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Marketing and advertising have changed completely in the last 10-20 years. In the past, our primary methods of receiving advertisements were newspaper, radio, billboard and TV. Flash forward to present-day, and we are marketed to mostly on Facebook, Internet ads and email – methods that didn’t even exist some years ago. With this change in methods came a change for us as marketers, and introduced permission marketing.
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Permission marketing was the wave of the future, because it was the first time we allowed customers to choose to receive communication from us. Previously, you placed a TV or newspaper ad and hoped that your target market saw it. Now, permission marketing lets us target those who have said they are interested in what we have to say. There are a few methods that tanning salon professionals can use to reach out to customers – with their permission.
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Email
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Email marketing is one of the most valuable, in my opinion. Services like Mailchimp (mailchimp.com) make it easy to design and send attractive emails, and then follow-up with reporting to see if your recipients were interested in your message. Use email to market events in your store, as well as specials. Just don’t over-use it, or you’ll lose your permission (read: unsubscribes)!
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Text Club
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Text marketing is great for your high school and college-age customers. Having a slow day and need to offer $10 off spray-tans to get some traffic through the door? Texting is the best method to get a quick response or action from your database. Services like PerkPanther (perkpantherconnect.com) and Text Ripple (textripple.com) make this simple and affordable.
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Social Media
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If you’re not reaching out to customers on social media, you’re missing the place where people spend hours each week. Why not meet them there?
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Facebook is great for those college-age and older. Use their Power Editor advertising tool to target your exact market, and get great interaction.
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Instagram is where our high school and college students are. With a business as visually-oriented as tanning is, you have great content to put on Instagram! Product spotlights, before and after photos … just make sure to show content they are interested in, rather than just trying to sell them something.
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Snapchat is for the advanced users! If you’re willing to work to connect with your customers, set up Snapchat for your store. Your story on Snapchat should be whatever exciting and fun is going on in the salon. Keep them interested!
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Direct Mail
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Finally, direct mail is an old school method – but not dead! As we are virtually overwhelmed, people love receiving mail more and more. Send a mailer to the inactive customers in your database with a $10 coupon or a free session encouraging them to come back. You’ll be surprised by the response rate!
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Permission marketing channels are far less expensive than traditional ones, and will yield results you’ll love. Start planning now for ways to extend your season by reaching out to customers who have granted you their permission.
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