When it comes to marketing, most aesthetic and beauty business owners shy away and hide under the treatment bed covers! This being said, marketing doesn’t have to be scary, in fact, marketing is just the way in which you promote your products and services through clever communication – something we see every day without realising it!
So when it comes to speaking about our services, putting thought into promotion and even, dare we say, creating campaigns, where does one begin?
Like all good strategies, it is best to start with the simple question; what worked well and what did not work well? Think about how you marketed your business last year. Perhaps you ran a considered promotion in relation to Mother’s Day. You created social media tiles, organised an enticing offer, planned it out with your team and communicated it well to your clients. Or, on the other hand, perhaps you failed to prepare for the hallmark day, threw together a discounted offer at the last minute and the entire thing was a flop only generating one gift voucher sale.
When we know what we are doing correctly and incorrectly when it comes to our marketing, that’s when we can set aside the time and the tools to create a better salon marketing strategy moving forward.
To create a thorough salon marketing strategy for the year ahead, you’ll want to have a full year calendar in front of you. To save time and effort, we’ve popped one on the next page for you to print off, complete with hallmark dates already jotted into the dates!
Then, you’ll need to decide which campaigns you’re going to switch on and off. For those who are brand new to marketing altogether, a campaign is a specific promotion you run for a specific service or product for an allocated amount of time. For example, you might like to run a 4-week marketing campaign in the lead up to Christmas where your sole focus and messaging is around the purchase of gift vouchers.
Generally, we suggest choosing no more than 8 campaigns to activate in a twelve-month period – any more than this and you confuse not only your team but your clients too!
To give you a guide on your 8 marketing campaigns, your promotional calendar might look something like this:
- Jan 11th to Feb 8th: Post Silly Season Skin Rehab
- Feb 1st to Feb 15th: Valentine’s Day Promo
- March 1st to April 4th: Easter Holiday Special
- April 19th to May 16th: Mother’s Day Promo
- May 31st to June 21st: Winter Warmer
- August 9th to September 5th: Father’s Day
- November 8th to November 26th: Black Friday
- November 29th to December 25th: Christmas
Next, you will need to understand the types of people you are going to be speaking to in these campaigns. When looking at Valentine’s campaigns, you’re most likely speaking to partners and communicating the message of gifting. Marry up services that make great gifts such as massages, couples treatments or even all day luxury packages. Make sure your messaging conveys the point of giving and gifting for the messaging to land successfully.
Black Friday, however, has a completely different audience as people spend for themselves on this particular promotion and they generally splurge and stock up on personal-care products and impulse buys, as the promotion only lasts 24 hours (which creates a sense of urgency from the purchaser).
Once you’ve decided whom you’re speaking to, take out your treatment menu and decide which services best suit this audience. If you’re talking to teenagers around school formal time then you’re likely going to marry up quick 30-minute skin treatments, which have little downtime and require little maintenance, versus speaking to an age-conscious client where you might choose a higher-performing facial which includes the use of machinery and modalities such as skin needling or chemical peels.
Marketing campaigns aren’t always about the discount or the de-valuing of services, they can simply just highlight a treatment on your menu or consistently communicate messaging around a particular product or voucher you are wanting to sell more of.
If you are wanting to sweeten the deal of your campaign, try to value add, rather than continually discounting. Value-adding things like extra time, complimentary consultations, ebooks or treatment upgrades shifts your clients perspective into understanding the value of your services, rather than making them hold off on spending while waiting for the next discounted promotion!
Now that your campaigns are set, your audience messaging confirmed and your promotions aligned to your treatment menu, your final point is communication.
To ensure a smooth and successful campaign, ensure your team is across the upcoming campaigns – after all, they’re your walking, talking billboards who have the most contact with your clients! Then, sit down with your designer to start building your social media, website, window decals and email blasts ready for your next campaign!
If you’re finding your marketing still sits in the ‘too-hard-basket’, our friends at Salon Marketing Solutions have all this and more in pre-done for you templates! Check it out here: https://beauteindustrie.krtra.com/t/iC76bqIh9WZa