Using the right media to market your hair salon
Once you have developed your salon's image and know who your potential customers are, you need to find a way to make contact with them.
Freelance business writer Adam Bernstein looks at some of the most effective ways you can market your hair salon to your target audience.
Local Papers
To reach a local audience, the local press is a natural choice. The readers are nearby, the cost is affordable and production costs are low.
The weakness is in the detail of the readership. Do your target customers see that paper and do they see the page your advertisement is on?
Local free press is very mixed. While they do reach all households, are you comfortable promoting a professional service next to a discount warehouse's advert?
Be in the Book
Users turn to the Yellow Pages because they don't know anyone local in your field. In a book that covers several towns, make your town big and bold. In a single city book, make the telephone number larger.
Your ad should tell them your special skill areas and why they should choose you, but don't fall into the trap of putting too much in.
Remember, Yellow Pages is keenly competitive. If you don't come up with the goods, there's someone else who will. You should also be included on the online directory version of theYellow Pages.
Get Online
Radio stations offer a tight geographical audience. If you want to reach a young audience, radio is a powerful tool.
But with the rapid growth of the internet, an online presence is now a must. This doesn't just mean an e-commerce website. It could be a simple website that acts as a window into your world.
Ensure that your online addresses - website and email - are not only advertised on your stationery and vehicles, but that the website is kept up-to-date and emails are promptly answered.
Similarly, enforce a high standard of email construction - there's nothing worse than receiving an email constructed with poorly written grammar and punctuation.
Direct Marketing
While direct marketing is perhaps the most expensive method per contact made, what really matters is not the cost, but the profitability of the exercise as a whole.
The advantage of direct marketing is the ability to communicate a controlled message to a selected group of prospective or existing customers - and to measure the results of the campaign with a degree of certainty.
When you are looking for new customers the mailing list is important. There are many list brokers who act as agents for the owners of lists. A good broker will be able to find a list that matches your customer profile.
Once you are satisfied, your main mailing can go ahead. The Royal Mail has a scheme called Mailsort that can save more than 30% on postage compared with the normal public tariff in return for the mail being pre-sorted by postcode. There are minimum volumes.
Responses to your mailing should be logged - use a reference code for each mailing. In addition to the name, address and telephone number of the caller you should record all purchases made and your gross profit from each sale which will determine the efficacy of the marketing.
More HJi Advice For Marketing Your Hair Salon