Jul 5, 2021

Business Insights #12: Increase Your Salon's Visibility

“Clients won’t come to you if they don’t know about you!”

Marketing and promotions are two sides of the same coin. They address the core need of any business – making clients aware of you, getting them into your salon and getting them shopping.

In basic terms marketing is everything you do to make the community aware of your brand. ‘Putting yourself out there’. One of the most successfully marketed companies is Coca Cola. To keep people buying their product their logo can be seen everywhere - Shop signage, on their delivery trucks, sponsorships and endorsements and of course, advertising and promotion. It is so successful one could easily believe they have no competitors in the soft drink market.

Marketing really begins with building your brand values, your standard of service, the quality of your work, how pro-active your staff are at solving problems. In other words the image (memory) the clients take away from their salon experience. The more clients rave about your brand the more new clients you will get. This is called networking and is one of the most effective forms of marketing. Any activity you are involved in - sponsoring school functions, piggybacking with beauty and fashion outlets or even turning your top clients into Ambassadors for your salon are part of your marketing strategy.

The two main dynamics in marketing are IMAGE & REPUTATION.

Promotion on the other hand is all about being pro-active in your business. Promotions will not make you successful, but they will make you more interesting. Promotions also don’t need to cost you a lot of money because the most successful promotions are those that are creative and imaginative and, rather than providing a temporary discount, add value to the service they are already getting. When it comes to consumer spending in the service industry there is a psychological reason for this, trust me!

Promotions can be split up into three types - traditional, themed and spontaneous.

These are traditionally Valentines, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day’ Easter, Christmas etc.

Themed promotions can include seasonal changes, new product launches, even your Salon’s Anniversary becomes an opportunity to promote your business. Hat days, where everybody wears a hat, the 60's, playing 60’s music in the salon and of course Christmas are all examples of themes which require some planning and are normally low cost. (You only need lots of money if you lack creativity and imagination). The success of these promotions is the 'celebration element', the degree with which staff get into the spirit of the promotion.

Spontaneous or sell through promotions can have the biggest impact on your turnover and are so easy to do. During my time running Clinique here in South Africa we used this form of promotion to build turnover whenever we were behind on target. Simply decide on a promotional focus. It could be hair loss, dry hair, colour fade, colour correction, trauma caused by mechanical appliances, pollution, chemical processes - the areas of opportunity are endless. The salon then focusses on one of those issues for a period of two weeks. Every client needs to be consulted on the promotional focus.

For example hair loss. For two weeks every client is educated on the topic of hair loss. The various causes, how it affects people in different ways and most importantly, how clients can help reduce hair loss. The consultation must include products available. To set the stage, have support material on the section - books, pictures etc as well as the products you recommend for the treatment of hair loss. The great thing about this particular focus is whether the client suffers from hair loss or not it is almost guaranteed that she knows someone who does.

Another example is colour fade. Because colour involves a large financial investment, clients are hungry for ideas how to make their colours look fresher, longer. Once again it is important to educate clients regarding the primary causes of colour loss and have the recommended products on your section for clients to see, to hold and to refer to.

To ensure success make sure staff are fully trained on the features and benefits of the solutions they are promoting.

Focused Promotions are guaranteed to increase retail sales by 15-25% as well as educating clients about other in-salon services such as treatments.

Over a period of time you will build up a history of these promotions and by using the Client Source function on My Salon Software you will be able to see which marketing and promotional activities give you the best results. These become the basis of future promotional planning.

A final word on promotions 'Nothing promotes your business better than a team of professional experts committed to giving each and every client the best hair and the best salon experience every time they come into the salon’.

This blog is one of a series of business insights which can be accessed on www.mysalonsoftware.co.za. If you have any questions or specific requests please email info@mysalonsoftware.co.za.