Creating a salon marketing strategy is crucial to make sure your business stays a success. It’s important to put in the groundwork before Christmas so that you hit the ground running come the New Year. But how? Well, come closer as we share five steps to create the perfect marketing plan.
Review where you are now
The first step to a strong salon marketing strategy is to review the salon’s current position. This starts by looking at your finances over the past year, including expenses, whether prices were increased, as well as profit. Next, look at your clients – how many the salon gained and retained, as well as feedback. This will also include reviewing social media, where you can use analytics to see how many people have followed the business page and what they are most interested in. Doing all of this will provide a good idea of what’s been a success and what areas of the business could benefit from more attention.
Set some salon goals
Now you can set some realistic goals for the salon marketing strategy. If your analysis revealed that client retention hasn’t been great, then it’s time to set a goal to increase client retention by using our advice. Perhaps it was revealed that plenty of people visited your website but weren’t sticking around? If that’s the case, it may be worth setting a goal to increase bookings online by making sure your website is easy to navigate and usable on mobile. We have plenty more ideas to help inspire your business goals too!
Think about your approach
With strategic goals set, it’s time to think about how to reach them. For example, your review may have revealed that certain services are very popular, but not all staff are qualified to carry them out. In which case, it would be a good idea to train staff in that popular service, increasing their bookings. Your approach will involve not just how to train them and what course will be best, but also how to promote new availability to clients. Make sure to look at what makes you stand out, what services are offered, their pricing and how to promote this. No matter what approach is taken, it is vital to look at the cost of achieving the goal and factor this into the salon marketing strategy.
Implement the salon marketing strategy
Once there’s a broad plan for the year in a marketing calendar, it can start to be implemented. This can be done by marketing through channels that clients use regularly, such as your website, Instagram, and SMS. Using an example goal to increase online bookings, you may wish to have a website prompt directing clients to your online booking, boost a promotion post on Instagram, and send SMS to remind clients to book before Christmas. Implementing the salon marketing strategy across such a variety of channels will be a team effort, so make sure your staff are on board and have regular access to the plan. That way, everyone can work together towards a common goal.
Measure the strategy’s success
The final part is to measure how successful each element of the marketing strategy is. Salon software can help with this by running reports on business areas, aiding in monthly or even quarterly reviews. You can then make sure the business is on target with its goals, such as increasing the number of new clients gained during a set period or improving staff productivity. Should anything not work as expected, such as a new price list deterring clients, you can then re-visit this and shift it accordingly.
Salon by Premier Software® not only uses reports to help measure retail sales, bookings, staff productivity and more, but can help implement your marketing strategy via social media, email and SMS. To find out how Salon can help your business, book a free presentation below.
