The Phorest Blog

What with it being New Year, and New Year being full of resolutions to change things for the better in our lives and work, I want to show you just how powerful marketing by SMS and email is at changing your business.
The accompanying graph illustrates Phorest marketing stats versus client visit stats from a selection of salons.

As you’ll see from the graph (marketing trend in red; client visit numbers trend in blue), there is a direct correlation between SMS and email marketing and the number of clients who visit the salon as a result.

From a January rock bottom - with the fewest clients and the least marketing of the year - marketing trends rise in February and again in March, and client visits increase accordingly. Throughout the summer months the trends follow each other, and a fall off in client numbers is seen after a dip in SMS and email marketing in August. This fall off in client visits continues to a November low, before sky-rocketing in December – the busiest month of the year for all salons surveyed. November marketing on the other hand is particularly high, but we have to take natural factors into account here – that a lot of people live on a tighter budget than usual in November so they can indulge themselves in December – so we can assume that some of the marketing effort at that time of the year comes to fruition in December.

What doesn’t make sense is why salon owners are satisfied with a massive January slump following a December high, and don’t do anything to change it. Sure, you can’t have record client numbers every month of the year, but that’s no reason to allow January to be quite as quiet as it is and probably was again in 2010 in a lot of salons. You can see from the graph that increased client visits follows increased marketing – so why not get proactive, come up with some promotions that can’t but tempt the people on your client list and SEND THEM AN SMS OR EMAIL!

January is an interesting time of year for marketing I think. True, Christmas is working against you at this point – clients have done their festive spending with abandon and are now peering at their bank balance with a hand over their eyes. But it is also the start of a New Year, and many of those people will have resolved to change their diet, their appearance or their lifestyle – and you can benefit from this! Offer these people what they want – a new hairstyle to mark the beginning of the new them; a particular treatment to kick start their new healthy lifestyle and help them see results faster; a beauty treatment as a little congratulations to themselves for sticking to their resolution for a week or a fortnight – at a price they can’t but be tempted by!

January is a month none of us like to spend money in, but you know if a bargain pops up you won’t let it pass you by. So offer these people just that and don’t accept that January is a business write-off.

Likewise at other times of the year - look at when you have a fall off in business, but yet don’t do any marketing to counteract that. As with January, it just takes a bit of motivation and notification and people won’t let a good thing pass them by. All it takes is sending a clever promotion to the right people’s ears!

Right now you can turn your client visit statistics around. You still have some time to work on your January performance. As you’ll see from the graph as well, marketing dips and so do client visit figures between March and April. Have a think about how you’re going to change that this year with an SMS or email promotion – come up with a special offer (and it has to be special to grab attention) and tailor it so you know you’re sending it to people who will actually be interested in it. It can be anything from special offers on particular treatments to great product prices when clients come in for their appointment. Once it raises your client visit figure and fills in more of the white space in your appointment book, it can’t be wrong!

Good luck!