Having a tattoo business is a little bit different than running other businesses, as an artist and a professional, you need to promote not just yourself, but also your business as a whole by offering unique designs and techniques that make you stand out from the crowd.
At the end of the day you are a business though, and all businesses need to market their services, so potential customers looking for new tattoos can find you. An online presence is very important in this day and age, so it is a must that you promote yourself online.
It is very important that you think about how exactly you are going to market yourself and your business. Let’s talk about why it is so important and give you some ideas of where and what to promote.
Back to basics: why is marketing important?
Marketing is so important for the success of a business. It doesn’t only just build brand awareness, but if done correctly it can increase sales, engage your customers so they will come back, but also help your business flourish more.
If you don’t have proper marketing in place for your business, potential customers will not be aware of who you are therefore you will lose the opportunity to become more successful! Surely you want that chance to be discovered by your target market, right?
Where to put your resources:
Website
One of first places to start with your marketing would be to get yourself a website. On the site it is important to have service pages to tell people what you offer, but also have a contact page and a gallery of your work, so you can show people how good your tattooing is. You will want a site that is easy to update, so make sure you get a website built on a user friendly platform such as WordPress so you can update anything you would like without having to pay for small changes with a web designer.
It is also a good idea to maintain a blog on your site, with articles about new trends and things that have a big search volume. By frequently blogging fresh content, focused on your target audience, you are creating more indexed pages to be picked up by Google. Internet users are searching for product information through search engines, so how amazing would it be if your blog answered possible clients questions instead of your competitors? It would increase traffic to your site, increasing your brand awareness.
Facebook
Facebook is a very important platform to use because of the volume of people who use it daily. Not only can you invite people to share your facebook page, you can also create ads using targeting settings to reach people who haven’t liked the page.
With Facebook you should be posting interesting and engaging posts, maybe about new designs you have created, reviews left by current customers or perhaps new and trending equipment you will be using in store.
After you have created an amazing piece of work, why not prompt your customer to leave a great review on your facebook page for everyone to see? One way you could do this is by having print cards in store stating if you leave a review online you can receive 10% off your next purchase/session.
Instagram
Instagram is a great way to promote your visually pleasing photos, given the nature of the platform. Share your new designs or work you’ve done, photos of the team to build a trust and credibility. Think about what will make you stand out from the crowd – post this!
With Instagram you can also use hashtags, which helps you to categorise your content for your audience. Hashtags allow people to find posts that are relevant to their interests, for example if you use #traditionaltattoo, people searching for this on instagram will see your post. So this is a great way to display your work.
Pinterest
Pinterest has only really developed as a popular platform in the past few years, but it has become really popular in the creative sector – especially tattoos. With Pinterest, you can create boards that include your work, but you can also create boards with inspiration from other tattoo designers and trends on them. By doing this, this will help you to reach more people, and also get a larger audience.
Things to shout about:
So, now you know which platforms are the best for you to market your business on, what exactly should you be shouting about?
You really need to think about what your unique selling points are. What is it that makes you a better choice than the other tattooist down the road?
Here are some ideas:
When it comes to posting on social media, it is very important to make sure your content is interesting and engaging to get people involved with your company. Create a post for a competition, for example, win 50% off a tattoo of your choice, to enter, like the page, share the post and tag someone in the comments that would love this prize too! This is a great post for a business to get some engagement.
User-generated content. When clients post photos of their new tats on Instagram, not only should you get them to tag you in, you can share their posts too to show customer experiences.
Show you’re a trustworthy outfit by showing off your equipment and supplies. For example, you could post pictures and videos that showcase your top brand inks, like those supplied by Barber DTS. Likewise you can shout about your machines, needles, and other studio supplies — all the things that set you apart from the cowboys down the road!
Running a business can be an exciting but challenging adventure. Hopefully these tips will get you well on your way to running a successful operation!
