Perfectly Imperfect Stella Tribute No.4, wood block print on cardboard

Failing on Instagram

Ditch Instagram if you want to engage with, build lasting relationships, and sell your art to new collectors.

After struggling to gain any sales on Instagram for over one year, I now understand that I've wasted my time trying. Sure it may work for some artists, but not for me. I couldn't even find any followers who would accept my art as gifts - even with free shipping included.

My art is not the problem; it's Instagram.

Most of my posts receive positive comments, one of my posts has even received over 1000 organic likes, and a couple of internationally recognized artists follow me. So the problem is most likely not the quality of my art.

The problem is more likely that Instagram is designed to keep people on its platform.

Instagram does its best not to send people to my website.

Pinterest is the exact opposite of Instagram.

Instead of being a social media platform, Pinterest is more like a visual search engine.

When someone sees something they like on Pinterest, not only can they pin it (bookmark it), but they have the opportunity to click on a clearly presented link to the source of the image. This outgoing link is a potentially powerful source of traffic to your website that does not cost you one cent!

This opportunity to drive traffic directly to my website without spending money on ads is why I will now be focusing most of my marketing efforts on Pinterest.

Do you agree? 

What's your experience of marketing your art on Instagram? Would you also consider focusing more on Pinterest?

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks!