What your clients don’t know can hurt you!
How much do your clients really know about your salon, your skills, your education, your salon professional retail and backbar, your salon’s referral and rewards opportunities? All the things your salon clients don’t know can mean your salon is losing business and sales and leaving money on the table, in the process.
What your salon clients don’t know comes at a cost – in fact you could be losing out in several areas.
Client knowledge is client engagement, and higher client engagement leads to more:
- Client satisfaction and repeat business
- Loyalty and salon word of mouth referrals
- Salon revenue, profits and growth
On the upside, what salon clients don’t know also equates to specific opportunities for you to promote your salon business more effectively.
Because what your customers don’t know about you, your skills, your products, your salons capabilities – all the benefits they could receive as a result of doing business with you – is the exact content you should be sharing during consultations, in signage and via digital communications like social media, email, website and other marketing.
In other words, use your marketing channels in an integrated and organic way to educate clients about products they might not know about or services they may not be aware you offer. You might also like: 5 Salon Marketing Mistakes You Could Be Making with Mature Clients
10 Ways to Increase Salon Revenue by Educating Salon Clients
Here are ten ways to transform the things salon clients don’t know from liabilities into advantages, and in so doing, increase profits, attract new clients and stimulate word of mouth marketing:
1. Feature a salon professional product of the month and a salon service (or add-on) of the month on station talkers, point of sale displays and tent cards, bag stuffers, in email marketing campaigns, on social media posts, etc.
2. Write “Did you know…?” posts for social networks, web site and email newsletters to educate people and draw attention to products or services that might be universally important to your ideal client types, or that might address seasonal environmental conditions.
3. Systems work! Document a salon service or product launch marketing blueprint to follow every time you introduce a new product or service, which might include:
- Engaging pioneers and early adopters for testimonials
- Discounts for the first ## of people who buy or book
- Try me / sampling and/or manufacturer samples
- Email announcement
- Social media announcement
- Website popup or featured product placement
- Station, shelf and POS talkers
- Short selfie video describing product, ideal client and setting expectations of benefits
- Scripts for salon staff to introduce via consultations, at the point of sale, etc.
4. Draw attention to in-salon testers and demos. Your clients might not notice them sitting over on a retail shelf, but there may be a time during the client appointment where they are waiting on some type of process when you could naturally encourage them to interact with a try-me product.
5. Many people are not conceptual; sometimes they need to “see themselves” in your marketing. Use photos of real people and before and after results on your social media, email newsletter and station talkers that are relevant to your ideal client types and which reinforce new product/service offers or featured products/services.
6. Use surveys to gauge customer awareness and identify areas of opportunity – and then act on them! This is such an under-utilized tool! It is a great way to ask your ideal client types about their experience with your salon and get feedback to improve and refine the salon client experience. In addition, when you ask and implement advice from your most important customers, you are telling them just how important they are to you! You are laying the groundwork for increased loyalty and word of mouth from the very salon client types you want to attract.
7. Your enthusiasm can be contagious! Tell customers about continuing education that results in new or improved technical skills or services now available to your salon clients. You might do this via your social media or email newsletter; however, you can also do this simply by telling them about the class while behind the chair.
8. Remember to ask questions to start conversations about product benefits and service solutions you provide for common (or even not so common) client hair, scalp, or skin problems. Salon clients might not even be aware of a scalp or hair condition they can’t see or identify, and some might be embarrassed or hesitant to ask.
9. Offer free or inexpensive mini-versions in order to entice clients to try products or services they don’t normally purchase.
10. Use flash sales, BOGO’s, new client offers and referral program rewards to attract new clients or increase client awareness about services or products clients are not purchasing at the rate / amount you desire.
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Check out our 2021 Salon Marketing Calendar for a salon marketing planner you can use to build business all year.