Flowers lend themselves to paintings. The varieties, colors, and shapes can be so beautifully conveyed with a paintbrush. What if you want to make a few extra dollars from your floral designs? Do flower paintings sell?
Flower paintings do sell and are a popular choice among artists and buyers alike. The market for floral paintings is saturated in relation to the search demand though, so it’s important that painters and artists optimize their product listings and boost their marketing efforts.
Whether you’re selling your flower paintings online or in-person, there are some things you need to know in order to make your art stand out within this saturated market. Let’s talk about the sales landscape for floral paintings and then dive into what you need to do to prepare your own paintings for success.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you decide to purchase through my links.
The Demand for Flower Paintings
When looking at sales demand, I like to look at the platform where handmade art is most commonly bought and sold – Etsy.
At the time of this writing, the term “flower painting” gets almost 500 searches a month on Etsy according to Maramlead. That’s good, but not great.
What is great is the engagement rating, which is the number of unique visits to listings labelled as “flower painting” in 30 days. This clocks in at almost 1,400 visits.
This is a great sign.
A high engagement rate paired with a lower search rate means that buyers are looking at multiple listings when they search for “flower paintings.” It can be an indicator that they intend to buy.
Think about how most of us use the internet when we’re shopping. If we aren’t serious about buying a product, we might scroll through a page of listings just to see what’s out there. We might click on a listing that interests us, but we’re really just trying to understand all of the options.
When we’re ready to purchase, we spend more time diving into each listing. We’ll read the descriptions, check the shipping prices, and read the reviews. At the end of the search, our goal is to make a purchase.
A high engagement rate can be a good sign that customers are ready to lock in a purchase.
That said, there are a LOT of flower paintings on Etsy. At the time of this writing, over 270,000 of them to be exact.
Even if all of the 500 searches a month lead to a purchase, there would be a LOT of listings left behind.
500 searches a month wouldn’t be a problem in a less saturated market, but it can be a big issue in a field as crowded as flower paintings. This means that you need to find a way to have your flower paintings stand out from the crowd.
Relying solely on Etsy’s organic search won’t work. With over 250 pages of listings, even the most dedicated art buyer won’t ever even see your work if it falls too far in the search results.
In order to successfully sell flower paintings, you need to find a way to market your art and get it seen by potential buyers. While flower paintings do sell, yours won’t if they never get seen.
Optimize Your Listings and Marketing
You could have painted the most beautiful roses, but if you display them poorly, you won’t get any customers. Whether you’re selling online or in-person, you need to display your art in a way that sells.
If you’re selling your work in-person, this means having good display racks and easily navigated tables or booths.
If you’re selling your work online, this means having great photos, descriptions, and SEO.
Especially in a saturated market, you need to be neurotic about displaying your art in the best light possible. No exceptions. There is a LOT of floral art out there, so customers know they can find another option if needed.
You need a display or listing good enough to get them to stop in front of your booth or stop scrolling.
Gain Basic Marketing Skills
As artists, we often want to spend our time creating art instead of learning about business. That said, learning some foundational marketing principles can go a long way in positioning your art business as a success instead of a dud.
Marketing doesn’t have to be boring and it doesn’t have to be hard.
To make your marketing journey as painless as possible, I highly suggest getting a Skillshare membership. Skillshare is a platform filled with classes built for artists. Drawing, painting, crafting, and yes, business and marketing.
What I love about Skillshare business classes is that they are designed with artists in mind. Recommendations are specifically tailored towards artistic business owners and understand the unique hurdles and obstacles they face.
They also understand that you’d rather be creating art than learning business. Lessons are short, to the point, and info-packed. Learn some marketing skills and then get back to your art!
Even if you aren’t excited about learning marketing, it can make a huge difference in your business. Does the thought of a successful business make you excited? Use your dream of running a successful art business as inspiration when you’re feeling down.
Sign up for Skillshare and start dipping your toes in the marketing waters. Even if only for an hour a week. You might find that you actually enjoy it.
Build a Social Media Following Around Your Art
Whether you sell your art in-person or online, it’s important to build a community of fans that appreciate your work. Specifically, you want to build brand awareness.
If your followers see your work again and again on their social media feeds, they’ll remember your work. When the time comes for them to purchase a new painting, they’ll think of you. They’ll feel comfortable with your work, like you as an artist, and feel a sense of safety and loyalty when making a purchase from you.
All of us would rather buy from brands we know and trust instead of going out on a limb to try something new.
In fact, this is backed up by research, Studies show that consumers are likely to return to the same brands when making purchases, to the point where it becomes a habit. Once that habit is formed, it’s slow to change (source).
If you can build a community of followers, you’ll have an easier time standing out from the crowd, building loyalty, and eventually getting repeat purchases.
Get Started with Pinterest and Instagram
As an artist, you need visual platforms for displaying your beautiful flower paintings. That’s where Pinterest and Instagram come in. Both Pinterest and Instagram are designed with artists in mind and do a phenomenal job of highlighting photos.
If you’re worried that creating Pinterest pins and Instagram posts is going to take away too much time from your art, I highly suggest getting Tailwind. I use Tailwind myself and it has been a game changer for my social media efficiency.
Tailwind is a social media seedling tool that works with Pinterest and Instagram. Instead of having to remember to manually post your images throughout the day, you can schedule them in advance. Personally, I sit down every weekend and spend an hour scheduling all of my posts for the week. It’s easy and quick.
If you’re not sure whether Tailwind is right for you, sign up for a free trial and test it out. At the very least, this will jumpstart your social media accounts and help you start your journey towards building a strong following.
Social media is a powerful tool, especially for brands and sellers. Make a point of establishing your art business on Pinterest and Instagram so that your art is seen.
The market for flower paintings is extremely satisfied, but that doesn’t mean that your art won’t be seen or sold. With a foundation in marketing, strong product displays and listings, and a strong social media following, you can stand out from the crowd and make sure that your flower paintings are the ones that buyers come home with.
Go forth and create great art!
Diana has been an artist for over 26 years and has training in drawing, painting, digital drawing and graphic design. Diana’s latest obsession is digitally drawing with Procreate and creating t-shirt designs with Canva. Diana has experience selling her art across a number of platforms and loves helping other artists learn how to make money from their art as well.