Hello there! I'm Ann Atkinson, a visual storyteller, marketing guide, and studio manager. My passion is promoting artists and their creations, building their confidence to thrive in a digital world. Over time, I'll share art marketing successes, stumbles, and lessons, which help connect with the people who love your art. My journey has been a bit unusual, (whose hasn't?) and it all started when two people fell in love.
All I was looking for was a dance partner when I met Steve Atkinson at swing dance class. We both lived in Minnesota at the time and married a few years later. Steve was the lead illustrator and designer for a prominent Minneapolis firm. I was an information technology project manager, consulting with medium size to Fortune 500 companies. We were both successful, yet neither of our careers were fulfilling anymore. Something had to change, and we were open to discovering our next adventures.
Steve made the transition to a full time fine artist in 2008. Meeting FASO CEO and Founder, Clint Watson, at a conference that same year, was meant to be. We signed right up to have FASO host the website for Steve's emerging fine art future. This started art marketing on the right foot. More on that soon.
After years of working for corporations, too many hours to count, and yes, burnout, in 2014, I took the leap to join my husband as his studio manager in growing Steve Atkinson Studio. By then we'd been living in Prescott, Arizona for five years. I quickly learned there is A LOT to handling "everything but paint" for a full time artist. While I had a ton of business, process, and technical experience, marketing had never been my focus. I'd always been as busy as I wanted to be, and new clients were often referred by word of mouth. So, learning about art marketing was a new experience. I will always have a lot to learn, and have made plenty of mistakes. Thankfully I've grown, and invite you into my art marketing journey.
Let's start with some website basics.
Steve's first website went live with FASO in 2008, and the awesome FASO team gave it a welcome facelift in 2015. The basics were covered. We were keeping up with current works within respective categories, updated his bio as new awards and accomplishments were celebrated, and added upcoming events. We added the Newsletter Sign Up link and began collecting email addresses from folks who wanted to hear from Steve on a regular basis.
About that same time, we had our first conversations with Dave Gaeda, today's BoldBrush Chief Marketing Officer. We learned we were doing some things well, and others could be done better. Our first improvement was to carry our smart phones everywhere we went. When meeting people, we have a shortcut to the website ready to show them the latest works. We even keep images of the latest works in our phone's image gallery, for the times an internet connection is unavailable. When folks learn you're an artist, they are usually happy to see your work. Much of the time, they loved what they saw, leading to a great time to invite them to sign up for your newsletter. Having the website open allows them to sign up on the spot.
A while back, we had an AH HA moment with the newsletter. In the past, if a piece of art was in a gallery, and included in the newsletter, we would link the image description to the gallery website. Our intention was to make it easy for a buyer to get right in touch with the gallery. What also happened, unintentionally, is we were sending readers away from Steve's website. Sure, they would see his work at that gallery, but likely be drawn into looking at other artists work as well. Just like that, interest in one of Steve's works could get lost among other gallery artists.
Now, we always link artwork info in the newsletter to Steve's website. If a piece is offered through a gallery, the contact info is shown right below the website image. It's the best of both worlds. Newsletter readers can learn all they want to know about a piece, and contact the gallery when they want to buy. The newsletter click-through rate improves because we link back to Steve's website, instead of linking to the outside gallery. Folks also find other work they love and can buy right from the website. More time on the website helps folks better connect with the artist and their body of work.
A professional website doesn't have to break the bank, or be intimidating to keep current. Maybe you already have a website. Maybe you've been thinking about having a website. Maybe you have a website, but someone else has to make all the changes to it. Whatever your situation, be sure to have a site that shines the light on you and your creations, AND is easy to maintain. FASO crafts beautiful, interactive websites, designed to be easy to update, even without a lot of technical skills.
With the gorgeous templates FASO has to offer, we've just rolled out a 2020 refresh to Steve Atkinson Studio. Maybe it's time to refresh your website too!
Thank you for spending time with me today. I would love to hear your thoughts about my first article. Please comment. I reply to everyone!
Artfully yours,
Ann
