You’ve got an impressive design selection to offer, you are decked with top-of-the-line equipment, have the most experienced, welcoming artists in town, but do your clients know about it?

You could run the best tattoo studio on the planet, but if no one knows about your studio, what does that do for you?

Well, you can get your name heard. You can achieve this by mastering these tattoo shop advertising strategies. We aren’t talking about anything time consuming or expensive. Just pure, straightforward strategies to help you double your traffic in no time.

So, let’s get started with economical yet effective tattoo advertising strategies for your tattoo shop.

Stay close to word-of-mouth recommendations!

[Source: Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash]

Word of mouth recommendations was, is, and will continue to be one of the most effective and powerful means of advertising. The simple truth is- your clients trust the words of their friends more than they believe yours.

So, how can you convince your clients to go talk-up your tattoo shop? For the starters, sweeten the deal for them! Set a simple loyalty program in place. For instance, if a client refers a friend, they get a few dollars off their upcoming services, products, or consultations. If you manage to keep the rewards tangible and enticing, you’ll see how clients can draw a substantial bulk of your clients.

Embrace social media as part of your tattoo shop advertising

We all know it. Social media is a part of digital advertising and it’s a major one. With the right social media advertising campaigns in place on Facebook and Instagram, you can put your work out for as many eyes to notice as possible.

If you own a tattoo shop software, it makes it easier to solicit reviews and use that content to run ads on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Here are a few ways how you can utilize social media ads to its utmost potential.

Carousel Advertisements

Carousel ads are a powerful Facebook resource that will allow you to share multiple tattoo designs, services, or offers on a single advertisement, each with their unique link!

Now, there are numerous tacks to leverage carousel ads to increase sales, link clicks, or Facebook engagement, but they’re an ideal space for you to display your creative branding chops.

Additionally, carousel ads can be a great way to A/B test features of your ad campaigns. For example, you can A/B test your CTAs to notice which converted at a higher rate and put these insights to use in your social advertising.

Here’s a bonus tip, there are a 10-card maximum and a two-card minimum for carousel advertisements. However, the sweet spot is within the 3-5 card range, as this is enough to make sure that they are engaged, but not too much to bore them.

Video advertisements

In such a saturated Facebook environment, it’s important to distinguish your brand from the hordes when grabbing your client’s attention. Here’s where video advertisements can help you make the difference and get noticed.

Facebook video advertisements can drive link-clicks, with static images, videos, or animations. The latter is an excellent booster for your Facebook ad campaigns. We all know how much time we spend watching videos on Facebook, so why not join the party?

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Run some PPC and display advertisements on Google

tattoo shop promotion

[Source: Austin Distel]

Pay Per Click advertisements are the images or text that appear above the Google results and have ‘AD’ mentioned. This works by paying Google every time someone clicks on your advertisement, but you have to attract them to engage your ad. This could be through content or a powerful image.

Paid adverts are ranked according to a variety of factors. This includes (but not limited to) bid, keyword, landing page, and age of your account with the search engine.

Next up, display advertisements. They are adverts featured on other websites based on a specific theme of keywords matched to the hosting website’s topic.

Additionally, we have Facebook ads as well. Do you know the option to boost your post? Well, that is a form of PPC, and Facebook charges you by engagement or impressions. PPC and display ads are effective ways to drive traffic and gain visibility on your website. If you are unsure where to start, try experimenting with Facebook ads, Facebook’s Blueprint is a great free learning resource.

Break in a few creative ways to offer tattoo discounts!

Nothing turns one’s head more than generous offers. So, why not jump in, and make use of it in the best means possible?

Here are a few ways in which you can stay creative with your offers:

Affordable cover-up tattoos

You can amplify your clientele, and help the unfortunate bearers of lousy design by offering them cover-up tattoos at a reduced price. And, that’s exactly how you run a tattoo shop with swag!

These clients have shown their interest in getting inked, and after they’ve paid for a cover-up, they might come back for the good design that they’ve always wanted! That’s exactly how you grow your tattoo business.

Support a cause

Millions of tattoo shops have harvested popularity for offering generous offers and discounts for good causes. For instance, in the latest news, a tattoo shop provided free cover-ups for ‘hate-related’ tattoos.

Additionally, you can offer mastectomy tattoos to breast cancer survivors. Beating cancer is a serious achievement, and nothing short of a miracle and luck. By providing survivors with mastectomy tattoos, you will raise their self-esteem and celebrate their brand-new start at life!

Unfold first visit discounts

First visit discounts is a phenomenal tattoo studio marketing strategy for getting business from customers who are ‘on the fence’ about getting inked, and need that little push to make their decision a no-brainer!

However, there’s no need for you to go to extremes of enthusiasm, offer a discount significant enough to draw in more clients, but not so large that it puts you out of business. A tattoo shop marketing suite helps creates a platform where you can provide great discounts.

A quick refresher!

Did you notice? There’s no magic involved with tattoo shop advertising! With a few basics in mind, there’s no doubt you can get your name heard by millions!

All you need to do is:

  1. Stay close to word-of-mouth recommendations.
  2. Leverage social media advertisements.
  3. Master PPC and display advertisements.
  4. Prime a few creative ways to offer discounts and keep your clients engaged.

So, get out there, and flex your newly discovered tips and tricks, and notice the more clients streaming right in. Also, if you need a helping hand, feel free to drop us a message or even a tweet!

FAQs: Tattoo Shop Promotion

What are the traditional advertising strategies I can practice in 2020?

Digital is powerful. However, traditional advertising isn't a wasted idea – maybe more so for new tattoo shops. Some artists told us they had tried advertising in magazines and leaving flyers in other shops and coffee shops. You can give this a try too!

How can I monitor my reputation while advertising?

For this, you can make fair use of a tattoo shop management software like TattooPro.io. It will help you monitor over 40 different reviews and search engine sites. You can choose to get notified whenever a review is posted 24x7 online about your business. Further, you can track negative reviews back to customers in your software to understand problems and identify fake reviews to be removed by Yelp and Google.

What is the critical information that needs to be advertised while promotions?

While many tattoo artists stay focused on their designs and services, they often miss out on advertising hygienic conditions and the shop's maintenance. These two factors should be actively advalong with your portfolio and offers!


Featured Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash