Your salon website can become the hub of your marketing activity, you should show your website address clearly in all your salon posters and leaflets. It is available 24/7 for potential customers, and if you combine it with email marketing you have an extremely cost-effective way to get your latest salon promotions and offers to your customers and prospective customers.

But it is not enough just to build a great website, and keep it updated with fresh information and offers. If your website doesn’t appear in the first page of the search engine results when customers search for local services like yours, even the best website is useless. That’s why a large part of the work we do when we build a salon website is focussed on what internet marketers call “search engine optimization” (or SEO for short).

But if you can’t afford a service like ours (and we’re not cheap!) how can you get started with Search Engine Optimization for your salon website? There is a lot of information out there, much of it contradictory, much of it outdated, and some of it just plain wrong! Fortunately, Google themselves recently published a guide to SEO for beginners - Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (link to PDF). In the introduction, they say -

This document first began as an effort to help teams within Google, but we thought it’d be just as useful to webmasters that are new to the topic of search engine optimization and wish to improve their sites’ interaction with both users and search engines. Although this guide won’t tell you any secrets that’ll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search engines to both crawl and index your content.

Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like incremental improvements, but when combined with other optimizations, they could have a noticeable impact on your site’s user experience and performance in organic search results. You’re likely already familiar with many of the topics in this guide, because they’re essential ingredients for any webpage, but you may not be making the most out of them.

There’s 22 pages of excellent suggestions to improve your salon website, from the very basic to some “slightly techie” stuff that may be beyond a beginner. But if you work your way through and implement the suggestions that you understand, you’ll have made a great start. You’ll also find some useful tips in the Related Articles listed below.

And if you would rather leave it to the experts and would like us to design your salon website, send an email inquiry to martin@beauty-salon-marketing.co.uk

Related articles on the Beauty Salon Marketing website -

• Internet Salon Marketing - 10 reasons to use Facebook
• Salon Internet Marketing - Google submit your content
• Salon Internet Marketing - Where does Google find reviews?
• Salon Websites - ranking factors for Google UK
• Salon Internet Marketing - Why Google rankings matter

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Salon Websites - Google Search Engine Optimization Guide

Another SalonGeek member shared a useful idea for a salon Christmas marketing promotion yesterday. “Calla” wrote More Ways to Promote Your Business -

I’ve just spent a couple of hours sending emails to all the local golf clubs, day nurseries and independent schools offering a gift voucher for their Christmas Fayres/Raffles/Draws.
Given that of the several hundred pounds worth of gift vouchers I have sold only 3 have been redeemed, I decided that it was worth a gamble. It gets my name into even more local venues (I shall drop off a load of flyers when I drop off the gift voucher) and puts me in a good light in the eyes of the local businesses.
Already I have had one of the clubs ring to take me up on the offer!
Remember to keep promoting your business during these straitened times!

Read the full discussion, and Calla also shares the text of the email she used… plus other readers share their ideas and successes with similar salon marketing promotions.

And remember to read our recent roundup of our most popular salon marketing and salon promotions articles, for more marketing ideas and tips - Salon Marketing - popular articles, tips and ideas

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Salon Marketing - Another Christmas promotion idea

What about running a Swishing Party, in your salon, for your customers?

Swishing is in the news. In the UK the BBC ran a series of programmes on the subject, hosted by former model Twiggy. And as it looks more likely that the Credit Crunch will turn into a recession, your customers will be looking for ways to save money, but still wanting a new outfit for the Christmas Party season.

So what is “Swishing”? The website Swishing.org describes it as “ethical fashion and clothes swapping” -

The Art of Swishing involves getting your friends together to swap gorgeous clothes and party at the same time. Every lady must bring at least one good quality, clean item of clothing, or an accessory, that she’d feel proud to hand on.

The BBC has a news report (and video of a Swishing Party), click here to read it. They say -

Want a new outfit but loath to splash out when every penny counts? A swishing party is a swap shop for the smart set.

Swishing is a growing trend, where a gaggle of fashion-loving women get together, feast on nibbles, guzzle wine and swap their clothes. Eco-fabulous recycling at its best.

Lucy (Shea) adds although women love to shop, many feel guilty about splashing out on new clothes.

“Swishing parties are particularly significant in the current economic climate - why spend £100 on a new pair of shoes when you can come to a swishing party and get them for free? And, the best thing is you can have some glasses of wine, nibbles and make new friends who like you love fashion.”

If you want to run a Christmas Swishing Party (or any other time of the year) you can find the “rules” and examples of invitations to donwload on the Swishing website’s You Swish page. And remember to add your event to their calendar.

You’ll need to decide how much to promote your salon and its services during the event. Perhaps it’s enough that you are hosting the event in your salon - people will see your leaflets and posters around the place. Or perhaps you want to go for more active salon marketing. You, or your staff, could be on hand offering free makeup and hair styling tips to match the new outfits. Or you could give out free samples of your retail products… or offer makeovers… raffles… goodie-bags… free consultations.

Related articles on the Beauty Salon Marketing website -

• Salon Marketing - How to get free publicity
• Quick Tip - How to do discounts or vouchers
• Do you let retail sales walk out of your salon?
• How not to sell gift certificates… and secret shoppers
• Salon Promotions - Increase results from your leaflet drop

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Salon Promotions - what about a Swishing Party?

Probably the most popular article overall is our white paper - Getting Through the Credit Crunch, How to Recession Proof Your Salon. It has been read and downloaded thousands of times since we posted it a few months ago. Amidst the doom and gloom we reported some potentially positive news for the beauty industry in Credit Crunch, Women Sacrifice Food Before Beauty.

Starting a Salon - What to Name Your Salon attracts many visitors looking for ideas for beauty salon names or hair salon names. If you are looking for ideas for salon names because you’re setting up a salon, have a look at our article - Setting up a Salon, is now a good time to start a salon? - which also has links to our related articles on starting a salon at the bottom of the article.

With Christmas fast approaching, many salon owners are looking for ideas for salon Christmas promotions and Christmas marketing. Our article on Salon Promotions, Christmas Retail Product Ideas is proving very popular!

A lot of people are looking for ideas and inspiration for beauty salon logos and hair salon logos. If you’re thinking about the design of a salon logo, try our articles, Beauty Salon Logos, Hair Salon Logos, Free Logo Design Templates and Salon Logos, Salon Websites, Free Design Inspiration. We’ve also compiled a list of some of the best places to find free photos and images for your salon website, salon posters, or salon leaflets - Salon Advertising, Free Stock Photos for Websites, Posters, Leaflets.

Salon business plans and salon marketing plans are always important, but especially in these difficult economic times. We’ve provided a list of some of the best sources for free business plan templates - Salon Business Plan, Free Business Plan Templates. And if you are working out your salon marketing plan for Christmas or another important salon promotion, take a look at Marketing Plans, Business Plans, a Lesson from Winnie the Pooh.

Many people are looking for hair salons for sale, or beauty salons for sale, despite the gloomy predictions about the economy. If you are thinking of buying a salon, we compiled a list of some of the business for sale websites that seem to have the best lists of salons and beauty businesses for sale - Salons for Sale, Business for Sale Websites. And if you’re in the USA, you may want to try the business valuation service we mentioned in Selling or Buying a Salon, What is Your Salon Worth?

Salon websites are becoming a hot topic. As money gets tighter, many large companies are switching more of their marketing budgets to web marketing, where they are finding they get a better return on their investment… and many savvy salon owners are following suit! We recently started a new service for salon owners wanting to take their salon websites to the next level of sophistication. But if you’re just getting started with internet marketing and salon websites, you may want to look at these articles -

• Your Salon Website - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics
• Salon Websites - 3 steps to protect your domain name
• Internet Salon Marketing - 10 reasons to use Facebook
• Salon Internet Marketing - Google submit your content
• Salon Internet Marketing - Where does Google find reviews?
• Salon Internet Marketing - should you advertise your salon online?
• Internet Salon Advertising - have you tried Brownbook?

Salon promotions, retail sales, leaflet drops, advertising, publicity, and other salon marketing ideas are always popular. Here are a few of our most popular articles -

• Salon Marketing - How to get free publicity
• Quick Tip - How to do discounts or vouchers
• Do you let retail sales walk out of your salon?
• How not to sell gift certificates… and secret shoppers
• Salon Promotions - Increase results from your leaflet drop

And if you are looking to share ideas, discuss problems and get support from other salon owners, we highly recommend the Salon Geek forum.

If you find any of these articles useful, why not sign up for our email newsletter (using the form at the top-right of the page) and we’ll send you email updates about new salon marketing ideas, tips and articles when we add them.

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Salon Marketing - popular articles, tips and ideas

Jonathan Jay, founder of business growth consultancy SuccessTrack, believes that an economic downturn is the best time to start a new business venture. He’s so convinced that he’s running a free seminar in London for people thinking of starting a business - StartUp Now UK

Jay gives 7 reasons why this is a good time to be starting a business, most of which could apply to setting up a salon if you apply the thinking to a local level -

1. The nervous will be getting out of your way - there is less competition from other start-ups.

2. The ‘top dog’ in any industry is often so weighed down in administration and tradition they will struggle and make cutbacks. You can enter markets the big companies can’t afford to market to any more.

3. The job market will be flooded with talented people made redundant by struggling businesses. These people have the fire in their belly to work with you to be the next market leader.

4. Commercial rents are lower and you can pick up good property bargains.

5. While everyone else is moaning about how bad everything is, you have the opportunity to build your own empire and then everyone will say, “How did that happen?”

6. Excellent sales and marketing always wins and if you focus on these two areas of your business and don’t get your attention diverted by other details you will come out of any recession stronger as a result.

7. Get used to not using credit and build a strong business out of cash flow; negotiate harder and get discounts wherever possible; if you can make it happen in lean times you will be the winner in better times.

(If you want tried and tested ideas to improve your marketing during a recession, watch out for a new product we are launching soon. Join our newsletter, using the box at the top right of this page, to be informed as soon as it launches!)

If you are starting a salon, we have some articles here on Beauty Salon Marketing that you may find useful -

• Starting a salon - What to name your salon
• Salon Business Plan - Free business plan templates
• Salons for Sale - Business for sale websites
• Selling or Buying a Salon - What is your salon worth?
• Beauty Salon Logos, Hair Salon Logos - free logo design templates
• Beauty Salon Logos - find design ideas for your salon logos
• Salon Advertising - Free stock photos for websites, posters, leaflets
• Recommended site - Online colour scheme generator
• Your Salon Website - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics
• Salon Websites - 3 steps to protect your domain name
• Recommended Resource - Salon Geek forum

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Setting Up A Salon - Is now a good time to start a salon?

Social networking sites, especially Facebook, have significant implications for business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs around the world. To keep your business current, you should at least be familiar with the latest social media marketing techniques and viral technologies, including Facebook and its array of powerful features.

Facebook recently crossed the 100 MILLION member mark. That’s no small number for sure. Yet, millions more will join this incredible platform in the coming months and years. And the vast majority will be seeking to use Facebook primarily for business purposes.

Following Mari’s suggestions, we recently created a Facebook business page for Beauty Salon Marketing. Have a look and connect with us at Beauty Salon Marketing - Salon Marketing Services on Facebook

In brief, Mari’s 10 reasons for using Facebook to promote your business are -

1. Meet your peers
2. Find business contacts
3. Instant gate opener
4. Build relationships
5. Raise visibility
6. Develop your personal brand
7. Target your niche
8. Get rapid top Google placement
9. Place targeted ads
10. No cost marketing

Are you already using Facebook as part of your marketing plan for your beauty salon, hair salon, beauty clinic or spa? Leave a comment using the form below and include a link to your Facebook page. We’ll be writing more about how to use Facebook in the future and would love to connect with people who are already using it… you might even get some free publicity for your salon!

Related articles on the Beauty Salon Marketing website -

• Salon Marketing - How to get free publicity
• Marketing Plans, Business Plans - A lesson from Winnie the Pooh
• Your Salon Website - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics
• Salon Internet Marketing - Google submit your content
• Salon Internet Marketing - Where does Google find reviews?
• Salon Websites - ranking factors for Google UK
• Salon Internet Marketing - Why Google rankings matter
• Internet Salon Marketing - Google Maps UK adds traffic information

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Internet Salon Marketing - 10 reasons to use Facebook

Discount Voucher Codes

What Are Voucher Codes?

Voucher Codes consist of a special alpha-numerical code and are a great way to save money on your online purchases at many UK retailers. They are also known as promo codes and discount codes.

How Long Are The Codes Valid?

The codes often have a short expiry date as set by the retailer for use in various promotions. Please check the dates listed as all codes vary. Add this page to you Facebook and check back before making any online purchases as more codes are being issued and updated daily!

How Do I Use The Codes?

The codes are usually entered at checkout of your order. If there are any known differences we will notify you of these at the main Voucher Codes site. Please note that most voucher codes are case sensitive so please write your code down correctly.

Whether you’re shopping for essentials, or a little luxury item to cheer you up in these gloomy times, it’s worth checking to see if you can save your self some money with a discount voucher code!

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Money Saving - Save money with discount voucher codes

There’s a palpable gloom in these survey findings. And even though the sample was relatively small (n=602) I’m certain these responses are fairly representative of the mood and experience among US SMBs right now.

In my mind the key findings are:

- More than three-fourths (79%) of respondents are seeing sales decrease
- More than half (52%) are “cutting back or delaying marketing initiatives”
- 62% expect the economy to negatively impact them (44%) or force them out of business entirely (18%)

So is it all doom and gloom? Not necessarily.

• We helped one of our customers organise a Salon Open Day last week, which brought in more than £20,000 of extra business
• We had a phone call from a salon owner who took an idea from an article on this website, printed 50 leaflets from her computer, handed them out in her local shopping area… and generated more than £150 of business in a couple of hours

While it is tempting to cut back on your salon marketing and advertising when times are tough, that is actually the last thing you should be doing. It’s like a farmer deciding not to plant more crops in the midst of a famine! It may save you some money today, but tomorrow where will your food come from?

The secret, in times of recession, is to focus your marketing budget on methods that are proven to work, and measurable.

We’ll be launching a new product soon that will bring together -

• The ideas from our White Paper - Getting Through the Credit Crunch, How to “Recession Proof” Your Salon
• Some of the tools from the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit that have proven especially effective in these difficult times
• Extra tools and techniques that we have developed over the last 6 months, helping our customers to improve their marketing during the Credit Crunch

If you want to be informed as soon as the new product launches, subscribe to our email newsletter (using the form at the top-right of this page) or send an email now to martin@beauty-salon-marketing.co.uk

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Credit Crunch or Recession - Small business feels the squeeze

We’re investigating several options before making a recommendation. One of the main issues is that many salon owners already have a salon software system that manages appointments. We haven’t yet found an online appointment booking system that integrates well with existing salon software systems.

In our ongoing search, today we came across a new online appointment booking system that is probably the most fully-featured we have seen so far - HourTown Online Scheduling Software (found via Local Marketing Expert Greg Sterling’s blog)

HourTown is a subscription-based service, based in the USA, starting at $19.95 per month. They also offer a free service, but it would only be useful for an initial test as you can only take 2 bookings a month with the free option. It is not clear whether it is only available to US businesses, or whether all the options would work outside the US (eg. integration with Google and Yahoo! advertising, or the SMS text messaging features).

From their home page -

FIND NEW CUSTOMERS ONLINE
HourTown combines Internet advertising with online scheduling to help your business fill your open appointments - with minimal effort. Every business has open time slots in their appointment book but how do your customers know about them? HourTown Advertising Blasts^TM put your open time slots on the web and attracts new customers to schedule with your business.

ONLINE SCHEDULING SOFTWARE
Have you ever missed a customer opportunity because you were away from the phone? A national research study indicates there’s a good chance you have. HourTown makes it easy for your business to accept online appointments from new and existing customers. Simply describe your services and tell us how much they cost. We’ll use your info to build a customized online scheduling system for your business - instantly.

IT CAN WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS
There are approximately 15 million personal businesses that provide services in the United States. HourTown is used by massage therapists, music teachers, fitness trainers, accountants, golf instructors, contractors and realtors.

Some of the features that make it stand out from the other online appointment booking services include -

• Multiple Provider Scheduling - separate schedules for multiple therapists or stylists in your salon, or for different treatment rooms or salon equipment
• Advertise Your Service Locally - creates online adverts with services like Google and Yahoo
• Collect Reviews from Satisfied Customers - you can’t beat the power of a good testimonial, as we cover in-depth in the Salon Marketing Toolkit

HourTown’s system also seems to have been designed with flexibility in mind. As they say on their blog, there are two ways of using the online appointment scheduling system -

When you setup an HourTown account you have a couple choices in terms of how your business accepts online appointments, “request” mode or “guaranteed” mode. What’s the difference? When your account is in “request” mode, your customers request appointment times with your business and you are given the option of approving the requests, or suggesting an alternative time to the customer, if that’s the case.

Imagine you are planning to leave the office a bit early on a Friday afternoon to start your weekend, but a lone customer has scheduled your last time slot of the day. Greeaatttt… You can avoid scenarios like this with HourTown online appointment software in “request” mode. We keep you in control of your schedule by making it a snap for you to suggest an alternative time to the customer in a friendly and professional way. This is the favorite option for HourTown merchants.

With “guaranteed” appointments, when your customer makes an appointment, it’s instantly confirmed and you are agreeing to honor the customer’s request for a specific time slot. This scenario is best for your customers. They see a time they want, they book it, they’re done.

If you are in the US and looking for an online appointment booking system for your salon website or spa website, it looks like it would be worth taking up their free trial offer to test it out. For those outside the US, we will try to find out if the system is available, and fully featured, for the rest of the world!

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Salon Websites - HourTown online scheduling software

A couple of news items from Cosmetics-Design Europe quote recent reports that back-up that idea.

Women sacrifice food before cosmetics quotes two surveys that suggest that women would rather cut back their spending on food than on cosmetics -

“Women are not only reluctant to reduce their spending on cosmetics but when their purses come under pressure they are more willing to scrimp and save on food, according to new surveys.

Most recently beauty retail website feelingunique.com asked 1,000 women in the UK about their shopping habits and found that the credit crisis may reveal itself more clearly in cupboards than bathrooms.

Nearly one in three female respondents said they would prefer to eat less than reduce their spending on ‘essential’ beauty items.

… The results support the findings of a ShopSmart survey of female customers in the US carried out last month.

Polling 1,000 women by telephone the magazine concluded that female shoppers were more likely to opt for cheaper food essentials than give up their chosen cosmetic brands.

While 67 per cent would switch to less expensive brands for eggs and milk, only 30 per cent said they would be willing to turn to cheaper cosmetics.”

Beauty consumers resist pressures to trade down quotes a US survey showing that the “Prestige” end of the personal care product market is still strong, while the “budget” end of the market is suffering -

There are few signs that consumers are switching to cheaper personal care products despite price rises and economic instability, suggests a US market report from Fitch ratings.

Consumers seem willing to dig ever deeper into their pockets for luxury items while sales of bargain basement products continue to suffer.

Alberto-Culver’s luxury salon shampoo Nexxus sold briskly in the latest quarter with sales up 13.6 percent but V05, which is aimed at the lower end of the market, was down 5.7 percent, according to Information Resources (IRI) data quoted by Fitch.

The report stated: “Consumers still appear willing to splurge on prestige items in this space.”

Related articles on the Beauty Salon Marketing website -

• Getting through the Credit Crunch - How to “Recession-Proof” your salon
• Salon Business - Can you reduce your bank charges?
• Salon Internet Marketing - should you advertise your salon online?

Post from: Beauty Salon Marketing UK

Credit Crunch - Women sacrifice food before beauty