Salon Marketing and Spa Marketing

Salon Marketing and Spa Marketing (Part 3)

Marketing your salon or spa is as important to your business success as having a professional staff and competitive pricing!
Every hair salon or spa owner knows that the most important element in retaining customers in their business is having a quality staff that ensures customer satisfaction on each and every visit. But retaining your existing customer base is not enough if you wish to grow your business. You have to market your salon or spa to new customers!

Salon and Spa Marketing Development:

1. Basic Branding of Your Salon or Spa:
Most likely you've already done some basic branding for your salon or spa:

Create a compelling name for your salon or spa business
Create a logo and 'style guide' for your salon. Having a nice quality logo and style guide for your salon is an important element of branding your salon's image in the public mind. Do you have a quality logo that represents the level of professionalism offered by your salon or spa? Does your color scheme invoke the correct type of visceral response in potential customer's minds, or is it a rainbow of randomness?
Create a slogan (or series of slogans) that defines the qualities your business has that may set it apart from the competition. Even if you don't publically advertise or use a slogan, its a good idea for you to develop one for internal use and focus. This might be part of a 'mission statement'. What are the key attributes of your business that set it apart from other similar businesses?
Install attractive signage on your building and around your business location. Try to put yourself in a third person perspective, and drive-by or walk-by your location. Does your business stand out, or does it blend into the surroundings? Do you have prominant, clear signage that identifies your core business as a salon or spa? If possible, consider posting additional permanant or temporary signage near your location to catch more eyes.

2. Create and Promote a Website for Your Salon or Spa:
Latest U.S. census figures show that over 60% of U.S. households are now 'internet-connected', and that percentage is expected to continue to rise over coming years. The percentage is even higher for younger households, and households with over $50k annual income. More and more consumers are turning to the internet to find products and services, and locate businesses in their area. Creating and promoting a website for your salon or spa should be a key element of your business marketing strategy if you want to be competitive now and in coming years.

Create a Website for Your Salon or Spa
SalonBuilder is the world's leading developer of self-administered websites for the salon and spa industry. SalonBuilder's award winning tools bring you thorugh a basic set of questions about your salon or spa, and guide you through a templated process to build a professional website for your business. You get access to point-and-click tools to build modules into your website, including a home page, services page, product reviews page, special offers page, staff profile pages, online guestbook, and contact page. In addition, SalonBuilder offers more advanced modules for appointment request & confirmation tools, gift certificate sales, complete e-commerce product catalogs, Flash multimedia photo galleries, and multi-location functions. SalonBuilder also offers a customized template program for those looking for a totally unique image that still works with the SalonBuilder point-and-click management tools. Basic SalonBuilder websites start at just $19.95/month, with no up-front development cost! The best thing about the SalonBuilder system is that its a self-administered system, based on easy-to-use, point-and-click tools, so you can make changes on the fly without having to contact a 'web guy' to make updates to the site (and without any cost for updating the site) Also, SalonBuilder offers a no-risk, FREE 30-Day trial membership! If you're not completely satisfied, cancel within 30 days at no cost. Click here for more information.
Promote your Website through Email Marketing
SalonBuilder gives you a suite of communications tools to keep in touch with your customer base. Email addresses collected on the site are stored in your email database, and SalonBuilder provides you with easy-to-use tools to develop custom email promotions to send out to all of your customers. Best of all, email marketing campaigns are free, no matter how many you send - no postage required.
Promote your Business with a SalonSeeker.com Listing
SalonSeeker is the largest specialized directory in the USA for Personal Care Service Businesses, including salons, spas, health and beauty. Make sure your business is listed on SalonSeeker.com. Basic listings are free, featured listings start at $79/year. Increase your customer base through the web! This is a great option for mobile service providers and individual booth renters as well. Click here to check if your business is listed on SalonSeeker. Click here to add a new business listing to SalonSeeker.
Promote your Website through Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SalonBuilder's innovative web development system has been designed from the ground up to be optimized for organic search engine optimization. Organic search engine optimization improves your websites position in all the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, InfoSeek, Altavista, Ask Jeeves, and others. Organic Search Engine Optimization compromises all the tricks of saavy web design that get you 'free exposure' through the regular results of the search engines.

3. Increase your Salon or Spa Client Base through Regular Advertisting Methods:
Here are some standard ways to advertise your salon. Generally you pay for the estimated impressions (pay-per-impression) your advertisement will get. This 'pay-per-impression' rate is sometimes listed as a 'CPM' - cost per 1,000 impressions. You can compare different advertising costs based on CPM, but you also need to consider exactly how targeted those impressions are. Web advertising also offers pay-per-click (pay-per-referral) advertising, where you only pay for the customers who express an interest in your services by clicking through to your website.

Pay-Per-Click Local/Regional Web Advertising for your Salon or Spa
Now that Google and Yahoo support local targeted pay-per-click advertising, its easy to direct new local customers to your website and into your salon! And the Return on Investment (ROI) for Pay-Per-Click advertising is among the best ROIs you'll find in any advertising medium. Research shows that the ROI on Pay-Per-Click advertising can be as much as ten times as high as traditional yellow page advertising, print, radio or tv advertising. The difference in Pay-Per-Click advertising is that you choose the specific keywords that your want to show up for, in your specific area, and you get extremely targeted traffic viewing your ads. Plus, Pay-Per-Click advertising is inherently an 'active' advertising method rather than 'passive'. You don't pay for the ad unless the potential customer finds your ad and takes the action to click through to your website.
Direct Mail Advertising for your Salon or Spa
Direct mail advertising is a great way to stay in touch with existing customers, and has potential to bring in new customers. One idea is to find other local businesses that may share a similar client base and do a cross promotion mailing. For example, if you have a standard hair salon, consider partnering with a day spa, sun tanning spa, or massage therapist.
Yellow Page Advertising for your Salon or Spa
Traditional yellow page advertising should be a part of your basic marketing plan, but many salons are turning away from expensive yellow page ads and focusing on higher ROI advertising. Compare your yellow page ad with your competition, and analyze the message of your yellow page ad. Are you wasting space? Are you conveying your key slogan / key quality of your salon that sets you apart from the competition?
Radio or TV Advertising for your Salon or Spa
Radio and TV advertising is probably not appropriate for single location salons or spas, but if you have several locations within a region, consider regional radio or TV ads. Be sure to track referrals from radio or TV so you can analyze the return on investment (ROI) and compare to your other advertising mediums.

4. Increase your Salon or Spa Client Base through Creative Advertising Methods:

Develop an Incentive System for your Customers to Refer their Friends and Family
Donate Gift Certificates / Coupons to a Charity Organization

5. Extended Branding of your Salon or Spa:
Branding your salon or spa is a crucial part of your business development for medium to long term success. So, what does branding really mean? Branding is the proprietary visual, emotional, and rational image associated with your company. Branding is communicating your businesses core attributes and qualities, and creating a simple but visceral association of those qualities in the minds of your potential customers. For example, if you want a strong, tough pickup truck, you probably think of Ford... Toyota, Dodge, and Nissan all build tough pickup trucks, but Ford is the company that has put the most effort into branding their pickup trucks as 'tough'... "Built Ford Tough". If you want a quick and cheap haircut, you may think of Supercuts or Fantastic Sams. These examples are large budget, widespread branding efforts, but smaller businesses brand their image as well. The name of your salon or spa is the first step. Creating a slogan that communicates the qualities of your business might be a second means of branding. Does your spa offer premium styling and coloring services that costs a bit more for the quality, or does your salon offer inexpensive, fast service. The purpose of having people remember the brand name and have positive associations with that brand is to make their selection easier and enhance the value and satisfaction they get.