Nails Magazine

Career Handbook 2014

Magazine for the professional nail industry.

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28 | 2014 NAILS CAREER HANDBOOK Your clients are your best advertisers. They bring in the most new clients, and they bring in the best clients. Reward them for bringing in new business and promoting your salon. Build loyalty by creating a culture where the client feels it's "her" salon — that she's a part of its community, its success, its personality. To do this, consider some of these in-house advertising ideas: > Client referral program: Offer your client a discount for every new customer she brings in or a free service if she refers multiple new customers. > A drawing: Clients can submit the name of a friend to win a service. Both the client and the drawing winner get a prize. > Discounts for VIPs: Customers choose the VIPs among their friends when they hand out $5-off cards. Give the cards to clients and let them know when they pass the card on to a friend who becomes a new client, they both receive a $5 discount on the service of their choice. > Checking in and posting pictures: This doesn't go under the "online" section because the only way to advertise in this way is by advertising in realtime — from the salon! What's nice about this way of advertising is it doesn't cost any money, it inherently builds client loyalty, and it's guaranteed to hit your target audience. What you need to know: Don't feel uncomfortable about asking clients to talk up your salon. Social media sites wouldn't have exploded if people weren't dying to give their opinions and communicate with their friends. However, be careful how you present it. You don't want to look desperate: The tone "please, please, please help me get new customers" doesn't inspire. Instead, present referrals as a great opportunity for clients to save money, "Here's our way of thanking our customers when they tell their friends about us. You both get $5 off any service in the salon!" It's the least expensive, and it can be very effective, but many of the most successful online tools take time because they're built on interactions that develop into relationships with clients. Used well, these online resources can be powerful tools to draw clients to your business. > Google: Make sure the info about your business is accurate on Google maps (support.google.com/places). > Review sites: Encourage your clients to Yelp, check in, review on Citysearch, or Tweet about you. It's the best advertising you can receive, because it's from real people. > Salon blog: Blogs can be linked from your website and maintained for free. The advantage of advertising in this way is it allows your personality to come through. Blog about beauty, fashion, your salon's fundraisers, new staff, staff profiles … the topics are seemingly endless. Cost is paid in time, as consistency is key here. An outdated blog communicates apathy (or worse). > Facebook: Certainly by now salon owners realize the power of Facebook. The basic steps — setting up a business page, updating statuses, asking clients to "check in," and persuading staff to request their friends "like" your page — are all free. More advanced Facebook advertising comes at a minimal cost and is easy to use. You can also promote your page with a Facebook ad, where you set the amount of money you want to spend and your target audience. (You pay per click up to X amount of dollars.) Suddenly, your ad will appear on the page of exactly the type of person who would be your client. In addition, using companies such as Wildfire (wildfireapp.com) to run contests using your branding can cost as little as $25. > Twitter: It's free, but Twitter, done right, does take some time. However, more and more people turn to Twitter to find recommendations on anything from restaurants to service providers. > E-mail blasts: Easy-to-use, companies such as Constant Contact allow you a 30-day free trial where you can design and send beautiful, professional looking e-mails to up to 100 clients. Rates are still incredibly reasonable after the trial period has ended. > Create a business website: If you can't pay someone to design your website, enlist the help of tech-savvy friends. They can either give you a discount, or you can trade out your services for theirs. >>>

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