of gallery owners try hard too. By trying to adopt what works fine for another gallery, they actually miss the ball.
Ask your inner circle or your audience?
Ask your favorite collector and he will respond 'the highly personalized advice and follow up'. Ask a renowned curator and she will reply something else. Ask an art critic, an art enthusiast, a museum director, a member of a selection committee, any art professional: they all will come up with a different answer. Logical too. Because they all perceive your gallery in their own way.
Hey, do we have a clue here?
If different people think differently about your gallery and come up with different arguments, one of the reasons may be a lack clarity on your part. With no clear positioning, no core message, you create nothing but noise.
Visitors look for that unique message
They'll never admit it spontaneously, they may in fact not even realize it consciously. But people want to know what your gallery really stands for. They want to know that one thing that identifies your gallery. Something real, something human, something... unique.
As long as your web visitors don't discover and understand this unique quality of your gallery, it's almost impossible to start a real relationship and make them come back.
Don't do what most gallery owners do
They give up very quickly when they have to find their uniqueness. Because trying to find what makes them unique is hard. Too hard because most keep asking themselves the wrong questions. Questions such as 'What is unique about my gallery?' or 'What can I offer via my gallery's site that is unique compared to any other art gallery?'.
Do you know what your web visitors really look for?
People look for people. Sure they look at the works on your site. But at the same time they are after something else. A little something, a little sign, a little feeling. Your visitors want to find the real person behind your gallery's site. If you confront your visitors with a load of generalities, art speak or even an condescending attitude (it happens), the message that comes across is: 'I couldn't care less who you are and why you are visiting my site'.
Make people visit your gallery's site because of you
You know by experience that personal contact rules the art world. People buy from people, people want to get in contact with people. This is what they look and search for: the real you on your site. Not the conventions. Not the façade. Trivial?
Maybe you'll find this trivial too
Molière knew he had to demonstrate his personality against all conventions even if he risked the dislike of the king, his patron. The only way to get your uniqueness across is to communicate it.
If you don't tell your visitors, how can they know?
It's that simple. Go after the dream you want to offer to your visitors. You're passionate, you know all about what you're doing. Tell them.
Don't hide behind conventions
Let the contemporary art world know about your point of uniqueness. Don't ask anyone. You have to invent it. Create it from scratch.
Don't compare. Be personal on your gallery's site. And live by it. Your visitors will approve it by coming back over and over again.
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