Want to get more exposure for your art, but without a big marketing budget?
All you need is an Instagram account.
It’s one of the best social media platforms to grow an audience, build a raving fan base, and sell your art.
If you’re curious about how to promote yourself on Instagram as an artist, you’re in the right place.
Below, you’ll find tips to:
• How to get more followers on Instagram for artists
• Write a bio that sells
• Find the best Instagram artist hashtags
• Get more exposure for FREE!
Without further ado, let’s get started and start growing your art business on Instagram!
How to Use Instagram as an Artist and Sell Your Art
Write an Instagram Artist Bio That Sells
Your Instagram bio is your elevator pitch. It’s the first thing someone sees, and you only have a couple of seconds to make a good first impression.
Here’s what you want to include in your Instagram artist bio:
• What type of artist are you: Painter? Photographer? Illustrator? Make it clear what mediums you work with in your bio
• Create a call-to-action (CTA): Use your CTA to tell your followers to check out your portfolio or online shop. You don’t want someone to follow and forget about you. Focus on directing people to your website so you can make sales
• Add contact information: Use the buttons on Instagram to make it easy for people to email you
• Add a Shop: If you sell prints or physical copies of your art, connect your shop to your Instagram profile. It will come up as a button underneath your bio, making it easy for people to shop your art without leaving the app
Create a Content Calendar
If you want to grow your artist account on Instagram, you need to post consistently — not just once in a blue moon.
Sign up for a free Plann account, and schedule your content for the entire week or month. You can batch create all your captions and set each post to manually post!
You don’t even need to remember to log on to post at the best time for your account. Plann does all the hard work for you with auto posting, giving you more time to create and engage with your community.
Psst…You can batch create and schedule your Instagram Stories too!
Use Art Hashtags to Get Followers
There is a trick to finding the right hashtags for your account.
You want to pick hashtags that are relevant to what you do and aren’t saturated.
What’s a saturated hashtag?
It’s a tag with millions of posts. With so many people using it, your post will quickly get pushed to the bottom, minimizing your visibility.
When you’re starting out, you want to pick hashtags that aren’t super competitive. It will help you get into the ‘Top Posts’ section. Once your account grows and you have higher engagement, you can target bigger hashtags.
For example:
• #artist has 246,939,474 posts. It’s super competitive and can apply to many different types of artists.
• #australianartists has 215,691 posts. It’s more specific and has less competition.
• #portraitpainter has 166,463 posts. It is focused on a particular art style, and you’ll attract more relevant followers who are easier to convert into buyers.
Want a list of the best Instagram artist hashtags? Check out this 200+ hashtag guide by Shihori Obata.
Tag Art Promotion Instagram Accounts
One of the best ways to reach more art lovers is through art promotion Instagram accounts.
What’s an art promotion account? These are accounts dedicated to featuring artists and their work.
How do you get featured? Use their hashtags and tag the account on your posts.
How do you find art promotion accounts? Search keywords related to what you do. For example, if you search ‘oil painters,’ you’ll find a feature account called
‘Oil painters of Instagram.’ You can also check what accounts other artists are tagging in their posts.
Tip: Watch out for feature accounts that want you to pay. If the engagement is low, the account might have bought bot followers. There’s also no way to know if the likes are real people or bot accounts as well.
Create Reels
The head of Instagram recent;y announced it’s no longer a photo-sharing app. It’s ditching static posts in favor of video content, i.e., Reels.
How can you take advantage of these changes and still sell your art on Instagram?
Create Reels showing off your artistic process and artwork:
• Make a timelapse of you working on your next piece
• Create a slideshow of different pieces
• Show off your latest product
That said, your Reels don’t need to only be about your art. You can create fun videos highlighting the highs and lows of working artists, join in on an art challenge, or create a quick tutorial on a technique.
Tip: With the app pushing the feature to compete with TikTok, Reels are an excellent way to grow on Instagram and gain exposure.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CRD-liBpml6/
Build Relationships with Your Followers
Here’s the thing.
Once people have found your account through a hashtag or a Reel, you need to build that relationship.
Why?
Because people buy from people, they know. You want to create deeper connections. It will make your followers trust you. When someone trusts you, it’s much easier to convince them to give you money.
How do you build relationships and trust as an artist on Instagram?
• Engage with your followers.
• Reply to all your comments
• Like and comment on your followers content
• Use the Poll and Questions feature on Instagram Stories to start DM conversations
Host an Art Giveaway
People love free stuff
It’s why giveaways on Instagram are so successful.
It’s also a great way to say thank you to your loyal followers and get more eyes on your content.
You can team up with other artists to generate more buzz or host the giveaway by yourself. Whatever you decide to do, these are the basic entry requirements to keep in mind:
1. To enter, you must follow all accounts hosting the competition
2. Like the post
3, Comment and tag 1 or 3 friends
Tip: If you don’t want to pay for international shipping, make sure you say the competition is only open to users in your country.
The Best Art Instagram Accounts
Need a dose of art inspiration? Here are some of the best artists on Instagram. Follow and see how these artists promote and grow their business on the platform.
Ready to Start Promoting Your Art on Instagram?
Now that you know how to promote yourself on Instagram as an artist, start Plann’ing your content.
Sign up for a free Plann account and master your content strategy. With a healthy dose of consistency, you’ll start growing your audience, gaining more exposure for your art, and making more sales!
