Effective marketing relies on showing appreciation and repeat exposure as an affordable and valuable way to keep your marketing wheels in motion. For example, surprise your clients with complimentary services, if you own a salon and spa, offer a complimentary 10-minute head massage to clients who are receiving hair services, or if you own a Nail salon offer complimentary nail-art to clients who are getting a manicure and pedicure. Let them know that the service is complimentary. This shows that you want them to receive the most value for their visit and that you appreciate their loyalty. When they come in, just offer it to them. Don’t give them a coupon for it. They will think it’s especially for them. The gesture will go much further.

Other very effective ways of showing your clients appreciation is sending out a “hand-written” personalized birthday cards with a certificate for a free service, such as a complimentary manicure, brushing or 15 minute foot massage. Going the extra mile in these recessionary times, ensures that the clients keep coming back to where they feel appreciated and that also, almost always leads to the time-proven marketing strategy of “ word of mouth”. There’s nothing more valuable than customer referrals, and it’s a virtually free way to grow your business.

All of it sounds pretty easy, but not all salon owners have the allocated time to keep up with the daily task of collecting their clients’ information, organizing and archiving it so that nothing gets missed. Most salon owners are going to have their clients info stored somewhere. Sending personalized noted and thank you cards are a MUST in the day and age.

Additionally, having simple but effective marketing services such as text message marketing and email marketing is so important for your business as well. Accessing your clients through mobile and email becomes simple when you have the client database. Your client receives value on the fly as they opt-in for mobile text offers. Being added to an accessible data base which you can use to stream communication on offers, not only markets them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, but also allows you to reach out on special occasions to show your clients how much they are appreciated.

Salon owners not only use an extensive amount of paper each year for record purposes, but as an advertising medium as well. Advertisements, Coupons and Offers are sent out every day in order to promote Salons and to bring in the clientele without a second thought, but now the cyber world has provided effective and inexpensive ways of going green in advertising, such as Email marketing, Text Message marketing and experienced website exposure which can be used not only to target a larger demographic, but can help a Salon owner keep track of their existing clientele.

Just imagine a Salon owner being able to have new and old clients opt in on your mailing list with a simple touch of their cell phones and then being able to email or text them monthly offers and/or specials to keep them coming back into the salon without killing thousands of trees.  You will also be able to keep track of all your web traffic and have reports that can also give you key insight on ad impressions, click-throughs, phone calls, online conversions, click-through-rates (CTR) all at your finger tips and so much more, which can help you see for yourself how your ads are working for you.

Going green as a Salon owner is easier than you think and more cost effective at the end of the day. Sign up now for your free evaluation and join the “Green Salon” movement.

A QR code (Quick Response code) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by camera telephones or dedicated QR barcode readers much similar to linear one-dimensional codes on many of our grocers products.

The information encoded on QR codes may be text, URL, or other data. QR codes are two-dimensional (2D) and therefore they can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information making their use highly practical for small businesses.

When you scan or read a QR code with your iPhone, Android or other camera-enabled Smartphone, you can link to digital content on the web; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; and connect the mobile device to a web browser.

Try it with your barcode scanner!

QR codes are expected to achieve widespread use this year since consumers want immediate access to what’s relevant and QR codes are being used to make that possible. Imagine your most recent marketing piece being viewed and shared instantly by your client. You can send out specials, promotions and/or reminders. If you are having a slow morning in your salon you can send out a mid-day promotion to bring in the clients, or send out weekly discount coupons to those clients opted in within seconds.