Get the lowdown on: the dos and don'ts of website design, salon-finder sites, the Yellow Pages (printed and online), designing a great business card, placing a newspaper ad, and more.
E-Newsletters Made Easy
E-newsletters are an inexpensive way to reach out to your customers when they’re away from the salon. Generally a mix of consumer education, seasonal specials, and salon news, these monthly missives keep clients feeling connected and reinforce a sense of community.
Here are some tips to maximize your efforts:
• Choose a format that is cohesive with the feel of the salon and stick to it. Clients will start to feel comfortable with it.
• Once a month is a good goal for newsletter publication. If you can’t see yourself keeping up with that, start out offering a quarterly newsletter.
• Allow subscribers to opt in to receive your e-newsletter. It is better to have a list full of readers who want what you have to offer, than just to have a big list. To build a list of addresses, add a newsletter sign-up button to every page of your website, keep a sign-up sheet in the salon, and offer a sign-up during the client consultation.
• Choose an accurate subject line for your e-mail. Include the salon name and a detail of what’s inside. “Summer skincare made easy at XYZ Salon” or “10 ways to spot a healthy pedicure, The Salon.” Readers will come to recognize the salon name and trust the sender.
• Avoid the hard sell. If you want to talk about a wonderful hand lotion for sale in the salon, start with addressing the problem it solves. A mini headline such as “Winter Dryness Attacking Your Hands?” followed by the research that certain ingredients may help alleviate the problem, can lead readers to embrace what follows — the fact that your salon now stocks XYZ Brand hand lotion, containing these very ingredients.
• Offer tips for homecare. Gently reminding clients of the steps to take at home will drive sales of supporting products.
• Include a printable coupon, incentive, or offer within the newsletter.
• Build hype in the salon with a calendar of events and signature services.
>Help for the Non-Do-It-Yourselfer
Check out these websites that can help with the design and distribution of your e-newsletter:
• MyNewsletterBuilder.com
• YourMailingListProvider.com
• ConstantContact.com
• iContact.com
• JangoMail.com
• Newsletterease.com
On the next page: Using Social Media for Self-Promotion
