TattooFinder.com hopes expansion of search engine marketing, a discount program with design studios and viral marketing will help double the size of its business to $2 million this year.
By the end of next year, the Denver, CO firm also looks to offer online coupons.
The site, http://www.tattoofinder.com, offers individual tattoo designs that are scanned from original artwork and digitally enhanced, cleaned and posted for download and/or print, says Lou Bardach, managing partner.
The site receives more than 25,000 visitors per day and offers more than 14,000 designs from 70 well-known tattoo artists in 15 countries.
TattooFinder.com uses search engine marketing to reach its customers through such keywords as “tattoo” and “tattoo designs” and often ranks at number three on Google and number two on Yahoo, says Bardach.
“We don’t buy any pay-per-click advertising,” he says. “It’s all organic.”
Another site feature lets users take designs and link them to friends for comment and feedback. This gives the company an indication of which designs are popular. “It’s a kind of viral marketing,” says Bardach.
The company also recently launched premiere accounts, a free service which gives tattoo studios discounts and special access to the site, says Bardach, who hopes this will vastly increase the number of participating studios in the coming year.
TattooFinder.com also hopes to recruit more studios by sending out catalogs and taking out ads in industry trade magazines, says Bardach.
He admits the site doesn’t know much about its users’ demographics, noting that the company spent more time developing its online capabilities.
“It was a matter of priorities,” he says, adding that this year the company plans to learn more about its customers through questionnaires.