Article

How to increase visibility & exposure to get more art commissions

December 16, 2021

The 3 objectives

At MadeMay, we have 3 objectives for customers:

  1. Showcase relevant artisans/creators based on their request
  2. Provide enough data on what they can expect based on their request
  3. Display upfront pricing based on their request

On the first point - if a customer wants to commission an abstract painting, we do not want to show them portrait-only artists. Obviously, we want to showcase abstract artists.

On the second point - if a customer wants to commission a landscape painting, we want to provide images of artists' landscapes images in order to give the customer a sense of what they can expect if they place an order. For example, the results page should not be flooded with non-landscape art.

On the third point - if a customer wants to commission a small, 2-subject pet portrait painting, then we want to display pricing just for that - a small, 2-subject pet portrait painting. For example, there could be 10 artists that can fulfill that small, 2-subject pet portrait painting, so the platform displays those 10 artists with their individual pricing.

We use the request form to do this match-making between client and artist.

Information needed from artists

Of course, all artists on MadeMay are independent, with varying specialities and varying price points. Before we can match-make customer with artist, we first need to understand 3 things:

  1. What kind of commissions you can fulfill (i.e. "Pet portrait")
  2. Images from each type of commission (i.e. an image of pet portraits you have done)
  3. What your pricing is for each of those scenarios

This is commonly referred to variable pricing, which we refer to as "scenarios". On MadeMay, this is completed from your Dashboard.

Let's jump straight into an example. Suppose a customer starts a request:

  • Selects "Art" category
  • Selects "Physical" form
  • Selects "Portrait" subject type
  • Selects "Large (24" x 36")" size
  • Selects "2" number of subjects

When this occurs, we display artists that indicated that they can provide:

  • Art
  • Physical
  • Portrait
  • Large
  • 2

It's a 1:1 match - perfect.

Not only do artists say, "Yes, I can do this scenario", but they also indicate pricing for that specific scenario. Therefore, we can showcase that artist when this "scenario" occurs along with the pricing.

Pretty simple.

So, what does this mean for artists and how can you maximize your visibility & exposure on MadeMay?

Selecting multiple scenarios & pricing

According to our data, customers go through many different scenario combinations. As an artist, if you can provide many different combinations, then the more often you will appear on the results page.

As you can imagine, there are many different scenarios and setting it all up can take some time. Common example for Physical Artwork:

  1. portrait (people), small, 1 subject
  2. portrait (people), small, 2 subjects
  3. portrait (people), small, 3 subjects
  4. portrait (people), small, 4 subjects
  5. portrait (people), medium, 1 subjects
  6. portrait (people), medium, 2 subjects
  7. portrait (people), medium, 3 subjects
  8. portrait (people), medium, 4 subjects
  9. portrait (people), large, 1 subjects
  10. portrait (people), large, 2 subjects
  11. portrait (people), large, 3 subjects
  12. portrait (people), large, 4 subjects
  13. portrait (people), extra large, 1 subjects
  14. portrait (people), extra large, 2 subjects
  15. portrait (people), extra large, 3 subjects
  16. portrait (people), extra large, 4 subjects

For physical portrait (people), you can see there are 16 different scenarios. This means you will have 16 different prices for each scenario.

If you also do pet portraits, then it's doubled to 32 total scenarios.

Other categories, such as landscapes, are a bit more simplified because the number of subjects it not required, just the size.

To add new categories, click "Add Category" in your dashboard. With each scenario you add, it will appear as shown below.

Screenshot of scenario examples

Ultimately, you will need to add these scenarios to indicate which categories you can provide.

Will it take some time to get it set up & completed? Yes.

Is it worth it? Yes.

Mathematically, the more different scenarios you appear in, you boost your visibility & exposure, thus the higher chance you have of getting commissioned.

Tagging images

To further improve the customer experience, artists should tag images. Image tagging tells the algorithm what an image subject is.

Why do we need this? In short, if a customer starts a request for a custom pet portrait, we only want to display images for pet portraits. In other words, it makes little sense if a customer gets shown your landscape artwork if they want a pet portrait.

With each image you upload to your profile, it is necessary to tag the image.

Note: The list of tags that appear below each image are based on the scenarios you listed in your "Scenarios" tab. For example, if you have not indicated that you do landscapes, then the landscape option will not appear.

Note: if you do not see these settings, try refreshing the page.

Example of tagging images

As a reminder, to opt into a new subject type, head over to "Scenarios" in the account settings to add a new category.

A few other notes

  • You can select as many scenarios as possible within a single umbrella category (i.e. art). However, you cannot select scenarios outside of your main category. For example, if you registered as an embroiderer, you can only select embroidery subject types and NOT scenarios in another category (like sculptures).
  • Be sure to only opt into scenarios that you have past experience in fulfilling. Selecting yourself into categories that you do not specialize in will get you flagged (i.e. if you have never done abstracts, do not opt-into abstracts).