Branding has often been associated with ridiculous attempts by companies like Coke to make you think about their product constantly.  Coke is known to have actually paid shows like American Idol to incorporate “Coke red” into their set and attempt to use subliminal advertising in the hopes these over-the-top schemes will make you go out and buy Coke right this instant.  The truth is none of these   schemes has accomplished anything except making normal people laugh.  However, branding is not all a silly waste of money, almost everything you buy has branding associated with it that convinced you it was the better product for you.  Maybe you bought a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s because you’re broke, hungry and have that “dollar-menu-aires” song stuck in head that reminded you that McDonald’s is the place people like you buy their fast food.  Or, maybe you got your heating and cooling fixed by the local repair man with that catchy tag line. My point is, everyone should utilize branding in their business, and since I like you guys I’m going to share some free ways to help you do that on the web today.

First of all, remember that your website should be a direct extension of your business.  Your website, booth, uniforms, business cards, everything your customer sees should contain the same colors and look like they belong together.  Like this example at the right.  See how the website and business card have a similar theme, color scheme and wording? This gives your business branding, helps people associate your business with these colors and helps establish a professional image that always wins more customers.  I’m not saying you should go out and buy new stuff so it all matches. Remember,  I told you this would all be free.  What I would suggest is changing your website, which is free, to look more like your uniforms and marketing materials.  Have tie-dye t-shirts as uniforms? Use a tie-dye designed banner at the top of the page like the one below.  It took me a grand total of about 5 minutes to make it from conception to pasting it on this page.   This is a quick and easy step toward having the uniform branding that keeps your customers thinking about you when they are planning an event or looking to get some body art before going on vacation.
Now, let’s talk about you.  Well, you, your employees, and your business in general.  One step that works very well for local businesses is to begin to establish a comfort level with your customers.  A great way to do this is to have a company photo or video on your website.  Let’s start with a photo, because it is much easier and everyone has a digital camera these days, so it’s also free-er.  First have everyone that is associated with your business put on their uniform and then snap a good group photo.  Use props like your booth sign or airbrush guns, have everyone put a tat on their arm with the business name, etc.  Make it fun, remember, you want people to associate your company with having a good time.  Now go through and have everyone at your company take a picture in uniform and have them write a short paragraph about themselves, how much they love their job, how fun events are etc.  Now on your website you probably already have the standard “about us” page since most website templates have them built right in.  On that page post your group picture at the top and your narrative about your company below it.  Now underneath that make a grid of your employee pictures and their little blurb about themselves.  This gives your website and your company as extension credibility and is a great relationship starter, it will also be a way to show people that tat parties are fun without shoving it down their throats with obvious advertising copy.  When people can associate a name and a face with the statement it is 10 times more believable then just having text.
As a little bonus, make sure your picture files have SEO words in them.  Use titles like “Party_Entertainer_Walt.jpeg” or “Private_Event_Entertainers_group.jpeg” these file names that people can’t see are still picked up by search engines like Yahoo! and Google, and are absolutely essential to coming up in image search queries.  Now you are on your way to branding success.