Marketing Monday: Tom’s Terrific Tattoos

Every Monday, Breaking Even looks at a person, company, or website doing something cool to promote itself online. Have an idea for a future Marketing Monday? Let Nicole know!

I recently went with a friend to Tom’s Terrific Tattoos, located in Ellsworth Maine. I’ve long seen the bumper stickers on people’s cars. I feel like I even heard about the place before moving to Downeast Maine, probably because the name is so memorable.

When one of my friends wanted me to go with her to get her tattoo, I jumped at the chance to finally see the inside of TTT’s.

Being memorable, especially in the creative industry, really pays off.

Have a memorable name.
If you are thinking of naming a business or rebranding a part of your business, a memorable name can help people keep you in mind when they are ready to make a purchase.

Give away free stuff with your memorable business name on it.
I noticed on the counter, Tom had bumper stickers and business cards with the business name on it. Also, he give my friend a ‘goodie bag’ which included one of the bumper stickers as well as care supplies for the tattoo.

A variety of promotional materials are available on the counter at Tom's Terrific Tattoos. A side effect of making your business name fun: people will want to promote it.

Have a website with examples of your work.
Tom has a fairly basic website with examples of his work. If I was shopping for a tattoo place, I’d want one with a website, if only because I would feel a business with a website is more established. Is this important when I’m considering someone putting a needle into my body? Absolutely. Is it important to other people? I can’t say for sure but probably.

Marketing Monday: Working With Creative People

Every Monday, I profile a business, person, or website doing neat things online. I thought I’d take a little break from the usual format and talk about something I see a lot: business owners working with the creative people they hire: webdesigners, writers, graphic artists, internet marketers, etc.

Admittedly, I’m somewhere in between. I do creative services for people but I feel like I also do a lot of organization of creative people to keep things moving forward too. Here’s what I’ve learned over the last couple years:

1. You might not know exactly what you need but be as specific as you can with what you do know. There is a reason you’re hiring someone to create a logo, a website, a painting, or anything really: You don’t know much about it or you don’t have the time/interest to do it yourself if you do. Creative people understand this.

That said, to get the best quote possible, be up front with what you do know: budgets, other players on the project, and deadlines are all helpful. It’ll keep the person from doing something embarrassing like bring up the name of a rival company or time wasting, like generating a quote for a project four times your actual budget.

Marketing Monday: World Of Warcraft

Marketing Monday is a weekly installment talking about a person, business, or website doing something cool online. If you have an idea, let the BE Blog know!

I recently ran into someone at a local coffee shop who was telling me how he was motivated to reopened his Second Life account. “I’ve been getting gigs to Second Life parties to play my guitar and people actually pay me like $40/hour to do it!” he was saying. Yes, this is a video game character playing the guitar and yes, he is playing for actual US dollars.

As someone who’s never gotten past level three of Super Mario, I was intrigued, and maybe even slightlyjudgmental about people who play computer games like this. I was about to tell my man friend Dan how weird this conversation was when I found out he’s a gamer.Dan has been playing World of Warcraft on and off for three years. I decided to pick his brain about virtual worlds, and how and why they are so popular:

What about WoW makes it more interesting to you than something you’d play on a gaming system (Playstation, Wii, etc.)?

You can’t beat the game so the game has more replay value. There’s always something more you can do, which is motivating.Every two to three years, the developers add on an expansion, raising the maximum level of characters, adding new maps/quests, etc.

There is a group element to the game, encouraging user interaction. When you start playing WoW, you join a guild. The guild has their own chat, and there are options for guilds to get together and help each other out. You can talk to people individually or in a group format.

Marketing Monday: Affordable Acadia

Every Monday, the BE Blog profiles an individual, business, or non-profit doing something cool online to promote themselves. If you have an idea, please let me know!

Affordable Acadia: Striking the blog balance between useful information and 'hey, buy our stuff'.

The owners of Affordable Acadia are great about updating their blog with information about area activities, festivals, local issues, events, and history. They even have their posts by category like “Day trips” and “Good eats” so readers can find the information they are looking for.

From a design standpoint, the blog is also easy to skim.They post great, large format paragraphs for easy skimming. The font is large with good contrast and overall, the appearance (clean and professional) matches what’s written on the page.

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