Three Tips For Spring Cleaning Your Marketing

February 2010

1. Don't give your profits away lightly. It is easy to panic when faced with a quiet spell and many salons resort to discounts and price cuts. Discounts certainly have a role, however, only use them when you have calculated that the net result will be profitable. Where possible, avoid competing on price alone. You'll find making a profit far easier when you compete on those elements which make you different to and better than your competitors.
   
   
2. Don't give your clients impersonal treatment. Put yourself in your clients' shoes and take a hard look at all your customer interactions. Are they as personal as they should be? Letting your salon software send automatic  e-mail reminders to lapsed clients may make you feel you can tick the "done marketing for this week" box but it is not treating clients like individuals. You need to make them feel special to gain their loyalty  and if they keep getting standard e-mail reminders they may well start feeling irritated with you for bothering them.
   
   
3. Don't stop marketing. We're going through the worst economic conditions since the war. Maintaining communication with your clients is more important than ever. Study after study confirms that in a downturn, those businesses that keep marketing do much better than their competitors once the economy starts to pick up.