Marketing ideas to get clients

[m2nb]

hey everyone,

Ive just set a grand opening date for my small beauty salon.. I am now trying to think of ways i could get clients.. im planning on doing letter box drops and possibly some ads in the paper.. i have a facebook page but at the moment only have about 40 members and they aren't all from around the area. I also have some local businesses who have offered to have my flyers etc in their shop..

what other things could i do? Any ideas on some deals i could offer to get clients through the door.. I have a loyalty card system that i am going to try. I also had ideas of giving away free vouchers for a lower end treatment but giving it to existing clients to give to a friend so that im expanding my client base.. any ideas at this point would be a great help

Thanx =)

[enpointe]

Hi and congratulations on the salon.

If you're like most new businesses the question is, "What can I do to market my business without spending much money?". Things are always tight, particularly when you're just starting out.

An important thing to remember is to always keep your target customer in mind. For example, if you were targeting younger people your approach would be very different when compared to a similar exercise that targets seniors.

Another important point, particularly with items such as flyers, is try to create a sense of urgency about your marketing. For example, you could decide to have an opening special but put a time limit on it, so people are more likely to take immediate action.

You've already got some good ideas. Here are some others that might be worth considering:

• Get a Google Places listing. It's free and will give your business top rankings in Google even if you don't have a website.
• Think about getting a website and get it optimised for local searches.
• A flyer is a good idea and you might be able to get volunteers to help you post it in local mail boxes.
• Start up a relationship with a hairdresser, who could refer business to you and vice-a-versa.
• Make sure your salon signage really stand out and will attract your target customer.
• If there are any upcoming fetes, fairs, etc. in your local area think about getting involved to promote your business.

Good luck!

Paul.
En Pointe, marketing communications planning, copywriting and website development.

[AgentMail]

Congrats on the grand opening. I am not sure of your budgets, but a couple of ideas which seem to be very successful at present - www.grabone.com.au www.catchoftheday.com.au and a few others, where you can advertise your discounted product and they email all of their daily followers.

Another avenue is docket advertising. Magnus Advertising run the advertising on the back of all Woolworths and BigW receipts, and they are exclusive per industry - The cost is linked to the size of the store and number of shoppers.

I have to be an advocate of personalised mail over letter box drops -It is just more effective, but can also be more costly - not always great as a new business I know!

An out of the box idea might be to visit some day care centres and see if they will let you put a special offer for mums to get pampered for a special price or something.

Also, try contacting your local radio station, and seeing if they will get involved in the grand opening.

Hope this gives some food for thought

[AgentMail]

P.S. - Perhaps you could also tell us on here where you are located - small business people like to look beautiful too
Perhaps get your profile updated on here, and put a signature on the bottom of your messages, click on control panel to do this.

[Jay-T]

Hi,

Do this it works.

Find hair salons in your area...in fact this would work with any business that has a database of names and who serves an audience that you are looking to serve.

Since you have no existing trust built up with anyone yet you need to find someone who already has it so you can leverage it - the important part is that they must have a good existing relationship with their customers.

Approach them with a voucher - the more generous the offer the better.

Position it as though the hair salon owner is giving her (best) clients a free treat "on her or him" - this makes the hair salon owner look great in her best clients eyes and strengthens the relationship between them plus you get access to her best clients - you'll need to define what 'best' is... to me it's the highest paying ones that give you the least headaches.

Offer to pay for the letters to go out to the hair salons clients - letters work better than email it's more personal.

Send them out.

After the prospects have received the letters you can get the hair salon owner to email the them closer to the time to remind them of your grand opening day.

You should probably make the offer a bring a friend too offer so you can capture the details of both new clients - the offer has to be equal for both of course.

Then for extra points take photo's of your new clients and their friends having a great time getting their stuff done and send copies of those photos to the hair salon owner so they can put them up on a wall or send an email out to their customers showing everyone how much fun they had.

This demonstrates to the salon owner that he/she can trust you for further deals because the photo's say that the clients had a ball.

If you want to learn some cool ideas you can check out my blog www.renegadebusinessgrowth.co.nz - it's pretty good if I don't say so myself!

[King]

For your grand opening, perhaps think of it as an event - not a work day.

Get people in, so you can talk to them and use some of the ideas above with the day - lucky door prizes of product, 2 for 1 deals, maybe a demo or two, nibbles etc (food to the style of customer you want to deal with.)

Then, have a break for a few hours and then have a referral function , using the model JayT was describing. This event is invite only - not the general rif-raf from the earlier one

They may get something special....

Your local paper should support this OK, ring up the news room and talk to the chief-of-staff/senior journo. They like supporting things like this, especially if it is a fun yet informative event.

Just ideas....

[cakemarketing]

Hi m2nb,
Congrats on your new salon!!!
Looks like you have received some great ideas so far from the other forum members so I will keep this as brief as I can:

- be wary of discounting. Too often businesses discount when first established and then struggle to get clients to return to paying the higher price;
- ensure that you have a strong brand starting with your logo. This should reflect your brand - are you high end and luxurious? Cheap and tacky? Mid range and stylish? Also it must be easy to recognise by your customers and easy to replicate across multiple platforms from web and social media to flyers and even metrolites (bus stop advertising). You may not be ready for billboard advertising but think long term;
- I agree with the database marketing suggestions made - both via direct mail and online. This will reduce wastage and save you dollars. Have a chat to your local printer as often they can print, pack and post for you for a small fee so no nights stuffing envelopes;
- when dealing with local media you may find you have to pay for an 'advertorial' as it is not news. If you want it to be editorial you will have to find a newsworthy angle and send them a press release and image. This may be a human interest story or charitable aspect to the launch for example;
- if arranging a launch party invite local media, Chamber of Commerce members, and other influencers who will generate positive word of mouth;
- join the local business networks including Women in Business as these relationships are valuable both for your business and personally;
- register your URL for a website and even if you can't afford a website just yet put up a branded landing page with your contact details and an enquiry form;
- establish a facebook username (eg: www.facebook.com/cakemarketing) and promote this on all marketing communications. Your facebook page will be a fantastic interim website where you can put up specials, post pics from the party, do client profiles, and so on.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions just let me know. Best of luck and let us know how you go.

Katie & CM team
w| www.cakemarketing.com.au

[leisadent]

Any piece of print promotion you distribute, eg. letterbox drop of a flyer, needs to have an "offer" and "call to action" to be effective. Eg. offer "present this coupon and receive a free something with...." and the call to action is "call now to secure your appointment"

[SB Marketing Guru]

Hi There

We are a marketing company that specializes in small business marketing www.sbmarketingsolutions.com.au and, I would agree with the flyer distribution, but don't waste this. You should have a website live to drive traffic to the site through your flyers or to call you. Or you can be loosing potential customers.

We have a website option that is very reasonable to own your own website, it will pay itself off in no time or we also have a free website option. It is very cost effect to use the web as a marketing mechanism. But often the mistake people make is not using it in conjunction with other marketing. The one way to target locals is to be on the web so when someone searches for you, you are there. There are many ways to do this through SEM and you choose your budget. So the costs aren't large.

Should really consider this to make this work both for the short term and long term!!

[King]

Originally Posted by SB Marketing Guru

Hi There

We are a marketing company that specializes in small business marketing www.sbmarketingsolutions.com.au and, I would agree with the flyer distribution, but don't waste this. You should have a website live to drive traffic to the site through your flyers or to call you. Or you can be loosing potential customers.

We have a website option that is very reasonable to own your own website, it will pay itself off in no time or we also have a free website option. It is very cost effect to use the web as a marketing mechanism. But often the mistake people make is not using it in conjunction with other marketing. The one way to target locals is to be on the web so when someone searches for you, you are there. There are many ways to do this through SEM and you choose your budget. So the costs aren't large.

Should really consider this to make this work both for the short term and long term!!

Rather sad self promotion....