Let‘s face it – after the glam of holidays is gone and Christmas sales are over, beauty businesses tend to go slow. If you, as many salon owners ask yourself the question “business is slow, what should I do”, keep reading.
Business Is Going Slow and You Have No Idea What to Do?
Need New Ideas on How to Boost Your Hair Salon?
This beauty and hair salons slow season usually starts after the Christmas New Year’s Eve and can last from a few weeks to a couple of months… but don’t worry! In fact, a slower period can make wonders for your business if you approach it with the correct salon marketing strategy. In order to avoid critical times and financial problems, you need thoughtfully reconsider your best tactical approach.
To assist you with that, we gathered 7 things to do when business is slow.
1. Plan, Plan and Plan Again!
In spite of this challenging period, you can always flip the coin the other way around and turn your bad luck into a fantastic opportunity to thoroughly consider and plan your business growth and customer acquisition. But, you need to remember that planning is key!
There is no better time than during slow period to perfect time to prepare in advance your salon business strategy to survive and flourish during the future slow period.
A couple of things to consider when planning should be salon promotions that work. Refine your advertising and marketing campaign, in fact, I encourage you to develop a marketing calendar for the whole upcoming 2018! Consider your salon brand image and whether it resonates with your target audience – do clients tell you that your salon is different or has a unique atmosphere that keeps them coming at a steady pace? If your brand does not have a unique selling point and even more importantly, you are not promoting your unique selling point, then you have a lot of planning to do.
2. Make Your Salon More Recognizable Online
Nowadays businesses are flourishing online more than anywhere else, as people spend more and more time surfing the Web.
When your business is running slow, you need to make sure that you are building your brand presence online. In order to do that you need to make sure that first of all, you have a cohesive branding, eye-catching logo and a clear name which are all consistent in all directories they appear (such as Google, Foursquare,etc.). It is advisable that you get your salon listed on all influential location management directories, a well as that your further work on improving your social media presence and search optimization.
3. Get Social Everywhere!
The power of social media is one that many underestimate, but it is, in fact, the intrinsic one that can help you grow your business during a slow period, primarily because it is very cost-effective. Other than just being suitable for tight budget days, social media is designed to encourage engagement with its users and more engagement is precisely what your salon business needs when business is going slow.
First of all, try to get a solid social media presence – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr. Everywhere! Make use of the interactivity that social media offers – engage with your existing customers to encourage loyalty, target your potential customers by appealing to them through suitable content. Showcase your work! People like to see results and they like to be entertained. Social media is the perfect (and cost-effective) place to do both!
4. After Christmas Sales and Salon Promotions That Work
Make Seasonal Offers
After the holidays, many salons experience a slower period. Overcoming the potential slow months of January, February, March and April can be a real challenge. But you can make plenty of noise about the special beauty and hair treatments and spa packages available for days such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, St. Patrick's Day and Easter. You can make after Christmas sales and for the weekends, group visits or for particular days or times of the day that are not so busy.
Everybody loves rewards and a bit of good offers. Not only are they a good way to target your loyal customers to pop back in for a promotional service, but they are also great at attracting new clients to your salon!
Create a set list of offers and salon promotions that work for when business is going slow. Offer special procedures at discounted prices, but not only that – market them in an appealing idea. For example – “Look amazing this weekend - get a haircut and receive a free hairstyle on us”.
Share the promotional offers across all of your social media and website pages to get awareness.
5. Don’t Forget the Golden Rule – Member Gets Member
There is no better strategy than getting your existing customer to recommend your salon to a friend. The oldest tricks in the book includes advertising offers such as – “Recommend us to a friend, and get $10 off when they make a booking”.
6. Keep Your Existing Clients
It has been proven that it is easier to get old clients to come back once they have visited than to attract new ones. Make use of that! If you have their contacts, send a simple text or a card simply say “we miss you”. Don’t forget to include an offer as a reward to motivate them a bit more.
7. Develop the Relationship with Your Staff
It is important that your staff feels appreciated! Make sure that they are well educated, aware of your branding and your salon strategy and most importantly that they feel happy! As long as they feel happy to work for you, then they will take extra care in providing the best service for your customers. Slow periods in salons are an exceptional time to work on your relationship with your staff, to provide them with good training and further advance your team skills.
8. BONUS Advice!
If all this is too overwhelming for you and you feel lost about what to do when your business is slow, you can always contact professional salon marketing companies to help you out. They will work with you to ensure you get the best out of your team and will drive your beauty business forward.
