Five Hot Salon Marketing Techniques

Salon competition can be fierce even in small markets, but winning the war over client volume isn't that difficult. Many salons never market to potential and forfeit the incredible profits that a strong salon campaign can deliver. You probably already know that you must develop a salon brand image and that you should print business cards for your stylists and appointment reminder cards for your clients. Here are five more salon marketing techniques that can boost business in no time:

Send postcards to drum up new business

Postcard marketing is a great way to drum up new business whether you're a new salon or an established business seeking to increase revenues. Develop a highly targeted mailing list and add value to your postcards with discount, coupon or freebie incentives to spark interest in your salon. Have customers fill out their contact information on the postcard and present it at the time of purchase to redeem your special offer. This way you can track response and collect contact information you can use to develop your next campaign.

Earn repeat business with a VIP card

Print VIP cards to keep happy clients coming back for more. Your VIP cards could include an incentive such as a free tanning session, massage or haircut after every 10 purchases. Use a hole puncher to punch off the cards after each purchase. Your clients will like the freebie they get and the idea of being part of an exclusive club that rewards them for their loyalty.

Reward referrals

Word of mouth is the best advertisement on earth, so generate buzz by creating a special offer that rewards your customers for referring friends, family members and business associates to your salon. One example would be to offer a discounted haircut, massage or tanning session for each referral. The referring party could keep the savings themselves, or they could split the costs with their referral. Print referral cards so you can track and organize referrals. You might want to make the referral rewards two or three tiers: a discount per referral, a free service for every 10th referral, a free bonus service for every 100th referral, etc.

Publish a newsletter

Newsletters are perfect for staying in contact with your clients. Print and mail a newsletter that features salon-related articles, beauty articles, trends, styles, product reviews, interviews and anything else your clients are interested in. Leverage your content to drive more business to your salon. Retirees have worked hard their whole lives to be able to retire, no matter their age. Everyone has unique hobbies, interests, lifestyles and financial situations, so it's important to understand who your perfect customer is and develop a pitch that caters to this market segment. Careful planning in the early stages of retiree marketing will yield a much higher return on investment and take your profitability to the next level - so that you, too, can one day retire comfortably.

Hold a makeover contest

You can generate free publicity and loads of fun by holding a makeover contest for your clients. Partner with local media to ask local patrons to enter their names and contact information, then pull from a hat to see who wins. Take plenty of photos and get your media to publish the before and after shots. Not only is this a good way to get free press, it's also a great way to collect contact information for a direct-mail marketing campaign.