Not all marketing efforts are made the same. Most salon owners are passionate about salon beauty & cosmetics, but not all are marketing masters right from the beginning. Most need help on establishing their marketing plans and strategies to grow their salon business but in reality, the road to success is paved with marketing ups and downs. No wonder why 20% of businesses fail in their 2nd year.
Fixing a marketing mistake can take time and resources. So if you need a good read on how to avoid key marketing errors, check out our list of the 5 salon mistakes you should avoid doing today.
Not listening to your customers
The best way to know if your business is growing and knowing if your marketing strategy is working is to listen to your customers. Your customers will be the gauge as to how your business is doing. This is also the way you can analyze how your services can answer your demographic’s needs.
According to Qualtrics, 93% of consumers say that online customer reviews influence purchase decisions. With that in mind, neglecting customer reviews is a grave marketing mistake. Customer reviews include personal reviews within the salon and also online reviews on your web page and social media pages. These voices are the important ones to listen to when it comes to business especially in the service industry. These reviews could help you grow and improve your service. Your customer reviews can greatly impact your business in a way that you could lose more customers than you are adding to the list of your clientele.
The best way to go about facing reviews is to first-hand be proactive and to actually get reviews. Asking all of your customers to leave feedback whenever they visit your salon will help you know which parts of your business could be improved.
Lack of social media presence
The second most problematic marketing mistake is the lack of social media presence of your business. Nowadays, all businesses can be found online because most of your clientele is also online. Not having a website or social media page makes your business almost nonexistent to online prospect clients. So if you want to grow your business and you want to avoid this pitfall, you must have an updated social media account, as well as a website where your customers can view your business, and have access to information like the location of your store, the rates for your services, as well as how to contact you.
Without a social media account or a website, people will think that your business is not open, or that your salon is not trustworthy enough to be visited. Also, you could use these social media pages to promote your products and services, create promos and discounts, as well as get feedback from your existing customers to draw more prospective clients.
Not training your staff to sell more
One important part of training your staff is to be able to sell more products and services for each person that visits your salon. Your staff should not only be trained into providing good quality service but also letting your customers know what else your business has to offer.
For example, if one customer is only interested in getting a haircut, your staff should know how to sell or promote a hair product that could help your customer get the style they want at the comforts of their home. This is a great way to increase your sales and grow your business because you are making sure that 1 customer can bring more profit. Each of your staff should be trained on how to be able to promote without annoying your customers, as well as making your customers feel like they are getting exclusive or inside information on how to get the most out of their salon experience.
Giving out too many discounts
One marketing pitfall that a salon business should avoid is giving out too many discounts. This may be in the form of partnering with coupon websites or just handing out “seasonal” discounts too much. Giving discounts and making promotions is a part of any marketing strategy but you should be able to know when to stop giving away discounts. The reason for that is because you might lose the value of your products and services, as well as the credibility for the quality of the work in your salon.
Another problem with giving away too much discount is that you may not be able to track if all those discount coupons are being used at the right pacing, or you could end up getting an influx of customers with discount coupons, therefore you will lose profit in a short period.
Getting an influx of underpaying customers can also decrease the quality of the service you provide in your salon. Your employees and staff will be overworked and the salon is not getting paid very well.
Not having a marketing calendar
Even your marketing plans and strategy should have a calendar when you own a business. Giving out promotions and discounts should be planned and strategized as well. Setting up a calendar will let you know when to release promotional items, or when to prepare for an influx of customers. Marketing your promotion with existing holidays is a good tactic so that you could better prepare for this kind of occasion. Having a marketing calendar will also save you money because you know when you are going to get less profit from your services or when are the peak seasons where people can purchase at the regular price.