Is your salon marketing working?
You think it is?
But do you know it is?
How to find out if your salon marketing is doing the biz
Measure, measure and measure again.
I keep banging on about it but the only way you know if your marketing is truly working is by monitoring and evaluating it.
Yes, I know. You’re busy, and collecting figures can be mind-numbing.
Yet effective marketing is as much about maths and numbers as it is about creativity.
Monthly checks keep your business on track
Measuring your marketing is essential to business growth. Track the key statistics:
- every four weeks (13 periods a year) or
- by calendar months or
- weekly, if you’re confident you’ll keep it up.
Which salon marketing stats should you measure?
Don’t just stick to the usual business stats (important as they are). Measure your core marketing tools too – your salon website, social media and any specific online or offline promotional campaigns.
This is what I measure and monitor when working with a hair or beauty business…
1. Measure your client performance
Do this for:
- your salon or spa as a whole AND
- for individual therapists or stylists too.
Your salon till software should run most of these reports at the click of a button. Make sure your figures are always net of vat so you compare like with like.
- How many new salon clients gained in this period.
- How many of these returned for a 2nd salon visit.
- Total service sales (i.e. everything except retail sales).
- Your average services invoice (net of vat). Remember to exclude retail sales.
- Retail product sales (net of vat) for the current period.
2. Is your spa or salon website earning its keep?
Measuring these will stop you guessing:
- Moving up or slipping down Google for your top keywords?
- How many online bookings?
- How many sign-ups to your e-newsletter?
- Use Google Analytics (it’s free and easy) to measure:
- How many visitors you had in the period?
- How long did they stay on your website?
- The Bounce Rate (did they visit more than one page or just leave)?
3. Is your social marketing a roaring success?
Are your Calls To Action falling on deaf ears or are your followers hanging on your every word?
Find out by measuring how many:
- Enter your salon competition via social.
- Sign up for a newsletter.
- Use online booking.
- Quote offer code.
- Visit your website from social.
- Engage (e.g. share, RTs, like, follow, replies etc.)
Of course there are plenty of other statistics you could measure but you can go overboard on collecting figures and feel overwhelmed.
Want to boost your salon social media engagement? Try these three free tools.
4. It’s easy to measure your email marketing
Three quick simple measurements here:
- How many open your email marketing?
- How many click through?
- Is your email list growing every week?
Not happy with your results? Read my tips on getting your email marketing open and read here.
5. Are your salon advertising campaigns hitting the mark?
Online marketing: If you buy banner ads on 3rd party websites, Google Adwords (PPC) or advertise on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram they all give detailed feedback on the audience reached and response rates. Combine this feedback with your own Google Analytics statistics and your booking information for the full picture.
Offline advertising campaigns: Are notoriously hard to measure and assess. Always include a code such as “NC15” in your advertisements (whether offline or online). Then get reception to note these on your till software as people book using the code. Do the same on your online booking form.
You’ve measured your salon marketing. Now what?
With this detailed information at your fingertips you can now look for patterns and trends, compare last year’s figures and see what really worked for you.
Did that Monday colour sale bring in as many clients as it did last year?
What percentage of new spa clients only came for one visit? Why was this?
Are your retail sales growing steadily each month or are they in decline?
Armed with hard facts and figures you can assess what impact your salon marketing is having, make more informed decisions and grow your business.