Business has blown up for Adelaide-based ‘made-to-fade’ tattoo brand EasyTatt Ink Co since they started advertising on TikTok.

On October 17, 2023, EasyTatt posted a TikTok video of a man’s arm. That arm provided a canvas to showcase how the brand’s temporary and semi-permanent tattoos work, from the application process – it’s invisible, organic and takes 48 hours to develop – to its scrub-resistant lifespan of two weeks.

That video is currently sitting at 5.8 million views (see below). Around the same time, EasyTatt appeared on Shark Tank Australia.

But the success didn’t happen overnight.

Persistence has paid off for founder Pascal Tolley, who began experimenting with non-permanent tattoos as a side hustle working from his parents’ basement back in 2017. The then-law student came up with the idea for EasyTatt while going through a difficult period.

“It was an idea that came from a tragic event in my life. I had lost my brother to the ‘black dog’ and it was really traumatic,” Pascal tells Kochie’s Business Builders. “I wanted to get a tattoo – my first tattoo, in fact – to commemorate his loss. And I couldn’t believe that there wasn’t something out there that could allow me to test drive my tattoo idea before going and getting the needle.”

After combining advanced printing technology with a business model that rewards tattoo artists (they get a 15 per cent cut of their designs sold) and gives customers the ability to upload their own designs, EasyTatt was born.

@easytatt

Our semi-permanent ink almost looks too good to be true but it’s not! 🙌🏼 Full sleeves and half sleeves now available 🖤 #semipermanenttattoo #japanesetattoo #tattooideas #japanesesleeve #fullsleevetattoo #halfsleevetattoo #fullsleeve #blackandgreytattoos #tigertattoo #temporarytattoo #inkedguys #faketattoo #guyswithtattoos #blackworkartist

♬ original sound – 🎶🎧

Going where the customers are

With a goal to convert more customers in his target market – people aged 20-35 – Pascal looked beyond his usual advertising channels of Meta and Google. He found an untapped customer base sitting right there on TikTok.

“At first I shrugged it off because, like a lot of businesses, we’re very busy and TikTok’s just another thing we’d have to learn,” he recalls.

His initial approach was scattergun – just post and hope for the best.

“It wasn’t until a friend in the US told me about a brand that had become enormously successful from TikTok,” he says. “It became clear this was a new and creative way businesses can communicate with their audiences and grow their brand.”

Pascal decided to test out TikTok for Business, the platform’s marketing and advertising suite for TikTok Business accounts, to diversify his marketing mix. It was a turning point for EasyTatt.

“TikTok for Business became the catalyst for a lot of our brand growth, but it also helped build our confidence in developing creative strategies,” Pascal says.

TikTok is big business for brands like EasyTatt

Some of EasyTatt’s successful TikTok content. Image: Supplied.

EasyTatt’s video of the man’s arm was a viral hit, no advertising dollars behind it. But it was Pascal’s learnings from other paid campaigns on the platform that cracked open the doors.

“That video came about because of the things we learned from our paid strategy,” he explains.

“When you start a TikTok campaign you often have an account manager to guide you through things to try, tips and videos that do well. There’s a lot of guidance that you just don’t have if you’re not advertising on the platform.”

EasyTatt now attributes 40 per cent of its business to TikTok, finding a higher return on investment than Pascal’s other marketing channels.

While they’re chasing a younger customer, what’s been eye-opening to Pascal is just how diverse the age range is on the platform.

“There are all sorts of Australian businesses selling different products and services that are having tremendous success just by showing a creative side to what they do. It’s certainly not just a young person’s platform,” he says. “If brands are already advertising on Facebook and Instagram, it’s a no-brainer to move some of that budget to TikTok.”

According to TikTok, 82 per cent of its users discover small and medium businesses on the platform before encountering them elsewhere. There are 8.5 million users in Australia, over 350,000 Australian businesses, and one billion active users globally – not an insignificant customer base.

Tips for getting started with TikTok for Business

It’s not too late to rake in some extra sales this holiday season. TikTok’s free downloadable Thrive 2023 Holiday Playbook offers an easy, step-by-step crash course on how to set up a campaign.

In short, the steps cover:

1. How to create your account.
2. Setting up a TikTok Pixel (the code that measures visitor actions, like website clicks and ad campaign performance).
3. Building your first ad creative.
4. Choosing your audience targeting and budget.
5. Monitoring your add-to-cart conversions.

If that sounds like the ‘too-hard’ basket, you’d be wrong. “It’s one of the easier platforms we advertise on, to be honest,” says Pascal.

And you don’t need to be the most creative human on earth, either.

“If you’re a new brand and you want to get started on TikTok, you want to focus on your business’ value proposition,” Pascal advises. “For us, it’s that we help people avoid tattoo regret. We help people test drive their tattoo idea. That’s the platform that we try to base our creative ideas from.

“So I think that’s where a brand should start – what is it that we do that’s unique? Now, how can we use TikTok to communicate that in a creative way? Getting creative is the hard part, but once the momentum starts, that confidence builds and it’s absolutely worth it.”

Download TikTok’s free Thrive 2023 Holiday Playbook here.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with TikTok For Business.

Feature images: Supplied.