Running a successful, profitable salon business in these tough economic times is hard. You need to hang on to every single client as hard as you can. Right?
Wrong – I would suggest.
Profitable growth
Now I know I’m always banging on about winning back lapsed clients, loyalty and re-booking. So what exactly am I suggesting?
The point is that you’re after profitable growth for your salon business not just growth.
And for profitable salon growth you need to focus your marketing activity and budget on the clients who make the biggest contribution to your business. The clients who:
- visit frequently
- use a broad range of your services and
- buy retail products.
It is these top clients who make your salon business successful, stable and profitable. You want more clients like these.
Avoid this salon marketing trap
It is tempting to treat all clients equally. But it can be a costly mistake.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of spreading your salon marketing evenly across all your clients. Or worse, spending more of your time, money and marketing on clients with low or little potential to grow.
It is tempting to believe that by nurturing and cosseting low-potential clients you can grow them into your profitable target client. But so often it is these low-spending, infrequent, fussy clients who need, and take, the highest maintenance from you, your team and your salon marketing budget.
Focus on your top clients
Remember: it is always more difficult to change people than it is to go out and find clients who match your target ideal client profile.
Instead, spend your marketing time and money on nurturing your most content and profitable clients so they stay loyal, spend more with you and more often. In other words, allocate your salon marketing efforts to the loyal, high-spending clients who really matter to your business.
Spend your marketing budget on keeping these raving fans and on finding more new clients like them. They are also the ones who will recommend you most often. Love them to death and they’ll stay and your business will grow… profitably.