Does your art gallery create videos to promote your artists and educate buyers?  This article aims to provide you with information to fuel your art gallery’s video marketing strategy.  We will talk about the SEO benefits and how best to plan the pre and post-production elements to make your videos a solid sales and marketing tool for your gallery business.

Video integration should be important to your marketing strategy. Video is turning the digital marketplace into a visually engaging and interactive platform. Your gallery can use this to boost sales and further increase awareness of your artists since video is now strong for search engines.
Initially, online shopping relied heavily on text and static images to present products. Showcasing art and exhibitions through video has become an invaluable sales tool.  This forces your gallery to prioritize video in your marketing strategy.

Making the most out of your gallery’s video marketing strategy will require careful development and placement of videos across your existing marketing initiatives: the reason – algorithms and SEO.

Video marketing and your art gallery SEO

Search engines have been designed to favor video content in search results in recent years and months.  You have likely noticed that some search results give you videos over website URLs for specific topics.

Google and YouTube are under the same umbrella but have different goals for their algorithms and how they serve their users.  For an art gallery to rank high on Google, you need to pay careful attention to SEO elements such as:

• Keyword relevancy of search queries
• On-page optimization
• Backlinks on other sites
• Domain authority earned by your website

You don’t want to simply embed a video on an otherwise blank page on your website.  The rest of the web page content should enhance the viewer’s knowledge and help search engines know how the page and video benefit their searchers.  Placing a video on your art gallery’s homepage can also help get the attention of Google and Bing and land a spot on the first page.

Types of video content that would benefit an art gallery’s marketing strategy include:

• Artist demos
• Interviews or artist talks
• Collector testimonials or reviews
• Event highlights such as openings and fairs
• Behind the scenes such as unpacking new work, hanging a show, goofiness in the gallery, installing art in a client’s space
• How to videos such as how to properly hang artwork, select good framing, touch up a frame, clean an artwork
• Vlogs

The videos types most often indexed at the top include How to, Tour of, Review videos, and those with the keyword in the video title.  So, as you create videos for the gallery, keep these elements and video types in mind to help increase your online exposure with SEO.

How to prepare to create your art gallery marketing videos

Professional-looking videos that communicate effectively require a little planning and preparation.

It’s always good to outline your goals for the video.  This helps you craft your message and call to action.  It also enables you to ensure it ties into some of your overall business goals.  If it doesn’t, perhaps question if the video needs to be created in the first place.

Next, you want to develop the video script.  It doesn’t need to be a word-for-word script – and really probably shouldn’t be unless you want to sound like a robot.  Just write out some bullets points of what you want to cover in the video and organize your message.  Using bullets helps you communicate comprehensively but sounds more natural vs. obviously reading from a script.

Depending on the type of video you’re creating, you may also want to create a storyboard to plan out the different shots in your video.  For example, if you are interviewing an artist, perhaps you insert a few photos or other videos of the artist in the studio to help enhance the visual storytelling aspect.  Mapping your shots out in advance can help your production flow as well.

Another advantage to using a storyboard is that you can see where pieces of a longer video can be broken into shorter sections to repurpose on social media.   You put all that work into creating an informative and entertaining video.  Get the most out of it by repurposing wherever you can.

The sweet spot for short-form video length is between 30 and 60 seconds.  Short videos have become such a powerful marketing tool, especially on social media.  Your art gallery video marketing strategy should plan for most of your creative output to be short-form videos.

Lastly, the pre-production stage is where you can consider the timing and location of shooting the video.  Will you have natural daylight, or will you need to provide extra lighting if shot at night?  What will be the noise levels at the time?  Will your microphone filter out background noise?  We have all watched videos where the environment was such poor quality it distracted from the message being communicated.

Post-production process of your gallery’s videos

You want your videos to be polished and reinforce your art gallery’s brand.  That magic happens in the post-production phase.  As you add videos to your marketing channels and content planning calendar, be sure to allow plenty of time for the post-production process.

Many aspects of your video will need to be fine-tuned after it is shot.  Still, the goal of the post-production process is to ensure your gallery’s video flows well and the visuals and audio are good quality for viewing.  Ultimately, this stage of video production is your opportunity to be certain your message is communicated clearly.

Post-production considerations include incorporating things like:

• Closed captions
• Branded intros and outros
• Background music
• Text overlays in key points in the video
• Call-to-actions depending on the goal of the video
• Scene transitions
• Voiceovers

The majority of videos watched on social media have the volume turned off.  Yes, all those people scrolling on social media at the office don’t want to get busted by the boss.  This makes closed captions critical.  Always include them.

When a viewer turns their volume on, the music you select can elevate your video to boost engagement and watch time.  The music you include in your gallery videos can really make or break its appeal to viewers.  This creative element helps set the tone and can even become part of your gallery’s brand elements.  The music you select can also help evoke emotion, which, as we know, is a helpful sales tool in art world.

Depending on the type of video you create, voiceovers can also help you clarify your message.  They are a tool to help enhance any audio that wasn’t optimal in the original recording, or they can help to explain what’s happening in the video.  For example, if you create a video highlighting a specific artwork, you could record a voiceover talking about that piece.  No need to be on camera all the time, right?  Voiceovers also make your gallery’s video accessible to the visually impaired.

I encourage galleries to include more calls to action in their marketing materials.  Think about your goal for the video.  What is the next step you want viewers to take?  Examples might include RSVP for an event, visiting a particular page on the website, or contacting the gallery.   Make a habit of including the call to action as part of the video messaging and on the page where the video lives.

To the point

Videos are changing the marketing landscape in a big way.  The exciting news for you is they give so many exciting options to promote your artists and the gallery.  Videos are also a fantastic tool to make your marketing feel more human and personable so your gallery can connect better with art lovers and buyers alike.

High-performing gallery videos transform viewers into art buyers by being clear, engaging, and informative. They connect with their audience by addressing specific needs and presenting art as a lifestyle enhancement. Creativity and uniqueness capture attention, while a clear call to action guides viewers to take the next step, turning interest into sales.

There are overwhelming amounts of tools and editing software to help you create quality, professional videos for your gallery business.  The right ones for you will depend greatly on your needs and skills.  Fortunately, there are also many skilled and affordable freelance video editors out there to employ for post-production help if the technical aspects are not your forte.

As you plan your art gallery video marketing strategy, remember diversity is essential to success.  Create both long and short-form videos and varying types of videos that you can distribute across your social media channels and throughout your gallery’s website.  You could also use them in the gallery playing on a monitor to add another layer to the in-person viewing experience.

If you choose to be on camera in your video or not, just be yourself and have fun.

You might also enjoy these related articles.

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