Six top tips for promoting your salon on a budget

Carl Mitchell, owner of West Midlands-based Bonce Salons and winner of HJ’s 2012 Marketing Award at the British Hairdressing Business Awards, talks about promoting your salon on a budget. "As a salon owner, I am constantly looking at my marketing and adapting it to achieve tangible results. The areas I do focus on don’t cost the earth and include: 1. Direct mail Get the name of the local free newspaper and find out how much it is for an A5 flyer to be put in the centre. My local newspaper charges £17 per 1,000. I know you’re probably saying: “I never read them when I get the paper, I just recycle them,” but brands such as Iceland, Decathlon, ASDA and many more do it. Why? It works, so don’t let your mindset destroy your brand. It’s an effective way to reach an audience and with a usual return of 1% take-up you will, and do, reach out effectively. 2. Window advertising If you have front windows, use them. Two A0 posters will cost you about £25-£30 to print. Make sure the information is clear and concise. You only have five seconds to grab a potential client’s attention. Once you’ve started to utilise your windows, change them regularly so you constantly grab the attention of passing trade. Don’t let it go stale – other high street shops will change their window displays regularly, so you should do the same. 3. Partner with other retailers Look at the possibility of collaborating with comparable brands. We have a designer clothes shop in our area and we designed our flyers with its brand logo alongside ours, offering its customers a £5 voucher against our services. Exposure is key and it only costs around £40 for 1,000 single-side printed flyers. Reaching out to a new audience doesn’t have to be costly. 4. Posters in other retailers’ staff rooms In every town there are other businesses that also need customers, so work together. Why not visit shops in your area with an A4 poster targeting their employees. I’d recommend offering a complimentary backwash hair treatment. This doesn’t take anything away from your bottom line as it’s adding, not discounting. 5. Recommend a friend vouchers Many people forget they already have a target market inside their salon. Offer clients incentives. We create ‘recommend a friend’ vouchers that we give to both existing and new clients. We give a client who recommends a friend a £10 voucher redeemable against their next treatment. It works, and is easy to organise and monitor. It’s then a matter of ensuring your team is on-side to then encourage the up-selling of treatments, colour and at-home retail and better still, to rebook. 6. Your team This is one of the best, most economical ways to market your salon – ensure your team members are up to speed and able to talk through your salon’s full range of services. When a team member has a customer in the chair, it’s the ideal time to be sharing the salon news, talking through services, up-selling treatments and providing at-home retail advice. Carl Mitchell has created a salon promotion design service for salons. For further information on this new service, visit www.boncesalons.com