The Story of magical marketing and how it put our client on the map...
Jacob Gwynn Tattoo
The Brutal Background
(Don't worry, Jacob approved of this write up and we laughed and laughed, remembering where it all began...)
Prior to working with us, Jacob operated purely as a sole trader, rather than viewing himself as a business (sorry Jacob, we are about to get real!). This meant that he had no brand identity, he had roughly 2000 social media followers with limited engagement, an inactive facebook page. He struggled to create leads- despite his phenomenal talent and impressive commitment to his art. How could an artist who was recently crowned 'The Best Tattoo Artist on the Gold Coast" by the Coasts largest News publication, be struggling to generate leads? Shouldn't his talent speak for itself?
The short answer: His marketing and branding, which is primarily driven by social media, didn't showcase who he was as an artist. He didn't invest in his brand. His captions lacked creativity, he didn't have a target audience and his posting was not consistent. Now, he is an international award-winning artist whose name is synonymous with his niche- colour tattooing and realism ....and here's how we did it....
Branding Assessment
(How Jacob went from a C- to an A)
Jacob approached us for advice, what started as a consultation and branding assessment morphed in to a slightly co-dependent, hilarious working relationship, where we tackled everything from content, branding, copywriting, paid advertisements, email drafts, hashtag lists and more....
We provided Jacob with an in depth report of suggested changes that he could make to his brand that would generate bookings, convert leads, increase his followers and ultimately be recognised in his industry. Immediately, he was overwhelmed. Jacob works 6 day weeks, often 10 hour days and his spare time consisted of editing his imagery for social media...after all, his art showcase is where we want to divert traffic to. So, the first thing we had to do was simplify and automate as much as we could. We had to look at where Jacob could save time and what little changes he could implement himself that would have an immediate return. We had to show him the value of his name as a "brand" and how he could shift his mindset and capitalise on his time.
Simplification & Automation
We knew Jacob needed to change his approach to his branding and the best way to show him how was to free up some of his time. We achieved this by simplifying his administration processes and automating tasks where possible. First of all we created a client database to store existing client's contact details, tattoo details and communications. Then we created generic email templates that could be sent to prospective clients enquiring about a tattoo booking. Jacob was typing in his 30 hashtags every time he did a social media post- so we created hashtag lists pertaining to each theme of tattoo he created, based off a combination of targeted hashtags and trending hashtags and then we created a series of generic story/reel/image templates for advertising and that also encapsulated various CTA; such as "responding to emails tonight", Cancellation booking available, Booking September 2022 and more generally, his FAQ's. This created a simplified process that ultimately freed up a considerable amount of his time. We then created automated emails related to before and after care for tattoos and started to play around with branding, to showcase Jacob as a 'business'. We created an email signature, bio, linktree, socials card and more.... From here, it was time to present Jacob with marketing content suggestions and a communications calendar for the platforms he used....and much to his horror, get him behind the camera!
When you are an artist and a sole-trader, you are your brand. Personality is everything!
It's easy for sole traders or artists in particular, especially those who are talented, to fall in to the trap of assuming that the quality of their work is enough. When you are a small business or a sole trader, your brand personality is the foundation and catalyst for everything else- it helps you stand out, it can feed in to campaigns and most importantly, it creates an identity that helps attract clients and makes them feel like they know you and can trust you.
The first thing we did for Jacob was to identify his niche in a saturated market. He has a background in oil painting and preferred large-scale, colour realism or pop culture tattoos. We showed him how to encourage engagement with his followers by replying with questions, sharing snippets of himself (especially in story format) and to advertise his skillset. Jacob was modest and hesitant at first, but within 14 days of implementing the suggested changes- such as personalised captions, photographs of himself and information relating to tattooing or his experiences, he has a significant growth in his reach, engagement and even his inactive Facebook page.
The stats speak for themselves. TWO WEEKS after we began managing Jacob's social media accounts, he was on the up and up!
A New Website & SEO
We built Jacob a custom website to showcase his tattoo artwork and his personality. We included his FAQ's, awards, and created a Blog (the Blog-O-Rama) and created a user-friendly design that focused on a BOOK NOW call to action.
Jacob's website included dynamic field values, alt text for all images and automations for all contact and enquiry forms. We created a booking form that enables his clients to upload reference photos and we designed custom email templates for all automations.
We completed the meta descriptions and keywords for each page and section of his site, to keep the Google Bots happy and help improve his SEO ranking on the Google search engine.
You can visit Jacob's site at:
Brand Identity: Capitalise on your strengths and sell yourself- it isn't "bragging"
When Covid struck, tattoo artists were unable to work. We collaborated with Jacob again and managed an international campaign called the Tattoo Awards. We developed social media competitions with "free tattoos" and "discounted tattoos" and combined this with a targeted email and social media campaign to encourage people to vote for Jacob and to follow him on Instagram. Jacob won the title twice for 'Best Tattoo in Australia' and over 15 other awards in the top 3 ranking. Given that the competition was based on community votes and against thousands of tattoo artists on an international scale, this achievement became the focus of all future marketing. Jacob's marketing tagline became, "Jacob Gwynn Tattoo- International Award Winning Artist".
Other Services Provided to Jacob & the Results
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Ongoing social media management - Instagram followers increased from 2000 to over 7000 in 3 months
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Created and manage his Tiktok account- videos have received from 3k-12.5k views (organic)
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Have managed charity fundraising campaigns for a "free tattoo" raising over $10,000 in two years for Neurofibromatosis charities
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Created a Linktree and business email
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Email signature
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FAQ's- including copywriting
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Website build, including all copywriting
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Have created over 40 REELS, including filming his content
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Have developed and managed multiple paid advertisement campaigns to increase reach and engagement
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Email templates
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Customer database
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Copy and content for social media accounts
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Press Release and 'Bio' descriptions
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Developed a sponsorship kit
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Have had international publications share Jacob's work and have communicated and liaised on his behalf
A Gold Coast campaign for 'Best Tattoo Artist of 2022' voted by the community. Jacob won after a target social media and email campaign
We developed a hashtag of #teamgwynn and shared a personal story connection after Jacob found graffiti in a studio. The hashtag has now been viewed over 39,000 times on Tiktok and is used by his clients on social media
An example of a campaign we ran to
encourage 'comic book' themed tattoo bookings