Welcome to Part Two of our three-part series on frequent salon management mistakes and how to avoid them. In Part One we focused on data security and acknowledged that technology is a fact of life and business. There’s a right way and a wrong way to adopting it and unfortunately the wrong way can come with serious consequences, like mass data loss leading to company closure.
Let’s switch gears and look at an important part of a salon’s marketing and client relationship management (CRM) strategy: email. Specifically this top salon management mistake:
3) Not collecting email addresses
It’s not enough to be writing down a client’s name and phone number in the master calendar or in a rolodex (yes, some still use them). Appointment reminder calls are wonderful — as are text messages — but these serve strictly operational functions. If your salon is going to thrive it needs to embrace modern marketing techniques. And that means email.
Email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing tools, and it’s not going anywhere. 90 percent of internet users also have an email address, so it’s a no-brainer marketing channel. In fact, a 2015 online national survey found that 72 percent of consumers preferred email marketing over any other type of marketing.
Many business use email marketing to convert a lead into a client. But your email list is likely going to be primarily composed of existing clients. Think about it: How did you get their email in the first place? They came in, used your services, and gave you their contact info. (Or better yet, created a user account within your salon management software system).
Now that you have it, how are you going to use it?
Use Email for Marketing Services and Product
There’s an entire industry out there based around email marketing, offering services, advice, eBooks, etc. The best bet for a salon is to use a salon management tool that features built-in email marketing — that way you’re keeping your digital activities in one simple-to-manage location.
Anytime your business is running a promotion or a special — like a Mother’s Day or Holiday package — you should be letting your clients know through email. Got a blog? Push it out to your client list…as long as it’s relevant content that you think will be of interest.
Email is also a great way to plug new products you’re selling, or products in stock that you want to move.
Use Email for Appointment Reminders
The dreaded no-show. Sometimes they’re unavoidable. Things come up, life happens. But many they’re preventable.
With an email list and the right salon management tools you can be sending out appointment reminders with both text and email (depending on what your client prefers and permits) to reduce no-shows.
Why use both? An effective text reminder should be short and to the point. With email you can include a little more information and add some personality.
In short, make sure you’re collecting client email addresses. It is a powerful asset for customer relationship, marketing, and notification.
Better yet, make sure you’re using a salon management tool that allows for easy client creation and incorporates email marketing and notification. At SalonTarget we go the extra step to ensure that your email list is accurate and your emails are hitting real inboxes by highlighting bounced emails and “cleaning” email lists for your when you migrate over to our software. Read more about SalonTarget’s email marketing features.
