New Feature: Artist Reviews

If you’ve read what Crista Cloutier has to say about building your art business or the 6th common artist website mistake, you’ll recall that building trust is critical for your success.

Once you’ve done all the work to get a stranger to look at your work, the last thing you want to do is cause them to distrust you. Quite the opposite is required in fact. You need to increase the “Speed of Trust” as author Steven Covey points out.

With that in mind, consider using ETChster’s new Reviews feature to add extra credibility to your artist website.

How Does the Artist Reviews Feature Work?

Head over to your website and you’ll see the new reviews feature on both your desktop and mobile pages. The tool gives a count of the reviews you have received and displays your average star rating on a scale of 1 to 5.

Clicking the reviews allows your potential fans to read them individually.

For visitors to your site who have not left a review yet, they may leave one review per website. They give you a star rating and add any comments they wish.

Who Should You Ask for Reviews?

Ideally, you want to collect good reviews, right? So you probably shouldn’t ask anyone with whom you have a bad relationship for a review. So who you should you ask?

For pure credibility reasons, you should consider asking for reviews from people with authority in the art world. If you’ve worked with galleries, museums, curators of shows, or even fine art professors, their comments can add credibility to your profile.

Anyone who has purchased a work of art from you is an ideal candidate to speak to value they find in the work of art but also their experience buying from you. Did you ship the piece on time? Was it packaged in a way that didn’t get damaged? Did you make it super easy by offering multiple options for payment? Buyers of your art can speak to how great it is but also help you let strangers know they shouldn’t be intimidated by buying from you.

Other artists are also great candidates for reviews. Who better to comment on your talent than another artist? As Don Thompson has noted in The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art, novice art collectors don’t trust their own judgment. They need to see that other people value your work to feel confident in buying your artwork.

What Makes a Good Review?

So you have identified a number of potential reviewers. Now let’s talk about what makes a good artist review.

First, you want to be sure the reviews posted are believable. If your profile is full of reviews that are clearly fake, you’re probably worse off than having no reviews at all.

It’s okay to give guidance on what topics you need covered in the review, but don’t ask someone to lie! Asking someone to talk about the practical aspects of buying your art is very reasonable. You want to appear friendly to online purchasers after all.

You also want to be sure your reviews have some substance. Single sentence (or shorter) reviews may be off-putting if they back up a high star rating.

Lastly, you want reviews that speak to your story and what makes you unique.

How Do I Ask for a Review?

Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews. It is a favor, but it’s a small favor. And people love to hear their opinion is valued.

Here’s a template you can adapt to your situation:

Note the tone is very positive and complementary to the reviewer, while also providing them with some guidance on what you’re seeking.

How Do Artist Reviews Help?

As internet citizens, we’re trained to scan for reviews on a 5-star scale almost subconsciously. Amazon, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc. all use reviews in this format to help potential purchasers get comfortable with what they are buying along with the process of buying it.

Using this feature of your website is a great way to instantly earn the trust of strangers, the people you want to convert into fans and buyers of your artwork.

Happy review gathering!