Make Your Ink for Viral: 8 Social Media Tips for Tattoo Artists
Did you know that an estimated 21% of Americans have at least two or more tattoos? If you’re a tattoo artist, this is great news. More people interested in getting inked means more profit for you. In this article, we’ll go into deeper detail on how to market yourself as a tattoo artist.
One of the must-learn skills for a successful tattooing brand is social media. Social media is not just a free marketing tool but also a fantastic way to find clients.
How do you master social media marketing and use it to grow your tattoo shop? Get started with these eight need-to-know social media tips for tattoo artists.
1. Narrow Down Your Focus to a Few Platforms
With so many social platforms, choosing the best one can be paralyzing for any tattoo artist. A strategy about which platforms you need to be on will be crucial to your marketing success.
Generally, visual platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Titok, and Pinterest are preferable for tattoo artists. As a tattoo artist, you will need to showcase your best work; the best way is with videos and images.
For success, it’s best to narrow down to one or two platforms to help you reach your target clients. Test drive to determine which platforms are popular with your target clients. Build your customer avatar to know your audience’s demographics, preferences, and social media behaviors.
Also, often, especially when you’re getting started as a tattoo artist, your audience is local. Your first tattoo clients will be local. So it’s evident you should also focus your social marketing efforts on locally popular platforms.
You will most likely dominate your niche if you focus on a few social media platforms. Presence on many platforms will mean you’re spreading yourself too thin. You may not find enough time to master your platform, and your style will likely be unpredictable.
2. Optimize Your Profiles
In social media, your profile is your mark of identification. It’s the symbol your tattoo clients will use to identify and determine your brand. Think of your social media profile as the digital face of your physical tattooing studio.
An optimized social media profile attracts your target clients and makes them feel at ease interacting with your brand. It reassures them that they are dealing with a professional. And it also encourages them to ask questions about your services which boosts your growth.
People who click on your posts and visit your profile should know who you are and what you do. Often, leading tattoo artists get more attention because they have established a strong profile.
One of the first, when you’re serious about a successful tattooing brand, is to create a business account on your preferred platform. This makes establishing credibility, supporting your marketing efforts, and leveraging analytics easier.
The next step is to add a winning brand name and a quality picture and create your bio. Choose a name and photos that best reflect your brand and services.
Your bio section can be your elevator pitch. Use it to tell your story to help your clients understand your inspiration and motives.
3. Experiment With Different Content Styles
The hard part about social media marketing for many entrepreneurs, including tattoo artists, is creating content. While churning out video after video might be easy, not all content offers the desired impact. Just like choosing tattoo styles with clients, you have to choose the right style of content for you.
Many artists start their social journey on a high note and quickly slow down due to poor outcomes. It’s not just the law of diminishing returns at play but also the boredom that can result from content creation.
Turning on your creative taps is the secret to staying competitive and maintaining consistency. Artists are more likely to be more creative if they branch out and explore different content styles.
Your fans are more likely to stay tuned to your account if you often surprise them with variety. Building a content creation strategy featuring a flexible content plan can boost brand attention.
Here are some social media content ideas to consider:
- Photos with customers
- A live video of yourself at work
- A virtual client tour through your studio
- Photos and videos of your artwork
- How to videos
- Artworks by your favorite artists
- Artworks related to the top trends in your niche
- Memes about tattooing
4. Seek Inspiration From the Top Tattoo Artists
One effective way to hack social media for tattoo artists is by learning from established artists. The top tattoo content creators will open your eyes like a tattoo apprenticeship.
Top artists with a significant social following have been in the game for many years. They know the secrets to compelling content and maintaining consistency.
A fantastic idea is to connect with a top tattoo artist and ask questions to learn about their SMM approach. Or, go through their best-performing content to get content ideas.
The point is to seek inspiration from other successful artists in your niche. On social media, everyone is learning as many platforms continue to evolve. You can discover more effective social media tips by studying other tattooists’ strategies.
Besides, copying seems to be a legit content strategy on platforms like Tiktok. Once a content idea works, it spreads like wildfire, and everyone is on it. You can quickly go viral if you hop onto a bandwagon early enough to optimize a trending idea.
5. Focus on Brand Relevance
As a tattoo artist, your content is a reflection of your brand. Your content has a role in bringing life to your profile and helping you connect with your audience emotionally.
People may follow you if you share exciting content but fail to convert them into actual clients. Your content needs to address their pain points and show them a way forward to boost conversions.
You must understand what matters to your audience to create brand-relevant content. This means paying attention to your analytics and listening to your customers. That way, you can gather the data to shape your services and inform your messaging.
Another way to build an emotional connection with your audience is to share your tattooing journey through stories. Help clients see the value in your service rather than the pricing. Your story can help people relate to your message and connect with your brand.
Also, think about choosing a single color palette for your tattooing graphics. This will create visual cohesion on your timeline and help shape your follower’s experience.
6. Leverage Your Fans Content and Reviews
Sharing your content on social media can be encouraging and discouraging at the same time. Few of your posts may go viral unless you have thousands of followers.
Many users want to know if your brand is trustworthy to follow, share your posts, and recommend your services. Often, your posts may not receive significant attention, especially if you’re constantly promoting your services.
But there are forms of content generally known to have a higher potential of posing any brand as credible. The leading form of content in this category is user-generated content. This includes your fans’ feedback about your service and images of themselves showcasing their tattoos.
Picture your client posting a video or picture about their latest tattoo edition and tagging you. The attention you can garner from this form of content is priceless. 93% of marketers say clients trust user-generated content more than content created by a brand.
7. Showcase Your Personality
The next social media tip for tattoo artists that works well is posting a video of themselves. This should be a video designed to help your clients know the person behind your tattooing brand.
As a tattoo artist, people may need to get to know your voice and personality to connect with your brand. People may want to know how you react and behave around your clients and work environment.
Show your face in at least one of every seven posts you share. While you may not be comfortable showing your face, you must connect with your audience. Studies show Instagram images with human faces are likely to get 38% more likes.
8. Take Advantage of Your Publicity
The regular content you post on your profile is organic social media content. It allows you to reach your followers, your followers’ followers for shared posts, and viewers of tagged posts.
Organic content gives you a reach, but it’s less impactful than paid social media marketing. Many new brands invest in paid social to overcome algorithms and fast-track their growth.
But make no mistake to ignore organic postings as they usually seem more genuine than paid posts. Your followers are likely to engage more with your organic posts.
What you need to do with your growing publicity is leverage the power of your top organic posts. Think about boosting your top-performing posts to boost your reach and conversions.
With boosting, your posts become more powerful because you’re targeting a specific audience. You can narrow down to things like interests, age, and location to ensure you’re reaching the right people.
Your publicity also helps you grow your network, where you can connect with other tattoo artists. You can ask an established artist to tag you or take over your account to share a new trend with your audience. You can similarly share their content and tag them in your posts to boost your credibility.
Start Using These Social Media Tips for Tattoo Artists
The social media tips in this guide can be a great starting point in mastering social media marketing for your business. Incorporate them into your strategy to give yourself a competitive advantage in your area.
Above all, before you get started with marketing, it would be best to ensure you have the requisite skills to excel as a tattoo artist. Contact Florida Tattoo Academy to learn more about fine-tuning your skills with a tattoo apprenticeship.