Hair Salon Industry and Profits
Like a tired marriage, the connection between salons and customers has long been becoming dull. “New age” e-marketing, (whether through social or another world wide web) however are causing heartache. Salon owners know they need digital transformation if they are to remain in the competition, but many salon businesses are too unsure about the real Return On Investment and unaware of lost appointments to co-operate with the (not so new) “e-marketing” market.
Owners of high street salons are wise to be nervous. New digital generation equipped with i-do-all-online gadgets are the customers they need: The Internet promotion-lovers with money. If these salon clients switch to hairdressing salons that offer “digital” and convenient way of getting clients through their salon instead of them (traditional salons), what then?
Digital marketing is awfully convenient, and not only for salon businesses. For customers as well. Digital salon promotion reaches targets conveniently anytime, any place, offering just a click of a button option to book appointments, inquire, pay and even receive reminders “your salon appointment is at 2PM” either through a smartphone or even simple text. Which means no show-ups, less missed appointments and more cash in till!
Awkwardly for salon owners that rely on traditional print paper advertising (we know it has its own place, but it is beyond the scope of this article), placing salon newspaper ads in local magazines or trade shows is costly to say the least, more and more salon businesses report non-effective paper advertising that costs money without gaining return on investment. And even if magazine advertising work, not many salon businesses quite figure out yet how to keep clients coming back for more with less advertising, and that’s where digitally savvy salon owners can really benefit from having an e-marketing system.
E-marketing can be confusing, however. There are lots of different ideas circulating through the Internet, do this or the other. But it does not have to be complex. The key is finding the right platform that works for your salon, and let’s face it, instead of trying to do it all, simply by having a salon website with regular e-newsletters and promotions can bring dramatic results to your salon profits. Once this system works, you can move on to the other, more targeted e-advertising and become digital cosey with your salon customers and prospects. The key is to keep testing new client attraction strategies, refining, and tweaking to find the best possible combination, and spice up that old-tired marriage with fresh new tricks! 🙂
Until then have a great week
Tamara Machavariani
Salon Punk
